Sporting News
A college football playoff model that's sure to work
Posted: November 13, 2006
I began, "Lee, I'm going to write a column about a playoff ? "
"Not so fast, my friend," he says.
Once a big-time coach working against Bo and Woody, now a TV star for the Worldwide Leader, the eternally effervescent Lee Corso wouldn't let me go on about my latest, greatest, this'll-solve-everything plan for a college football playoff.
He says, "Not going to be a playoff. Ever."
"But, Lee ? "
"The presidents don't want it."
"Why ? "
Corso, speaking at warp speed with the volume rising in proportion to his passion, says, "Because if you've got the name president, you don't have to give a reason. You say, 'This is it. Period. Done.' "
"OK, so the presidents run college football and they don't want a playoff for their usual bogus reasons: 'The sanctity of academics,' 'The purity of amateur sports.' "
"All that," Corso says. "So don't even ask for a playoff. It's like a kid asking his dad for a car. The dad says, 'No,' and the kid says, 'But, why, Dad, why?' And the dad says, 'Because I say so.' All the kid can do is go, 'OK, Dad.' "
I'll get back to Corso in a minute. He wants you to know exactly what he thinks of the Louisville-Rutgers game that matched undefeated teams with the winner believing it might maybe perhaps possibly could be invited to the national championship game. What Corso thinks is: NOT! Only he says it much more deliciously, and we'll open his mike right after we announce Dave's Playoff Plan That Will Fix Everything and Make the NFL Whimper Like a Schoolgirl.
Invite 16 teams.
Play every weekend in January.
End of plan.
Brighter minds can figure out the niggling details. This I know for sure: We can trash the computers. By December, even Borat the Kazakh can name 16 teams of Cultural Learnings For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of America Pigskin. As for the daddy presidents' alleged concerns about academics and amateur sports, please, spare me that steaming pile of piffwaddle. We're grown-ups here. The real reason the football factory presidents don't want a playoff is simple: They make fabulous money this way. Why share with the hoi polloi?
So we have the Bowl Championship Series instead of a tournament. Instead of a George Mason doing its Cinderella thing, we wait for a computer to spit out, "Ohio State, Michigan--rematch." Instead of a month's worth of the sustained excitement that comes with March Madness, college football gives us one night of national championship suspense. That makes no sense financially, theatrically, athletically. It is a loser in every way except how it massages presidential egos.
Now, back to Corso on the possibility of an undefeated Big East champion getting into the BCS title game:
"The BCS is designed to put the TWO BEST teams in the nation together, right?" he asks, and, yes, as he often does, the TV star speaks in italicized capital letters. "It is a flawed system, obviously, but it is the only system we've got. And if it is designed to put the TWO BEST teams in the national championship game, then the Big East champion is NOT going to be in it. I don't care if they're undefeated through eight games this season or if they've won 28 straight games. They're still not one of the two best teams."
Corso's reasoning flows from his belief that the Big East is a second- (or third-) tier conference whose teams have yet to prove they belong with the big boys.
"With the exception of West Virginia beating Maryland," he says, "the Big East hasn't beaten anybody that I'd consider in the top half of a BCS conference." Before last weekend's games, the Big East had beaten nine teams from other BCS leagues; only Maryland had earned bowl eligibility, and the nine were 38-48 for the season.
Quickly, Corso rattled off "at least 10 teams that could beat the Big East champion." His list: Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Auburn, Southern California, California, Notre Dame, Arkansas and LSU. "Have you SEEN LSU? They are the best-looking physical specimens in the history of college football who ever lost two games."
Wait. Now we're getting somewhere. For our playoff, we would invite Corso's 10. We'd add Boise State and Rutgers. Bring in Louisville, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Fill out the bracket with either a Division II all-star team or the Oakland Raiders.
We'd play every Saturday in January.
We'd call it the Presidents Cup.
It would be Glorious.
