This is a message to non-sports fans as well as sports fans. On December 31, four college football teams from big-time football schools, the old Division I-A which is now called the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), will start a three-game playoff for the so-called national championship. These three teams are Alabama, Clemson, Michigan State, and Oklahoma. Although many sportswriters and sportscasters will often say so, the winner of this three-game playoff will NOT be the national champion of the FBS. They will merely be the winner of this four-team playoff.
The NCAA regulates 90 collegiate sports, counting men’s and women’s; however, it only crowns 89 champions. These 89 champion teams and individuals are crowned champions on the field of play, usually in a tournament in which all teams and individuals are eligible to participate in their respective divisions. The NCAA has never sanctioned an official championship for its highest level of football, now known as Division I FBS.
In the past, any Division 1 FBS team placing first in any of a number of season-ending media polls, most notable the AP Poll of writers and the Coaches Poll, was called the “national champion.” Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s the sports world labelled this so-called champion the “mythical” champion in full recognition that the team was not crowned as a result of competition on the field of play. Through the years they stopped providing this accurate description.
Starting in 2014, the College Football Playoff system – a consortium of the conferences and independent schools that compete in Division I FBS and six bowl games – placed the top four teams (based on a thirteen-member committee that selects and seeds the teams) into two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to compete in the College Football Playoff Championship. The winner of the game receives a trophy; however, since the NCAA awards no national championship for Division I FBS football, this trophy does not denote “NCAA” as all other NCAA college sports national championship trophies do.
The FBS officials and supporters offer several reasons for this aberrant way to treat a sport. Often they say it makes the season too long and/or it requires too many games. These arguments are ludicrous in the face of what happens in the other divisions of collegiate football. Each of these divisions conducts playoffs. This year, with 24 teams in the tournament, the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (the old Division II-A) played four rounds through December 19 with their national championship game coming on January 9. NCAA Division II featured 28 teams playing five rounds with Sheperd College winning the national championship on December 19. The NCAA Division III tournament included 24 teams playing five rounds, with Mt Union College winning the national championship on December 18. And the NAIA with 16 teams playing four rounds crowned their national champion, Southern Oregon on December 19. Even high school teams play real tournaments. For example, in Virginia the high schools recently concluded five-round playoffs for the state championships in five divisions. So there is no logistical reason why only one division, the FBS, cannot present a playoff.
You may ask, “So what?” and “Why?” Well, the result of this odd way of conducting a sport–choosing winners by voting–robs fans and teams of the competition for championships that prevails in all other sports in college and professional leagues, except FBS football. Why? If we follow the money we can probably see our answer. This year there are 41 bowls, thus 82 teams competing in bowl games, with millions of dollars being distributed to teams in respective conferences as well as teams participating in the bowls. It is likely the money would not be spread as widely and/or proportionately among conferences and teams with a 16-team playoff. I will have more to say about the money in collegiate sports later.