ELMQUIST: NCAA football playoffs coming too late for fans

June 28, 2012

ELMQUIST: NCAA football playoffs coming too late for fans

By Jason Elmquist jelmquist@stwnewspress.com The Stillwater News Press Thu Jun 28, 2012, 04:28 PM CDT

STILLWATER, Okla. — It’s all a day late and a dollar short.

That’s sure to be the viewpoint for many Oklahoma State fans.

Five months after the OSU football program ended its most historic season with a victory over Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl, plans have been approved to boot the BCS for a playoff system.

All this is fine and dandy, except for those teams that in years past — like the 2011 Cowboy crew — have fallen victim to the BCS blunders and settled for watching a national championship game between two teams that were essentially voted in.

For Boise State and its years on the outside looking in as an undefeated team not playing in the title bout. For the countless one-loss teams being shunned for another one-loss team to the split national title year, the playoff is coming far too late.

Most importantly, the playoff is coming too late for fans of college football.

How many fans would have loved to have seen Louisiana State and Southern Cal duke it out for the outright title in 2003 — not to mention how much more money would have been spent to see that clash of titans? Who wouldn’t have loved to have seen undefeated Boise State go toe-to-toe with a one-loss Florida team in 2006 — especially after such an exciting ending to top Oklahoma?

Or even this past season. Not just for OSU fans, but for college football fans.

here was no doubt that after watching an exciting offensive showcase between Oklahoma State and Stanford, the letdown of a shutout by Alabama over LSU spurred a desire to see if OSU’s offense could have cracked the Tide defense.

Instead, fans will simply sit for another two years and ponder who would have won between the two semifinal champions with just a mere week to prepare.

Fans will get to wonder if come 2014 the new system will figure out the age old question of “who gets left out?” — though we all know that come football’s selection Sunday, we will all be wondering “why did a one-loss team slip into the four spot over an unbeaten (insert non-BCS conference team here)?”

Thank you committee members for finally trying to correct the mistakes that have plagued the most popular college sport for years.

But it’s a day late and a dollar short.

Jason Elmquist is the sports editor for The Stillwater NewsPress.

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