U.S Government looking to place a bill to force a Playoff System in College Football. Your thoughts?

Great question scooter! Here are my thoughts.

1. There isn't a tourney because of the influence of Bowls, Sponsors etc.- This is Wrong Folks! The reason why there isn't a tourney is because unlike bb football doesn't have to share money with the NCAA. That's right folks all this bowl money goes straight to the conference and teams, so if they decide to start a tourney guess who gets their grubby hands on the pie. That's right the NCAA! Believe me the big conferences don't want them to issue out scaled pittance like they do for the hoops tourney.

2. The formation of the BCS- It was not enacted, contrary to popular belief, to have the two best teams in the country to play. The whole purpose of it is to allow the SEC, Big 10, Big 12 have a shot at national titles and extra money! They needed the other major conferences to co-sign on it so hence you end up with the big 6. But, make no mistake about it schools from the Big 3 have priority for those bowl games. If you don't believe me look at how many times a 1 loss U.S.C. team has been kept out of the title game when they were clearly the best team in the country or how Ohio St. and Oklahoma ended up in title games when they clearly didn't belong.

3. The BCS is Fair, takes into account strength of schedule etc.- BULL CRAP. The BCS is heavily weighted towards the Coaches Poll and the Harris Interactive Poll. Both of which screw teams like Boise St., BYU, TCU, Utah & this year Houston by starting them so freaking far down in the polls they have no real chance to be ranked number 1. Then even though AP may say hey TCU is a better team they are contractually bound to go with the winner of the BCS title game.. CRAP CRAP CRAP!

4. Every game matters in college- This is silly, most of these schools only have 1 or 2 games a year in which the talent levels are even and another 4 or 5 where the skill level is even close, so that leaves 5 games of damn directional schools and absolute miss-matches. Yeah Florida really had to work every week by having Charleston Southern, Troy and Florida International on their schedule. Then add Vanderbilt, Miss. St. and South Carolina and you have a real grinder of a schedule. What about Alabama, Florida International, North Texas & Tennesse-Chattanooga. Whoa they really had to sweat those games.

5. The Govt shouldn't be involved, has better things to do, messes things up- First off Congress got involved in athletics long ago when they granted these entities Anti-Trust Exemption! So you have entities like the NCAA operating under different set of rules than every other commercial enterprise. So you better believe Congress needs to get involved in this matter! If NCAA doesn't want it tell them to void the exemption.

My answer. Go back to the old system! Yes it had its flaws, Penn. St. snubbed twice among many others but at least everyone in D-1 had a chance to win the title. Lets not forget BYU/Georgia Tech winning titles during the 80's and West Virginia coming close!

Whatever Congress decides or doesn't decide, any legislation it tries to pass will be rendered moot.

The mere attempt by legislators is nothing more than political grandstanding. It's like you saying you're against global warming. Sure, you're against it, but you can't make it change one way or another.

Let's say such a bill does pass Congress. All the NCAA would have to do at that point is sue in the legislative branch and there the proposal will die. Congress would try to argue that the BCS is a living, breathing violation of existing anti-trust legislation but the fact is there is no violation no matter how anyone might try to spin the argument. However remote the possibility might be, every FBS team theoretically has a chance to play for the title. Thus, no anti-trust laws have been violated. And on top of that, there's nothing to stop any FBS team from dropping down to the FCS level where playoffs are in effect. Again, no anti-trust violation.

It's not that I'm against a playoff but the financial reality of the situation is that the current bowl system without any doubt whatsoever generates more revenue than any 8 or 16 team playoff format ever could.

The Big Six conferences will not let it happen on its own. Pardon the mixed metaphors, but they know they have a license to print money and there's no way they are willingly going to let someone else crash their party. Rep. Barton is absolutely right that the BCS won't change unless forced to by congress.

However, "some lawmakers" are even more right - Congress has much more important things to worry about. (haha..."even more right" than a Texas Republican. Didn't think that was possible)

1. Fix the economy

2. End the wars

3. Solve the problems in the Middle East

...

1584. Adopt the metric system

1585. Create a fair college football playoff system to determine a champion.

I understand your point, but just because college football is like that now with the bcs system, does not mean that it is the right way. A playoff system would not be perfect, but at least in a playoff system who ever wins the last game is champion. In the mlb the year St.Louis won it all they were the best team because they were the last team to win that year. Part of the reason its not right is because of the way college football ends the season and the the people who rank the teams. Your right Georgia and USC may be playing better than anyone else right now, if so are they the best two teams in college football right now. Last year Florida beat Ohio st. and Boise st. beat oklahoma. Boise st. finished the season undefeated but they were not national champs. Most people said they would not beat oklahoma so who is to say they would not have beat Florida. You say there is a playoff system and that it is the regular season, so DONT LOSE. The point is to find a true national champion. And that DONT LOSE system has failed more than it has succeeded. A playoff system would work more than the current BCS and in a playoff system no can complain at the end of the season.

While I'm happy to see this, as there's an obvious bias in college football towards large market teams, and it'll improve the overall fairness in deciding just who is the best team in College Football; it boggles the mind that the government seemingly has nothing else better to do with it's time with all the issues going on in the country. But anyways, it's about time something was done.

The ONLY reason there was never a playoff was due to sponorships in Bowl Games and the schools in those games who profited heavily from those sponsors; who will now have to find a way to involve themselves in other ways.

As for the BCS ever being fair? That's absurd. When a computer is telling you about "strength of schedule" and more over good old fashion one on one play, thats when you know it's a flawed system. I'd rather see two teams, whether big or small duke it out to see who the best team on that day truly is. Not a computer decide for us who plays in a game.

This also will more then likely end that horrendous gap in time from the end/first week of December to the first/second week of January where college football seems to stop.

Also, with the success and extreme excitement of March Madness in college basketball, why wouldn't you want this?

Why College Football Should NOT Have a Playoff System:

Recently, there has been a lot of debate over whether college football should have a playoff system in determining the national championship. People argue that the current system is unfair and does not allow many teams to have a chance at winning the National Championship. I think playoffs would ruin the feel of college football and I think the current system is good.

The current system is called the BCS or Bowl Championship Series. It has been in use in college football since 1998. The BCS decides who are the two best college football teams and selects them to play in the national championship game. Its choice is based on various polls and computer rankings. Besides the national championship game, the BCS also chooses teams to go to the four BCS bowl games which include the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange Bowls. So there are five bowl games in total. The winners of each of the six BCS conferences automatically make it to a BCS bowl game and then four other teams are selected.

People argue that the BCS system is unfair. They say that the BCS ranking are not accurate and teams from non-BCS conferences do not have a fair shot at winning the National Championship. I disagree that the BCS rankings are inaccurate. The BCS does a great job. It considers records, stats, and strength of schedule. I think these stats alone are enough in determining who the best team in the nation is.

A playoff system would ruin the feel of college football. In my opinion, what makes college football better than professional football is that every game matters in college football. The same cannot be said about professional football. If a college team gets beat just once, their chances at winning the national championship are dramatically reduced and with two losses, the team can almost forget about winning the championship. Every weekend, college teams give their one hundred percent and they never let up. In professional football, when a team loses a game, they do not care. Only once has a team won the Super Bowl with an undefeated record. Also, if they clinch a playoff spot, they take out their starters and it is not as exciting to watch the backups play. If there were playoffs in college football, teams that clinched a spot in the playoffs would remove their starters to avoid such things as injuries. The excitement and feel of college football would be taken away. I think playoffs work in professional football, but they would not work in college football.

I would not like a playoff system in college football. However, I have heard some ideas that would incorporate characteristics of both the BCS and playoffs. The idea would be to keep the BCS bowl games and maybe add one more. Then, out of the winners of those four or five games, the BCS would chose two teams to play for the National Championship. This would eliminate many problems because there would be a smaller number of teams for the BCS to choose from and fewer people would complain that their team did not make the championship game. Also, these four or five bowl games would be very good because they would be between two very good teams trying their best in hopes that the BCS will chose them for the national championship. This would be better than just plain playoffs because no team would clinch a spot into one of these bowl games, which would retain the way college football is played.

I really like college football but I think a playoff system would ruin it. I think the BCS works fine. There may be a few problems once in a while, but overall, the BCS makes college football much more exciting. The BCS is what makes every game in college football count. College football and college football fans benefit from the BCS whether they know it or not.

We always talk about this every season but it won't ever happen. The Bowl System is great for college football and it brings in money to all schools rather you like it or not. How about the Government worry less about college football and more about health care and the economy and finding Americans job.

The bill will never pass it is the college football's decision whether or not there is a playoff.

If congress gets involved too much then they will be picking who wins the national championship.

If there's anything worse than the college system, it's getting the government involved.

Then again, maybe it's good to distract the government with things like this. They'll stop spending money we don't have, even if it's only temporary.

I used to be for it, but now I'm kind of against it. I think the non AQ teams need to get with the program and join a real conference or make their conference have championship matches.