Rivalries: The best part of college football is obviously the rivalries. No other sport, league, etc has as good of rivalries as college football. Nearly every team has them. Everyone is aware of them. OSU v. Michigan. Texas v. Oklahoma. Pitt v. West Virginia. etc, etc,etc. In other sports rivalries are dying out. Sure everyone hates the Bo-Sox or the Chi-Sox but real rivalries? One that the paper has as big headlines? The NFL has a handful of ones but clearly they don't evoke the passions as they used. And don't get me even started on the NBA. Now what makes College Football unique? I think in large part its because of the crazy bowl scenario. Even if your season is over, you can end your rival's season. The greatest build up to a game I was a part was 2006 OSU v Michigan. The reason was that the entire season was on the line. A victory over those people up North would propel the Buckeyes to the championship game, a loss, well a loss nearly guaranteed them being out. A playoff system wouldn't have had the same elimination stakes and as such the passions over it wouldn't be as high.The Money: I might lose my membership in the communist party over this one but the money from College Football (specifically the bowl games) is immense. Ohio State's entire athletic department is nearly based off of its earnings from football. Most major programs are that way. Somehow when I hear that the universities are making tons of money off amateur athletes I have to scratch my head. Its not like the AD directors are CEOs that get huge bonuses off revenue (well maybe the Big 10 Commissioner who uses extra money to build a fleet of hoover yachts manned by genetically altered panda bears who serve premium tequilla). The money goes to paying for non profitable athletes. If a new system is place its hard to imagine that its not only revenue neutral but equally distributed in this manner. In other words to satisfy Herbie's curiosity, some little girl who plays field hockey has his scholarship taken away and can no longer been seen in those short shorts. And that my friends is a shame.
Arbitrariness: There's something wonderful about arbitrary chance that I don't think most people fully appreciate. Think for a second, what do you like most about the NCAA tournament? Its not the crowning achievement of winning it all, its probably the buzzard beater. Or the upstart that makes an unlikely run. In fact the best part of the tournament is when teams who SHOULD not advance do. Does anyone really buy that anytime George Mason was the fourth best team in the country via advancing to the Final 4. Anyone want to bet if George Mason had to play a best of 5 or 7 they'd have really advanced over the big boys? Of course not. The NCAA tournament is great at unpredictability. And yet oddly in College Football the arbitrary capriciousness that is random match ups is wanting to be improved upon by using a tournament that is based on arbitrary almost whimsical outcomes that do not reflect "the best" team. So if your going to embrace winner, then a system thats non-arbitrary (home and home?) should be used.
Homefield: The one thing that's most often overlooked is the homefield advantage some teams have in the bowl system. USC is playing a home game against Illinois in the Rose Bowl, LSU has one in the Sugar Bowl and Florida has one in the Capital One Bowl (little known fact Gainesville has recently been renamed Capital One City). The reason this is tolerated is that for one game droves of fans from the Midwest, East, or Central will travel. Make the system playoffs and suddenly the advantage becomes huge. So will there actually be home games in the playoff system?
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