There has been a lot of talk swirling around the possibility of a possible playoff for college football. It is even reaching the upper levels of the federal government, with President-elect Obama saying he’ll “throw (his) weight around” to get an eight-team, three-week long playoff in the works.
This is something I’ve fought long and hard for myself, starting with the three-page paper I wrote on the subject in Mrs. Thorne’s seventh-grade English class.
But, even the plan of Obama can’t sway everybody, as proven by University President Dave Frohnmayer, the chair of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee.
Frohnmayer, who was honored before Saturday’s Arizona football game because of his longtime support of collegiate athletics, wrote an e-mail to ESPN saying, “My colleagues and I on the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee have discussed the future of postseason football on many occasions and we do not believe a playoff would be in the best interest of the sport, the student-athletes or our many other constituencies.”
As much as I want one, I don’t believe we’ll have a playoff to decide the nation’s top team anytime soon, for many reasons, including money.
So I say, let’s stop fighting for what we won’t get. Let’s turn that energy into pushing for a playoff to decide – follow me, here – the nation’s worst team.
I don’t believe the format that most critics have suggested, such as the eight-team one, should be changed. Everyone knows it, and it would only take three weeks to finish. Three weeks of bad football is one thing; a month or more is asking a lot of America.
This isn’t cruel or unusual. Hollywood has the Razzies for worst in filmmaking, so why not this for the nation’s worst Football Bowl Subdivision team? Best of all, the teams nominate themselves!
The critics who scoff at this proposal’s ability to fill seats should remember the million of viewers who tune in to watch the audition week of “American Idol,” where the only thing that sounds good is the silence in between the notes.
People love bad.
People love football.
Bad football could work.
This tournament might be one of the few games these teams play in front of a national, prime-time audience – reason enough to accept the invitation. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, and for television companies, the incentive is a cheap playoff that will still draw.
But forget about ‘why’ and think about ‘how.’
Such as, how do these teams get selected? The BCS uses a complex statistical formula of rankings and statistics, so it would seem this could work for this idea as well.
A team’s record, of course, is the foundation of this ranking. Washington is 0-10, meaning they are in the running for the No. 1 seed – or is it the No. 119 seed?
Judging only by record, there are four other teams worthy: SMU (1-10), Washington State (1-10), San Diego State (1-10) and North Texas (1-9). After that, there are three 2-9 teams and half a dozen 2-8 teams.
Consistency should be rewarded, too. The Huskies have lost 12 straight, the most in the country, but Iowa State, 2-9, has lost 16 straight on the road, one more than SMU and three more than Idaho.
Attendance is another key element to this equation. According to the NCAA, Temple (3-7) holds the nation’s lowest attendance in terms of stadium capacity, filling 26 percent of its stadium in its three home games this year. Kent State (3-7), however, has the lowest average attendance of any FBS school, bringing in 12,313. Sorry, Ohio State fans: Michigan is not eligible, yet.
Do they fit the true model of one of the nation’s worst eight teams to make the playoff, though, because of their draw? Not entirely.
Here could be a clincher: style. Washington State owns the second-worst scoring offense and defense in the nation, losing by a margin of 35.8 points per game. Maybe the Cougs deserve the top – er – lowest seed, after all.
We don’t even need to talk about naming rights. It’s called the Apple Cup.
But, you’re asking, why play? What would the winner get for being named the best-worst team in America?
Well, how about a play-in game with the real national playoff’s top seed, like the NCAA basketball tournament? That tournament, for all the joking of this column, is what fans and teams really want to see.
Sure, it’s fun to dream about watching the eight worst teams play. A playoff for the national title, however, is something college football deserves. Many people inside the sport would rather we keep dreaming.
Before you leave Johnson Hall, President Frohnmayer, try to make something happen.
I believe the term is, “throw your weight around.”
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The Razzies of football, playoff style
Daily Emerald
November 18, 2008
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