Northeast Stinger
Helluva Engineer
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The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having as many conference champions as possible in a playoff. The more the merrier!
In the basketball playoffs over the years I learned about, and got to watch, teams I’d never heard of who I thought I would not be interested in…teams like Marquette, Butler, Loyola Marymount, Davidson, Pepperdine, Gonzaga, Jacksonville, and the list goes on and on. Why did I watch schools I’d never heard of or would not have normally been interested in watching?
Easy.
I wanted to see the team they were playing against. I wanted to see how they did against heavy weights like Kentucky, UCLA, Duke or North Carolina. I wanted to scout the opposition. I wanted to see if some small student body somewhere could have their dreams fulfilled. I wanted to use this team as a measuring stick for how the entire tournament might go. And, as someone has pointed out, my team having been eliminated did not quell my interest in seeing how all this would finally play out, but, rather, increased my interest.
If there are, say, 24 teams in a college football playoff, you can bet Michigan vs Troy State in a first round would get decent ratings. Michigan haters would tune in to see what weakness Troy State exposed but could not exploit. Michigan fans would tune in to check out their team’s conditioning and efficiency. The fans of every team that might have to face Michigan would tune in to see what they are up against. The fans of every small school football program in the country that has a dream would tune in to watch their proxy team. This kind of interest would build with each round of games.
In the end it would not matter which particular game had the highest rating, whether it was in the second round or in the final. The whole package of ratings for the entire playoff would be the point. And those numbers would be crazy good.
In the basketball playoffs over the years I learned about, and got to watch, teams I’d never heard of who I thought I would not be interested in…teams like Marquette, Butler, Loyola Marymount, Davidson, Pepperdine, Gonzaga, Jacksonville, and the list goes on and on. Why did I watch schools I’d never heard of or would not have normally been interested in watching?
Easy.
I wanted to see the team they were playing against. I wanted to see how they did against heavy weights like Kentucky, UCLA, Duke or North Carolina. I wanted to scout the opposition. I wanted to see if some small student body somewhere could have their dreams fulfilled. I wanted to use this team as a measuring stick for how the entire tournament might go. And, as someone has pointed out, my team having been eliminated did not quell my interest in seeing how all this would finally play out, but, rather, increased my interest.
If there are, say, 24 teams in a college football playoff, you can bet Michigan vs Troy State in a first round would get decent ratings. Michigan haters would tune in to see what weakness Troy State exposed but could not exploit. Michigan fans would tune in to check out their team’s conditioning and efficiency. The fans of every team that might have to face Michigan would tune in to see what they are up against. The fans of every small school football program in the country that has a dream would tune in to watch their proxy team. This kind of interest would build with each round of games.
In the end it would not matter which particular game had the highest rating, whether it was in the second round or in the final. The whole package of ratings for the entire playoff would be the point. And those numbers would be crazy good.
