A playoff for a payoff would be a mistake

Sporting News, The, Dec 20, 1993 by Bob Verdi

College football wins by not having a championship

Well, it was nice while it lasted. But the delightfully imperfect world of college football probably won't be with us much longer.

The NCAA recently appointed a fact-finding task force to investigage "pros and cons" or a playoff. When it comes to fixing what's not broken and destroying what doesn't need repairs, the NCAA has no peer.

If you consult the police blotter of the supposedly amateur universe existing within intercollegiate athletics, you'll find more than enough pros and plenty of con artists, too. Institutions that profess to be interested in higher learning really are in the business of higher earning. We don't need a really big game or another series of really big games to define what all the titles games mean.

But here we go with the fact-finding task force designated to deliver a true No. 1 college football team at seasons's end, something the NCAA evidently feels the nation cannot live without. As ever, hype rhymes with tripe. There will be a tournament of some sort sooner instead of later, and you can book it.

There is no bigger game in North America than the Super Bowl, owned and operated by the NFL. Come the last sunday of this January, somebody will beat somebody in Atlanta, probably by an insulting score. The Monday or Tuesday after, there will be a parade somewhere, and that will be it. Case closed. No more conservation about the biggest game of all and precious little debate.

On New Year's night, in Miami's Orange Bowl, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will attempt to hang on to their perilous No. 1 ranking by taking on Florida State, nominally No. 2. At the last check, the Seminoles were 16-point favorites, would you believe. Florida State is rated No. 2 because it lost to Notre Dame, which lost to Boston College, which lost to Northwestern, which can lose to any team from anywhere on any given Saturday.

Terrific stuff, right? Not so fast. We are, alas, a society dedicated to bottom lines. Or so the NCAA presumes. Anything less than an absolute-and-positive champion of college football won't do, and never mind the fact that maintaining the status quo could mean months of healthy argument until the lads don the pads again for spring practice. All that free advertising in newspapers and magzines, on TV and radio would be dumped for one game of games that could fill cash registers. Penny wise, dollar foolish, but it will happen.

Think about it now. What separates college football from all the rest? Pro backetball and hockey pollute the environment with postseason playoffs that become endurance tests. Baseball used to be pure, but now it, too, has decided to blatantly borrow from the NFL and admit wild cards. All in the name of precipitating a demolition derby to anoint a grand survivor, a champion, a king. Same with the colleges, from archery to volleyball.

Only major college football is unique. It exists, and very nicely, with bowls and polls. The public is invited to become enraged at coaches, sportswriters, TSN, CNN, USA Today, the New York Times or any and all other organs that attempt to rescue order from disorder. Is the system hokey? What about 16 teams from the NHL "qualifying" for playoffs? How pure is that? If April and may are the only months that matter, what does that say for October through March?

The NFL has been accused of being a trifle bland this season. Part of the problem is that college football has been so widely wonderful. In the big picture, the NFL benefits. That the ultimate coalition--the NFL and its free farm system on college football campuses. Every word uttered about college football is an annuity--see the NFL stars of tomorrow. However, right now, the college game packs more sizzle. Not only because we don't know who's really No. 1, but because we might never really know.

That will change, though, and why? So the real champions can go to the White House? Like the NCAA, President Clinton has more important things to do.