Does College Football's new 4-team playoff change anything?

The fact that it is SEC commissioner Mike Slive that led the college football playoff charge gives me pause. Why? Because the SEC has won the past 6 National Championships. In fact, the SEC was guaranteed a National Championship in 2011 with both LSU and Alabama appearing in the Championship game. The BCS has been very good to the SEC—winning over half of the BCS Championships since its inception in 1998. Why would the SEC lead the way in changing the system from which they have benefited so much?

My guess is that Mike Slive saw the writing on the wall. The public has been clamoring for a playoff for years. in 2004 when Utah busted the BCS and undefeated Auburn was also left without a shot at the title, the playoff movement really began to gain steam. Death to the BCS, the seemingly annual ‘busting’ of the BCS by a non-BCS school, as well as the occasional BCS school feeling slighted has galvanized the movement. With the tide of public opinion going against the system that has been so favorable to your conference, why not be on the front lines of that very movement?

Of the all too-powerful conference commissioners, Mike Slive is the main player. His conference has a hold on the title, the biggest TV contract, and rabid fans willing to poison trees and face jail-time for the cause. He being the face of the playoff is all too convenient. I am not saying that the 4-team playoff will be rigged with Slive as its man-behind-the-curtain. I do think that Slive liked the idea of every year finishing up like 2011, with two SEC teams vying for the championship. He also realized the rarity of such an event. So, if the SEC was able to get two of its members in the now-defunct BCS Championship game, think of how much easier it will be to do that with 4 playoff spots up for grabs. If an SEC team finishes undefeated, and another SEC team finishes with one-loss, two spots will already be filled for the 4-team playoff. The rest of college football will be left to fight over the two remaining spots.

My analysis of this new 4-team playoff is that while there are technically 4 spots up for grabs, two of those spots already belong to the SEC most years (the SEC takes up three spots when the Ohio State Buckeyes manage to fight their way into the playoff) and two for the rest. In sum, it has gotten “easier” for more teams to get a shot at the national title, but only because they will not be competing with the SEC for the two remaining spots.

I want to make it clear that my tone is not meant to be one of a conspiracy theorist. My point is that Slive saw an opportunity. No conference has a greater chance of getting two teams in the 4-team playoff every year than the SEC. The 2011 BCS matchup between undefeated LSU and one-loss Alabama proved that. I am sure the SEC University Presidents will be more than pleased with the knowledge that their respective school no longer necessarily needs to win the conference every year to get a shot at the title. I repeat, a one-loss SEC team is almost guaranteed a spot in the 4-team playoff. With the playoff all but assured (pending University Presidents' approval) Slive becomes the face of change. Complaints lodged at the SEC may lose some of their venom now that the Father of the College Football Playoff is the one running the conference.

Truthfully, I am glad that a playoff is now a part of college football, even if, in practice, it remains the SEC-Invitational. It is not perfect playoff, but it is a playoff nonetheless and a step in the right direction. (That's right: just a step.)

I still think that playoff semi-final games belong on the campus of the higher seed. Think of all the dream matchups that would be born: Ohio State and Urban Meyer's traveling circus hitting the road for their matchup against Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium, USC hosting LSU on New Years Day (with the Rose Bowl being played the same day across town--another Carmegeddon), Oklahoma and Oregon meeting up on a wet day at Autzen Stadium. I fail to see how campuses hosting the games is an undesirable idea.

It will still be so easy for the playoff "committee" to exclude the non-BCS schools. With two spots almost guaranteed to the SEC, those last two will be split between the Pac 12, B1G, ACC and Big XII champions. There's no way they award one of those spots to even an undefeated Boise St. (the Big East is irrelevant at this point). Though BYU has tasted of National Championship glory before (the last team not from a BCS conference to do so) they will be excluded from any reasonable discussion of possible 4-team playoff participants. (Concerning Independents, I can see Notre Dame undeservedly getting in to the playoff once a decade.) As far as the inclusion of everyone, this new playoff frontier has made no progress, and I almost want to say has made the title even more exclusionary.

And so it goes with America's favorite passion. College football is still a mess despite this new way of deciding a champion. There are fundamental issues that need fixing with college football, issues for which a dissertation or thesis would probably be more appropriate rather than a blog and are problems that will require much more work to ameliorate than a playoff. Nevertheless, the pendulum has began to swing. Just five years ago, a college football playoff was a pipe dream, now it is a reality. There could be more reform on the way.


Though not completely related for those with a couple of hours to kill, listen to this debate titled Ban College Football. I trust that you will find it enlightening.