Obama still pushing for college football playoffs

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

Photo: Barack Obama during an October campaign stop in Tampa. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Comments

[Vroo]

We don't need to add "three weeks to the season" as President-elect Obama suggests, and we don't need to have teams play more games. There is a way to fit playoffs *into* the current system rather than tacking it on at the end: we don't need a "plus one" or "plus eight" system.

Check out http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dct7gc5t_14kxfx42d9 for a detailed proposal and here's a summary:

* The national champion is determined by head-to-head play among the best teams.
* All teams play the same number of games they would now except for the two teams playing in the national championship game.
* All teams that play bowl games now will still play in a bowl game.
* Polls and computer rankings are not a determining factor.
* BCS conference teams schedule one less game than they do now which is *replaced* by playing an extra game against a correspondingly ranked opponent: Division champions play in the conference championship game; Other teams play an inter-conference game.
* The winner of a BCS conference championship game automatically qualifies for the playoffs.
* Other playoff teams are selected on the basis of win-loss record and tie-break points.
* Quarterfinals are played before the bowl games. (Teams that lose in the quarterfinals still play a bowl game.)
* Semifinals are played as bowl games.
* The national championship is played after the bowl games, just as it is now.

[Mike D]

It's amazing that high school football players have a longer season than college football players.

[Mike]

A playoff would be nice. That said there is NOTHING wrong with college football other than the conspiracy associated with media greed. Let's not screw it up by getting the government involved. Obama's attention should be focused on our national security and our economy.

[David Planchon]

What happen to fixing the economy as his top priority?
Now we learn he’s more concern about a college playoff.
I can’t believe I voted for this idiot.
He isn’t qualified to be President, the conditions in this country will only worsen under an Obama Presidency.
The biggest mistake this country ever made was not letting
Bill Clinton run for a 3rd + 4th and 5th term.
There would have been no “W” and no Obama.
Obama will only carryout “W” incompetent legacy.
What next an executive order for the N.B.A to do away with the lottery and stop subsidizing the W.N.B.A.
Now we can tell our grand kids how we survived the greatest depression ever.
“Yes We Can”

[Jethro]

This whole thing is unbelievable. It is NOT the job of the President of the United States of America to micro-manage college sports. Sure, a playoff would be better than the bowl system. But, that's up to the colleges to decide, not the POTUS.

The President-Elect says we will "though his weight around a little." I certainly hope not. His job is that of chief executive, not that of popular culture commissioner. And, that "it is the right thing to do." I disagree. I dearly hope he keeps his influence out of college sports. To do otherwise would be an abuse of his power. I also dearly hope that we, as a society, have not so totally descended to a state whereby we seek out the influence of the government to solve all of our problems for us. How sad!

My own solution to the BCS/bowl system is to let ONLY the conference champions to play in the post-season. The conference champions, plus a deserving independent will participate in a playoff.

[bob bolin]

Will all of you people grow up, 1st off, I m NOT a OBama supporter. That said, right is right. He only commented on this because he was asked fiirst on espn(during campaigning, and where better to get votes from middle and lower class males.) but on 60 minutes a News program that asked him about these things. NOT in the middle of his state of the union address. We got him, and are going to have him for at least 4 years, give him a chance.

[Peek-a-boo poop]

The greedy @#!%$%$ running the BCS will never ever give up their stranglehold on college football. Its all about money folks, they have a ton of dollars coming in from these bowl games and they are never going to give it up and us fans are the ones who suffer.

[Chris Manion]

This is how i think it would best work.At the end of the Conference Championship week(Dec.7 this year) a poll of the top 8 teams should be made.Those eight teams would play against each other the following week(Dec.13).With 1 vs. 8,2 vs. 7,etc...Then the following week(Dec.20)the remaining 4 teams play each other.The 2 winning teams advance to a BCS National Championship while the rest of the teams play their respective bowl games.If the team advancing to the BCS final is from the SEC,then the second place team takes its place at the Surgar Bowl.If both teams in the BCS final were from the SEC,then the third best team would be its representitive.This way it would ensure the best teams from the best Conferences could meet in the BCS final.This would make everyone happy and only add a couple of games to a few teams,with bowl games still staying on the same dates!!!Chris M.