What does a football playoff mean to the MAC?

[jpfalcon09]

Interesting point, Hammb...and I can see why ya feel that way. For me, college football is king. But not the BCS schools or conf. The MAC, FCS, Div II and Div III are much more enjoyable than the semi pro conferences. I'll watch NAIA, whatever...as long as it's college football. However, I don't watch the national college football shows much anymore simply cuz all they cover and talk about is BCS sheet. I don't care what Alabama or Oregon is doing and I certainly don't give a rat's azz about ohio state. You are absolutely correct about the media catering to the BCS schools, no question about it. And it has ruined some aspects of the college game. How can the MAC compete? It must find a way or we'll NEVER get a shot at the BiG Time perks. We have to beat the BCS schools on the field, consistently, and build fan bases over the long term. Yeah, we'll never have the fan base of the buckeyes and I can live with that. It means I don't have to share my team with a billion sheep who can't follow their heart and jump on the bandwagon.

It's the same with me and the NFL...I used to be a die hard Browns fan, like I am BG. I simply don't care about the NFL except to see how the MAC players are doing. I love the Browns history up to about 1994...I started caring less each season when Bill B was the coach. When they cut Kosar, I was livid. The dude couldn't run, throw beautifully or have amazing athletic skills. But he won...a lot and he was gusty. My dad was a huge Browns fan growing up in the 50's and when that schmuck fired Paul Brown, he said no mas.

The only way the MAC can compete is if they have a spot at the table for all this. Until that happens, the little man will be squashed and our fans will have to focus on winning conference titles and going to a bowl game every year.

[Globetrotter]

The BCS is run by the schools who benefit most from it. They want to give off the impression of fairness, but only as it affects the biggest schools...they're not about to take money from their pockets and give it to the non-BCS conferences.

BCS team fans would simply reply that they make the money so they should get it.

This is obviously true, but I always think there will be more total revenue for the sport if they spread the wealth and allow the entirety of Division 1A to compete. The way the system is run now the BCS schools get a HUGE portion of the wealth and I think keeping it that way weakens the sport.

I use myself as the barometer of this. College football used to be my favorite sport but I've grown completely apathetic about it over the past 10 years. This will be the first year I won't have season tickets to BG in a long time. I just don't care anymore. The dispersion of money has crippled the MAC to the point I find it virtually unwatchable...and nearly impossible to really be enthusiastic about my alma mater. I'm sure the NCAA just assumes that fans such as myself will become OSU fans and the money will still keep pouring in, but I know in my case that's just not true. Sure I'll watch more games on TV than I have in years past, maybe, but without a relevant MAC, I really am not that enthusiastic about college football anymore.

I can only speak for myself, but the monopoly the BCS has created has taken me from being a die hard college football fan down to a casual fan. Honestly the only real enjoyment I get out of college football anymore is watching the star players and projecting how they'll do in the NFL.

I can't imagine I'm the only fan to feel this way, but maybe I am. But nobody will ever convince me that allowing the top tier BCS schools to dominate the cash and media attention is what's best for the sport as a whole. It's what's best for THOSE schools, of course, but it's not what's best for the sport, IMO.

My earlier post was from one I had put on another board and I included this before but took it out....
"I love college football. Its my second favorite sport. NFL first, then college football, then college basketball. Everything else has kind of fallen by the wayside. I used to love the NBA but have always hated MLB because of the lack of a salary cap. This entire post is being done under the premise of one assumption. The NFL is amazing, in part, because there are so many legitimate contenders. The other leagues suck because I can tell you who several of the top teams will be in 2020. The more legitimate teams, The better the league. For many teams in the NCAA everything is good. OSU, USC and Oklahoma would all be ok with the status quo. But for the other half of division 1 things are not ok at all. Under that premise I want to construct a way for college football to improve. 4 ways actually. I would love your insight but please hold fast to the assumption that these areas are broken."

Needless to say I completely agree with you, and it baffles me that others can't see that they are alienating entire groups of people.

[Siborg]

I too would like to see several basic structural changes. I believe globetrotter discussed 4 of them earlier. I'd add a few related changes......
- Only games against same division count toward eligibility. Everything else is a scrimmage. I know...D1A and D1AA or FCS and FBS are the same division...not.... Technical detail we all know to be false.
- Oversigning: There must be some better way than this. I'm not certain of the right answer but clearly this is also a problem that hurts the would be recruits. It would also encourage these players to play at other schools w/o losing a year.
- I want to reward conference champs in addition to the automatic bid. I'd have a 24 team tournament since we are up to 124 teams and probably more in the near future. Also, it allows the 11 conference champs to host their first games. Top 8 rated teams get first round byes and host in the second round. All remaining conference champs host and then highest remaining ranked teams host the first round's 8 games. That also provides more competitive games in the first round and maybe the second round as well.