For those who truly love college football, these really are exciting times. With conference commissioners and other big-time dignitaries in the sport meeting in Pasadena this week, it appears as though we are going to finally get some details on the long-awaited, much-anticipated college football playoff, which is set to kick-off following the 2014 season.
Well, the commissioners are in fact in Southern California, and on Tuesday the first big announcement came from their meetings. Unfortunately, that announcement came with a bit of a thud.
That’s because after fans have spent the last several months of watching, waiting and anticipating ESPN.com’s Brett McMurphy tweeted on Tuesday that the conference commissioners have agreed to name the first ever college football playoff… “College Football Playoff.”
McMurphy’s tweet is below, and please, please, everyone hold your applause to the end!
"College Football Playoff" new name for 4-team playoff, sources told @espn. Official announcement Tuesday evening
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) April 23, 2013
We’re kidding of course, and while we know it’s easy and typical for everyone to bash the commissioners for their decision here, we’re not going to do it. While the name “College Football Playoff” is hardly creative, let’s at least give them a little credit for not totally botching this thing all together.
For one, remember, the commissioners elected to pass on corporate sponsorship for both the playoff and title game, a decision which could’ve netted the sport of college football quite a bit of money in revenue (don’t worry, the TV dollars will more than make up for it). As bad as “College Football Playoff” is, wouldn’t the “Nokia College Football Playoff” or “The College Football Playoff Presented by Vizio” have been significantly worse than what we got?
Let’s also not forget that one prominent player in Tuesday’s decision, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was the man responsible for the egregious decision to name his conference’s divisions “Leaders” and “Legends,” names which thankfully were removed earlier this week. Frankly, we’re not sure what Delany’s involvement was with Tuesday’s process, but with his track record, let’s just be grateful that he didn’t have too much say over the final product. Who knows what that man might’ve come up with.
Finally, let’s just remember one thing: No matter how uncreative the name “College Football Playoff” is, that’s not what this is really about. Fans have wanted a playoff, to determine a true champion, for decades now, and this is what they finally got. While the name might scream “excitement” the product on the field certainly will.
So instead of the small picture of today’s news, let’s instead look at the big picture and realize that we got what we’ve been asking for.
College football has a playoff, and whatever it’s called, it’s going to be damn exciting.
Please follow Crystal Ball Run on Twitter @CrystalBallRun.
