Remember When A Four-Team Playoff Was Proposed In 1979??

So I'm down to finishing my brief post (currently at just over 13,000 words) for a look back at the 1978 season (I get to rewatch the Sugar Bowl with Penn State and crib comments from writers. Aren't I lucky?).

And in the aftermath of the poll controversies of 1977 and 1978, I came across this from the UPI wire on January 9, 1979:

College Officials Propose Football Playoff Format


(My note: I won't get into copyright stuff, so I'll just clip a few amazing quotes)


"Alabama, Oklahoma and USC fans may never get to settle the question of which football team was the best in America in 1978, but similar disputes in the future could be settled under a formula being considered by the NCAA."

"...proposing that the national championship be decided by a four-team playoff involving bowl winners and the first playoff could be just two years away."


(They measure time differently at the NCAA.....)


"The four teams to be in the playoff would then be chosen by a special committee. All bowl teams would be eligible, and the playoffs would be held at predetermined sites."

".....the NCAA Extra Events Committee.....is unanimously in favor of the playoff idea."

"It could be used to decide the champion in the 1980 season." (By 1980 they meant 2014.....)

"Opposition to the idea is expected from some college officials who think the football season is too long already"

(the 1978 season began on September 1 - the earliest ever at that point - and ended December 2. Alabama played 11 regular season games, USC played 12).

"But (Frank) Broyles said, 'What's too long? Most of the schools would be on holiday break. It's the same as athletes playing in all-star games after the bowl games."


And - of course - it was up to the two bozoes who think the Rose Bowl is the Garden of Eden to.......put some water on the fire....

"Bowl games are fun," said Wiles Hallock, Pacific-10 commissioner. "But if you're playing a national championship, this would change the complexion of the bowl. I wouldn't want to see the Rose Bowl diminished."

(He said this days after USC won on a fumble called a touchdown.....and he's worried about the game being diminished? It was double talking dweebs like this guy who delayed the playoff for nearly four decades).


I would have respected him more if he'd have just said, "We'll get more money for our schools if we keep what we have now."


Anyway, I just thought I'd share. Interesting.

Btw, I came across a couple of quotations in October 1966 - BEFORE the infamous Notre Dame-Michigan State game - and both Bud Wilkinson (then a commentator) and Duffy Daugherty (Mich St head coach) advocated a "limited playoff."

But this quote from 1966 absolutely took the cake for short-sightedness. When the 1 vs 2 game was nationally telecast, Dr Paul Brechler - the first commissioner of the WAC with an earned PhD from Iowa, where he had been the AD before a dispute - good ole Dr Brechler said this:


"We have just killed football as a Saturday afternoon spectator sport."


Well, it's doing pretty good for a ghost I'd say.....

Of course, this got me curious and here's what happened:

June 4, 1979

the Cotton, Sugar, and Orange bowls warned that any playoff would put the bowl games (there were 15 in 1978)......out of business.

Frank Broyles warned them that a playoff was "inevitable" and should be used to increase interest in the sport

100 representatives, coaches, etc voted. The outcome was 95-5 against a playoff.

Vince Dooley voted in favor of it.
Fred Akers favored it until it came time to vote and then decided it would destroy his precious Cotton Bowl.

The bowls claimed that if they were used as semi-final or quarter-final games, attendance would sag and their TV take would go down, too.
Mickey Holmes, Sugar Bowl director, said the Sugar Bowl was going to take in an increase of 35% in 5 years and 80% in ten via TV deals
and expanding the size of the Superdome. He warned that a playoff would reduce the intake for the Sugar Bowl by 25-60%.

Field Scovell, director of the Cotton Bowl, said, "TV contracts aren't based on quarterfinal games" (I'm still trying to figure out how you can
even HAVE a quarterfinal game since nobody was advocating anything beyond a four-team playoff). But I learned years ago these guys
would say anything to protect their own hides (by which I mean their jobs, not the real money to be made from the playoff).

Bill Ward of the Orange Bowl (his vision matched his name) said that this would eliminate the bowl game from a great holiday experience for the schools to nothing more than a typical weekend elimination game. (I wonder if Bill was there when this bowl game monstrosity went haywire?)

Frank Broyles pointed out that CFB ratings had DROPPED 8% the previous year and dropped 20% in the bowl games. He further argued that the revenue from the three playoff games would exceed the take from all 15 bowl games played in 1978.


(I find it incredible that we basically waited 35 years and then wound up with the exact thing initially proposed).

rgw said:

Isn't interesting how the crocodile tears of traditionalists don't really ever change...

Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with traditionalists AS LONG AS the tradition isn't the base reason.

Baseball ruined their regular season with the wildcard playoff. They DID diminish the World Series with too much inter-league play.

On the flip side, other things have been good enough, including the DH (which I oppose but oh well).

In football, it was nothing but entrenched interests.

rgw said:

Yes! I didn't go into much detail but that is certainly what I mean. The argument against the playoffs was mostly entrenched in petty self-interests.

Click to expand...

I recall a buddy of mine - an FSU fan back in the early 90s, who kept watching their seasons end against Miami.....he made the best comment I'd ever heard.

"The day someone comes up with a plan that makes everyone the most money is the day they'll suddenly come up with a playoff."

About that time CBS lost the NFL contract to Fox for the NFC. He said that CBS needed to go propose a playoff to CFB with television exclusivity for them.