Congress to regulate the BCS

huzkerbob said:
Most of you are VERY wrong on this subject. A monopoly is a monopoly. And the BsCS has become just that. anyone who feels that it's OK for for there to be an uneven playing field isn't a real fan of college football. If you cared about the sport itself, not just your own team, then you would want the best teams, not just the big name teams to have a shot at a championship. And right now that's the ridiculous system we have!

But as long as the Huskers are part of the elite then why change anything! Right? I can't understand why so many Nebraskans just want to stick to the status quo. It doesn't seem to matter that CFB is the only sport that can't claim a legit champ every year. As long as the bowl commitees are raking in our hard earned cash, and the Rose bowl gets there lame a$$ Pac 10/ Big 11 matchup every season than everything is just fine! Wow, I can't tell you how excited I am for that bowl already!!! :sarcasm

What if NU was a member of the sun belt back in our NC years. If they where, there is a good chance that after they went undefeated, they would not have been invited to the Orange Bowl, or the Feista Bowl. Would you still believe in the system if there where no NC's for the BigRed?
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You make some very valid points there..Thanks..I really do appreciate when someone is able to budge my opinion..even a little...

I guess I have to admit to myself, that I am a Husker Fan even more than I am a College Football fan..

Sure..I'll watch other games at the beginning of the season..Mainly due to the fact that the off-seasons seem longer and longer every year...Or I'll watch an upcoming opponent so I can "Scout" them in my imaginary world.

But the ultimate goal (at least to me) is not Championships...It's enjoying the process of getting there.

Somehow..Ozzy was aware of that himself even before he retired from coaching and wrote about it in "More Than Winning".

The near misses may hurt..but ultimately, they keep me coming back for more..I'd soon grow bored if we never lost.

The fact that "CFB is the only sport that can't claim a legit champ every year" is probably what makes it the most intriguing..

Life is seldom fair..It's probably normal to want to do something about that, but this game is just entertainment, really.

I tried explaining this to someone quite a few years ago (if you can't tell by the reference)...One of my Favourite shows in the early '80's was "Moonlighting".

It's appeal to me initially, was the witty one-liners from Bruce Willis as he was trying to get into Cybil Shepard (Maddie's) panties..But it grew on my mushy girlie side as each week..everyone was waiting for the two main characters to actually "Do It".

Once they did..viewership tanked..DRASTICLY.

I've often felt..That if we got what we wanted by having the playoff thing..We'd lose way too much of the Controversy..and thus..the interest.

Sure you'd have the weak complaints from the 9th rated team..or 17th...But not nearly as much as a whole region of fans really-really mad that their team was undefeated, but still had to share a MNC..or worse..not even get a chance at the one that some computer crowned...

Big picture, I feel you need those occasional setbacks.

 
Is the fed govt allowed to get involves? Gov't does provide money to public university's......I was watching this on television. They cited something interstate commerce

 
huzkerbob said:
Most of you are VERY wrong on this subject. A monopoly is a monopoly. And the BsCS has become just that. anyone who feels that it's OK for for there to be an uneven playing field isn't a real fan of college football. If you cared about the sport itself, not just your own team, then you would want the best teams, not just the big name teams to have a shot at a championship. And right now that's the ridiculous system we have!

But as long as the Huskers are part of the elite then why change anything! Right? I can't understand why so many Nebraskans just want to stick to the status quo. It doesn't seem to matter that CFB is the only sport that can't claim a legit champ every year. As long as the bowl commitees are raking in our hard earned cash, and the Rose bowl gets there lame a$$ Pac 10/ Big 11 matchup every season than everything is just fine! Wow, I can't tell you how excited I am for that bowl already!!! :sarcasm

What if NU was a member of the sun belt back in our NC years. If they where, there is a good chance that after they went undefeated, they would not have been invited to the Orange Bowl, or the Feista Bowl. Would you still believe in the system if there where no NC's for the BigRed?
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You're right, a monopoly is a monopoly. Problem is, that if congress institutes how the BCS crowns it's NC then that monopoly not only remains unbroken, but now becomes institutionalized. Anti-trust laws were not enacted to ensure that monoploies were fair but rather, that they not exist. Therefore, congress's only options are to disolve the NCAA, encourage competitive entities to it, or grant an exemption for them as they have with MLB. Congress would probaly love option three because it grants even more authority to the one truely uncontested monopoly in this country, that being government.

 
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I for one wouldn't mind seeing a small field playoff IE plus one possibly 6 team. I feel that a larger feild would dilute one of the best aspects of college football, simply put every game matters. Every week you have to strap it on and win, no excuses no exceptions. Even the big dogs have to win to play in the NC. Contrast this to the NHL were it's commonplace to have teams at .500 of below in the playoffs. How about the MLB, when I go to that Tuesday night game and drop 2 benjamins on a family outing, I'd like to know that the team actually gives a crap about winning it, but given that they can lose 65-70 games and still be in the hunt, I tend to believe that they aren't playing like their season depends on it every night.

 
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One of the biggest problems with any football playoff system is that it will be nearly impossible to draw large crowds in the early rounds. Without drawing large crowds, neutral sites will be reluctant to host these games.

An example would be if the Huskers were in a 6 team playoff in Miami, many fans would be unable or unwilling to pay to go to both the early round game and the championship game. Forced to hedge their bets, most people will pick one or the other. Therefore, the venue will be forced to host multiple events that have very low attendance.

In the end, it all probably comes down to dollars and cents. The BCS is extremely profitable for all involved. Unless the fans do large scale boycotts (which will NEVER happen) or the government intervenes (which MIGHT happen) get used to seeing the BCS every year.

 
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carlfense said:
One of the biggest problems with any football playoff system is that it will be nearly impossible to draw large crowds in the early rounds. Without drawing large crowds, neutral sites will be reluctant to host these games.

An example would be if the Huskers were in a 6 team playoff in Miami, many fans would be unable or unwilling to pay to go to both the early round game and the championship game. Forced to hedge their bets, most people will pick one or the other. Therefore, the venue will be forced to host multiple events that have very low attendance.

In the end, it all probably comes down to dollars and cents. The BCS is extremely profitable for all involved. Unless the fans do large scale boycotts (which will NEVER happen) or the government intervenes (which MIGHT happen) get used to seeing the BCS every year.
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Thats true about the attendance. I sure as hell wouldn't go to every game, I couldn't.

 
As for me I'm against this whole playoff system for College Football but I think that the BCS needs to fix on how they do things now and I'm not really supporting the BCS. Does this mean that there are no more Bowl Games like the Alamo, Gator, Rose, Orange, Sugar, etc if we go to a 8 team playoff system? The bowl games at the end of the season is what defies College Football and is one reason why College Football is so popular and where its at today. Also allowing to have this playoff system extends the season a few more games for those 8 teams and the risk of injuries could occur and get worse. The NFL is in that debate right now about extending their regular season 1-2 extra games but the risk of injuries and shorter careers is something that they are thinking of. This is something that people and the NCAA should be thinking off too.

The way that it should for playing for the championship game is the #1 team playing against either #2 or #3 team for the title and #2 team plays against #3 team if they're not playing the #1 team or playing the #4 team or #5 team and so forth. I think that it should also depend on the strength of schedules and I hate watching teams that are ranked like #14 or so playing against non ranked teams in the bowl games or the #1 team playing against the #8 team which is freakin stupid.

Am I wrong but doesn't the schools get most of their revenue from the Bowl games???

Like someone said before if they did do this playoff system they'd have to do it at a neutral site but most fans might not be able to attend to support their team. I know its like that for the first few rounds for March Madness. Lets say Nebraska is playing against Florida State in the first round and this playoff system is being played in Florida, most of our fans might not be available to attend where there will be a lot more Florida State fans there because its in state and in College Football the crowd can really make or break a game. A lot of fans usually don't attend the first round or two maybe because they know that they're gonna win, cost of tickets, economy, etc but that could be different for Nebraska Football if we're in a playoff system. But I'm sure not every fan can attend every game/round because I'm sure the tickets are going to be way more than what the March Madness was.

I just find it really hard for a playoff system to work in College football and making sure the right team makes it to the Title game. Will Cities have to bid for the playoffs to played in their city or will it be played at a neutral site (Lincoln is a neutral site and can hold about 89,000+)? I can really see one College football team complaining because they didn't make the 8 team playoff list and fans bitching and so forth. I'm not really supporting the BCS because I think the the BCS should be tweeked and fixed but I don't see how a playoff system is going to solve the problem.

The problem that I have with March madness is that there are a lot of crappy teams out there that win their conference but have easy schedules that are automatcially in the March Madness because they won their conference and quite possible bumped out another good b-ball team who had a tougher schedule but didn't make win their conference and had a mediocre record. I can see that exact same thing happening in the playoff system and screwing a good football team. Look at what happened to the Patriots last year the had what a 11-5 record and they weren't in the playoff hunt for the Super Bowl. I can see a lot of good teams with tough schedules and good records not making the playoff system if this does go thru.

Who makes it thru to the 8 team playoff system? There could be over 10 teams that could pose a 10-1, 11-1, 10-2, 11-2, etc records that not all 10+ teams will be able to be in this 8 team playoff hunt. So how are they going to break it down to who goes and why? Does anybody remember the fight for who should've went to the Big 12 Championship game for the south last year between Tech, Texas, and OU. They all had the same records but each team lost to one but beat the other. I think that Texas should've went becaue they beat OU on a neutral site and lost to Tech at the final seconds. I just have a feeling that there will be a lot of teams with the same records that won't be involved in the playoff hunt.

It'll be interesting because there's a lot of factors that you have to think of when doing this playoff system to insure that you are picking the right teams and making sure that it is fair and that the true Best Team wins the National Championship.

 
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In case you guys didn't know (which seems evident by most of the posts in this thread), the NCAA != the BCS. Two seperate entities.

As for my personal opinion, I think they should do it the way that Div. II does it. Have a playoff of ___ teams, and then have a number of bowl games for the top teams who didn't make the playoff.

 
huzkerbob said:
Most of you are VERY wrong on this subject. A monopoly is a monopoly. And the BsCS has become just that. anyone who feels that it's OK for for there to be an uneven playing field isn't a real fan of college football. If you cared about the sport itself, not just your own team, then you would want the best teams, not just the big name teams to have a shot at a championship. And right now that's the ridiculous system we have!
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I'm saddened you think that way. And you're wrong about some things:

1. First of all the BCS is in no way a monopoly. If you call the BCS a monopoly, then you have to call the NCAA a monopoly too. Which they aren't, there's the NCCAA, NAIA, and several other small time divisions. They might currently be the only one with big-name schools, but that doesn't make them an exclusive monopoly. Schools have options on who to belong to. A monopoly would be if exxon mobile bought every single oil and gas company in the world, and then had the power to raise or lower prices however they wanted. This is pretty basic economics, that even our government doesn't understand.

2. Just because these no-name schools win every game of the season doesn't make them a strong school. Sure there have been examples of them even winning their BCS game, but everyone can win one big game when the moment is right. The bowl system rewards teams for being strong the whole year long, not just in one final "spurt" during the tournament.

I could go on...but I have food on the grill....I'll continue my arguments later

 
huskerpilot said:
huzkerbob said:
The bowl system rewards teams for being strong the whole year long, not just in one final "spurt" during the tournament.
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So a 13-0 no name school with a blue field isn't playing strong all year long, even when beating all odds to upset some over-rated program in 2006?

We NEED a playoff, period. For far to long too many great programs get left in the dark for a championship.

We saw last year how many powerful school's there were and a playoff system would have made last season unforgettable!

Who knows, Texas, Utah or USC could be our National Champions right now.

Tell me what other sport's rely on some dumb computers to determine who is deserving of a shot at glory?
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Wicked_Shadows said:
So a 13-0 no name school with a blue field isn't playing strong all year long, even when beating all odds to upset some over-rated program in 2006?

We NEED a playoff, period. For far to long too many great programs get left in the dark for a championship.

We saw last year how many powerful school's there were and a playoff system would have made last season unforgettable!

Who knows, Texas, Utah or USC could be our National Champions right now.

Tell me what other sport's rely on some dumb computers to determine who is deserving of a shot at glory?
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We don't NEED a playoff, you WANT a playoff. There is a difference.

There hasn't been a playoff in over 100 years of Div. I college football history, what is so different now that everyone wants one?

 
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Every week you have to strap it on and win, no excuses no exceptions.
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A lot of folks have been saying this same thing. Problem is, Utah "straped it on" and won every game they played. While the eventual "champ" lost at home to Ole Miss. Yeah, your right someone sure is "straping it on" alright!

 
carlfense said:
We don't NEED a playoff, you WANT a playoff. There is a difference.

There hasn't been a playoff in over 100 years of Div. I college football history, what is so different now that everyone wants one?
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Whats the difference you ask? I will tell you, parity!

In the old days, you would only have one or two decent teams at the end of the year, therefore the system worked. But in the past decade or so, we have seen a rise in the number of truly competitive teams.

Then, with the implementation of the new recruiting and roster rules (keeping big schools from stockpiling players), you see several school's having much better recruitment classes.

Screw history, that's what I say.

We want these kid's to play their hearts out every week, but we tell them "you have no shot at a championship" just because of the school you go to.

The BCS is a complete disaster and it will only get worse.

 
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