Last week I supported an eight team playoff to determine the Division 1 college football champion. While I still support a playoff, I am not convinced the system will work for several reasons.
First, everyone wants to compare Div 1 college football to all the other sports that have a playoff and argue that the playoffs work better. How do the other sports playoff work? Professional sports, except football, are best of series with a few home and away games. Filling the stadiums/arenas with average fans, season ticket holders and corporate executives is not too difficult. Very few fans travel to the away games to watch their team play.
Professional football is different in that the teams are seeded and can play at home throughout the playoffs and it is single elimination. Similarly, most fans do not travel to the away games to watch their teams play. The stadiums are filled with home team fans and corporate execs.
College basketball has March Madness which is great, but the first and second round games are generally close to the Top seeds location. The arenas are filled with local fans and fans of the top seeded teams. The lower seeded teams have very fans in the arenas. Additionally, it generally takes 15,000-20,000 fans to fill the arenas.
All the other college sports have playoffs to determine their champion, but how many fans travel to attend the games? How much are the tickets to watch the games? The popularity of these sports is not as significant and the cost to attend the games is minimal compared to Div 1 college football.
Division 1 college football is a different beast. The stadiums are filled with alumni, student body and 5000 opposing teams fans. At each game, we're not talking 15,000 fans, were talking 90-100+ thousand fans and another 20-30,000 tailgaters. Cost of a ticket is generally $100-$300 for an average game and $500+ for a great game, e.g, Ohio State v. Texas.
If you implement a playoff for Div 1, the cost to the fan would be too much. Right now, all the ticket brokers are asking a minimal $1000 per ticket for the OSU/LSU game. Cost of airfare to New Orleans is about $400. Cost of hotel is about $300. Add in the luxury items and the trip for one game is about $2000 per person. By my calculations, the average fan would have to pay close to $5000 to watch all three games. Most fans I know cannot afford to do this.
Some may argue that other fans may attend the games that are closer to their homes. As I stated earlier, college football has a unique fan base. I cannot see an Alabama fan paying $1000 for a ticket to watch LSU/OSU play - even if the ticket is subsidized by a corporation. College football fans are rabidly loyal and would rather stab a needle in their eye than watch a rival have a chance to win the title.
The financial burden can reduced by having home games for quarterfinals, but the ticket cost would still be enormous. The fans would still have to pay a lot to travel for the semi's and championship game. Unlike other sports, the fans still matter. Asking them to pay this burden would be tragic. If the fans don't go to the playoff games, the seats will be filled with corporate hacks. At this point, we've lost the best sport.
The BCS is flawed. The old system was flawed. A +1 system is flawed. Let's face it, whatever system we have to determine the champion will have critics. I like having the debate - it makes my favorite sport unique, and the arguments are intense. Change is not always good. Be careful what you wish for - it may be worse.
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