College Football Adds Playoff: Help or Hurt?

College Football Adds Playoff: Help or Hurt?

    The college football world has been waiting for a system that would fix issues and bring fairness to the sport. Well, hopefully the NCAA has granted their wish. Beginning in the year 2014, Division I college football will begin the playoff system. For many years, fans have become disgusted with the BCS system and have wanted to see a change for a while now. The fans of this sport have felt that the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) left out or  picked the wrong two teams to play for the big game. As a lot of people know, no matter what system is in order, there will always be flaws. So will the college playoff system help the chaos or only make it worse?

    The playoff system will bring a unique feel to the sport of college football unlike anything we have ever seen. Yes, fans will love it and it will intensify the games even more, but the only thing that will come into play is that people will want to add 8-16 teams. In majority of all sports, there is some kind of a playoff system. It will be hard for some of the smaller schools to sneak up into the playoff picture. Patrick Rishe stated is his article, “College Football Playoff System a Blessing, But 4-Team Structure Appears Flawed,” “First, this limits the odds of a Cinderella story cracking into the top 4.” Smaller schools will not be left out. That’s the whole reason for the playoff system so if we have teams like Boise State, that go undefeated then they should not be left out. Everyone will be given the opportunity to play their best and play their way into the playoffs. If the playoffs are expanded to 8-16 teams then that will help everyone. The NCAA wants to bring more excitement to the game and this will surely help.

       We all know that the NCAA is making this move because of revenue. The bigger universities are going to enjoy this more because they will have the better teams. The better teams will have a greater chance to make it because of college football’s “five power conferences.” The big conferences produce very talented teams every year and it will be hard for at least two teams to not make it in the playoffs. Ralph D. Russon, of the Associated Press, says “Conservative estimates put the playoff figure at $300 million, but it could be more like $400 million or $500 million.” That is a lot of money and there will be plenty to make, seeming that the bigger schools will probably represent more than the smaller conferences. Hopefully, once they make all of that money then they can make improvements to their universities. It can be with facilities and creating better weight rooms or making donations to help make safer and better equipment for the players.

Teams, players, and fans will experience a new excitement that they have never seen or felt. I know people can not wait to get this started and let the controversy begin. It will be great in the beginning but there will be a need to expand the playoffs. Players will have to work harder to go undefeated and to keep their top spot. The NCAA should not add too many teams into the equation but should make it competitive. A good 8-team playoff schedule should make things interesting enough and still have that college football feel. This will be easier to schedule and it shouldn’t be too many games for the players. By the time the playoffs begin in 2014, players and fans should still be out of school. So, having the college football playoff getting in between their school time should not be affected. This should uplift the sport even more than the sport already is and add more fans. The fan base of all college football can not wait for this new experience to begin.

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