Has Hell frozen over? Are pigs flying? After years of officials stating that a playoff would never happen in major college football, a playoff is going to happen in major college football. The commissioners of the Division 1-A (I still refuse to call it FBS) football conferences gathered recently and approved a plan to recommend a move to a four-team playoff to the university presidents. This week, those presidents said yes to the plan. The BCS as we knew it is no more, or will be no more as of the 2014 season. Is this a good thing? Absolutely. It’s not really good enough, in my opinion, but it’s a start.

The plan is to have a committee, like the one used to decide college basketball’s NCAA Tournament field, that will decide the four teams that will compete in the playoff at the close of each season. Those four teams will be matched up, one versus four and two versus three, in two of the major bowl games that we are used to. There will be a rotation to decide which bowls host each year. The two winners will play in the championship game, which will not be connected to a bowl, but will rather be hosted at a variety of major venues around the country. The rest of the teams, outside of the four top teams, will continue to play in the usual slate of bowl games.

Is this plan perfect? Far from it. There are several large problems, and a slew of small ones. First, the games should be on campus. Having the semi-finals at the existing bowls is silly. Why shouldn’t the higher seeds host the games? Remember, most of the conferences have conference championship games now. Those are already held at neutral sites. For the fans of a school to travel to that game, then head out to a bowl game for the semi-final, and then possibly to some other random place for the title game seems like quite a stretch. I understand the idea of having the championship game at a neutral site that is big enough to handle the circus that will surround this game, just as it does the Super Bowl. The first playoff round, though, really needs to be played on campus. What a boost that would be for the host schools. Second, all of this lip-service from the commissioners about maintaining the tradition of the bowl games is just stupid. Sure, they have playing bowl games for many years. I don’t personally know anyone who actually cares about preserving that tradition, though, especially not if it interferes with determining a champion on the field rather than by a vote. The bowls really mean no more than any regular season game, and in many cases, they mean less. There are a couple of bowls that have a long tradition that is actually identifiable, like the Rose Bowl, but most of them are games that no one cares about, no one attends, and few people watch. The only things that really matter are the teams and the fans of those teams, along with a small slice of the general populace. I watch whatever bowl game Penn State is in, and I don’t care if it’s the Rose Bowl or the Weedeater Bowl.

Despite the statements by the commissioners, I am certain the playoff size will not remain at four teams for long. I expect sixteen to ultimately be the number, but it may take a while to get there. Opponents say this will cheapen the regular season, which they feel is currently the best in sports due to the pressure to win every game to have a shot at the title. The things those people forget is that most people are fans of a particular school, as opposed to be being fans of college football in general. The regular season as it stands now is only important every week if your team wins every week. If they lose, by the argument made above, the rest of that team’s season suddenly means nothing. With a broader playoff, we are still talking about a very small number of teams. It will still be critical to win nearly every game, and winning a conference championship will still mean an awful lot. It will keep the regular season alive, and therefore important, for a lot more teams for a lot longer time.

Perfect or not, we will be able to crown a champion with a greater degree of legitimacy in about two years. That’s a good thing.

Good sports, continued:

2) Although hitting for the cycle (single, double, triple, and homerun in the same game) is one of those events in baseball that I feel is a bit overrated, it is definitely a pretty rare occurrence. The same player doing it twice within two weeks is something I had never heard of until this week, when the Diamondbacks’ Aaron Hill did just that.

3) Mike Trout, the fantastic rookie for the Los Angeles Angels, made one of the best catches I have ever seen on Wednesday. Check it out.

Bad sports:

1) NBA Hall-of-Famer Larry Bird, who won the league’s Executive of the Year award after this past season, resigned as president of the Indiana Pacers this week. He cited health concerns as the reason for his resignation.

2) Yet another professional athlete needs to be kept away from Twitter. Amare Stoudemire, a star forward for the New York Knicks, was fined $50,000 by the league this week after he sent out a tweet using a gay slur. He has since apologized.

3) Talk about rough luck: Seattle Mariners outfielder Franklin Gutierrez was hit in the face by the ball during a pickoff attempt by Franklin Morales on Thursday during a game against the Boston Red Sox. He has since been placed on the disabled list.

4) Richard Hurd, a former walk-on at Baylor, has been arrested for attempting to extort money from Robert Griffin III, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner who was drafted second overall by the Washington Redskins in this year’s NFL Draft.

5) Isaiah Crowell, a running back from the University of Georgia, was kicked off the team and out of the school on Friday after being arrested on weapons charges.

6) San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith, a former first-round draft pick out of Missouri, received multiple stab wounds on Friday night at a party in San Jose. None of his injuries are said to be serious.

7) I turned the television to some golf on Saturday and saw something I have never seen before. There was Tiger Woods, teeing off and walking down the fairway, and yet there was no one else in the shot. Not a single spectator. It seems there was a huge storm in D.C. Friday night, and it downed over forty trees at Congressional Country Club. Due to the danger they still felt was present, tour and club officials did not allow fans in to watch the round that day.

Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02

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