Pigskin playoffs for college?

[BIG_DADDY]

Playoffs? You kidding me?

By Terry Bowden, Yahoo! Sports
March 30, 2007


March Madness wraps up with the national championship game Monday night. Even I have to admit there's nothing better in sports than the college basketball playoffs.

That is, unless there were a college football playoff.

Well, if what I'm hearing is correct, a college football playoff finally may become a reality. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, you might as well consider it a done deal.

From this point forward it is no longer a matter of if it is going to happen but a matter of when.

For years, I, along with many others, have been screaming for a playoff – and more recently, from the top of my lungs. It has been an uphill struggle all the way. Just two years ago you couldn't find more than a handful of head coaches who publicly would admit to favoring a playoff. Worse than that, the all-important college presidents would not even bring up the issue for discussion.

All that has changed.

The logjam has been broken, and we are about to be flooded with waves of support from all kinds of important college football folks. Yep – it was a long uphill battle, but we're on the down slope now. And the ride gets a lot easier from here on.

In January of this year, at the American Football Coaches Association meeting, a majority of the 70 or so coaches in attendance voted in favor of a seeded four-team playoff. Although there are 119 coaches of schools in the Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A), I believe the AFCA's majority vote would hold true even if put to a vote by the entire group of 119.

And the coaches that publicly support a playoff are not just anybody. They include the movers and shakers within the business, guys like Urban Meyer, Mack Brown, Pete Carroll, Joe Paterno, Steve Spurrier, Lloyd Carr and Bob Stoops. Every one of these guys has won a national championship under the old systems, and they still want a change.

And don't think for a minute that these ultra-successful coaches haven't gained the respect and the ears of their presidents.

Speaking of college presidents – and they must make the ultimate decision – much is happening with them as well. They have been united in opposition to even discussing the possibility of a playoff. I never could find even one who was willing to stand up for a playoff.

However, this week Florida president Bernie Machin, a staunch playoff advocate, announced that the Southeastern Conference presidents have agreed to bring to the table and discuss the possibility of a Bowl Subdivision playoff at this spring's meetings in Destin, Fla.

Folks, Bernie Machin is not just a college president. He is the president of the university that has the current national champion in both football and men's basketball. Not only does his school produce national titles but also graduates student athletes at a very high rate. When you win the championship in both of the biggest college sports, and you have a strong stand on academics in collegiate athletics, you've got a platform from which you will be heard.

And believe me, college presidents are going to listen.

So the question now becomes, when is a playoff going to happen in the top division of college football? The existing Bowl Championship Series television contract with Fox ends after the 2009 season, but with discussions of a new contract coming up next year, I guaran-dadgum-tee you that a seeded four-team playoff, at the very least, will be discussed.

If my estimations are correct, what once was seen as an impossibility – a big-time national championship playoff – will become a reality in the next five years.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?s...yhoo&type=lgns