Obama vs. the BCS Suits: Who Wins?
College Football, Politics, Rich Old White People November 19th. 2008, 4:15pm
Nice piece from Wilbon today in the Washington Post, analyzing what could be the best college football matchup of 2009: President-elect Barack Obama vs. the old white men who pull the strings on college football’s joke of a postseason. Read between the lines to find the tension (the bold is ours):
Obama on 60 Minutes: “I think any sensible person would say that, if you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear, decisive winner, that we should be creating a playoff system.”
BCS coordinator John Swofford: “I am glad [Obama] has a passion for college football like so many other Americans. For now, our constituencies — and I know he understands constituencies — have settled on the current BCS system. . . . We certainly respect the opinions of president-elect Obama and welcome dialogue on what’s best for college football.”
Boxing analogy time: The two just hopped in the ring, Obama jabbed on Monday Night Football a couple weeks ago, and then stung the BCS with a surprise uppercut (read: “any sensible person”). Swofford says, “for now” the constituencies have settled on a system … really? You mean that if there were a poll tomorrow, the coaches from teams ranked 1-50 would be in favor of the current system over a playoff?
(We’re going to guess the greedy school presidents are probably still in favor of the lucrative and greatly flawed bowl system.)
Obviously, with the world falling apart and society crumbling, nobody’s silly enough to say that Obama’s college football pipe dream is anywhere near the top 184 things to do upon taking office. (Bailing out the Big 3 better not be, either.) But if he pulls this off, here’s the scenario we’d be looking at, assuming the season ended today:
Penn State (8) at Alabama (1)
Oklahoma (5) at Florida (4)
USC (3) at Texas (2)
Utah (7) at Texas Tech (2)
You know how after Championship game weekend in early December, all college football talk dies down for another four or five weeks? That definitely wouldn’t be the case here. The only legit team with a gripe would be Boise State, undefeated and currently 9th … but Utah could lose to BYU and if Penn State loses to Michigan State, the unbeaten Broncos probably would vault into the top eight.
When the President-Elect Talks, The BCS Should Listen (Washington Post)
26 Responses to “Obama vs. the BCS Suits: Who Wins?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:19 PM
You’re right. College football needs to get in line.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Obama ain’t doing shit. He is still trying to garner favor with those who didn’t vote for him (SEC fans). If he is actually able to get a playoff, I’ll move to Ann Arbor.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:25 PM
I’m glad that the whole economy situation has been solved.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:27 PM
Enough with the grandiose promises you don’t intend to keep Barry, you won already.
/waiting for Obama to start paying for my mortgage and groceries.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:27 PM
obama was using this in swing states: ohio, florida, penn. smart move.
only prayer obama has of bringing the bcs suits to there knees is when he changes the tax laws he hits the corporations for maybe 75 taxes on money spent on sponsoring amateur events. by doing that, it would dry up the bowl cash flow and then make a playoff more profitable than its current system.
barring that, it’s all talk.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:29 PM
should be 75 percent taxes on money spent
November 19th, 2008 at 4:29 PM
I favor tradition over “fairness.” College football to me is about the Big Ten champion playing the Pac-10 champion in Pasadena. It’s not about a fair champion. It never has been. College football is about tradition, that is what makes it better than the pro game. For one, it would be a logistical nightmare to ask fans of a team to travel to a bowl game 3 weekends in a row. I favor a plus one game that would follow the bowl games with traditional bowl conference tie-ins.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:32 PM
ummm?
November 19th, 2008 at 4:34 PM
this site is running sllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww
November 19th, 2008 at 4:34 PM
Everyone forgets, students, not professionals.
Nice to see you again PurdueMatt.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:46 PM
Obviously this is something that is so far down the pipeline for Obizzle that discussing this is somewhat moot, but man would I love to see playoff. Use the 4 major bowls for the games and rotate the title game between the bowls each year. Then, for the remaining 60 teams that make a bowl, they can use the current bowl setup. Of course this will never happen because the NCAA is retarded.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:48 PM
The only way a playoff can happen is if scheduling can be standardized. Because that’s never happening (the BCS teams need 7 home dates to fund womens rowing, the mid majors need the payoffs for being lambs to the slaughter for the same reason), there’s no way to accurately make a playoff system.
I wish people would stop trying to fix college football. It’s not the NFL, it was never meant to be the NFL, so fucking deal with it. Controversy is what drives college football, along with knowing that losing 1 game takes your destiny out your hands. Penn State losing to Iowa would had been a blip on the radar, because Penn St is still going to more likely than not win the Big 10. USC losing to Oregon St…not a big deal with a playoff.
Besides, does anyone really want a team from the Big East, Big 10, or ACC having a shot to win the national championship if they get hot for 3 games?
November 19th, 2008 at 4:50 PM
Speak for yourself when talking about bailing out the big 3. If they go under I’m out of a job.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:59 PM
@ PurdueMatt
Only a Purdue grad would talk about a logistical nightmare traveling to three different locations in a row. It’s painfully obvious you’ve never been to a Final Four. Oh wait, Gene Keady is the best coach that ever lived, right? (Full disclosure, I’m an IU guy).
November 19th, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Getting 70,000 min. people to show up 3 weekends in a row is a bit harder than trying to get 25,000 max show for 3 weekends. Also, you can’t have the games on the same field, NFL fields can barely make it through the season and that’s only 1 game a week.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:12 PM
I will start looking for a house or apartment for you, KC. But you aren’t living in my basement.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Good to see Obama taking a shot at the BCS. It’s a ridiculous system that needs to go away. As for College Football, as a whole, I guess I could understand the tradition argu…wait, no I couldn’t. Yeah, it was so much fun to watch the tradition laden, ass beating, that was USC vs Illinois last year.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:14 PM
The playoff system is the dumbest thing I have heard of. Shut your fucking mouth Obama and start doing things that matter. Also, you heard it here first… Big time College football is going to have a gigantic wake up call while we are in a recession for the next 5 years. People aren’t going to be able to afford going to games.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Having 8 teams play a couple extra games to determine the national champion on the field is dumber than having the computers decide the top 2 teams? That could be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Even stupider than the BCS itself.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:19 PM
I guess, I don’t understand how someone can say the playoff system is the dumbest thing ever. Only, every other sport uses it. It seems to me that if you are the only one int the minority, it might actually be your system that is the dumbest thing ever.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:21 PM
Bama, Florida, Texas, Utah
November 19th, 2008 at 5:23 PM
the ONLY way this’d work is if each of the 6 BCS conf champs got in with 2 at-large. none of this “top 8 teams” BS.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
do you have that little faith in the college football fan? We are fuckin rabid, I have friends that would walk to pasadena when(if, fuck you fate) Penn State makes it to the Rose Bowl.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:29 PM
@dwaltlhi
The playoff system itself isn’t the dumbest thing ever. Turning down $500 million when everyone knows these conference presidents are simply out to make money makes a lot of sense.
I’m not saying it’s right, but these guys aren’t running the system to please everybody. They’re doing it to make money. If that doesn’t make sense to you, then I’d think you’re dumb.
And to the person who will undoubtedly say “they can make money off of a playoff too!!”….that makes no sense either. It’s simple supply and demand, and until you stop watching, nothing will change.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:38 PM
The playoff system is the dumbest thing I have heard of.
Cannon Ball Run 2 was dumber… way dumber by far.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:50 PM
For a long time, presidents peddled the, “A playoff would be a detriment to the student-athlete’s time in the classroom.” Then, about five years after everyone else realised it was bullshit, they caught on. Now, they claim a playoff would diminish the regular season … much like it has in college basketball.
For a while, I bought that. I love college football’s regular season and never want anything to take away from the beauty that is Gameday. I still feel that way, but I’m not buying the pile o’ poo the presidents are selling. Not any more. When schools like Michigan and Tennessee, in the worst years in school history and absolutely NO chance of a bowl (much less a national championship) are drawing 75,000-plus people, you will never convince me that a playoff would diminish the regular season. If anything, it would enhance it. After all, a loss to Florida or Ohio State would not mean the end of everything.
Think about it, there are roughly 15-20 weeks of college football a year. People count down the days until fall practice begins … or signing day … or opening kickoff. In many places across the nation, football is the measure of time. You’re going to tell me that people in Baton Rouge are going to take the approach of, “Bama’s coming to town? Eh … no big deal. We’ll be (or won’t be) in the playoff regardless.” Hell no! They’ll say, “Florida and Georgia kicked our ass, but if we win the West, we can still get in the playoffs and defend our title!”
I would like to think Barry O’ can make this happen … this is one of his few policies I can actually get behind … but I’ve come to believe the BCS presidents are more unswayable (if that’s a word) than a Pentecostal minister and more conniving than a mafia don. In other words, it’ll never happen.