College Bowls and College Playoffs

I love the college bowl season. Some complain that the are too many bowls, but I disagree. Why? Because unlike most sports where every team that qualifies for the post season loses its final game except the champion, in college football gives us multiple winners. Thirty-five this year, in fact (that's how many bowls there were this year). Thus, the players (and fans) of the teams that win are able to celebrate the end of their football season on a high note. No other sport does that.

That said, there's still need for a playoff in college football, and beginning in 2014, there will be. It will initially include the top four teams as determined, in part, by the BCS rankings. I suspect, however, that in the long run, it will effectively be expanded to eight. How? By the continual realignment of conferences that will eventually yield four "super" conferences consisting of 16 teams each. Each of these super conferences will then hold league championship games (as the SEC, Pac 12, Big 12, and Big 10 already do), which will yield the four playoff teams. As I noted in a previous post ("Bowls, Playoffs, and the Plus-1 Option"), a playoff will not guarantee that the best team will always win. It will almost certainly, however. guarantee that the best team will make the final eight have a chance to.