Finally, a playoff system for College Football.  Everyone may be cheering, but is it enough?  It is a commonly known fact that the complaining will begin for teams ranked five through eight once the top four are selected for the playoffs.

This past season it was clear who the top four teams were so it would have been an easy selection.  The questions will arise when there are more than four legitimate championship contenders.  Everything comes down to money.  The amount of money for the bowl games compared to the playoff and bowl game combination is a major difference.

What the average fan forgets to realize is the amount of time that the playoff system would take.  Teams that are in the later bowls miss class time as it is.  So an eight or ten team playoff is out of the question because it would take too long and the athletes would miss too much class time.

Personally I think a six team playoff would be the best option.  The one and two seeds would get a first week bye and three would play six and four would play five.  The winner of those will play one and two.  This would create a total of five games which would make it perfect for the big game to be on New Years Day which every college football fan wants.

The National Championship being on a Monday at 8:30pm is a waste of time.  If they moved it to New Years Day at 6:00pm like the Super Bowl then I firmly believe there would be a large increase in viewers.  It is early enough where viewers don’t have to be worried about being up super late and getting to work and school early the next morning.

The five games that would come from the six team playoff would be the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl, and finally the National Championship.  This way those major bowl games hold an even larger importance then they did without the playoff system.

Another positive for the six team playoff is that there is less chance of discrepancy from the number six team compared to the number seven team in relation to the number four team compared to the number five team.

No matter what there will be complaining from the teams that just miss the cut, but if there is a way to minimize the complaints it would be by increasing the number of teams in the playoff without making it too many where it becomes an inconvenience to the student athletes.

Regardless, it is about time a playoff system will take over and it is certainly a step in the right direction.  I can see some changes being made after the first few seasons to improve the system but at least every fan can be relieved that the BCS era is arguably over.

With the news of the overspending and overindulgence of former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, the days of being a part of the BCS could be in the past.  Officials from the Fiesta Bowl were forced to plead their case to stay in the BCS coalition, but the BCS is holding final judgement until a later date and until they uncover any more abuse of expenses.

Junker allegedly spent over $350,000 of Fiesta Bowl funds in the last ten years on campaign contributions, automobiles, a $30,000 birthday party at Pebble Beach and trips to various strip clubs, while he ran the show. 

The results of the investigation could result in the Fiesta Bowl losing its place as a BCS, but Junker’s well-documented debauchery has also led to an investigation into the other three BCS bowls–the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Rose Bowl.

So far, it looks like the Rose Bowl is clean, but the rumors are swirling that the Orange and Sugar Bowls aren’t exactly squeaky clean.  The NCAA and BCS will continue to dig into these allegations, but with spring football in full-swing on most college campuses and summer right around the corner, look for a decision very soon as to whether or not there will be a BCS game in Glendale, Arizona next January.

Should the Fiesta lose its standing in the BCS, several cities, including Atlanta and Dallas have the venues and resources to host a BCS game.

At the conclusion of this year’s Sugar Bowl, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow wrapped up one of the most storied collegiate football careers of all time.  No one is disputing that.  What is up for debate is how well Tebow’s skill set will translate into the NFL.

College FootBlog will break down the things that made him so successful over the last four years, and we will analyze the degree of success that those skills and attributes should translate to the NFL.

Tim Tebow will have a lot to prove in his first NFL season (google images)

1.  Size/Strength:

At 6 ft 3 and 245 pounds, Tebow is much bigger than the average linebacker, even at the SEC level.  He had the ability to run over the majority of linebackers and DB’s for four seasons.

Will that size and strength translate into the NFL? Not by any stretch of the imagination–not only are NFL linebackers just as big as Tebow, they are much more physical.  Tebow will be in for a rude awakening if he tries to run over Ray Lewis or any NFL linebacker, for that matter.

2.  Running Ability: While Tebow has never been compared to Pat White in terms of speed, he was fast enough to break off big runs throughout his stellar career.  It will be interesting to see his 40-time at the combine this year, but it will be shocking if it is better than 4.6 seconds.

How will his speed translate to the NFL? In the NFL, there are quite a few defensive ends who run 4.6 or better.  At the linebacker position, there are even more players who are below the 4.6 range.

3.  Touchdown/Interception Ratio: Tebow not only put up huge rushing numbers in college, but he also proved many doubters wrong by being a very efficient passer as well.  Over his career, he had 88 TDs and only 16 interceptions.

Will that accuracy translate to the NFL? The odds are against him.  There was a significant drop off his senior season, after the losses of wideout Louis Murphy, who started as a rookie for the Raiders and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, Percy Harvin.

4.  Leadership: There is one thing you cannot take away from Tebow–the young man is a winner.  His tenacity and toughness led and inspired his teammates throughout his collegiate career.

Will it translate to the NFL? To an extent–while Tebow will not lose his charisma and moxy, if he wants to be viewed as a leader in the NFL, he will have to earn the respect on the field from his teammates.  Off the field, there will be no questioning his drive and leadership abilities, but in the NFL, it is all about what a player does on the field.

Overall, will Tebow make a huge splash in the NFL?

If the history of his peers is any indicator, it may be a rough go of things.  Highly-touted QBs from the major Florida programs have not fared well in the NFL (see Rex Grossman, Chris Weinke, Danny Wuerffel, Ken Dorsey, Geno Torretta, etc, etc, etc…).

While all of the above mentioned quarterbacks had fantastic college careers, they all had distinct advantages of the speed and athleticism of their wide receivers versus inferior defensive backs.  In the NFL, the windows to complete passes are not only much tighter, but if the ball is not delivered at the precise moment, that small opening is quickly shut and can just as quickly turn into a pick-six.  The absence of that speed and talent advantage they had in college proved to be detrimental in each of their careers, and could very well be the same for Tim Tebow, but only time will tell.

Every year I look forward to the chance that I have to watch football day after day and, in particular, to see teams compete against each other that might otherwise never meet on the field had they not made it to a bowl. And this year has, once again, delivered some highly engaging football. Often, when the schedule is released too many people look at the obviously imbalanced or even the lesser-known face-offs and deem the games predictable or uninteresting, and ultimately, not worth the time and effort it takes to watch them. I will be honest in saying that I have been guilty of the same practice on occasion.

But this bowl season has changed that. With many games being decided in the last seconds of regulation play, it has been an exciting time to watch. I have noticed myself moving through channels and searching out bowl games with lower ranked teams and, surprisingly, really gaining interest in the games. Then I had the chance on New Year’s Day to watch the Iowa State Cyclones and the Minnesota Golden Gophers duke it out in the Insight.com bowl. Coming into the match-up, both teams had earned six wins on the season.  And, truthfully, they were rather exciting to watch. The teams had great talent and made significant plays on both sides of the ball.  Although both the Cyclones and the Gophers are two teams that I otherwise would not follow, I found myself resoundingly cheering and enjoying a highly entertaining match-up.

Frankly, thus far, I have been quite unimpressed with the big BCS matches. These games have been one-sided and pretty droll to watch. I turned the channel after the first half of the Sugar Bowl.

I maintain that if more people were to watch these small bowl games, they might have a better appreciation for post season bowls. I know that next year I will be looking out for more of these bowls as they are unadulterated evidence of  the true spirit of college football.

By now you might have heard that Notre Dame announced their new head football coach Brian Kelly. Kelly leaves Cincinnati where he led the Bearcats to back to back Big East title, an undefeated season and a date with Florida in the Sugar Bowl. He also announced he would not coach Cincinnati in their final game.

Kelly, I have something for you. What were you thinking? You left a team YOU built to prominence and now you’re leaving it. You had a chance to become a great coach at Cincinnati but left it to go to Notre Dame where there is no guarantee of greatness.

So back off of the soap box. Kelly had something going with the Bearcats. He brought that team back into the national mainstream and could have continued contending for national championship. He could have become a legendary coach at Cincinnati.

But instead, Kelly chose the Irish, which is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode if he doesn’t perform well. The Irish haven’t been legit contenders ever since Lou Houltz left in 1996. The pressure will be on Kelly to perform quickly.

What angers me the most about what happened, however, is how this all went down and how it was handled. Kelly pretty said adios to his players and slipped over to Notre Dame. Now what do the players get? A new coach and under a month to prepare for the SEC-hardened Florida Gators.

In the press conference Friday, Kelly told his Cincinnati players thanks for giving him this opportunity. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that all those players he left back in Ohio were playing their hearts out so their coach could go to Notre Dame. I honestly can’t believe he made that statement. He probably made more enemies in Cincinnati than he did fans in South Bend.

And then to leave before the school’s biggest bowl game only adds fuel to the anti-Kelly sentiment. This is all too similar to the Rich Rodriquez situation, where Rodriguez left before West Virginia’s BCS game versus Oklahoma. Now he’s led Michigan to missing bowl games his first two years. I don’t see why anyone would follow the same route.

Kelly might be a good coach, but what the Cincinnati fans, administrators and most importantly, the players is nothing short of absolute betrayal. His undermined their trust and left the school at the most important time they could have needed him. I can only imagine him getting a Christmas card from the folks at Cincinnati that reads, “Thanks for all you did for us; leading us to an undefeated regular season, a Sugar Bowl match up with Florida and leaving us before it all happened. We hope you have an epic fail of a time at Notre Dame. Merry Christmas!”