i have been a BCS supporter since its inception, however, with the controversy over last year and this year, i believe firmly that a playoff system would benefit college football, the fans, and the universities more so than the current BCS bowl season.
now, the UGA president, who is also the chairman of the NCAA executive committee, is pushing for the playoff system. from what i heard (espn radio i believe) one university who was absolutely
against the playoff system was ohio state, partly in fact b/c this would take away the rose bowl from the big 10. i guess they believe that since they don't show up for the bcs title game (unlike the SEC teams), they would at least have a better chance at the rose bowl.
College Football | Georgia's Adams proposes 8-team playoff system
By The Associated Press
College Sports | College Football | Georgia's Adams proposes 8-team playoff system | Seattle Times Newspaper
ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia's president has proposed an eight-team playoff system to determine the national champion.
Michael Adams, also chairman of the NCAA executive committee, has opposed a playoff for about 20 years but said Tuesday the Bowl Championship Series system is "undercutting the sportsmanship and integrity of the game."
Adams said he wants the NCAA to seed eight teams into the four bowls.
Adams said he would like a special NCAA committee to work out the particulars, but the plan calls for the winners of the four major bowls — Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta — to play semifinals at least one week later, with the championship game the week after the semifinals.
NCAA President Myles Brand said he will take Adams' request to the Division I board of directors Monday at the NCAA convention in Nashville, Tenn.
Notes
• Louisiana State's 38-24 victory over Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game on Monday in New Orleans earned a 14.4 rating on Fox, down 17 percent from last year's 17.4 rating for Florida's 41-14 victory over Ohio State in Glendale, Ariz.
• Fifteen people were arrested and several fires were set near the Ohio State campus after the loss to LSU, police said.
• Hawaii fired athletic director Herman Frazier, who failed to re-sign coach June Jones. On Monday, Jones accepted an offer to coach Southern Methodist, in Dallas.
Hawaii must pay $312,510 to Frazier, who was under contract through July 2010.
• Relatives of Rich Rodriguez say they have been harassed and threatened in the three weeks since his resignation as West Virginia coach. Rodriguez left to coach Michigan.
• Players who indicated they are skipping their senior season to enter the NFL draft include Rutgers running back Ray Rice, Michigan receivers Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington and Auburn defensive tackle Pat Sims.
• Meanwhile, players who said they are returning for their senior season include California center Alex Mack and the Missouri duo of quarterback Chase Daniel and tight end Chase Coffman.
Decision on Football Playoff Is Delayed
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/sp...ts&oref=slogin
By KATIE THOMAS
Published: January 15, 2008
NASHVILLE — Top university administrators delayed a decision on whether to start a playoff system for major college football at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s annual convention Monday. They agreed to ask college presidents to weigh in on the topic but did not set a timeline for a decision.
James F. Barker, the president of Clemson University and the chairman of Division I’s board of directors, which debated the issue Monday, described the discussion as “candid and open and very constructive.”
“The board’s sense was that the discussion should continue and it should include the presidents at the conference level,” he added.
In addition to asking university presidents to discuss the issue, the board said the topic would be examined by the committee that oversees the current system, the Bowl Championship Series, as well as by a newly created N.C.A.A. task force assigned to study issues of “commercialization and student-athlete welfare.”
The current championship system uses polls and computer rankings to determine the two teams that will play for the national title. It has long been panned by critics ranging from college presidents to fans who say it does not pit the best teams against one another and places too much power and money in the hands of conferences and bowl commissioners.
The board’s action came a week after Michael F. Adams, the president of Georgia and the chairman of the N.C.A.A.’s Division I executive committee, called for the creation of an N.C.A.A. committee that would select eight teams to compete in four bowls as part of a playoff system. Adams’s timing, however, has been questioned because the proposal came after Georgia finished the season strongly but was not selected to play in the B.C.S. title game.
Adams said he was satisfied with the decision, even though the board fell short of creating a study group to examine the topic, as he had requested.
“I think we got into some very important issues that we needed to get before the board,” Adams said, adding that there was lengthy discussion about the increasing commercialization of postseason football. “I think the voice that I have given some of these issues resonated with some of my colleagues today, and there are others who are probably a bit more reticent about it.”
Some have said that a playoff system run by the N.C.A.A. would be fairer, less confusing and would bring the Football Bowl Subdivision teams more closely in line with the way most other sports, like men’s basketball and even the lower tiers of college football, run their championships.
But advocates for the status quo have said that the change will be difficult, costly and could increase the number of games played by college football players, placing more of a strain on their academic responsibilities. For this reason, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a watchdog group that advocates a shortened playing season for student-athletes, is not backing Adams’s proposal.
“Every time the whole issue of football and postseason play comes up, we seem to add more games,” said William E. Kirwan, the co-chair of the Knight Commission and the chancellor of the University System of Maryland. “Lengthening the season definitely has an impact on the students’ ability to perform in the classroom.”
The debate over the football championship system came on the final day of the N.C.A.A.’s annual convention, where representatives for the association’s 1,300 member universities voted on rules as diverse as banning text-messaging in recruiting and whether to allow Division III women’s basketball players to practice with men.
Division I’s board of directors also approved a rule that would prevent colleges from reducing or canceling the scholarships of athletes who become pregnant.
One of the most notable decisions Monday was a vote by Division II programs to allow Canadian universities to join as part of a pilot program. A handful of Canadian colleges had been lobbying for the change because it would allow them to award more scholarship money and encourage Canadian athletes to stay in their home country. The N.C.A.A.’s Canadian counterpart, Canadian Interuniversity Sport, allows scholarships that cover tuition, but not room and board.
div 1 college football playoff system ... just a matter of time
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