Bowl Games and Timeline
The often erroneously made argument from those against a playoff is that it would destroy the tradition of college football. By tradition, they mean bowl games. The bowls are singular and unique to college football. Yet I fail to see how a playoff would destroy them. There’s a perfectly easy way for a playoff and the traditional bowl games to live in harmony. And here’s how.
First we have to look at the new college football timeline. The season would start the last weekend of August. Each team would be given one bye week. With a 12 game regular season, this means the season would last for 13 weeks. Thirteen weeks after the final weekend of August puts us at the second to last weekend of November. That leaves the last weekend of November for conference championships for those that have them. Those would be exciting as they would become a “play-in” of sorts for the playoff.
This means that the first and second weekends of December can be the first and second rounds of the playoff. So the absolute latest the second round can end would be December 14. That leaves the next two weeks open for traditional bowl games. These games would then be the next two weekends of December and any day in between as they currently are. As it now stands, bowl games start right around December 15 and run through the first few days of January. Under this system, They could start as early as the third weekend (Friday included) of December and run through December 30. This is winter break for the schools, so games could be played any day of the week, as they now are.
On December 31 or January 1, depending on the year, the semi-finals of the playoff would begin, with the championship game following. All traditional bowl games must have been played by the time the semi-final games take place. This allows teams eliminated in the first two rounds to be eligible for traditional bowl games. And those bowl games get to keep all of their tradition.
Conference tie-ins can still exist. The Cotton Bowl can still host a team from the Big 12 and a team from the SEC. On years when the Rose Bowl is the odd bowl out of the playoff, they can still host a Pac 10 and Big Ten matchup. On years when the Rose bowl is in the playoff mix, then they will still host an incredible match-up in either the semi-finals or for the championship game. That makes for a lot of revenue for those bowls.
So the current bowl system in all of its tradition and glory doesn’t need to be messed with. For any team winning six games ore more, they can still compete for bragging rights and maybe a slight edge in off season recruiting. Corporate sponsors can still name their bowls, like the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl, or the Capital One Bowl. None of that has to change. A playoff and the traditional bowl system can live in peace together in college football. Time permits it in the semester and the season doesn’t extend endlessly as critics would have you believe. Only a few teams will play a few more games.
And I don’t want to hear anything about how college football can’t change for tradition’s sake. Are you kidding me? The rules have changed, the conferences have changed, the bowls have changed, the rules have changed, the polls and rankings have changed and plenty of other things have evolved as needs be. Look at the BCS for crying out loud! It changed the system! College football is no stranger to change, so don’t pretend it is. The playoff system proposed here would hardly change the regular season at all anyway; it’s only the postseason that changes here. The bowl games are untouched and the timeline of the season stays manageable, this works to everyone’s benefit.
- Why is a playoff necessary?
- How it works
- Bowl games and timeline
- Share your thoughts on a college football playoff
