College Football Playoffs: Will the Smaller Schools be allowed to play?
The argument always offered under the old system (be it pre-BCS or during the BCS) whenever a smaller school(Marshall in the late 90's, early 2000's, Boise State recently) had a good year or were good for a few years was because they played in smaller conference they would lose convincley to a school from bigger conference because the bigger school had better talent. When a smaller school did beat a school from a larger conference especially in a bowl game (Boise State win over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, TCU win Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl) because the margin of victory was small seem to lend credence to this argument. Another argument used against the smaller school was their strength of schedule wasn't strong enough to warrant an invite to a major bowl. When a smaller school tried to counter this by scheduling a school from a larger conference the larger schools wouldn't accept in case they lost or if a series of games were scheduled if the first game was close or the smaller school won then the larger school would drop the series by paying off the smaller school. Also because football schedule are set up in advance if the smaller school at time the game was to be played was playing better than they had when the game was scheduled than again the larger school would drop the smaller school and pay them off. Now that the playoff is here, this seems like this will be the time for the smaller schools to have the opportunity, but will they get that opportunity? Say that two SEC Schools (like Alabama & Georgia) have 1 loss each or one is unbeaten and the other schools' loss was to the other, wouldn't they be more likely to get the invite over say a Boise State? What if there is a school from a bigger conference like say like Michigan State last year which lost only once to a respected school (Notre Dame) and that was early, but went onto to go undefeated in a power conference (the Big 10), wouldn't they be more likely to an invite over a smaller school that went unbeaten in lesser ranked conference and didn't have the same strength of schedule. I know people are going say that's unfair but think about this-don't you think the reasons the bigger schools agreed to a playoff was because they were pretty sure they could maintain the status quo of them winning the national championship. That I have to even bring this up is sad because in life and especially in sports you often have to fail before you or the team finds out what adjustments needs to be made in order for you or the team to win. Besides if a school from a smaller conference were to win the national championship that doesn't mean an end to the status quo. That has happened before and didn't ruin the system or upset the apple cart. The school was BYU and the year was 1984. Now someone's gonna say that BYU isn't your typical school from a small conference because this was during the time period when BYU had a series of good quarterbacks (Marc Wilson, Jim McMahon, Steve Young, & Ty Detmer). That doesn't change the fact that during this time period they played in the WAC which wasn't then, nor is it now a major conference. Besides the quarterback that season wasn't any of the ones listed, it was Robbie Bosco. The reason most people haven't heard of Robbie Bosco is because he wasn't drafted in the 1st Round like most of the listed quarterbacks (he was drafted in the 3rd round by Green Bay and he only played 2 seasons before his career was ended due to a should injury) and he didn't win the Heisman like Detmer (he finished 3rd in 1984). So if a school from a smaller conference can win the national championship especially during the pre-BCS era and not bring down the system shouldn't smaller schools get the opportunity in this era of fairer play? Let's hope so because the beauty of college sports in the one and done system of play which will be in play during the playoffs is anyone can win on a given day/night.
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