Oh sure, we could talk about the NFL Draft or barbecue or whatever the hell else you rapscallions come up with, but I think we all know what the 800 pound gorilla of the day is. I could spill 2000 words on the screen about college football playoff proposals the way Jon Gruden spills corny truisms about NFL Draft prospects, but I'll try not to. Let's talk about this thing in a a rational, concise manner after the jump shall we?
Leaving aside the corny and obvious tie-in with the song title, this video is the perfect visual representation of what's going on in college football's hallowed halls right now: several elderly men shuffling around doing nothing in particular, not really wanting to be there, then suddenly . . .OH SWEET JEEBUS!!! GUITARS TAMBOURINES AND THE REANIMATED CORPSE OF KEITH RICHARDS PLAYING FOR ALL THE MARBLES IN TORONTO WHILE BRENT MUSBERGER WATCHES SHIRTLESS!!!
A four team playoff to decide college football's national championship is the sorta logical compromise between a two team format that risks leaving out a deserving 3rd or 4th seed and the unwieldy 8 team route which guarantees that all the right teams have a shot, but that the acclaimed "right" team in any given year will lose to somebody on the way to their destiny.
The call to expand to 8 teams begins now for those scoring at home, by the way. It's inevitable, and will haunt whatever the final 4 team scheme looks like from the cradle to the grave.We saw it with the basketball tournament, which is no longer actually any sort of "championship tournament" at all but rather a season unto itself.
If there's a positive for those of us decidedly against a playoff (and there are still a few of us out here in the wilderness), it is the knowledge that we will soon have the satisfaction of watching our intellectual counterparts get exactly what they were clamoring for, only to realize what a crappy idea it was before spending the rest of eternity figuring out how to fix it. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find, Mike Slive gets what he needs.*
This playoff proposal may be coming along at a very opportune time for the SEC, if for no other reason than at some point there was going to be some sort of backlash to the parade of SEC teams in the BCS National Championship. Given recent history the odds are solid that under some formulations the SEC could even get two teams into a four team playoff. Preventing any such schematic is probably pretty high on the to do list for commissioners from other conferences.
Odds that there's a Notre Dame message board out there where someone is making the straight-faced argument that the 4 slots should go to 3 conference champions and Notre Dame so long as they're ranked in the AP top 20? 1:1.
One of the big issues will be where the old bowl structure fits in this brave new world. The Rose Bowl folks have allegedly been putting up some resistance, though frankly if they wanted to have an exhibition between the Big 10 and Pac 12 champions that would be fine. It means that the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta could just rotate the semifinal and championship games evenly. Shutting out the Rose makes the math more appealing, and would put B1G schools in a bit of a quandary. The Rose won't want to accept the second best team in the conference. But what fanbase is actually going to turn down a chance to play for a national championship to play in The Granddaddy of Them All?
So what do you folks think? Are we headed toward a brave new world in which a clear-cut champion is crowned year after year? Have a great weekend, and stick around Dawg Sports through the weekend for continuing coverage of the NFL Draft, and all things Bulldog. Until later . . .
Go 'Dawgs!!!
*Just kidding. Slive needs nothing he doesn't already have. He was jonesing for a human organ farm, but one presumes that a little horse trading in that area is how Auburn got such a neat and tidy result to the Cam Newton investigation. Some things are worth your great-grandchildrens' kidneys. A crystal football at the Opelika Wal-Mart is but one of them.