The Ethics of Playoffs

By this point it seems clear that everyone in America - and probably most of the rest of the civilized world, or at least those parts that are tired of hearing us whine about it - is in favor of a playoff system in college football. Naturally, there are those who do not watch college sports or sports in general (a friend out in Los Angeles claims to have difficulty remembering which sport uses the oblong ball with the pointy ends on it), but even the majority of those people would probably agree that a system which allows the two teams which are actually the best to meet head-to-head to determine the national championship is more in keeping with our stated national preference for truth, justice and fair play. Unfortunately, there is a very simple and incredibly powerful force that is preventing such a system from being implemented, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future; I refer, of course, to money. As long as it remains more profitable to maintain out current plethora of bowl games and opaque system of selecting the two teams for the "championship" game, nothing is likely to change. The question we need to consider is whether or not this is actually a bad thing...

First off, all of the arguments about bowl games, television revenues and profits made by the sports programs of NCAA schools improving the quality of education at those schools are completely specious - the money generated by the athletic programs is almost universally retained by the athletic department for its own use. The rest of this point is a bit murkier, however. Participation in any nationally televised event usually comes with the opportunity for the school to broadcast its promotional video during the event, and will always create mentions of the school's name in publications and newscasts where it would not normally appear. It seems clear that this will increase the school's exposure and prestige; the degree to which this improves matters for the institution remains in dispute. Still, a national playoff system would concentrate media and public attention on the seven games involved (assuming a field of eight seeds; a field of 16 would involve 15 games, and so on) and draw it away from the 28 other bowl games being televised each year. This would be even better for the eight teams selected, but would undoubtedly harm the other 56 to some degree...

Second, there's the business picture to consider. Bowl games, as is often alleged, generally do benefit the television networks and venue owners more than anyone else, but as a business blogger I feel it is my duty to point out that these are public-owned companies (in the case of the networks) and public municipalities (in the case of many of the actual stadia) all of which benefit the economy and the public in general by earning money, employing people and paying taxes. The residual benefit realized by the communities in which bowl games take place (especially hotel and restaurant receipts from visiting fans) may be smaller, but is certainly not a bad thing, especially because these businesses also contribute to the economy as a whole. And even if the secondary benefits realized by related businesses (transportation companies, tour companies, apparel and souvenir manufacturers, publishers and the like) are small, they're certainly better than nothing, which is what we're likely to see from a bowl that is eliminated as no longer relevant or simply driven into complete obscurity...

Finally, there's the effect such a system would have on the game itself. As frustrating as it is to have the same record as another team in your conference (and actually beat that team head-to-head during the regular season!) and still end up below them in the standings and bowl precedence for the post-season, as is the case with Michigan State this year, it would be even worse if no one ended up watching your bowl appearance because it wasn't one of the 7 National Playoff games, and worse still if your team was denied a post-season game after finishing their best season in a generation just because there wasn't enough of a television audience to bother staging the game...

In the long run, I can't (as a fan) say that the current bowl system is really a good thing. But by the same token (as a business teacher) I can't really say it's entirely without its up side, either. As long as there is money to be made, there will probable always be dozens of obscure but colorful football games played in the last weeks of December, and the first weeks of the new year...

GO GREEN! GO WHITE!