I didn’t think I’d see it, but here it is: A college football playoff!
These men look as if they'd just accomplished something historic. Which they had. (AP photo)
I’d given up. I’d gone from believing a college football playoff was inevitable to believing it was … the opposite of inevitable. The bowls were too powerful, I conceded. There was no belief among the movers and shakers that any moving and/or shaking was warranted. What we had was, give or take the occasional BCS tweak, all we’d ever get, and what we had was awful.
My surrender came in January 2008. The BCS had been more of a mess than usual — two-loss LSU wound up playing for (and winning) the national championship in a sport where every game was supposed to matter — and, bang on cue, the Georgia president Michael Adams went public with a plan that made sense: an eight-team playoff overseen by the NCAA.
I had some small part in this: I wrote the story for this newspaper that outlined Adams’ proposal and rationale. It appeared Jan. 8, hours after LSU had won the BCS title in New Orleans. I’d covered the game, and in the lobby of the Marriott the next morning I was approached by SEC officials and even some SEC-loving writers who were irate — irate, I tell you — over Adams’ gall. They questioned his timing and his motivation (LSU had bunny-hopped over Georgia in the final BCS standings), but mostly they were miffed because they thought: Why change what had, at least in their minds, just worked?
My thought, then as now: You call that working?
Let’s recall the date: Jan. 8, 2008 — roughly 4 1/2 years ago. Adams’ proposal died a quick death at the NCAA convention in Nashville the next week, and that, I figured, was that. If an insider like Adams could offer a reasoned alternative that gained no traction among his presidential peers, what chance was there?
Here, as reported in the AJC on Jan. 9, 2008, was Wisconsin chancellor John Wiley’s not-exactly-measured response to Adams: “Are you kidding me? Isn’t there anyone out there who cares more about the student-athletes than about the preferences of sportswriters? Playoffs are a sham/fiction, anyway. Look at the upset statistics. On any given day, there are probably dozens of teams that can beat any other team in the collection. What’s so special about winning once in a single matchup?”
So it is with equal parts surprise and satisfaction that I note: As of June 26, 2012, big-time college football has a playoff. It’s not the one Adams advocated — it’s only half as big, and the NCAA has no part in it — but it is a playoff. And not a sham/fiction. Cold reality.
I wish I could tell you what changed over those 4 1/2 years, but I honestly don’t know. To say the BCS kept getting worse was to ignore the obvious: The BCS was lousy from the start. Obviously the SEC’s dominance had something to do with it: With two teams from the same conference (guess which) playing for the 2011 national title, the marginalization of other leagues was complete. Surely in a four-team playoff, the Big Ten/Big 12/Pac-12/ACC had to think, there’ll be room for some of them … won’t there?
To say that conference commissioners were motivated more by the will of the people than by craven self-interest would be to disregard human nature. (Those same conference commissioners had gone decades ignoring the will of the people.) But the bowl system, which is the cash cow for all big-time conferences, had begun to buckle under its own weight. Only the BCS title game came to matter, which is a big deal when you note that 35 — yes, 35 — other postseason games exist.
Earlier this month, SEC commissioner Mike Slive told me, “We want to take back New Year’s.” And that’s what the playoff will do: The semifinals will be held on either Dec. 31 or Jan. 1, with the title tilt to come a week (or so) later.
Left unclear is … well, pretty much everything else. What will happen to the bowls that aren’t staging semifinals? Will the New Year’s Eve/Day schedule be big enough to accommodate non-playoff games? (The NIT doesn’t play its semifinals on the same day as the Final Four, does it?) Who’ll pick the four teams? How many of the four can come from one conference? How many league champions will be guaranteed playoff invites? Will a Boise State ever get a sniff?
But enough. I reserve my inalienable American right to gripe about process for another time. For now I’m content to be shocked and happy. (Yes, happy. Yes, me.) I thought the day would never come when I could type these words, but here they are:
We have a playoff.
By Mark Bradley
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
201 comments Add your comment
i dropped my fried spam
June 28th, 2012
1:14 am
TBrown at MARK RICHT: Go downstairs..Mom will call you when Fried Twinkies are ready
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
1:18 am
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rfsc/history/Records%20vs%20Top%2010%20based%20on%20YER%20(year%20end%20ranking).xls
Mark Richt era Record vs Top 5 Year End Rankings :
6-7 LSU Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
5-10 Florida Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-10 Auburn Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-14 Alabama Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
3-14 vols Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
1-10 Georgia Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
1:20 am
And, the 1 win was beating # 4 vols, “knocking the lid off” the all-time # 11 college football program in wins all-time in a season in which he LOST 4 games.
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:23 am
Got us to the SEC game! Please argue! But LSU legitamately whipped our aces! Couldn’ stop 4th string RB’s…though new season bout upon us!
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:30 am
thought so..all the dog haters dont acknowledge we made it to the Championship;i.e. Tbrown, twinkie boy,Mark Richt etc….but they will bleed useless stats that mean nothing…FOOLS!
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 28th, 2012
1:47 am
chavez…………….What Championship did you make it to exactly?
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:52 am
stop w the idiosy u know
moms glazed filled
June 28th, 2012
1:57 am
Cmon down honey! ur Twinkies are ready..u can hate on the Dawgs and and Offe Coordin in the afternoon
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
2:02 am
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rfsc/history/Records%20vs%20Top%2010%20based%20on%20YER%20(year%20end%20ranking).xls
Mark Richt era Record vs Top 10 Year End Rankings :
# 1 .4400 win % 11-14 LSU
# 2 .4074 win % 11-16 Auburn
# 3 .3214 win % 09-19 Florida
# 4 .2083 win % 05-19 Alabama
# 5 .1875 win % 06-26 vols
# 5 .1875 win % 03-13 Mark Richt
Mark Richt all 11 years vs AP Poll Top 10 Year End Rankings compared to other SEC teams.
Yeah, right, Mark Richt is the Best Coach in The SEC in his 11 years here. B.S. he is.
itsmeagain
June 28th, 2012
2:49 am
Anyone who wants to argue that college players should get paid (and especially the guy that said that what they get from the school is chump change):
Using the rates i found at Georgia State, i estimated a year there (including summer semester) including room and board, meal plan, tuition, fees, and $1000 for books (though not parking and no may mester), a student athlete on scholarship receives approximately $24,573 per year from their scholarship. To put this into perspective, the average income in Georgia from 2006-2010 was $25,134, and in the US was $27,334 (according to the census website). So the average college football player at Georgia State receives almost dead on the wage of an average Georgian. Take into account some universities cost more than this, and you’ll find it difficult to argue that college football players don’t receive enough for playing. I’d have killed to graduate with no loans.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
3:01 am
The average debt after graduation from college in this state of Georgia, with the Hope Scholarship old monies they used to give the students, is in excess of $ 20,000.
The college graduate makes, in his lifetime, millions of dollars more for having a degree than not; which is why people lie on their resumme that they do when they do not.
The average college education costs right at a quarter of a million dollars, out-of-state.
There are approximately 50 Georgia Bulldogs in the NFL today, slightly more than 50, some of whom will not make the 53-man squads. The aggregate salary contracts of just Georgia Bulldogs in the NFL is now well over one billion dollars.
1. You’re absolutely correct.
2. The players at Georgia are given great publicity to go to NFL
3. Their probability of a degree taking the scholarship is 57 % at UGA
4. Their income is great in the NFL
5. They get the NFL monies because they take the scholarship here
6. They graduate with no debt
7. Anyone who doesn’t understand your point about debt misses it
8. It is impossible for anyone who accumulate $ 20k after taxes at 1 time
9. Average income in Georgia is BEFORE TAXES
10. They make millions more because of their degree than without it
11. They are paid millions upon millions to play college football
12. I have no issue with giving them even more
13. No one has any issue with giving them more of the pie
14. They will get more of the pie, in additional expenses
Bobby
June 28th, 2012
4:52 am
a four team “playoff” still isn’t enough…should be eight at a minimum to be credible, and I am not so sure about this “selection committee”…should just keep what we have until a credible playoff with eight teams can be developed.
Oy vey.
June 28th, 2012
6:49 am
The Roberts Court will rule the college football playoff unconstitutional by a five-four decision.
mgdawg
June 28th, 2012
6:50 am
It’s funny, before all this happened everyone said that a playoff wasn’t realistic because of how much money the bowls bring in, now everyone is getting amazed at how much money a playoff will bring in. Keep the bowls pretty much the same, I never understood the argument that a playoff would make the bowls useless, did the a team playing in the liberty bowl ever really think they had a shot at the NC? This is a great time, 4 team is as big as it should be. It shouldn’t allow a team to rest players, and no one past 4th deserves a shot at being number 1. 8 is too many, you can rest players the last week if you are number one then. Now to find out how they select the 4….
8 teams!
June 28th, 2012
7:24 am
they need to change the 4 teams to 8 teams after 1 year. 4 teams isn’t enough.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
7:28 am
4 teams is perfect. It keeps teams like Boise State, Out.
4 allows The SEC to one year have 3 of the 4.
Oh.
June 28th, 2012
8:20 am
This isn’t a playoff.
Chris S
June 28th, 2012
9:09 am
It will only get better from here. As soon as the NCAA realizes it can increase revenue by adding games, we will move to an 8-team playoff (around 2019), then to a 16-team playoff (about 2025). Within 30 years, we will be looking at a 64-team playoff, with talks of adding another 4 teams to make it 68.
The good news is that Georgia need only go 6-6 every year to qualify for the post-season, so we won’t have to waste all those good golfing Saturdays in September and October going to the Athens to watch pre-season games.
Gene
June 28th, 2012
9:35 am
Any idea of what Adams’ cut of the revenue will be?
Buckeye
June 28th, 2012
9:35 am
Hey dogs,
Urban will get in 2-3 times before Win With even sniffs the field.
TIME OUT!
TIME OUT!
TIME OUT!
Fed Up
June 28th, 2012
9:49 am
At least this is somewhat of a step in the right direction. There will now be four teams aboe to compete instead of just two. What I really want to know is when will the Obama campaign try to take credit for this?
ARdawg
June 28th, 2012
11:17 am
Buckeye is a true Gomer
Devil's Advocate
June 28th, 2012
11:31 am
I was fine with the BCS, but this playoff has the “potential” to be better. A TRANSPARENT selection committee is crucial. Obviously the #5 team will complain, but that’s better than # 3 complaining. I prefer a selection committee over a set format, because set formats historically lead to unpredictable scenarios that are unfair. 7-9 Seattle made the 2010 NFL playoffs AND got a home game; that is ridiculous! Presumably a selection committee can prevent that kind of foolishness. I’m glad the contracts will last 12 years; I wish they were 100. I don’t want an 8 or 16 team playoff ever. I don’t want to burden players and families just for our entertainment. Plus, I don’t want the regular season diminished.
Jim
June 28th, 2012
11:34 am
A semi playoff. Why can’t they do it like Division II football & all the other sports? At least 32 teams to fight it out. That’s what makes March Madness so wonderful.
Techmate
June 28th, 2012
1:46 pm
In order for the term “student-athlete” to mean anything, I would like to see the college presidents grow a pair and require some kind of metric for including academics into the mix for qualification. Otherwise, this playoff will be the same 6-8 teams year after year from football factories. The real college game, I fear, died with the big TV dollar invasion.
JASon
June 28th, 2012
3:14 pm
“I didn’t think I’d see it, but here it is: A college football playoff!”
And you gave a typical one dimensional sec viewpoint. You had one article and not even once mentioned the reason for the playoff.
Let me help you: a 4 team playoff is preferable in college football because, with all of the different conferences and great teams, it is often difficult to pick just two teams that deserve to be there. A 4 team playoff is exciting because you can finally find out how great teams from different parts and different systems match up, and determine with fairly good certainty who the best team is.
JJ
June 28th, 2012
3:21 pm
I just don’t want to see the Championship game played in a city that has no revelance to college football. NO New York or New Jersey. No Chicago or Philadelphia. No DC. These are pro cities and
care nothing about college football.
AceDawg
June 28th, 2012
3:59 pm
It is a fairly satisfying outcome. I think 8 or 12 teams would have been reasonable as well, but with four teams there is a better argument that the fifth ranked team is undeserving of a shot than there is that the third ranked team is undeserving. Even four teams ads plenty of extra drama to each season whereby probably 10 or so teams still have some sort of decent shot in the last week or two of the season.
HB
June 28th, 2012
4:22 pm
This newly devised system is nothing more than a modified version of the existing BCS. They will still SELECT the four teams to be in the so-called playoffs.
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
June 28th, 2012
6:23 pm
No doubt DC, my AU Tigers did get snubbed in 04 when they went undefeated but in ALL fairness & if you’ll recall we stunk it up on the national stage, 02, 03 with USC throttling us in LA and in AU…just stating the facts and I am a huge AU Tiger fan.
War Damn Eagle and I am digging the decision but to whoever stated it should be 16 teams, COME ON MAN!
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:14 pm
Rickster
June 27th, 2012
11:27 am
And kudos to the NCAA for removing their craniums from their nether regions to give the fans (remember us?) what we’ve been asking for for years.
_______________
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
12:03 pm
The major schools in college football have two missions, protect the power they currently have, and generate as much money as possible. Fairness, fans, and the general spirit of collegiate sports aren’t really even considered anymore.
****************************
No, Rickster, they don’t remember us (the fans)–nor do they care about us. As GTBob points out, it’s all about power and money–and not much else.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:21 pm
Boise Dawg
June 27th, 2012
12:19 pm
I am opposed to crowning a conference champion that hasn’t played everyone in their conference. Especially given that in the SEC, you now have 13 conference opponents, yet only play 8 of them in any given year. That just isn’t acceptable in my opinion.
________________
Typical SEC, whose teams will do anything to keep from having to drop another cupcake from their OOC schedules. The hope with this new system is that we’ll return to the years when strength of schedule actually meant something–and factored in to the rankings. Can’t happen soon enough.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:28 pm
Tech Fan Since 1950
June 27th, 2012
12:21 pm
Hard for me to believe the truly “Big Boy” conferences act like they play tough schedules, but frame their schedules between conference schedules with the little sisters of the poor (some teams from other NCAA divisions or weak teams from Division I). Some way to build rankings?
____________________
But that is exactly what the “Big Boy” conferences do. The “Big Boy” OOC schedules are a disgrace–and those that schedule cupcakes (i.e., buy wins) conveniently overlook the fact their their own conference schedules (SEC included) ALREADY have their share of softies.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:36 pm
Dawgdad (The Original)
June 27th, 2012
12:30 pm
The rest of the bowls should be looking for a cemetery plot however, good riddance I say
___________________
Shouldn’t have much trouble finding those cemetery plots; most of them already resemble tombs–with their half-empty stadiums and ho-hum matchups.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:46 pm
Big Crimson 75
June 27th, 2012
1:17 pm
If anyone thinks controversy is going away b/c of a 4 team playoff, you’re delusional.
_________________
At this stage, it’s not about doing away with controversy. But it IS a step (albeit a small one) in the right direction. And considering the dimwits responsible for stonewalling a playoff for many years in the biggest college sport of all, we probably should be grateful for ANY step in the right direction.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:52 pm
Paul in NH
June 27th, 2012
1:22 pm
The reason Jan 1 was vacated by college football in 2012 is because it was a Sunday. CFB cannot compete against the NFL.
___________________
Oh, CFB can compete alright, but the sickeningly greedy TV network execs simply won’t allow it. It’s all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$–and don’t you EVER forget it!
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:57 pm
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:48 pm
I don’t like the fact thay they agreed to lock into this system for 12 years. If it becomes evident that an 8 team playoff would be a better format than we end up waiting a decade to be able to make a change. One big step in the right direction but 12 years is a long time to commit to an unproven idea.
_______________________
I agree.
What you see here is classic powers-that-be thinking: “Oh, you want a playoff, do you? Well, here’s your damn playoff, and like it or not, you’re stuck with it for 12 years! Now we won’t have to do anymore progressive thinking during our lifetimes.”
cs
June 28th, 2012
8:58 pm
Another sham and disgrace. afetr last year’s mulligan tide bs who cares about college rigged football until they get a real playoff system.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:03 pm
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:53 pm
Football players that play on state championship winning high school team will play 15 games in a season. NFL players on a Superbowl team may play 24 games in a season (including preseason and playoffs). I’ve never understood the arguement against college kids playing 14 or 15 games in a season. I have no idea why it took so long to get this playoff idea off the ground.
___________________
The problem is that you’re trying to apply logic to the warped thinking of pompous imbeciles who care nothing about sports (college presidents), and of power brokers who care only about $$$$$$$$$$$$. There is NO valid reason why this couldn’t have been done years ago. None whatsoever.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:11 pm
WTF
June 27th, 2012
2:06 pm
and BS walks – hopefully over sports writers who write columns full of 1st person pronouns, their ‘feelings’, their analyses, their consciousness. Why not just a straight story without all the MB personalization?
We miss you, Mr. Bisher. More and more every day.
____________________
He’s a sports COLUMNIST, idiot–not a sports writer. His job is to publish his sports OPINIONS in AJC columns, which is exactly what he does–and exactly what Bisher did. You should consider yourself fortunate to be able to comment at all with your own OPINIONS.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:14 pm
Red Stick
June 27th, 2012
2:22 pm
Yes there will be controversy as to who is deserving to make the new playoffs but it will be that way no matter if it’s 8, 12 or 16 teams in a playoff.
___________________
Bingo.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:18 pm
My 2 cents.
June 27th, 2012
2:26 pm
. . . Then bid out the “Championship Monday” game just like the current proposal.
_________________
Except make it a “Championship Friday” or “Championship Saturday” game so us poor working stiffs can stay up ’til 1 a.m. to see it all.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:24 pm
DeathFromAbove
June 27th, 2012
3:02 pm
So now these kids can play even more games, generating money for their schools and risking their bodies, while still making nothing? Some will now play FIFTEEN games?
__________________
This is easily the award winner for stupidest comment on the blog.
They’ve BEEN playing 15 games for YEARS, Mr. Crap for Brains–just not at the D-1A level, where $$$$$$$$$$$$ and politics have ruled.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:27 pm
Delbert D.
June 27th, 2012
3:04 pm
If Bobby Bowden is on the committee (he’s has lobbied for it), there goes the credibility. The sideline TV view of him in his last season asking an assistant, “What’s his name?” after his own player kicked a go-ahead field goal is explanation enough.
____________________
Now Delbert, don’t you be takin’ potshots at ol’ Bobby when you can barely write a legible post yourself (”he’s has lobbied for it”)???
Hello?
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:42 pm
thwg
June 28th, 2012
1:08 am
Yet one more thing a group of old white guys can screw up – politics and college football. This is no playoff rather only a money grab. College football has become nothing more than a minor league for the NFL. For my money, I’d rather go back to UPI and AP polls. Sad day for college football.
____________
tevin
June 28th, 2012
1:09 am
thwg: I agree with the UPI and AP part 100%!!! No need to get into race.
******************
Maybe his handle’s actually “thug” rather than “thwg”?
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:51 pm
TallaDawg
June 27th, 2012
3:22 pm
Those are some weird-looking dudes!
_________________
True–although I think “smarmy-looking” might be even more appropriate.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:57 pm
Devil’s Advocate
June 28th, 2012
11:31 am
I’m glad the contracts will last 12 years; I wish they were 100. I don’t want an 8 or 16 team playoff ever. I don’t want to burden players and families just for our entertainment.
___________________
Ask ALL the other college football division players and families if they feel “burdened” by getting to participate in and watch a TRUE championship.
Guess what? They don’t.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:59 pm
Always fun to get in at the azz end of the comments. That way nobody questions your questionable opinions–or even reads them, for that matter.
intellibird
June 28th, 2012
10:38 pm
Soon Adams will be gone and I hope UGA will hire an intelligent businessman in his place. Maybe, he can go fishing with Sonny Perdue.
Rey
July 1st, 2012
9:53 am
Mark, I can’t stand you, but I couldn’t agree more today about how happy this makes me! Go Jackets!