Yesterday, college presidents agreed to a 4-team playoff format to determine the National Championship starting in 2014. The semi-finals will take place in bowl games and the National Championship Game will be bid out to any city. It's definitely a step up from the current format, however, a playoff is not always better.
1. Why did we need to keep the tradition of the bowls? Haven't we seen that the bowl games have worn out their welcome. The crazy ticket/hotel requirements on top of declining ratings have shown that people are only interested in the National Championship. The playoff makes the second-tier bowl games even more meaningless, especially if they are being played on the same day. If not, they create travel issues for people because of their desire to maintain a bowl game EVERY night in January. The season needs to end by Jan. 1 - stop dragging it out.
2. Why only 4? Every other college football playoff format has 32 teams. In Division III, I had to eat Thanksgiving Dinner in my college cafeteria. I had to study for finals after practice. It's not a STUDENT-athlete issue. It's a money issue. Currently, the 4 team playoff will continue to maximize the regular season AND the post-season. This means more TV viewers, which means more money. Also, it's the easiest. College football is old school. They move incredibly slow and anything else would have been considered too drastic. Remember - these are the same people that re-upped with the BCS for 10 years.
3. What effect will this have on my Cable TV bill? As my TV creeps up year after year, I can't help but worry that some astronomical amount by ESPN or CBS to showcase these games will get pushed back onto the viewers. They have us over a barrel. Either we keep cable and watch or we turn off cable entirely (and miss out on House Hunters!). With more and more people turning off cable, this could be an interesting issue.
This post had little to do with finance, but I get tired of reading the same narrative on all the major news sites. It's applause, applause, slap on the back, applause. It's annoying. Especially when people still know this is hardly the answer. At least I hope so.
1. Why did we need to keep the tradition of the bowls? Haven't we seen that the bowl games have worn out their welcome. The crazy ticket/hotel requirements on top of declining ratings have shown that people are only interested in the National Championship. The playoff makes the second-tier bowl games even more meaningless, especially if they are being played on the same day. If not, they create travel issues for people because of their desire to maintain a bowl game EVERY night in January. The season needs to end by Jan. 1 - stop dragging it out.
2. Why only 4? Every other college football playoff format has 32 teams. In Division III, I had to eat Thanksgiving Dinner in my college cafeteria. I had to study for finals after practice. It's not a STUDENT-athlete issue. It's a money issue. Currently, the 4 team playoff will continue to maximize the regular season AND the post-season. This means more TV viewers, which means more money. Also, it's the easiest. College football is old school. They move incredibly slow and anything else would have been considered too drastic. Remember - these are the same people that re-upped with the BCS for 10 years.
3. What effect will this have on my Cable TV bill? As my TV creeps up year after year, I can't help but worry that some astronomical amount by ESPN or CBS to showcase these games will get pushed back onto the viewers. They have us over a barrel. Either we keep cable and watch or we turn off cable entirely (and miss out on House Hunters!). With more and more people turning off cable, this could be an interesting issue.
This post had little to do with finance, but I get tired of reading the same narrative on all the major news sites. It's applause, applause, slap on the back, applause. It's annoying. Especially when people still know this is hardly the answer. At least I hope so.
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