Ovies: College playoff coming, but will format make sense?

College playoff coming, but will format make sense?

By Joe Ovies Posted at 12:31 p.m.

The good news? The BCS as we know it is withering on the vine and the serious possibility of a Division I-A college football playoff is on the horizon.

The bad news? The Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta Bowls have such an incredible grip on university presidents and athletic directors that sensible thinking will give way to continued fleecing. Conference commissioners like Jim Delaney are ultimately interested in preserving their own brands rather than doing the sensible thing that would take college football beyond regional dominance and profits to new heights.

...but hey, at least we're getting something. Right?

Some form of college playoff is coming to a television set near you. It just makes sense and networks would be willing to dump plenty of cash to obtain the rights. However, it won't be anything like the FCS format. For starters, the football Illuminati are currently discussing the various ways they can avoid calling it an actual playoff. According to documents obtained by USA Today, it's actually called a "Four Team Event."

The convoluted nature of the upcoming BCS format switch has everything to do with competing entities trying to hold on to their piece of the financial pie and politics. The major bowls, exposed for the boondoggles they are thanks to Dan Wetzel, are lobbying hard for their continued inclusion. Competing conference interests also get in the way, since the Big Ten doesn't necessarily want what he SEC wants and vice versa.

This is why the new system won't go beyond four teams and won't be played on the fields of higher-seeded teams. The Big Ten and PAC 12 want to keep the Rose Bowl. All the commissioners want to prevent "playoff creep." Most importantly, there is more money to be made in doing it all on neutral sites, including the brave new world of a Super Bowl-like college championship played in a non-traditional location such as Dallas.

All of it does and doesn't make sense at the same time. Going to a playoff format was inevitable because conferences were leaving money on the table in the old format, but trying to maintain an antiquated bowl system hands too much of that cash to the wrong people.

Marinate on this thought -- the college presidents and athletic directors have always argued against the playoff because it would require too much time and travel for the "student athletes," but what they are getting ready to implement would actually increase travel for everyone. There would be a neutral site conference championship, followed by a neutral site semifinal "event," which would then be followed by another neutral site national title game. That's 3 different cities in just over a month.

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Ovies: College playoff coming, but will format make sense?