How dumb are the people who run Division I-A football not to decide their championship on the field of play the way college basketball does, with teenagers and barely twenty-somethings doing unpredictable, inexplicable, sometimes wonderful but also very human things one night after another in March.
They’re very dumb; world class dumb.
The difference, of course, is that football “playoffs” would have to be conducted during finals and when student-athletes are trying to get papers finished. Basketball is conducted during the middle of the semester.
Universities aren’t sports teams, regardless of how much sports fans and boosters want them to be.
Wow, a true believer. Certainly, however, a relatively small tournament could be held over late December and early January without causing any more disruption than the current schedule.
To be honest, it feels to me like we need to divorce colleges from big time athletics. People are under the misconception that colleges get revenue from athletics. This is untrue. College athletics get revenue from athletics. The universities themselves generally do not benefit from the sports business. In fact, it’s where the pollution comes from.
Nothing Universities do will ever make sports fans happy, because we insist upon providing an education, which is secondary to what they consider the role of a university to be: trying to win a national championship.
Two things:
Exams at most colleges end by the 15th-16th of December and classes don’t resume again until mid-January.
The other divisions have a football playoff.
In fact, Division I-A Collegiate Football is the only division, or sport that does not have some sort of tournament and or definite championship.
Although Ralph is correct about the fact that in general, universities do not directly gain financially from athletics, the communities, however, do. Many jobs are created for both students and the general public.