Riddle me this. Why is everyone so up in arms about the number of teams that should comprise the FBS football playoff. It was pulling teeth to go to four teams and it seems people are up in arms going to eight. WHY? Division 3 football has 16 teams in the playoff to decide a national champion. It starts the second week of November and ends four weeks later. Division 2 has 28 teams playing in the championship starting and ending at the same time. FCS has 24 teams starting at the end of November and ending January 8th with a national champion.
Why is everyone's undies bunch up when we talk about a meaningful FBS national champion ?
At the collegiate level, each championship tourney is composed of about 10% of the total amount of schools participating in any one sport.
Let's take NCAA DI bowling . There are 68 schools that field teams. The championship bracket is composed of seven ( 7) teams. Roughly 10% of the entire field !
The list goes on an on from fencing to baseball to water polo to volleyball.
What the hell makes FBS football so different and special than any other port or even football played at a different division ?
The real outlier is Basketball. There are 358 division 1 basketball teams. Ten percent would be 35. So in actuality 32 teams is not out of bounds by any measure. BUT, such a huge ( the number one ) money maker by far and away for the NCAA ,a 68 team bracket is in play and it seems to work.
So here we have FBS football. There are 124 teams in the FBS, divided into 11 conferences – Notre Dame, Brigham Young University, Army and Navy are the only four schools in the FBS that are not affiliated with a conference. Sooo a 12 team bracket is a no brainer right? Eleven conference champion and an at large. And, judging by the other football divisions, we could easily go to 24 or even 32 like D2. WHY NOT ?
Seriously.
How can you defend a national champion back in the old days decided by a poll?
How can you defend a national champion decided by a tournament of 2 ?
How can you defend a national champion decided by a bracket of four?
It's all about money. But of course.
Did you know that of the 35 bowl games this season—yes, 70 of the 120 FBS teams qualify for bowl games. SEVENTY ! And people howl at an eight team playoff. Meanwhile there are 35 bowl games and we supposedly can't do a 32 team ( 31 total games) playoff.
One could make the case that with 70 teams that far more schools and fans enjoy a post season than if only 12, 24, 32 played. Fair enough. But there is a but. Do the fans REALLY enjoy it ? Do they REALLY ' travel well' ? I have heard the argument that the participating schools enjoy a monetary windfall for making a bowl game. True. However, there are howevers.
The NCAA Mens D1 basketball championship is worth about a billion dollars to the NCAA and participating schools AND their conferences. The payout rules are complicated but enticing. Even if your college basketball team doesn’t win a game in the tourney, you win $1.67 million. A round-of-16 appearance rakes in almost $5 million. A Final Four run? $8.3 million. In most all cases this is split amongst each conference. For a smaller conference, one surprisingly successful tournament can produce budget-inflating windfalls for years. So a school that finishes the season with no wins can reap monetary windfalls because of the tournament split of revenue.
By all estimation a meaningful division 1 NCAA football tournament would dwarf the basketball tournament in terms of revenue. At least several billion up for grabs.
Right now a 4 team playoff pays all conferences $670M per year
It is estimated a 12-team playoff pays all conferences a whopping $1.9B per year !!!!
Notice the billion dollars in the basketball tournament is controlled by the NCAA NOT ESPN or TBS or CBS. And that's the rub.
Of the 35 bowl games, ESPN owns outright eight of them or about 23% of all bowl games are ESPN ( ABC) property.
Of those 35 bowl games this season, ESPN will produce all but two of them. The Hyundai Sun Bowl (CBS)and the AT&T Cotton Bowl (FOX).
That's it.
Every other bowl game is now produced and disseminated by ESPN. In fact, of the remaining 33 bowl games that ESPN will broadcast, all but five are on the mothership.
ABC (an ESPN property) will air the AutoZone Liberty Bowl and the Outback Bowl.ESPN2 has the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl and the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl, while ESPNU has the TicketCity Bowl on January 2.
The other 28 bowl games are all on ESPN. Amazing.
Any shift in the FBS football post season landscape would take control AND money away from ESPN. Period. shall I say that again ? Any shift in the FBS football post season landscape would take control AND money away from ESPN
So, do you think that the step to a larger FBS football playoff field is being fought against by the ones that would be impacted financially the most ???
I say, the pushback for a larger FBS field is being pushed by the MSM , chiefly ESPN who has a megaphone and pulpit to shower the public with their one sided view via the many TV and radio shows they have. The masses are being programed to resist.
I say a 12 team FBS playoff bracket based on 124 participating schools should be mandatory if not 24 or 32. Prove me wrong and tell me why !!!!!
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