Yep. RT @john_infante That pretty much makes it official: the entire playoff negotiation was just a way to reduce the Big East to mid major.
— Mark Ennis (@Mengus22) November 12, 2012
New college football playoff system means more power for all ...
... at varying levels. If college football’s new playoff ends up functioning how the BCS power conferences want it to, it’ll still be unfair and top-heavy. However, the little guys will at least have an official, guaranteed shot. Also however, MONEY!
Brian Losness-US PRESSWIRE
That’s the condensed version.
The biggest difference in the revenue distribution, compared to the current BCS system, is that starting in 2014, five conferences -- the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC -- will receive the biggest slices of the revenue. In the current BCS system, the six automatic qualifying BCS leagues, those five plus the Big East, received the lion’s share of the revenue.
In the new format, which the Sports Business Journal reported could be worth $7.3 billion over 12 years, the power five leagues will each receive an equal share, which will dwarf the compensation of the remaining five leagues (Big East, Conference USA, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Mid-American), called the “Group of Five.”
The playoff system could basically amount to adding two BCS bowls while stripping one conference of its automatic qualification spot, then opening that spot up for all the non-AQs.
The Big East has sometimes not really deserved a BCS spot, but the same can be said for the ACC and Big Ten -- each has sent multiple teams ranked in the teens into the eight-team or 10-team BCS. And I’m not really concerned about the Big East remaining a member of the POWER CIRCLE, but about the POWER CIRCLE continuing to exist in the first place.
The little guys make little gains: Jeremy Fowler reports the non-AQ money share would go up from 15 percent of the overall take to 20 percent, which yayy. And there’s expected to be a single spot reserved for the top non-AQ conference champion, which is a legitimate, serious gain.
The five new AQ conferences all will have tie-ins to bowls that will become playoff bowls (the Rose, Sugar and Orange and likely the Fiesta, Chick-fil-A and Cotton will be included -- the former three have tie-ins already set), while the Orange’s non-ACC tie-in goes to either the Big Ten, SEC or Notre Dame, meaning the Big Ten or SEC could have two AQ spots per year.
McMurphy reports the distribution of playoff money would be split according to previous BCS rankings performance, with conferences earning credit both for the performance of their teams’ recent BCS success and the success of teams they’ve brought on from other conferences. Meaning, for instance, the 2014 ACC gets the full benefit of both 1999 Florida State and 1999 Virginia Tech (which met in the national title game), even though Virginia Tech was in the Big East.
It’ll have a playoff attached to it. That part is great. And non-AQs have a path now. That part is great. The rest is the same. Teams with famous logos will make more and better bowls.
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