College Playoffs

As we near the final stretch of this college football season we are getting closer to the first ever college football playoff. It might be too early for some people to declare this but, in my mind the playoff system has already been a success

The BCS system always seemed to be viewed as a flawed system. At the end of the day though it probably got it right whether you liked the teams or not.The best thing about the BCS in my mind was the debates and arguments it created.  The discussion of who should jump who and get the chance to play for the title was the centerpiece for many office lunch breaks. Everybody had an opinion on who they thought belonged in the championship game.

 The playoff system has expanded what the BCS did in terms of creating debates and discussions. Instead of debating one team’s chances of making it into the title game its now turned into discussions on which two, three, or even four teams deserve to be in that final fourth spot.
   
 What makes the NCAA college basketball tournament so special? I think It’s the unpredictability. I think it's the fact that some hedgehog named Jeffery has just as good of a chance to pick the final four teams as I do. Everybody loves it so much because they know their team has  just as good of a chance to win it all as any other team. They have watched a cinderella team make it year after year and whose to say that it won’t be their team this year.
That's what this playoff system has done for college football. It's given fan bases that have watched their teams suffer early to mid season defeats still hope that their team can make it to the playoffs; and if they can make it in….. then they can win it all. The examples of this are everywhere this season. Oregon lost at home to Arizona. Last year - their title hopes would be gone. This year though, they are still a contender to make it in.  Michigan state lost to Oregon yet they are still in the conversation. Auburn lost to Mississippi State but are still right there with a chance. Alabama lost to Ole Miss. Thanks to the playoffs, three weeks after the loss they sit in perfect position to make it in. Fans of Oregon, Michigan State, Auburn, and all the one loss teams are still just as excited about their chances to get to the title game as they were on week one.

That’s why I say that the playoff system has already been a success. It was put into place to help determine who the best team was in college football at the end of the season but, it's clear that its biggest and most positive impact on college football thus far, has been on the regular season not the post-season.

Lets look at a list of the top ten one loss teams:

Alabama
Auburn
Oregon
Notre Dame
Ole Miss
Michigan State
Georgia
TCU
Kansas State
Baylor

There are a lot of teams that still believe that they have a legitimate shot at making it into the playoff. These teams are from all over the country. The viewing area of fans that have a team with a chance covers the entire nation. The longer you can keep more teams in the discussion to potentially have a chance to win the National Championship the more people are going to watch and the more exciting and intense the regular season becomes. This is what the playoffs have done. This is why it is already a success. The playoff system has given fans the only thing a fan ever needs - hope.