Playoffs?!?

Now we have the long anticipated change in the BCS system: a four team playoff was introduced. So instead of having an dubious ranking system to go along with 5 BCS bowl games, including a championship game, we now face a mini playoff which will crown the next champion of College Football.

But has anything changed? Not really I would argue. Selecting teams into this playoff is more difficult than selecting them into 5 BCS bowls. And who will select them? This question still remains to be answered. The only thing that we know about this is that a "committee" will select the programs. Many experts argue that such a four-team playoff system would not have included teams like Boise State in the past, who also were the losers in the BCS system, as non-automatic qualifying schools.

Another point is that there will be a lot of money earned with the new playoff system. TV contracts will be huge. Even if the hopes of BCS powerbrokers  that the "playoff finale" will be just like the Super Bowl will probably not quite be fulfilled, the new format will generate even bigger revenues than the current BCS format. And this will lead to the following question: How will these revenues be shared? My opinion (and I am not alone)  is that this "playoff" system will make the rich colleges even richer and fully manifest their power over all the smaller colleges. The current BCS cartel will get even more powerful and we will see more disparity between school on and off the field.

The critical media coverage, criticism from within the NCAA, a vast number of scandals and legal issues, as well as continuing confusion over the actual champion of NCAA football made a change necessary. This change, however, will make matters even worse and the monster called BCS will grow and get more powerful.