ND screw? Leaders of Pac 12 agree to nix BCS and approve playoff with conf champions

[junglehusky]

What if... there's a 4-8 team championship playoff, and then a series of NIT playoffs that would also be small? Instead of a big playoff, a bunch of small ones. The NIT's would also be 4-8 teams, all home games until the semifinal or final which would be played at some bowl site. Big boys split the championship pie, the minnows share the crumbs from the NIT and take a little slice off the pie, and nobody sues.

 

[justinslot]

I think the best we can hope for this go-round is a four team tournament of champions, which would at least mean the BE champion would have a semi-realistic shot at making it in, provided they went undefeated. The worst for the BE and for most teams not in the SEC and the Big 12 would be just the top 4 in the current BCS rankings, which would mean a yearly debacle like this year's LSU-Bama debacle. The compromise position--three champions, one at large--doesn't help much either, since the one at large is usually a SEC team. Hopefully the rest of the leagues can get the SEC to not insist on placing two teams in a four team tournament every year--I mean, just for the good of the game. The nation would get burned out on an annual DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE pretty fast I would imagine.

Also, I can't imagine the B1G or the Pac being the ones to force ND into a conference. Both leagues only have their current relationship with ND due to ND's independence.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The sad thing about this all for me, was that I was perfectly content in the New Big East - UConn, Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, West Virginia, Cincy, Louisville, USF. The only thing I cared about was winning the Big East.

I knew the competitive disadvantages either financially, politically or institutionally (BCS and the Polls) might have prevented us from getting a shot at the National Championship. However, competing in a conference I cared so much about made that almost an afterthought.

Now? In a conference people care about even less, with less rivals and even more restricted access to the National Title.

I'll always still go to the Rent and watch UConn, but my enthusiasm for the sport has never been lower.

 

[weyuo]

I think when it all shakes out you'll see an 8 team playoff for the national title. The 6 highest ranked conference champs and 2 at-large bids(the next 2 highest ranked teams, could even be a 7th conference champ if they were ranked high enough). That way the SEC will be comfortable with being allowed to have more than one team in their conference competing for the title. The problem with anything more complicated than that is simply not enough weeks to get it accomplished. You need to keep your 12 game regular season schedule intact for the traditional non conference rivalry games and to have enough conference games to determine who goes to the conference tourney. Add the conference tourney and now 3 more playoff games to get to a national title and two teams are playing 16 games. That's a lot of pounding in one season for some college kids that will need to be addressed as well as time away from school. I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to make it any bigger than that and the NFL isn't going to want college ball cutting into their playoff weeks. If the Big East can't have one of the top 6 ranked conference champs then they don't deserve to compete for a national title. What is there, 10 conferences in D-1 football? If your champ can't be ranked higher than 4 others you don't deserve a shot.

 

[UConnDan97]

If only the FBS had a system that they could truly model. You know, one that includes something like the top 16 teams in the country and has them play against each other until 1 is crowned National Champion. Oh yeah, that's right, they do; it's called FCS....and DII....and DIII (I predict Mt. Union versus Wisconsin-Whitewater in the final ).

It frustrates me that this hasn't happened decades ago. I understand that the bowls control the money, and the "big name" teams control the bowls, but in my opinion the NCAA stands to make so much more money if they go to a 16 team playoff. If you think March Madness is crazy in every office in America, how do you think Delirious December would be?!? Maybe in my lifetime...

 

[RS9999X]

Part of what they stuggle with is this: Would the 4 traditional New Years Games be any better watched if they were labeled playoff games? Would the majors make less or more under that arrangement?

Of are the ratings about as good as they will get anyway?

Will the National Championship pull more viewers than now? Or is it a pretty much a wash for that games?

At best an 8-team playoff means 2 new semi-final games that would be big draws but New Years and the BCS Championship would be about the same.

If you consider the concentration of money in that scenario it isn't pretty unless the money is pooled in which case what? The 8 top playoff teams make less than they do as part of the distribution formula? The NCAA money distribution for basketball is much more egalitarian.

The bottom 20 bowls are vanity bowls. They are now anyway.

 

[huskypantz]

Part of what they stuggle with is this: Would the 4 traditional New Years Games be any better watched if they were labeled playoff games? Would the majors make less or more under that arrangement?

Of are the ratings about as good as they will get anyway?

Will the National Championship pull more viewers than now? Or is it a pretty much a wash for that games?

At best an 8-team playoff means 2 new semi-final games that would be big draws but New Years and the BCS Championship would be about the same.

If you consider the concentration of money in that scenario it isn't pretty unless the money is pooled in which case what? The 8 top playoff teams make less than they do as part of the distribution formula? The NCAA money distribution for basketball is much more egalitarian.

The bottom 20 bowls are vanity bowls. They are now anyway.

I think it's undeniable that a football playoff will make tons more money. Here are the numbers on ad spend last season (reference link below).
Football (regular season) - 604.6 M
Basketball (regular season) - 295.7 M
Football (postseason) - 182.5 M
Basketball (postseason) - 1,040.7 M

Football doubles up bball during the regular season (even with half as many games), but come postseason the NCAA tournament trounces the pitiful bowls. Not only that, but imagine the additional revenue the teams would realize from playing additional home playoff games. There is some serious cash on the table for everyone except the bowl committees.

http://www.slideshare.net/ceobroadband/state-of-the-media-2011-year-in-sports-11339432

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The resistance to a playoff isn't because they don't believe there is more money available, it is entirely based on who has control of the money. A tournament means that the NCAA can formulate the distribution of revenues. The way things sit today, the power conferences (primarily through the BCS cartel) make those decisions.

 

[RS9999X]

I think it's undeniable that a football playoff will make tons more money. Here are the numbers on ad spend last season (reference link below).
Football (regular season) - 604.6 M
Basketball (regular season) - 295.7 M
Football (postseason) - 182.5 M
Basketball (postseason) - 1,040.7 M

Football doubles up bball during the regular season (even with half as many games), but come postseason the NCAA tournament trounces the pitiful bowls. Not only that, but imagine the additional revenue the teams would realize from playing additional home playoff games. There is some serious cash on the table for everyone except the bowl committees.

http://www.slideshare.net/ceobroadband/state-of-the-media-2011-year-in-sports-11339432

I know the numbers but I disagree the you can simply extrapolate basketball tourney figures to football. The BCS championship isn't going to pull more viewers or the New Years games.

CBS has one weekend of the year where it simply owns the airwaves with March Madness. Football can't create that kind of broadcast saturation without a radical retooling of the playoffs and bowls to expand to 32 teams. The bigger issue was always academic: tying up students for an extended month in playoff schools.

I've seen pod playoff scenarios modeled after World Cup that somewhat make sense. But it's also very disruptive.

Look at some ratings here: March Madness this year is averaging a 5.3 rating for the whole weekend. That's huge!

There were only 4 Football bowl games that ranked higher than the 5.3 average in 2011: Sugar, Fiesta and Rose and the BCS Championship game. By the time the viewership numbers are in, college bowls overall got nothing on March Madness. It's a pale shadow of March Madness Saturation

>>Through Saturday, the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship is the most-watched version of March Madness in 18 years.

This year's tourney averaged a 5.3 U.S. household rating collectively on TBS, CBS, TNT and TruTV through March 17, up 4% from a 5.1 rating in 2011 and an increase of 15% over a 4.6 rating in 2010, according to Nielsen fast nationals data<<


http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/01/college_football_average_bowl.html

 

[huskypantz]

Here's a scenario based on the past season:
16-team tournament
Week One
Thursday Dec 8
730p Wisconsin (B1G) #9 at K State (at large) #8
Friday Dec 9
730p Ark State (SB) #16 at LSU (SEC) #1
Sat Dec 10
12p Clemson (ACC) #10 at Boise St (at large) #7
12p N Illinois (MAC) #14 at OSU (B12) #3
330p La Tech (WAC) #15 at Alabama (at large) #2
330p WVU (BEast) #13 at Stanford (at large) #4
8p TCU (MWest) #11 at Arkansas (at large) #6
8p USM (CUSA) #12 at Oregon (PAC10) #5
Week Two
Thur Dec 15
730p Quarterfinal # 1 (higher ranked team at home)
Sat Dec 17
12p Quarterfinal # 2 (higher ranked team at home)
330p Quarterfinal # 3 (higher ranked team at home)
8p Quarterfinal # 4 (higher ranked team at home)
Week Three
Sat Dec 31
330p Semifinal #1 (higher ranked team at home)
8p Semifinal #2 (higher ranked team at home)
Week Four
Mon Jan 9
9p National Championship at site of one BCS bowl

Now you sprinkle in 12 bowl games between Dec 27 and Jan 7. (mostly selected at random)
fiesta bowl baylor vs houston
rose bowl michigan vs washington
sugar bowl s carolina vs mich state
orange bowl cincy vs fsu
cotton bowl oklahoma vs smu
gator bowl auburn vs notre dame
outback bowl nebraska vs florida
liberty bowl rutgers vs gtech
capital one bowl psu vs byu
music city bowl ohio vs auburn
sun bowl texas vs tulsa
chic fil-a bowl georgia vs toledo

I think that first weekend would be sick, and it would only get better from there. The funny part is that after seeing the tournament, it really makes the bowl games look dumb (ie as meaningless as they currently are). I don't even think I'd want the bowl games.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Every year when I watch March Madness I come to the same conclusion about how awesome a College Football 16 team playoff would be for everyone involved.

Then I get sad and realize how much the bowls suck.

 

[RS9999X]

Here's a scenario based on the past season:
16-team tournament

I think that first weekend would be sick, and it would only get better from there. The funny part is that after seeing the tournament, it really makes the bowl games look dumb (ie as meaningless as they currently are). I don't even think I'd want the bowl games.

That's the tradeoff. Call them the less-than NIT. Have them hosted at home but how do you justify them? We play some random home one month after the end of the season to hopefully get enough ESPN money and ticket revenue to pay for the whole mess of keeping a program active for a month for no reason bu to break even on some vanity December bowl.

The other problem: if ratings were decent on Thursday or Saturday Night the NFL would compete head-to-head.