Football Playoffs

Today's blog was written by Steve Vasturia.  Steve is a junior business major and was a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion Founder and Director Professor Clark Power and Program Director Kristin Sheehan last semester.  In addition to his studies, Steve is also a guard on the Notre Dame Men's Basketball Team. 

This past year was the first season that college football used a playoff format in order to crown a National Champion. This has been a hotly debated topic over the past few years, and I think it was great to see this playoff system rather than the old BCS points and rankings system. The four team playoff this year was not only much more exciting than in years past, but it gave a plethora of teams the opportunity to compete for a championship. As we start the second year of the new system, I think this will improve the game.

In years past, there always seemed to be a team or two that may have been undefeated, but was not able to compete for a title because the computers/sports writers did not believe they deserved to play for a championship. This created immense controversy and really left a bad taste in teams' mouths. I think the college football playoff is great for the game and I hope they will continue to expand the playoff to eight, or maybe sixteen teams as the years go on. I would compare this to what college basketball does for their tournament, which I've been privileged enough to play in. Everybody loves March Madness. It is exciting, and there is so much pressure on these teams to succeed. The best team to find a way to navigate through a field of sixty-four teams gets to raise a trophy in the beginning of April. This is the kind of excitement and energy that the college football playoff brought this past fall.

Ohio State took home the national championship in this inaugural year and it was the first time that an SEC team did not win a title in a long time.  An SEC team didn't even make it to the final game. I think the playoff system also shows how much parity that there is in collegiate athletics which is not only great for the sport, but for the fans as well. The playoff system has some flaws, and people will still think their teams deserved to make the playoff, but in my opinion it is great for the sport and will continue to improve over their years.