Sports
Rick Snider » Mr. Obama, don’t mess with college football
By: Rick Snider
Examiner Sports Columnist
November 23, 2008
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| Columnist Rick Snider believes there are bigger fish to fry for President-elect Obama than an NCAA football playoff. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) |
Future First Lady Michelle Obama guffawed while her husband told “60 Minutes” of his plan for an eight-team postseason. She should have fist-bumped him.
“This is important,” said the coming leader of the free world. “I think any sensible person would say that if you’ve got a bunch of teams who played throughout the season and many of them have one loss or two losses and there’s no clear decisive winner that we should be creating a playoff system. ... I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Worry about getting a puppy first. Golden retrievers are nice. But, solve the world’s ills before spending even five minutes on a college championship series.
In other words, mind your own business.
Presidents are no more suited to running sports than new owners of pro franchises discovering the business world is nothing like the athletic arena. As Redskins owner Dan Snyder learned, winning games is much harder than launching a new product. Politicians can’t legislate sports. The Mitchell Report cost $20 million to confirm baseball players used steroids.
Naturally, Obama spoke like a politician with no specific plan other than an eight-team system over three weeks and shortening the regular season. He forgot to mention how 111 Division I-A programs relying heavily on football revenues will sacrifice one game so eight superpowers benefit with a postseason. He also failed to mention how the eight teams will be chosen any better than the current BCS system or the bowl rotation for leading games.
Obama could threaten the BCS with anti-trust laws because the NCAA may exclude teams from non-major conferences. Please, like the Justice Department has nothing better to do.
The President-elect threatened an executive order on the NCAA to create the postseason. Colleges will counter they’re exempt as private institutions. They’ll tie it up in court long after Obama leaves office.
The BCS isn’t perfect, but it works. The best two teams usually play for the title. Expanding to eight will only leave critics crying an excluded ninth team might have won it all. You can’t win this debate without expanding to 32 teams and five weeks of playoffs.
Sorry, Mr. President-elect, but we need your eyes on other balls. Like tax breaks for sports writers. Health care paying for hair plugs and liposuction. Early retirement for 48-year-olds.
But a college playoff system? Listen to your wife’s chuckle. She’s the smart one in the family.
Uh oh, the Clintons must be back.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at rsnider@dcexaminer.com.
