Obama says he'll push for eight-team playoff

[IDemo]

AP -updated 3:46 p.m. MT, Sat., Nov. 15, 2008

NEW YORK - It’s not exactly at the top of his agenda, but President-elect Barack Obama says there should be a college football playoff to determine a national champion. In fact, he knows exactly what he wants — an eight-team playoff.

In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Obama addresses a subject college football fans have debated for many years, and says he will use his influence to create such a system.

“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. We should be creating a playoff system,” he tells CBS’ Steve Kroft in an interview to be broadcast Sunday.

According to Obama’s proposed system, eight teams would play over three rounds to settle the national champion.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27738481/

[joeybee12]

1. I've always said there should be 8...he stole my idea!

Well, if this moves them closer to a play-off system, amen.

[hughee99]

2. 8+ years from now when Obama leaves office...

There will still not be a playoff. He'll bring peace to the Middle East and end our dependence on oil altogether (foreign or domestic) before this gets done. The good ole' boy bowl committees don't need the government, and they certainly won't allow someone else to tell them how to do their business (basically, think "Augusta National"). The amount of pressure and "political capitol" Obama would have to use to get this done, would simply not be worth it. There would be a lot of people pissed that he didn't put this sort of effort into more important issues.

I'd love to see this, but it's not going to get done by political pressure.

[Redbear]

3. I think the main question to resolve is whether you

just take the top 8 teams in the rankings

OR do you reward conference champions (and which conferences?) plus a wildcard or two or three.

If its the former, the first round matchups (barring any upsets and assuming a Florida loss to Bama doesn't drop them from Top 8)

Alabama v. Boise State
Texas Tech v. Florida
Texas v. Penn State
USC v. Utah

If its the later(and you use the Big 6 plus 2 wildcards)

Alabama v. Cincinnati
Texas Tech v. ACC Champ
Texas v. Oregon State
Penn State v. USC

[Bill McBlueState]

9. With 16 teams,

you could have all the conference champions plus five wildcards.

I don't support any system where some conferences automatically get treated better than others. Just look at this season -- why should the ACC get a systematic advantage over the Mountain West?

[erpowers]

4. Extremely Stupid

I contend it is extremely stupid for him to waste time pushing for a football playoff. We are in the middle of two wars, will have $900 billion in decifits, an economy on the brink, and a host of other issues. He should push his weight around to fix those problems not the football national championship. I think a playoff would be better than the current situation, but I do not think politicans should get involved in this situation. Finally, I know I might get flamed for saying this, but I will say it anyway, if Barack Obama wanted to deal with the way in which college football is operated he should have run for a spot on some commission that dealt with college football or applied for the job of college president not American President.

[Auggie]

5. I agree. I respect the Mr. President-Elect.

But stay out of sports.

[road2000]

6. Yes.

This of how much better off we'd be if Bush had gone for baseball commissioner.

[El Supremo]

7. But baseball wouldn't have been better.

With *'s track record, we'd see the the folding of both leagues!

[Iggo]

8. And there'd be 4200 extra American soldiers...

...still around to see it.

Perspective, friends.