[College Football]Playoff Plunderer (Big 10's Jim Delany)

College sports is not about student-athletics and education regardless of how they try to camouflage it. The NCAA can run all the commercials about "turning pro in something other than sports" all the want to. It is a charade for most of the athletes.

What are you basing this on? The facts don't back up this broad assertion. The graduation rate for Division I student-athletes is 77%, compared to 63% for non student-athletes. Even in Division I-A football, the graduation rate is slightly better than for non-athletes, at 66%. Men's basketball is below average, with a graduation rate of 59%.

Yeah, also Nebraska...they had 4 losses...USC, Texas, OU and one to OSU...based on that, shouldn't they be ranked higher? They lost to Auburn by 3 and really outplayed them...just got outcoached. Ok, ok, my Husker Red blood is showing :o)

You could have a very viable D1 playoff with 8 teams. These are the eight teams that play in the four major BCS bowls (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta), all these games would be played within a few days of Jan 1. The major bowls and conferences would still get their money this way. The four remaining teams would play the following week (note this is the same time that the current BCS "championship" is played. The final two teams would then play in a much hyped game in late January during the dead weekend before the Superbowl. A playoff like this would generate huge fan interest, comparable to March Madness.

Baby steps.

We have in place this year, for the first time, a brand new "Championship Game" one week after the New Year's games.

The next step is to line up the top 4 teams in two of the BCS bowls and then have them play in the title game the next week. Sounds like this may not be possible until the current Rose Bowl contract runs out in 2012. So enjoy what we have and prepare for the next step.

I think 8 teams gets two complicated and takes away from the bowl system. Are there more than 4 legitimate contenders in most years? I think not.

Big 10 controls more TV sets - More big TV markets

It's been a while since I've looked at TV markets. Off the top of my head, Chicago is the only top market that I can think of in the Big-10. Philly might be considered a big market. Cleveland lost that status some years ago. Cincinnati, Detroit? Perhaps the Twin Cities.

ACC gets all of Florida, Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington/Baltimore/NoVa, and Boston.

If you have some hard numbers, I'd like to see them, because I could be wrong, but until I see some data, I'll lean toward the position that the ACC probably beats out the Big 10.

The Big 10 may lead on average stadium size.

If you have some hard numbers, I'd like to see them, because I could be wrong, but until I see some data, I'll lean toward the position that the ACC probably beats out the Big 10.

I'm just going by the article

The Big Ten is the nation's biggest conference, a collection of 11 universities that covers an area with almost 25 percent of the nation's TV households and prompts television networks to genuflect

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