Can I share with you a “what-if” scenario that is unlikely, but plausible?
If college football had a playoff after the 2011 season, Clemson would have been a participant. It’s hard to fathom the ACC champion not getting an invite. The Tigers were stocked with offensive talent and a number of NFL prospects on defense.
Let’s assume we had an eight-team playoff. That seems to be the popular figure and the most popular option talked about by advocates and even some college presidents. So the 10-3 Tigers would have needed three victories to become national champions.
Now we have the benefit of hindsight to dissect this scenario, but if Dabo Swinney and Clemson had found a way to knock off an Oklahoma State, LSU or Alabama along the way to finish 13-3, would college football have really crowned the best team champion?
Of course not. Instead we would have a team that was hot at the end of the season. Just like the New York Giants aren’t the NFL’s best team, but Tom Coughlin’s team is the Super Bowl champs.
Clemson’s performance in the Discover Orange Bowl was the most embarrassing BCS performance in the short history of the system. I believe this makes my point even more clear why a playoff system is not necessary in college football.
While the Big Ten and its commissioner Jim Delany have touted a possible scenario that would make a playoff work, I believe college football should do everything it can not to replicate the NFL. Except for Notre Dame and some of the crazy realignment plans, college football is still a regional sport that allows programs to focus on conference championships.
I can see the attraction of a playoff, but it wouldn’t eliminate the “controversy” we have today when crowning a champion.
A playoff would diminish the uniqueness and value of college football’s regular season, which is currently one of the most meaningful of any sport. There are those who will argue that a playoff would be wildly popular like basketball’s March Madness.
But college basketball’s regular season has been so diminished that a Connecticut team that went 9-9 in Big East play last year won the national championship. Seriously, what does that prove?
There’s also the argument that if all other college football divisions can have a playoff then why not the FBS. Have you seen the Division III playoffs? It’s basically a two-team race every year between Wisconsin-Whitewater and Mount Union. Those two have played in the title game for seven consecutive seasons.
Now that sounds like fun. How long would fans sit by if Alabama and USC met in the title game for five straight seasons? Everyone would be crying for a new system.
I know I’m in the minority. Some reports have anywhere from 85 to 90 percent of fans say they want a playoff.
