Why playoffs are wrong for college football

I had a good laugh this weekend in catching the end of the Michigan-Purdue men’s basketball game. The game was long out of reach for the Wolverines, and the on-air guys, Brent Musburger and Bobby Knight, were reaching deep into the press kit by the end to keep the audience and themselves entertained. That’s when Knight, in his characteristic way, went off script and began criticizing end-of-season conference tournaments. Musburger, ever the NCAA cheerleader, quickly changed the topic, but at least Knight had his moment to break the NCAA’s sleeper hold on reality and to tell it like it is – conference tournaments are bad for college basketball. They are good for athletic department finances (in most cases), however, and therein lay the problem of extirpating this awful plague from the sport.

Last month, in my annual shout-down of college football’s playoff proponents, I utilized what is essentially the same gripe that I have with the supporters of conference basketball tournaments: they water down the regular season, rendering it practically meaningless, and drain all the drama from the regular-season schedule.

Nice to see that someone will agree, even if they might not (yet!) support eliminating conference tournaments. Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal features an article by Darren Everson exploring an upcoming match-up between Ivy League schools Harvard and Cornell. To my knowledge, the Ivy League is the only Division I conference that does not have a season-ending tournament. If you want the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, you have to do it the old-fashioned way: win the regular-season championship. You have to be good all year – not just the last weekend of the season.

Everson’s article captures the spirit my argument. He teases readers by suggesting that “[t]he game of the year in college basketball just might be in the Ivy League.” Why? Precisely because there is no tournament and the likelihood that only one team will advance to the NCAA tournament. Everson writes:

“For most of the 300-plus teams in Division I men's basketball, the regular season is a forgiving four-month exercise. Good teams play for NCAA Tournament seeding, while bad teams—which can still reach the NCAAs by winning their conference tournament—get second chances.

“But Saturday's game between Harvard (13-3) and Cornell (16-3)—and the scheduled rematch on Feb. 19 at Harvard—will bring a sense of urgency that this sport is unaccustomed to, at least before March.”

This is precisely the thing – a sense of urgency each and every week – that makes the college football regular season the most exciting competition in major American sports. It shouldn’t be trifled with.