Comment & Debate
Mark Purdy: “College football playoff sounds great but is a bad idea.” Mercury News. January 8th, 2010: “I attended the Rose Bowl as a fan. […] as I looked around the stadium at all the fans from Ohio State and Oregon, this thought crossed my mind: ‘What if this were a college playoff quarterfinal game? How many of these fans, if their team won, would then be willing to pay $150 or $200 or $275 more per seat the next week, plus hundreds more for travel to another neutral location — say, Miami, for the next playoff round against maybe Boise State?’ […] In other words, for that next hypothetical playoff game — between Ohio State and Boise State — you would be relying largely on the fans of Miami and South Florida to buy tickets. Good luck with that. […] That’s why I claim that the most ardent Boise State fans are making out OK under the current setup. How frustrating would it be for them to face the difficult choice of either (A) maxing out on credit cards and going deep in debt to attend another game far away or (B) staying home and watching on television as their team tries to win a game in the blah atmosphere of a half-empty stadium?
[…] Basically, here’s what I have discovered: The people who cry loudest and longest for a college football playoff system are the people who would not have to pay a dime out of their pockets to watch it. They want playoffs because they think it would be a gas to watch on their family room couches.
They’re correct. A playoff would be a terrific television show. But someone has to pay for it. And it would be hard to ask the average Boise State (or Ohio State or Oregon) fan to travel hither and yon and drain his pockets just so the rest of us can have our remote-control fun.”