The night before the election, ESPN's Chris Berman interviewed both Barack Obama and John McCain. The interviews were shown on Monday Night Football. Neither candidate took the program particularly seriously, but Barack Obama said something that I found interesting. He said, as President, he would advocate for a Playoff System in College Football.
If anything, I thought the move was a political ploy. On November 3rd, Penn State and Florida were #3 and #4 in the BCS Standings. As those of us football-inclined Kossacks know, this means that they would be excluded from the championship game. And it's no surprise that Pennsylvania and Florida were major swing states in the election. If anything, I figured Obama was extending an olive branch to football fans in the states.
But then I watched 60 minutes tonight, and Obama reiterated his suggestion.
"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."
If Obama interferes with college football, he wouldn't be the first President to do so. Back in 1969, Richard Nixon crowned Texas the national champions after Penn State and Texas finished the season with unblemished records. Why anyone left the national championship awarding to Richard Nixon is beyond me, but the point remains.
Should Barack Obama intervene in college football? I'm not sure it's exactly the most pressing issue in our lives. Hell, it's really not important at all, when you consider the War in Iraq, the struggling economy, and tensions with Iran, but it would be quite a bit simpler to perfect. Sure, the league commissioners and some fans might not support the move, but who would argue with the President?
Logically, the idea of a playoff system is a great one. It's very rare that the season ends up with two one-loss teams or two undefeated teams and it seems to be pure guesswork. The Democratic way would be to promote equality among all teams, no matter what conference they happen to play in, or whether they lost in August or November. But there are many opponents of the system who say that it would lower the significance of every game.
Either way, is this something Barack Obama should do? Does the government have any place interfering with sports? Even if it is the right thing to do, should Obama be the one to bring about a college football playoff system?