el ruben del mar

College Football

I’ve got a single fix for several issues plaguing college football. No one likes the BCS but it offers the highest payoff. Or does it? First the issues:

1. Lack of inventory - the conferences conclude their championships in the first week of December. Until the interesting bowl games arrive in late December the sport disappears for an entire month. 
2. No playoff system - the Boise State’s and the Michigan State’s of the world are left out in the cold when the BCS system doesn’t give them a shot to settle the issue of who’s best on the field.
3. Inequity - players don’t see a dime of the billions made in the sport.

Here’s how I make everybody more money: go to a playoff system - 4-round, sweet 16 format. Use the BCS rankings to determine seeding in the playoffs. (Sorry #17, you’re out). Start the first round in mid-December (after finals) and go every Saturday for 4 weeks until the first week of January, when the current bowl games wrap up. 

If you want more inventory, offer a play-in round similar to the wild card. Make #13-#16 play #17-#20. Have them play on the Saturday where they give out the Heisman and play Army vs. Navy.

That’s 15-19 games of inventory that can now be put out for bid by the networks.

What about the current bowls? Have them host the various rounds based on seniority, geography, ties to the conferences, or some combination of the three. Maybe you appease the conferences by paying them more of the TV playoff money, similar to how they split the BCS money. 

The rub - let the student-athletes share in the prize. Pay the players who make the playoffs. With school out for the winter break, it’s no longer a detractor from classwork, it’s now a part-time job before the Spring semester starts. The NFL does something like this, it’s called a playoff share. It’s something like $25K for the first round all the way up to $75K for the Super Bowl. Of course that’s peanuts compared to NFL salaries, which makes it more intriguing for student-athletes who are not only not getting paid, but who aren’t doing anything during the break anyways. of course they still can’t take money from agents or boosters or anything like that. They’re still amateurs.

Far from perfect, but I don’t see the conference commissioners and university presidents bending over backwards to share. They’ll probably need to held at gunpoint or lawsuit to cave in on their 100%. Never mind there are creative ways to grow the pie.