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Dubois: Time's right for playoffs in Division I-A


By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter

LSU begins Capital One Bowl practice Dec. 15. Two days later, Division I-AA will crown its national football champion.
By the time LSU plays Iowa on New Year's Day in Orlando, Fla., the I-AA season will have been history for two weeks.

So how is it that presidents and athletic directors of universities playing big-time college football say a I-A playoff would make the season too long?

The I-AA schools have stayed in the business of molding the future of America and awarding degrees while settling their national championship on the field since 1978 -- with the current 16-team playoff since 1986.

Division II and Division III have 16-team playoffs. Why can't I-A, or at the very least, have an eight-team playoff?

Your gue$$ is as good as mine.

LSU won the BCS national title last season, in a format endorsed by those calling the shots in major college football. The Tigers played 14 games, including the BCS title game. According to the powers that be in I-A, that's fine.

This season the I-AA champion will have played 15 games.

Ah, but the likes of Southern California, Oklahoma, Auburn, LSU, California, Texas and Utah can't have a playoff because it would extend the season, compromise the main mission of the universities -- education -- and burden the players. Right.

So, why are we almost surely headed toward a permanent 12-game regular season? Why do the presidents approve of conference championship games -- extra games -- and allow a team to play an extra game if one of them is played in Hawaii?

Why is there still talk they might approve a plus-one model of the BCS that extends seasons by another week?

It's true LSU's 14-game season of 2003 had a 12-game regular season. It's true the I-AA champ will play 15 games this season -- as opposed to 16 last season -- because this year we have an 11-game regular season again.

But the hypocrisy and double standard still reek.

Villanova, Furman, Colgate and Lehigh have all competed in the I-AA playoffs. Colgate is a shadow Ivy League university, nearly the best of the best. The others aren't at that level, but football is more in perspective at those places than at any Top 25 school in I-A.

The Ivy League bans its eight schools from participating in the I-AA playoffs, but there is still hypocrisy at those institutions. Ivy League athletes take part in playoffs in other sports, and hockey season lasts nearly five months including postseason.

A modest playoff proposal

If you want a I-A playoff, you can do it. Drop the 12th regular-season game and the conference championship games. No more exceptions for trips to Hawaii.

Include bowls in the playoffs. Rotate the championship game among the big four. Require all corporate sponsors to buy ads and commercial time for early-round games if they want to be a part of the title-game rotation.

There are 28 bowl games this season. You'll need 15 -- eight, then four, then two, then one -- for a 16-team playoff. Make the seven biggest bowls permanent playoff sites and rotate the other slots among the other 21 bowls.

The Independence Bowl, for example, wouldn't participate in the national championship race every year, but as it stands now, it never does. Give it a piece of the action, and in seasons in which it is not part of the playoffs, it can still hold its game.

Why have a bowl if it doesn't lead to a national championship, you ask? Well, this season we'll have 25 such bowl games. Under my plan, 15 bowls would feature a team with a chance to win the national championship.

At least once every few years, each bowl game would have its moment in the spotlight.

Academic concerns

Chris Buchanan, who has seen every I-AA playoff game that McNeese State has played since its first in 1991, has witnessed many a study session in hotel lobbies and ballrooms. I've seen a few myself, as well as during NCAA basketball tournaments (though not for final exams).

College baseball players have finals during the regular season. The College World Series may soon end in July, two months after finals, and presidents are worried about a few schools being in a I-A playoff?

I'm no fan of this year's version of the BCS -- the polls have too much influence -- but if you want to use a similar formula to seed the 16-team playoff field, that's fine. Just limit the impact of the polls.

You'd still have a few teams griping about being left out, but that would be minor compared to Auburn's plight.

We wouldn't have the LSU-OU-USC debate we had last year. We wouldn't have writers reporting the news while they are making it, as we have this season.

It's time for a playoff. I'd bet a week's pay there would still be plenty of money generated to keep the bowls in business, and none of the presidents would have to resign for allowing football to become too big.

Coaches approval?

Many coaches say they want a playoff, but do they really? I think most of them say that in public, but privately they ask presidents and athletic directors not to vote for a playoff. Why? Because now they get as much as a month to prepare for the big game, the bowl game, but in a playoff they'd have only a week.

It seems to work fine in Divisions I-AA, II and III, and I've seen no evidence their players have a higher rate of injuries or academic problems.

This is my challenge to the powers that be in major college football: Take this plan and study it. See if it could work.

Begin your study with smart people from Villanova, Furman, Colgate and Leigh. They already know a few things you don't, like how to participate in a football playoff without postponing final exams or canceling graduation.