Well, well, well. It’s official: we will have a playoff in college football starting in 2014.
As a lot of college presidents are giving themselves pats on the backs and high fives, let’s take a look at the particulars.
- There will be three contract bowls — the Champions Bowl, which is the partnership between the Big 12 and SEC, the Rose Bowl, which will still pit the Big Ten against the Pac 12, and a bowl to be determined for the ACC, which is likely will be the Orange Bowl.
- The semifinals either will be played on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, and the national title game will be played on “Championship Monday,” the first Monday in January that is six or more days after the final semifinal game is played.
The first bullet point should tell you all one thing: the Big East is left out in the cold. Since there will be no more automatic bids going forward, and since it has no major bowl contract, the Big East won’t be part of the party. And while one should never say “never”, given the quality of play in the Big East we could pretty much say “never” to the Big East.
And you know what, I can’t really feel sorry for the Big East. Especially since the Big East has now turned itself into the “Big Continental” with the acquisitions of Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, UCF, Temple and Memphis. All this in a desperate attempt to stay at the adults table with the other major conferences.
The thing is, I don’t think it will make a difference. I think the Big East is on the survival clock. I think Boise State knows it too. Otherwise it would have already officially joined by now. It hasn’t even notified the Mountain West that it’s leaving yet – and the deadline to do so is June 30th.
I personally do not think Boise State will play a down in the Big East. Ditto for San Diego State.
I do feel sorry for Memphis, UCF, and Houston. Leaving Conference USA for the Big East is like a hot chick leaving a shoe salesman for another shoe salesman.
Categories: college football, sports story
Big 12 is hard pushing to bring Notre Dame and Florida State into the fold. Notre Dame is a longshot and Florida State is trying to convince Big 12 to take Clemson so there’s some serious negotiations going on those fronts. I suspect when all plays out Notre Dame will go to the Big 10 just for the regional coverage and it really just makes sense all around. Florida State and Clemson probably will jump ship and head over to Big 12 country and I suspect Boise State will make a major push to join Pac 12 or Big 12 in the next year. Heads up major conferences are on the way!
Champions Bowl – What happened to the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls?