[82lsju]

The real reason the NCAA has not been able to control "D1A" football playoffs, AKA FBS, is because the powers that be couldn't wean themselves off the bowl game system. They still can't. The latest talk about expanded playoffs still has them being played at bowl venues, not campuses themselves as it should be. 

The NCAA can't control the post season when it doesn't own or have purview over the events that are essential to the post-season structure.  This writing has been on the wall for a long time. The NCAA needed to find a way to wrest control away from the bowl games, but it didn't have the financial clout, imagination, vision, or drive to compete with them. The NCAA needed to offer conferences money to not participate in bowl games and develop its own post season but did not. 

It's just pathetic that the NCAA let these bowl shakedown operations (and that's what they are for those who own and profit from them) take away the asset it has with the most potential value, and the sport that was the basis of its founding.

It's a really odd situation because many of the same people making decisions about the NCAA as members who need it for other sports are also the same ones wanting to take the highest level of football away from it.

on bowl games 

- most appear to be breakeven at best for the teams
- the big draw for many teams seems to be two weeks of extra practice leading up to their bowl game
- if teams were allowed to either go to a bowl and get two weeks of extra practice or just have two weeks of extra practice I wonder how many would opt for the later

of course ESPN "needs" the games as programming in Dec, but maybe if the teams could get their extra practice ESPN would have to pay more for the games so the games could pay the schools more to get them to attend...

[82lsju]

The real reason the NCAA has not been able to control "D1A" football playoffs, AKA FBS, is because the powers that be couldn't wean themselves off the bowl game system. They still can't. The latest talk about expanded playoffs still has them being played at bowl venues, not campuses themselves as it should be. 

The NCAA can't control the post season when it doesn't own or have purview over the events that are essential to the post-season structure.  This writing has been on the wall for a long time. The NCAA needed to find a way to wrest control away from the bowl games, but it didn't have the financial clout, imagination, vision, or drive to compete with them. The NCAA needed to offer conferences money to not participate in bowl games and develop its own post season but did not. 

It's just pathetic that the NCAA let these bowl shakedown operations (and that's what they are for those who own and profit from them) take away the asset it has with the most potential value, and the sport that was the basis of its founding.

It's a really odd situation because many of the same people making decisions about the NCAA as members who need it for other sports are also the same ones wanting to take the highest level of football away from it.

on bowl games 

- most appear to be breakeven at best for the teams
- the big draw for many teams seems to be two weeks of extra practice leading up to their bowl game
- if teams were allowed to either go to a bowl and get two weeks of extra practice or just have two weeks of extra practice I wonder how many would opt for the later

of course ESPN "needs" the games as programming in Dec, but maybe if the teams could get their extra practice ESPN would have to pay more for the games so the games could pay the schools more to get them to attend...