Entry No. 40 | December 11, 2007
It's that time of year when the stores have out all of their holiday stuff. No, wait, that's July.

Ah yes, this is the time of year when anyone with air time starts clamoring for a playoff in college football. The stadiums are mostly full, ratings are dynamite and every regular season game has some sort of post-season implication. By all means, let's implement change.

There was a time when I ran with the playoff crowd, and I suppose I could function just fine if that was our system even now. I worked in Division I-AA for a few years and experienced a playoff first-hand. It was fun. But it wasn't as much fun as a bowl game. Not even close.

Those of us who work in and follow college sports love to thump our chests about the game, "being for the student-athlete."

"It's all for the kids," we say.

Then we sometimes turn around and do things completely counter to the best interest of those young people competing on the college level.

A good many of those same young people will tell you that they want a playoff too, and that's fine. A playoff would have its merits. But many of the student-athletes that lean towards a playoff have never played in one at the expense of playing in a bowl. I'm not sure they understand what they 'd be giving up.

And that leads us to the cock-eyed notion that the bowls would want to be part of a playoff system. That suggestion is usually offered up by those with no clue as to how a bowl functions. Most of them are far more than a football game; they're week-long (or longer) festivals.

Try telling the people in Pasadena that the Rose Bowl game is bigger than the parade… then duck.

A playoff would be like a series of rapid-fire neutral site games. The teams would fly in on a Friday, play the game on a Saturday and then fly out that same night. That's a far, far cry from what bowls are today. Aside from the television money, why would they want to be involved in that scenario?

And those outings for the players to Sea World, Children's Hospitals, and the week of camaraderie they enjoy in an often spectacular environment? You can deep six all of that stuff. When you fly in on Friday it's all about the game.

Most of us can make a pretty good case that the best post-season situation in college sports exists in basketball. March Madness is a blast. As we all wait for March Madness, take that television clicker in your hand and get a gander at some of these December and January games. See the empty seats? College basketball is so back-loaded on its season now that the earlier games go by virtually unnoticed.

I tuned in to watch Wake Forest at Iowa the other night. That's an ACC school playing at what is typically one of college sports' best-supported athletics programs. There were hundreds of empty seats. At Duke, student tickets are still available.

The problem doesn't rest solely on basketball's post-season tournament. The one-and-done player that leaves for the NBA has been awful for the college game and the season itself may start a little too early. Still, there is no arguing the fact that the basketball's regular season fails to rival what exists in football.

I appreciate the desire for an undisputed champion, but let me ask this? Is anyone disputing any of Oklahoma's seven national titles in football? The 1950 Sooners won all their regular season games, were declared the national champs and then lost in the Sugar Bowl to Kentucky. Do you see anyone peeling down OU's 1950 banner? Me neither.

What we have right now is college football at its absolute zenith in terms of public interest. ESPN started a college football show last July for crying out loud (about the same time the Christmas stuff went up in the stores). The BCS can certainly use some tweaking, but don't lose sight of the fact that college football has a stranglehold on the period from September right through the BCS Championship in January.

So, yes, let's rush to make a change. Let's start tinkering with something that, if it's broken, gives very little evidence of such at the turnstiles or in the ratings books.

At a time of year when wishes are the norm, the change agents of college football had better be darned careful of what they are wishing for.
 

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Read an inside perspective from the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department on the latest Sooner sports topics. Associate Athletics Director for Communications Kenny Mossman provides his thoughts in his online column at SoonerSports.com.