A CNN poll released today shows 59% of college football fans surveyed believe a playoff system should determine who plays for the national championship. The results are based on telephone interviews with 463 Americans who consider themselves college football fans. Only 36% were in favor of the current bowl format (5% had no opinion).
HAMDEN, Conn. — A majority of college football fans want to scrap the current Bowl Championship Series and replace it with a playoff system that’s similar to college basketball, according to a new national poll released Tuesday.
The Quinnipiac University survey shows 63 percent favor getting rid of the current system, while 26 percent want to keep it. When asked how much they liked the bowl game process, the poll showed fans are mixed.
“College football fans are not in love with the current system in which two teams that play for the national championship are picked by computers, sportswriters and coaches,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Settle the question on the field, voters say more than two-to-one.”
While more fans may favor a playoff system, they don’t necessarily want Congress to get involved. The poll shows 48 percent believe it is a bad idea if federal lawmakers force college football to start a playoff system; 45 percent say it’s a good idea.
Say you’re a college football fan who still can’t make up your mind. Then one day you discover your hair is on fire. When you pick up the phone, do you call:
a.) The nearest fire department; or
b.) your hairdresser?
If you chose b.), congratulations! The folks who run the Bowl Championship Series are dying to meet you.
Ever since hijacking college football’s postseason in 1992 by forming the Bowl Coalition, they’ve had a tough time making friends and influencing people. They’ve thrown money around, tweaked the rules a dozen times and twisted themselves into a stadium’s worth of pretzels trying to explain why the sport doesn’t need a playoff.
Yet almost two decades later, only one out of every 10 fans agrees – and the number of coaches and players is only slightly higher.
The fact is there’s no good way to sell a bad idea. But that hasn’t stopped the BCS from trying. And trying. Even so, this latest scheme might be the most hare-brained ever.
