NCAA Would Back Football Playoff, But Support Still Lacking
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Brand Says NCAA Would Support Schools
If They Decided To Implement A Playoff |
NCAA President Myles Brand this morning said if schools decide to move toward a Division I-A college football playoff, the NCAA will help, but he stressed it is not the organization’s decision. Speaking at the 7th annual IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by SportsBusiness Daily/SportsBusiness Journal, Brand said, “We’re prepared to work with the conferences and the individual schools, whatever they want to do. If and when they decide to move to a playoff system, however it looks, we’re there to help. It’s not our job to make that decision.” Brand added if there were a movement toward a playoff, “real attention has to be paid not to degrade the regular season.” Brand: “Financially, you have a real risk if you turn football into a tournament sport so you’re going to have to figure out a way to create a championship that doesn’t put the emphasis on the postseason and take it away from the regular season, which will negatively affect the long-term media rights contracts.” Univ. of Georgia President Michael Adams said about 30-40% of college presidents are in favor of a Division I-A college playoff. Adams said, “The closer you get to the BCS selection process, the less you like it, and we’ve been pretty close the last three or four years.” Adams: “We have a process now that doesn’t take the fans into consideration to the extent that I think is needed. … I don’t think these things ought to be decided by a computer.”
SUPPORT LACKING: Ohio State President Gordon Gee said among the BCS conferences there is “very little support” for a Division I-A playoff. Gee: “I think the playoff system is a slippery slope which finally would professionalize intercollegiate athletics and we just simply cannot go there.” Gee: “When I see a football player, I see a backpack. I don’t see a helmet, and that’s my responsibility.” Penn State Univ. President Graham Spanier agreed that a college football playoff is not likely to happen anytime soon, saying, “The overwhelming sentiment among the conferences and the school’s representatives in the BCS Oversight Committee and among the commissioners is really to stick with the general concept that we have.”
MADE FOR TV? Spanier said he does not think ESPN’s deal with the BCS through 2014 makes a playoff any more or less likely. Spanier: “(ESPN) has said consistently that they will work with us on whatever we want to do. That’s a decision for us. And wherever we end up, and if it evolves over time, I believe they will be flexible. … But there is no pressure from television to move in one direction or another” (THE DAILY).
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