“In the last six years, I’ve read pundits, heard the pronouncements of broadcasters and collected several cubic feet of e-mail printouts from advocates of an NFL-style playoff system... Even those that go beyond sound bite certitude share two intertwined and fatal deficiencies: they disrespect our academic calendars and they utterly lack a business plan.”Frohnmayer's framing of playoff proposals as "NFL-style" is incredibly disingenuous, and a transparent attempt to support a false "disrespect our academic calendars" argument by associating a playoff with the professional league. We don't want an "NFL-style" playoff. We want an NCAA Division 1-AA playoff. We want an NCAA Division II playoff... Division III playoff...
How is it that all these other college football divisions respect academic calendars with their playoff systems, but Division 1-A somehow can't? The academic calendar is not the primary concern for college presidents in this fight. If it were, we wouldn't have playoffs in the other divisions. The primary concern for these college presidents is the money.
Frohnmeyer is disingenuous when claiming playoff proposals disrespect academics. But he's truthful when he says he's all about the business plan.
