When Nick Saban isn’t narrowly pursuing his self-interests, I find he often has thoughtful things to say about college football. This is one of those times:
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to coexist with a bowl system and a playoff system,” he said. “I think you’ve got to have one or the other. You know, if we’re going to have an eight-team playoff, 16-team playoff, I don’t think you’re going to have bowl games. I’m not advocating either one. I’m just saying it’s going to be difficult for those two things to coexist.”
I think that’s right. But I’m not as sure as I used to be that the people running college football care nearly as much about the bowls as they once did. And I’m also not sure that those folks have really thought out the implications of playoff expansion as it would affect the bowls.
I’m assuming Saban’s talking about the top-tier bowl games. The lesser sites will continue to exist as long as there is an appetite to broadcast them on ESPN and there are seven-win and mid-major schools to fill them. But you’re already seeing the trend of the conferences taking greater control over the bigger bowls, which may be a precursor to outright replacement with playoff games. (And with expansion will come a greater likelihood of at least some of those games being played at a team’s home site, not at a bowl.)
More shedding of tradition, in other words. Some, no doubt, will welcome that as progress. But what it will really represent is another step in the sport’s journey from being based on strong regional ties to being one based on national appeal. If you ask me, something meaningful will be discarded in the process.
As Jim McElwain put it, “The issue there is that I think it will lose a lot of what is college football,” he said. “I’d hate to see that.”
Get The Picture 
If the playoff expands there is little reason to play a strong OOC schedule, the Florida model will take over, win out in a Power 5 conf. and you’re in. I don’t like the NFL evolution that is being followed.
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There’s little reason to play a strong OOC schedule as it is except money, and that won’t change with a bigger playoff.
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It really has to be noted that a major reason we’ve not gone away from the bowl season is the coaches’ concerns about job security and how making a bowl game became a benchmark for success for many, if not most, programs. This going to be a significant driver in the push to increase playoffs–should the bowls go down the tubes, the playoffs will expand exponentially overnight, because the coaches will demand it as much or more than the money people will
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I can’t think of a more meaningless and less interesting post season than the college football bowls, so it won’t bother me to see them reduced.
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Coaches who have bowl appearance clauses in their contracts won’t let this happen.
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They’ll just amend the terms to postseason appearances. No biggie there.
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Only 16 coaches get a bonus then with a playoff – the other 48 who don’t have a bowl game won’t get anything. I don’t know if the coaches will agree to that. Also, what happens to that extra 15 practices that come with a bowl game especially given shorter period for spring practice?
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Postseason isn’t the same thing as playoff. Postseason means not regular season.
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Playoff also means not regular season. I’m sure coaches would have that stipulation in those contracts.
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Maybe I’m not writing clearly. “Postseason” means anything after the conclusion of the regular season. Hence, the term would include playoffs and bowls. Comprende?
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Comprende, but I can’t help you with your “not writing clearly” problem. 🙂 🙂
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Got it – been working until midnight every day this week. My reading comprehension skills missed that.
The question is if the playoff squashes the bowls when it goes to 16, we will have this problem. I could care less about the coaches’ bonuses, but the additional practice time is a BIG deal especially the on campus time.
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This
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We are raging against the machine ($) and the machine always wins. I love tradition but I think a 16 team playoff is inevitable. I also wouldn’t mind an extra home game against a good team. This year with the four team playoff the other bowls in my eyes were diminished greatly. This might as well be politics except we don’t get a vote.
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The Chosen Four Teams “playoff” didn’t diminish other bowls in many more eyes. Why do you think 16 teams are inevitable, because someone else said so or some pundit writes his opinion based on what they perceive human nature is in CFB? You will always have a big argument about that “inevitable” term.
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It seems an easy solution would be to have an 8 team playoff made up of 8 conference champions. Every team that wanted to have a chance at the playoffs would have to be in a conference. Notre Dame would have to get over itself and go full ACC or go Big 10 or somewhere.
By making playoff eligibility dependent on being a conference champ, the OOC schedules could be made better, since the OOC game could not knock a team out of the playoff. Georgia and Southern Cal could have a home and home and not have to worry about a potential loss dropping them out of the playoff picture.
Keep the bowls for the teams that don’t make the playoffs so their fans could have a post season trip.
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What would be the appeal of OOC games then if there’s literally nothing riding on them?
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And if a tough OOC game means you might have injuries right before a conference game, why would you want to take that chance?
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Sort of like when we lost our best defensive lineman for the season in the opening game of 2008…against Georgia Southern. Injuries aren’t limited to happening against tough opponents. If you want to make sure you don’t have injuries, don’t play anyone.
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Just thinking probabilities. When is this more likely to happen? Maybe when you play the team with all the really big, athletic guys who will run over you. And, you can get pretty worn out hitting the big guys. More than what you’d expect against a cupcake. Wouldn’t want that either before a conference game.
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To start with, the fans would get to see a good game with the ticket they buy instead of watching a Georgia/Citadel matchup. What is the appeal, at all, of a cupcake game?
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There’s not an appeal, really. They still happen though. I agree with you that the OOC schedules could be made better, I just doubt that they will be under your scenario.
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And a touch OOC game would either be neutral site or home-and-home meaning the loss of a current cupcake home game and the associated proceeds.
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Really? Why would a team have to give up a home game? Every team would still have 6 home games. When we played Clemson, at Clemson, in 2013, no one complained about that as far as “losing a home game”. A big OOC matchup at a neutral site, like the UNC game in Atlanta, would actually generate more revenue than a home game against Charleston Southern.
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JC, I agree with you on the perfect scenario. The issue would be the necessary conference realignment that would have to take place to attain some sort of competitive balance. Should Boise, Air Force, BYU, etc. get a slot as a WAC champion (one of the 8) over the loser of a classic SEC championship game where the game ends on the winner’s 5-yard line in an instant classic?
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Yes, the SEC runner up would be left out. That’s the way it has to be. Otherwise, it’s still nothing more than a figure skating/beauty contest type thing where “judges” determine who is best and it’s not settled on the field. In the instant classic game, the loser should have gotten the 5 yards.
The NFL doesn’t have a mechanism where the loser of a really great first round playoff game gets another chance, no matter how close the game was or why the loser lost. If the rules are known up front by everyone, it’s fair. People can talk about the “what if’s” forever, but the conference champs would go to the playoff.
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I agree.
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My point is that to get a true playoff that pits the best teams, you have to have significant realignment to balance the conferences if it’s a winners only playoff. That’s why your scenario is the perfect world, but college football is far from that.
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It will never be perfect, but it will be close enough. The top teams will still face each other. Unless you went to a 32 team playoff with double elimination, there will always be good teams that don’t make the playoff and average teams that manage to sneak in. As an example, if Georgia had managed to somehow make it to Atlanta in 2014 with losses to SC, UF, and gt and pulled out a miracle win over Bama on a late fumble or other fluke play. There is no way Georgia was a better team than Bama in 2014, but in my 8 team playoff, Georgia would be the SEC champ and go to the playoff, probably to be thumped by Ohio State or FSU in the first round. People would talk about it for years, but no one could ever say Bama was cheated by a committee or polls or a computer program.
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I understand your point and don’t argue with it. What college football wants to do is take the college football season model and graft the NFL season model on it.
The NFL postseason model works because all division teams play the same schedule. Colleges don’t.
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Damn, meant “graft the NFL post season model…”
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The bowl games are a ton of fun. This past bowl season there were some many crazy endings, great plays, and just general overall entertainment. I can’t imagine how you can replace a tuesday afternoon bowl game.
Also how can you love college football and not love bowl games?
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Absolutely this … unless it’s played in a cold, wet location where you’ve already played a neutral site game earlier in the year — looking at you, Jacksonville
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And it rains (a lot) on the bowl game.
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It was miserable. My wife and kids made it through the first part of the 1st quarter, then told me they were going to the car. I followed them after that 99-yard disaster. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Scott Lakatos?
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Couldn’t agree more. The forces to be are bound and determined to wreck the best regular season in all sports. Seen it in CBB. March Madness is awesome. The previous 3 1/2 months is a snore fest.
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Agree. I love the bowl games.
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Basketball would love to get rid of the bowls so people MIGHT notice them during December.
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The 8 top teams meet for bowl games in the top 4 bowls. No two teams from the same conference play each other when it can be avoided (the CCs remain viable). Winners have two seeded “Playoff Bowls” followed a week later by the NC game at differing sites each year. 16 teams would constitute a “deserving” team dilution. No good reason to play more than 8 teams, the number that should have been set when “Choose two” began. If 8 teams had been set for a CFP long ago, there would have been no talk of “slippery slope”, dilution, straw man arguments or any other negative terms used in the ensuing kicking and screaming to be drug to a useful representative playoff number to settle it all.
While there is selfishness for the SEC team possibilities now (how many SEC teams ranked in the Top 8?), it won’t always be the dominant conference.
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8 or 16 team playoff, take your pick. Play games at home sights until finals (great reward for 1 and 2 seed). Teams not in the finals are rematched to play in the new year bowls. Now you have a playoff and bowls with no teams playing more games than the champion.
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Not bad(except for the “16”). I like a poster who tries to solve realistic problems. Not saying I agree, but it gives us all something to chew on.
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I don’t think you could have conference title games in my scenario, but the top four teams will only play 16 games (same as NFL regular season and one more game than GHSA champions). Also think of the new years day match ups as well as the fact that the Rose bowl can have their game and not screw up the other match ups.
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Simple. Use existing bowls for the playoff games.
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I think the 4 is fine, I just don’t like how they pick the teams. Should have kept the old BCS poll….
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4 isn’t enough, see TCU this year for an example. It has to be taken out of the hands of “judges” and be based on on field results. It needs to be 8 conference champions playing over three weeks. Every conference has a champion every year, let the conferences decide how they want to pick their champion, no “co champions” allowed. The conference champions should go to the playoffs. All the non champions could go to bowls.
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I’m not trying to be combative by saying this, but you realize there is no bottom to that rabbit hole, right? The size of the playoff field is never large enough for the first team or two left out. Just look at all the weeping and gnashing of teeth that goes on over the teams that are supposedly snubbed by being left out of a 68 (!) team field in basketball. The bottom line is that the field is never large enough for some playoff proponents, while people like me dread the inevitable bracket creep.
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Automatic bids cause most of these problems.
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Should a team that spent 12 games proving it is no better than 8th be given a chance to be declared champion?
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I agree. I think that model would be a better way of going about it.
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JC’s point is that an 8-team winners only playoff is the way to go. I agree with him except you can’t have it without some combination of the C-USA, MWC, AAC, Sun Belt, or MAC champions in it along with the Power 5. No playoff system works for the WWL unless ND is eligible and the Irish have made it clear that they aren’t joining a conference for football.
So, using JC’s format, you would have had:
AAC – Cincinnati (best win = ECU – blown out by multiple Power 5)
ACC – F$U
Big 12 – Baylor (I’m giving them the head-to-head)
B1G – O$U
C-USA – Marshall (best win – La Tech)
MWC – Boise (best win – Colorado St – beaten soundly by the only P5 opponent they played)
Pac12 – Oregon
SEC – Alabama
Cincinnati, Marshall, and Boise deserve to be in over TCU, Mississippi St., and Michigan St. (last 3 out based on the final CFP rankings) because they won their mid-major conference? No way this works unless you have significant realignment to go along with the playoff format.
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http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/12065293/bowl-games-special-meaning-group-5-programs
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Just part of the slow, inexorable slide to irrelevance. I hate it, but I honestly think CFB as I know and love it will be gone in the next 10-15 years.
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“When Nick Saban isn’t narrowly pursuing his self-interests,”
How is that even possible
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Admit it or not we Will miss the traditional rivalries.
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The bowl system has been a tradition of letdown to end the season. Happily welcome the change
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