NEW ORLEANS - As Florida and Cincinnati got at it in the 76th Sugar Bowl Friday night, the debate continued over how long the current system for deciding a college football champion will stay in place.
For now, big time football is the only collegiate sport to decide its champion without a playoff.
The current Bowl Championship Series pits the top ranked team against the number two team in the BCS Championship Game. Cincinnati fans in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl point out, their plight is what's wrong with the system.
The Bearcats finished unbeaten in a major conference, the Big East, but are 3rd in the BCS standings, which is why they're playing in New Orleans, and not for the National Championship in California.
"To be honest with you, there's some flaws in the system,” said Bearcat fan Matt Eggar. "We'd love to be in Pasadena right now."
A poll by Quinnipiac University, released in late December, showed only 26 percent of college football fans want to keep the current bowl system, while 63 percent want to get rid of it.
"Without a doubt we need a playoff system," said Bearcat fan Jason Walden of Cincinnati.
In the current system, New Orleans hosts the Sugar Bowl every year, plus every fourth year, the city hosts a second game, the BCS Championship Game.
New Orleans will next host the BCS Championship Game in January of 2012.
The contract for the current system runs for four more years. Changes or modifications to the current system could come in 2014.
One idea with support is what's referred to as the “And 1" plan, which would keep the current bowl structure intact, with modifications. Four teams would play a mini-tournament, with the winners playing the "And 1" game for the National Championship. In that plan, New Orleans would be one of four, or more likely, five cities rotating between the championship game, a semi-final game, and a game not included in the mini-tournament.
"It's critically important that we remain at the top tier," Sugar Bowl Chief Executive Officer Paul Hoolahan told Eyewitness News Friday.
Hoolahan said, the Sugar Bowl will be at the forefront of suggesting plans and modifications which benefit New Orleans. He said, he believes when the contract is revisited in four years, it's more likely the current bowl system will be modified, and not scrapped for a playoff. "I would be highly shocked if that happened," Hoolahan added. "However, stranger things have happened."
"I would say, a modification would come before a scrapping," veteran New Orleans Times-Picayune Sports Columnist Peter Finney said Friday. Finney has covered the local sports scene for more than 60 years.
Finney told Eyewitness News, the current system is the best he's seen, "You're getting the two best teams to play more often now than you did before."
Finney and Hoolahan agree, how much the system changes in four years could depend on college presidents. "As long as the presidents stay together, the system will stay as it is," Finney said. "We had a strong leadership that advocates the present system, that's why we have gotten it through 2014," Hoolahan added. "Some of those people will be retired by then, we don't know what changes there will be in presidential leadership at the university level, which is really driving the bus in the final analysis. We'll see."
Hoolahan also maintains, the current system, or a modification of it, is what's best for the city. That reason is, he said, current Sugar Bowl fans stay in New Orleans for a week, because it's their final destination. In a playoff system, fans would be more likely to have shorter stays, because they'd be moving on to the next game.
"I like the system as it is," Finney concluded. " I think you open a can of worms with the playoffs. And no one knows yet how many worms would come out of the can."
