Flickr image by RogueSun Media

I’ll start this one off pretty bluntly. If you don’t think that college football is about money, then you need your head examined; the recent realignment buzz illustrates this perfectly.  Now before I get too far down a path here, let me be absolutely clear about something. You would have to look pretty hard to find a bigger believer in capitalism than me. I love money…maybe not as much as my wife does, but I sure as hell love it. And I honestly don’t  have a problem with the almighty dollar driving the exodus from one conference to another – or no conference at all in the case of BYU.

All this is fine, in my opinion, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the primary goals of the universities (which is to educate these students that just so happen to play football) or intrude on the positive experience of the fans.

Right now, it’s a very early Thursday morning in Columbus, Ohio. I just completed a long drive from the home of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and now I’m stuck waiting on our plane to arrive with a number of other fatigued would-be flyers.  It’s amazing that other flights seem to taking off and landing. Why not mine? Anyways, not surprisingly, a quick look around the gate area and you’ll see a ton of college team jerseys, shirts, hats, and such being proudly worn. It’s everywhere. You walk past the ticket counters in the airport and there is an official Big Ten store. The waitress at the diner this morning was wearing an Ohio State visor. Even the crack whore that propositioned me this morning at the gas station had on a Buckeyes tank top (you should be real proud Columbus). People just don’t mind spending their hard earned paychecks, tips, or trick money to show support for their team. I’m right there with you. I’d spend a few bucks on a Georgia Tech game jersey. I’m sure my wife would spend a few hundred dollars on one pair of Georgia Tech shorts from Victoria’s Secret (damn that place is expensive…but worth it…hehehe). And all of this is fine because, as fans, it doesn’t get in the way of our enjoyment of the game. It even makes it better in most cases.
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A number of years ago, I worked with a guy who had this great quotable that has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. It may not have been original to him, so I will not give you his name. That and the fact that he might not want to admit that he knows me. Regardless, he would often say that “people are masters at creating confusion for their own benefit.” On an almost daily basis, I find this so true. If you don’t believe me, call nearly any government office and ask for anything that might be slightly out of the ordinary.

I once went to a DMV to get a letter saying that my driving record had an error on it and was corrected on a certain date. I needed this, on request from a municipal judge, so that I could defend myself against a driving citation that was nothing but pure horse squeeze. It literally took me 6 weeks, 4 visits to their offices and over 2 dozen phone calls just to get 1 person to type up a 3 sentence letter and fax it to me. It really didn’t have to be this difficult. Ultimately, it was the 1st department I spoke to that provided the letter, but chaos and confusion is the norm for some of these places, and you have to wonder why. It has to be because someone benefits. On the other hand, a bit of unnecessary confusion can be interesting and fun. I am a huge fan of Rube Goldberg, which as you know was absolutely brilliant at developing incredibly complex systems to accomplish the simplest of tasks. But as fun as this is at times, it has no place in college football.

I mentioned in a recent article that I was not a fan of a playoff system. I am also not a huge fan of the BCS. I’m a bit old school. I don’t mind using the polls to select a national champion because it’s a bit of a paper championship anyways. I’ve always placed more stock in winning a conference championship. It’s as objective as it comes, because you’re playing everyone in your conference, or at least your division and you’re having to beat the other division champion. There is nothing subjective about it. Even when there are ties for a division championship, there are at least a number of levels of objective criteria you go through to select your champion before flipping the coin. In that article, I made the argument that even in a playoff system, at some point, seeding will likely have to look at the polls. There are just way too many teams for a full blown playoff on the national level. However, in spite of my playoff pessimism, I also mentioned in said article that I have given some thought as to how a playoff might work, while balancing how to address the major concerns with a playoff. I also mentioned that I would let you in on my maniacal thoughts in a future article. This is that article.
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