[NU Sports] "Plus-1" Inevitable?

[Jonathan Hodges]

Personally, I think that the "plus one" scenario is the best solution
to the bowl-playoff conundrum in college football.  It retains value
to the regular season (you have to qualify for one of those top 4
spots to get a shot at the national championship - which means maximum
one loss to a top team and playing a tough schedule) and retains the
bowl system.  It even meets the current bowl schedule with one bowl a
week later than the rest and there are currently 4 BCS bowls plus the
championship anyways.  I would actually argue that the plus one
scenario would lead to a more challenging regular season as teams look
to gain that difficulty of schedule advantage by playing tougher
non-conference teams - willing to risk a loss to land in the top 4 at
the end of the season.  Tradition has already been skirted with the
BCS and the plus one would basically fall in line with what we have
now.

Regarding the fans being able to attend 2 games (assuming your team is
in the top 4, wins and moves on to the championship game), I believe
this will end up looking much like the Superbowl in the NFL where the
national championship attendees are basically corporate-types,
die-hard sports fans, and contest winners since the tickets are sold
out a year in advance and nobody knows who is going or not.  Plus, it
will be a giant spectacle - not unlike its current form.  There will
be seats available for a price, which will most likely be high.

Will this happen?  I would say it's probably 50-50 at this point that
it will happen when the current BCS contract expires after the 2010
season.  I would not count on it, though, as it probably depends
greatly on what happens between now and then.  For the time being, the
powers that be seem to be content counting their TV money and
"tweaking" the BCS formula every year to appease critics.

Jonathan

On 7/17/07, Joe Thiegs <thiegs at umn.edu> wrote:
> In an attempt to avoid talking about the awful college-football-related news
> out of the Twin Cities the last day or so, I thought I'd offer this
> interesting article from today's New York Post:
>
> A Football Final Four:  NCAA Could Have 'Semifinals' By 2011
> http://www.nypost.com/seven/07172007/sports/a_football_final_four_sports_len
> n_robbins.htm
>
> I've long thought this to be the best compromise if preservation of
> long-standing bowl tradition is deemed important.  I suppose you could go to
> a field of eight with the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowls serving as
> the quarterfinals.  That would hurt the conference tie-ins more than the
> plus-one format, though, if the match-ups were done on a seeded basis.  In
> that case, say farewell to the Big Ten/Pac 10 Rose Bowl tradition for good
> (OTOH, that tradition can get messed up in at least three scenarios as it
> is:  (1) Big Ten team in the national championship game and no other Big Ten
> qualifies for a BCS berth (or isn't chosen for the Rose Bowl); (2) Pac 10
> team in the national championship game and no other Pac 10 team qualifies
> for a BCS berth (or isn't chosen for the Rose Bowl); (3) Rose Bowl is the
> national championship game and one or more of the 1 and 2 teams are not from
> the Big Ten or Pac 10.)  Still, I think making the existing BCS bowls the
> quarterfinals would be tough on fans.  Even in the plus-one, what would you
> do as a fan if you could only afford to travel to one post-season game-go to
> the bowl game and miss out on the national championship if your team wins
> the bowl game, or skip the bowl game in hopes that your team makes the
> national championship game?
>
> -Joe
>
>
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-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
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