So I started writing this diatribe against the current college football system and all its dysfunction when I realized that maybe we’re all taking the wrong approach. One of the first things you learn in public speaking–a class I have taught numerous times in all my stuttering, rambling glory–is that you have to analyze your audience. And our audience here, to some degree, is the people who run and support the current system. So I want to express why I think features of the system, on the simplest level, are just flat-out strange and work to minimize the value and quality of college athletics. But it’s important at this point to analyze my audience. And while writing a draft, it hit me:
They don’t know any better.
Like they literally don’t know any better. They have never made more money than they will make this year, and we’ll say the same thing next year, and the year after next, and so on. What they “know” from this season, the way they measure success (how much money they make), has never been better. Bowl directors and college presidents still make a ton of money, so why would they change anything. The status quo is easy, comfortable, and lined with Hamiltons.
So we can talk all we want about how a playoff is more fair and exciting, and how the current system is weird and outdated. It doesn’t matter. We have to analyze our audience and focus our efforts on what will change minds. Every argument we make from this point on should be about how much money a playoff system would make.
Our audience members–bowl directors and college presidents–care about money. That’s it.
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Here are the games that would be played this Saturday (or next). Top 6 conference champions underlined, top 2 at-large teams italicized in the chart below.
#8 Wisconsin @ #1 LSU (Baton Rouge, LA)
#7 So. Mississippi @ #2 Oklahoma State (Stillwater, OK)
#6 Stanford @ #3 Oregon (Eugene, OR)
#5 Alabama @ #4 Clemson (Clemson, SC)
To Wisconsin and So Miss: congrats for getting in.
To Stanford and Alabama: if you want to host, win your conference.
To Kansas St, USC, OU, Boise St, VT, Baylor, Michigan, South Carolina, Houston, Michigan State, Srkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, and Penn State: if you want in, win your conference.
To Notre Dame: join a conference or go undefeated.
To TCU and other low-rated champs: be better next year.
To Texas: better than last year but let’s do better next year.
