Proceed with caution in regard to college football’s playoff

Ready or not, college football fans, but a long-awaited playoff has finally hit your sport.

If you haven’t heard, the power brokers of the sport have agreed to create a four-team playoff that will begin in the 2014 season.

The news of the playoff pumped tons of excitement into fans who have long wanted change.

Initially, I was one of those people brainwashed into thinking the evil BCS system was bad for college football.

But is it really?

After some debate, I am now of the belief that this playoff may be harmful to college football.

For that reason, I am nervous about what the future holds.

I am proceeding with caution regarding the playoff for two reasons.

The first is the risk of future expansion.

Sure, the playoff system is just four teams right now. But in the 1970s, the NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball featured 22 teams.

It now has 68 teams and counting.

Greed rules the world of college sports and if this system is a success, it will grow – something I consider to be suicide for the sport.

The reason we love college football as heavily as we do is because every game counts.

Every snap could either propel a team to a championship game or thrust them into the abyss otherwise known as the Independence Bowl.

The year the Saints won the Super Bowl, they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who were 3-13 in that season.

If LSU lost to North Texas in their season opener on Sept. 1, their shot at winning the national championship would be on life support (and rightfully so).

Expanding the playoff format to four will already cause the sport to lose some of its “now or never” feel.

That, in and of itself, is something that has me weary of the new system.

If a four team playoff existed last season, LSU could have legitimately rested its starters and lost to Georgia in the SEC Championship game and still easily made the playoffs.

Someone tell me how college football benefits if a conference championship game is irrelevant?

If the playoff format expands to six (it will in the future), it will be worse and back-end regular season games will be in jeopardy. When it expands to eight or, heaven forbid, 16, it will be absolutely miserable and teams will be able to rest early in the season in hopes of making a late-season push to reach the playoff field.

Does anyone think that’s good for the sport?

I surely don’t.

The second reason why I don’t fully support the four-team playoff alignment is because I don’t think it will do anything to solve the bickering and gripes people had with the BCS.

The BCS has been ruling college football since the 1998 season.

That means a total of 14 teams have been crowned as champion under the No. 1 vs. No. 2 format.

Of the 28 teams selected to play in the big game over the years, I challenge you to find me three who didn’t deserve their spot.

Sure, in 2003, it should have been LSU vs. USC.

Sure, in 2004, it should have been USC vs. Auburn.

But aside from that, where else did the system fail?

To me, the BCS is shooting more than 90 percent. Mark me down as one who doesn’t think that’s a bad ratio for success.

But how about the new system?

How often will it get the four best teams into the playoff field?

History shows No. 4 and No. 5 are often much closer in the standings than No. 2 and No. 3 are.

That means more gripes and complaints, which ultimately leads to pressure for change.

Pressure for change means expansion.

We just detailed how expansion will kill the sport.

For perspective, let’s look at the 2011 season.

The No. 4 team (the final playoff qualifier) would have been Stanford.

The No. 5 team (the first team left out) would have been Oregon.

Oregon beat Stanford 53-30 on the road.

Does anyone at home really think the Ducks wouldn’t have a legitimate gripe about being left out of the field?

How about in 2010?

In that season, the No. 4 team would have again been Stanford.

No. 5 would have been Wisconsin and No. 6 would have been Ohio State.

Stanford, Wisconsin and Ohio State all had just one loss in the regular season.

Does anyone at home really think the Badgers and Buckeyes wouldn’t have legitimate arguments about being stuck at home?

The truth is the system will not solve anything except the finances of a few greedy businessmen.

The BCS was not perfect. But in fairness, it was pretty darned good at giving us the two most deserving teams.

Will this system do that?

I’m not quite sure.

Maybe I’m wrong – we all know I’ve been wrong before.

But I’m proceeding with caution regarding this college football playoff.

The reward is steep and it could be great.

But the risk is ruining the integrity of the greatest sport in the world.

I’m not fully sure yet if that reward matches that risk.

Time will tell.

I’m going to proceed with caution.