The prospect for a playoff replacing the current college football bowl system is compromised by financial interests, says Randy Grant in Chicago’s Medill Report.
Right now the BCS series is the only one in the world where a team can defeat every opponent and still not be crowned champion. Because of the mismatch between accomplishment and rewards, a near-critical mass of college football fans want to see the series abolished in favor of a traditional playoff system.
But the financial structure of the series may prove to be a difficult hurdle for proponents of a playoff.
“There’s a lot of money at stake, but nothing binds the schools to participate in the BCS system,” says Grant, who co-authored The Economics of Intercollegiate Sports and The Evolution of Economic Thought. “They do it because it’s to their financial advantage. It’s definitely the revenue that is driving the opposition to a playoff system.”
Experts and fans agree on the solution to both of these problems: implement a postseason tournament to decide the national champion in college football.