With the start of fall practice only weeks away, talk turns once again to the prospects for a playoff in upper tier college football. Many fans wonder how the NCAA and the BCS can pass on the enormous sums of money playoffs would generate in television rights, bowl game attendance, logo swag, and other revenue streams.
Some opponents seem to have the players’ interests in mind when they argue that a playoff system would increase the number of games and put more pressure on student athletes.
Others seem to get that college football playoffs would generate large revenue streams, but also understand that this could come at the expense of those who currently command them: the bowls.
I think a playoff system is on the horizon, and could come as soon as 2015, the first season after expiration of the current BCS television contract. The networks bidding for the rights to televise college football games will not continue to shell out more money without some system for increasing revenue in a predictable way, as the NFL has done with its post season. Read the rest of this entry »