Marcus Spears is Right

Who asks the players? 


It's a very good question, and one that Marcus Spears asked when the discussion on Mike Greenberg's morning show turned to expanding the FBS playoffs from four teams to eight.


Commercially, it makes sense.  More revenue for college football, loosely defined.


Competitively, it makes sense.  The Lords of College Football can end the debate that sometimes pops up when the fourth of four teams gets selected, thereby leaving out a worthy team.  Few, if any, will care, if there is a controversy about the eighth and ninth teams, if only because it would be unlikely that any of them can get to the championship game and, also, because the Lords of College Football presumably would have gotten the selection of the first seven teams right.


But let's turn to the vantage point of the student-athletes.   One more game means, as Marcus Spears so capably put it, one more chance to get injured.  One more chance to get hurt and hurt one's stock in the draft.  One more chance to get banged up enough not to be able to be at one's best for the evaluation processes for the draft that start almost immediately after the college football season ends.  Implicit in this conversation is that college football players do not get paid, so the risk is all theirs.  Oh, sure, they get a "free education," but what does that really mean and what is that really worth?  Why?  Because some outstanding players are not great students or afforded the time to major in subjects that they can leverage into well-paying jobs after football.  Many are shoehorned into majors whose courses will not interfere with the football program and many get credit for playing football.  Why is this relevant?  Because the conversation is about economic risk -- it is all on the player.


Spears makes compelling arguments against expanding the playoffs.  Another pillar of his discussion is that the season once had 10 games in it, and now all of a sudden it's 12, 13, 14 and even 15 games.  That is a lot -- each additional game increases the chance for a life-altering injury for those who have the chance to play at the next level. 


Perhaps the answer is to shorten the "regular" season to 10 games and then have playoffs.  In this fashion, NFL teams will get plenty of film on each player, the playoffs still can be meaningful, but the economic risk is no worse for the participants.  Of course, the whole equation changes if the players were to get paid beyond their one-year renewable scholarships or have money put away for them for a life after football.  But right now, the risk is all theirs. 


So, despite how compelling an eight-team FBS playoff might be, right now the motivations for it are money and, yes, greed.  Until the risk profile changes, it is all about the schools' adding to their coffers with little regard for the young men who play the game.


That is not right and most certainly contrary to the mission of every university -- which is to help provide and improve the public good, and not to grab as much money as they can because it is easy to do so.