It didn’t take long for the college football suits to make a mess of things.
Just
a couple of weeks after the announcement that 2014 would be the first
year of a real live playoff to settle the long-disputed college football
national championship, conference commissioners are already sniping at
each other.
The subject of this latest round of “talks” is
whether the playoff should be a four-team post-season system, the kind
used successfully by the NFL and all NCAA football divisions other than
the top one, or whether it should be a “plus one” system where one game
is played after the bowls to determine a champion.
That subject
was supposedly settled earlier. After several weeks of serious back and
forth on the matter, the consensus among BCS conference commissioners
was that a four-team playoff made the most sense. If the top four teams
settled the matter on the field, there could be no questions or
complaints. As for the No.5-ranked team, well, they should have played
better.
For a brief moment the sun shone, the birds sang, and
everything seemed right with the world. But anyone who has been around
college athletes knew it wouldn’t last. Administrators of college sports
can’t help themselves.
Right after SEC Commissioner Mike Slive
announced the creation of the “Champions Bowl” a new and as-yet-unfunded
game featuring the winners of the SEC and the Big 12, the prospect of a
plus-one reared its head again.
Pac 12 Commissioner Larry
Scott wasted no time telling the Wall Street Journal, “Before Friday the
idea of a plus-one didn't have much traction, but I think the
announcement on Friday (of the Champions Bowl) is a game-changer. We're
pretty far down the path on four-team playoff options, but given the
very positive reaction to what the SEC and Big 12 have done, it's
possible that (a plus-one) could get some traction.”
That remark
got an immediate reaction from Slive, who told the Associated Press at
an SEC baseball game this weekend, “I think what's in the best interest
of college football is a four-team playoff. I think it's better for
everyone involved in the game. The plus-one narrows the postseason in a
way that's not necessarily in the best interest of all the
conferences…It's interesting because clearly what we did created a lot
of thinking by a lot of people. I appreciate people thinking about
that.”
So the battle begins anew.
Maybe Scott and the Pac
12 feel as though they have been ousted from the financial windfall that
will no doubt follow the Champions Bowl, and this is their way of
hitting back. Or maybe this is just a negotiating ploy to secure a spot
in the four teams chosen for the playoffs.
Hopefully, the
commissioners will get their acts together and the playoff system will
come out of this unscathed in 2014. But don’t count on it. This is,
after all, the same bunch that gave us the BCS.
