Obama and A College Football Playoff System

Happy New Year, Everyone!

While some people are focusing on the future by making resolutions or predicting how things will turn out in '09, I'd like to look at something going on currently, something that is of utmost importance for our society and its future survival - the need for a college football playoff.

Now, if you don't think that this topic is so important, why would Obama have given his unabashed support for such a playoff on Monday Night Football and 60 Minutes? In reality, millions of dollars and years of tradition hang in the balance with this issue. As a sports fan, just mentioning the Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl or Rose Bowl reminds me of warm childhood New Years in front of the tube.

For years, however, the college 1-A (or BCS, Bowl Championship Series) championship for the country's largest schools has been determined by a convoluted, confusing, and unfair computer system. I find it incredible that NCAA officials embrace a system that allows for Texas (11-1) who beat Oklahoma (12-1) to be left out of the championship because of computer rankings. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Texas had previously beaten Oklahoma 45-35. Huh? But the computers dictate...

This is an argument that's gone on for a long time. Here are two articles, one from 2000 and another from 2004 promoting a playoff system. I also encourage you to take a look at a piece by Dan Wetzel from 2007. He has come up with the "Wetzel System," which responds to the arguments against a change: the size of the playoff, who would be invited, the seeding, other bowl games, the season schedule, and the - duh, duh, duh, duh - Kaching! - financial attraction of a playoff system.

As a teacher I love working with my mind, but I also see the value in athletics, which have the potential for being one of our society's few remaining arenas where merit is the driving force. I find Wetzel's plan very attractive, primarily because he focuses on a system based on merit - includding even smaller, less wealthy, more remote universities.

It is my hope that Obama, who campaigned on a platform for change, can exert whatever influence he can to encourage the development of a new system. Then, during a January in the not-too-distant future we will be able to sit in our living rooms and enjoy a championship determined by the players on the field, not by computers hidden in some undisclosed location.
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