# What's keeping us from D-IA college football playoffs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586 "2006-10-07T04:29:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![happywaffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@happywaffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happywaffle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/1 "2006-10-07T04:29:34Z")
The fans want it, the coaches want it, the players want it, the media wants it, and given the number of games that could be played, I can only assume there’s a ridiculous amount of money to be made. But I always hear that the conference commissioners and athletic directors are dead-set against a college football playoff system. What’s their rationale? I’m gonna take it for granted with this question that the whole “academic” excuse (i.e. we can’t keep kids out of class) holds no water at all. If it did, we wouldn’t have playoffs in EVERY OTHER COLLEGE TEAM SPORT. Besides that, why not have a playoff? Let me repeat the part that should matter most to the top brass: there’s MONEY to be made, isn’t there? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/2 "2006-10-07T06:57:45Z")
Just a stab, but given that about 1/2 of the teams from each major conference go to bowl games, that’s alot of bowl games and money. I think everyone assumes a playoff would be no more than a 16 team, and possibly even an 8 team event. ---
**Author:** ![happywaffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@happywaffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happywaffle)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/3 "2006-10-07T13:15:30Z")
I’ve heard it suggested to keep the bowl games, and just convert 13 of them (8+4+2+1) into the playoff games. Or 7 of them (4+2+1) for an abbreviated playoff run. Surely something like that’s been suggested to the bigwigs. Maybe it would still hurt their bottom line? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/4 "2006-10-07T13:21:02Z")
The old “playoffs would take away from class time” canard doesn’t hold water at all, if you consider at the lower NCAA levels the players deal just fine with their playoffs. I’ve been wanting one for years, and it probably would kick, but I am concerned about all the other bowls who wouldn’t get a playoff game-will they fade and disappear from the schedule? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/5 "2006-10-07T13:34:36Z")
Moved to GD in 5… ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-keeping-us-from-d-ia-college-football-playoffs/375586/6 "2006-10-07T22:34:14Z")
The factual answer is that the current system maximizes revenue to the schools in the major conferences. Since they control the decision making process (as an aggregate), it’s not likely to change. The current system [guarantees bowl game invitations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Bids_to_Non-BCS_Bowls) to a fixed number of teams from each conference, and those invitations are worth millions of dollars. So, for example, for the Pac-10 Conference, the current system guarantees that six of the ten member schools will get bowl invitations. In an open system, where teams advance to playoff games based on merit, those automatic bids are gone and the dollars are no longer guaranteed. A true playoff system isn’t even slightly appealing to the folks that make the decison.