The Blue Board

Oh, it's a ruse.

My bad.

Yep, there's a reason people don't go NORTH for spring break!!

Good pointed argument. A few things to point out though. NFL averages a higher attendance than the NCAA. Sure you have major programs in the NCAA with large stadiums. But the worst attendance in the NFL was 49,251(The Bengals). The NCAA average home attendance for the 2010 season for the entire NCAA division 1 was was 45,912 per home game (link provided below). There may be more larger stadiums in the NCAA but their are 3 times the number of smaller stadiums. Just because the NCAA has large stadiums doesn't mean they average more fans per game.

As for television revenue... It is guaranteed now to a certain extent regardless of ratings. With a new system they have to go renegotiate that. You bet your bottom dollar they are going to look for the best potential package to take to the stations that broadcasts those games. This is my overall point. They will always look to make more money or at least maintain what they already make. Hopefully for all of you arguing for home games they can get as much for those games as the current BCS payout. Everything right now is an estimate and these guys are used to working with the bowl format and guaranteed money. They don't want to see the schools they represent or the conference to take in less money because of a change of format. This has always been what stopped a playoff in College Football. Hopefully it works out this time.

We aren't talking about Spring Break. We are talking about football. Most people do not flock to Dallas or Glendale for Spring Break. Using your logic, the best place to hold the title game would be Cancun.

You're ignoring the spectators. People don't want to spend their hard earned money (and lots of it) to visit the great white north...

You are missing the point.

A game in Ohio Stadium or Penn State or South Bend, etc will sell out regardless.

You are comparing regular season attendance figures, including the figures for teams that have no chance of hosting a semifinal. I guarantee you that the college semifinal games, just like NFL playoff games, will be sold out regardless of the average regular season attendance figures.

The four team playoff adds two semifinal games. The TV revenue alone for those games probably will be at least in the range of $50-$100 million. In fact, there is zero chance that any of the options under consideration generate less money than the status quo. Also, as I stated above, there is absolutely no evidence that the TV ratings/revenue will be lower if the games are held at college stadiums instead of NFL stadiums. For all we know, the ratings/revenue could be higher at college stadiums. You are just throwing random hypothetical objections at the wall hoping that one of them sticks. If you have evidence that the TV ratings/revenue will be higher under one of the proposals, please provide it. Otherwise, let's stick to facts.

Alright guys thanks for the fun clean discussion. Gotta run.

Could you provide a link of Slive saying he was against home playoff games ? All I saw was this article when I used google. I'll check back later to see what you posted.

People were tweeting his quotes from the meeting. That's what is in the OP.

If Slive is truly open to home semi games please disregard this entire thread.

And people in the great white north don't want to spend all of their hard earned money flying across the country, paying for an expensive hotel, and purchasing $500-$2500 game tickets twice in two weeks. It isn't just about what pompous "our-weather-is-better-than-yours" southerners want. Like someone pointed out earlier, American football originated in the north. It was a game made for all conditions, including sunny, rainy, windy, and snowy weather. That's what makes it so great. We play on fields, not inside courts. Weather is part of the game. Speaking of that, think long and hard about which NFL teams have been most relevant lately. New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New York, Denver, etc. Other than the Saints, the south hasn't had many good NFL teams lately. It stands to reason that maybe the reason northern teams are better in professional football is because they're used to playing in tougher environments. Understandably so. You try to make arguments that nobody will pay to go watch a game in bad weather. Wrong. YOU won't pay to watch a game in bad weather. It's funny that while your southern teams are packing their 70,000 plus capacity stadiums, our northern teams are packing 80,000 plus capacity stadiums (IN NOVEMBER). The fact is that games in the North will still sell out (many of them in bigger stadiums too). My guess is that intimidates you a little bit. You know that a lot of people down there will have the same outlook you do and as a result, the northern team will have 90% of the fans in the stadium. It takes away from your competitive advantage. It's just like you grimmacing when Slive started trying to deal with oversigning. Saban and Petrino (among others) griped because they knew it would take away from their competitive advantage. You act like us Big Ten people are just full of excuses. But what it truthfully boils down to is you recognize the legitimacy of our claims and are threatened that your product will lose its luster when the playing field is leveled. Like Devidee said, you all are too scared to step into our back yard.

Not only that, a sellout at OSU or PSU would mean about 40,000 more seats than the average NFL stadium. ND would be about 20,000.

We're talking about two things:

1) The possibility that the semis are played on campus. As has been pointed out, it would be a guaranteed sell out for just about any major D1 football school.

2) The possibility that the semis are played at a neutral location. If that's the case, certainly they should be rotated around the nation and locations like Lucas Oil Stadium and Ford Field should be in the rotation. Both have successfully hosted Super Bowls as well as Final Fours. There's no good reason they shouldn't be included in such a rotation.