Obama still pushing for college football playoffs

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President-elect Barack Obama tells ‘60 Minutes’ that he will continue to push for a college football playoff system.

Obama had raised the idea during an election-eve interview conducted by ESPN’s Chris Berman.

‘If you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner,’ told ’60 Minutes.’ ‘We should be creating a playoff system.’

‘Eight teams,’ Obama said. ‘That would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.’

Obama’s full interview will be aired Sunday at 7 p.m. on Channel 2.

An eight-team playoff? USC coach Pete Carroll probably supports the president-elect. But few university presidents want to add even one game to the season.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive’s proposal for an extra game, the so-called ‘Plus-One’ model, was resoundingly rejected during meetings last spring in Florida.

The six Bowl Championship Series commissioners announced they will continue the current model at least through the 2013 season.

And, with the war in Iraq, tax reform and a health-care overhaul among the issues on his plate, one suspects that if Obama runs for reelection in four years, he’ll still be appearing on halftime shows to tout a college football playoff system.

Unless he signs an executive order?

-- Chris Dufresne and Diane Pucin