A percentage of the money generated by a playoff could be utilized in many ways. One area that needs to be investigated and addressed is an issue regarding some sort of stipend above tuition scholarships for student-athletes. With so much time devoted to academic and athletic responsibilities, student-athletes consequently are not able to earn much spending money. If necessary, most cannot even afford a plane ticket home for the holidays. A stipend is easily justified because the student-athletes are ultimately responsible for bringing in a great amount of money to the university. Call it ironic or hypocritical or even ridiculous, but there is no reason why the same student-athletes which help to bring in the big bucks are then penalized and tormented because they allowed someone to buy them lunch, or accepted to borrow someone’s car.  A logical start would be to allocate a small percentage of total revenues per year into an account/fund.  After a few years, the interest alone could aid those most in need.  By setting up this account properly where more funds come in than the interest initially disbursed, this source would grow and be able to positively affect more student-athletes as time passes.  And although further issues and sources of revenues regarding this issue need to be addressed, the above described may eventually provide some student-athletes with reasonable and necessary spending monies.

Increased revenue is a very important issue to universities. For example,  roughly 70 to 75 % of Arizona State University’s Intercollegiate Athletics revenue is derived from Sun Devil Football, which is the financial catalyst that will generate the department’s budget which supports ASU’s 21 men’s and women’s sports. Considering that 60% of athletic departments currently operate at a loss and 86% of universities are not in compliance with Title IX, today’s fiscal pressures have forced many schools to make tough decisions such as to cut funding for many secondary programs like wrestling, tennis, golf, or soccer. With increased revenue, the real winners would again be the    student-athletes. Not only would more scholarships be available for the total of all sports, but also better academic and athletic facilities.

Research indicates that more than 4 out of 5 fans want a playoff; and practically 9 out of 10 student-athletes believe a playoff is necessary. The true necessity for any sport is to maximize the amount of interest in that venue, which college football is presently not doing. 1 in 6 non-football fans said they would be more likely to watch college football if there were a playoff. Not only is college football losing the casual fan , but also is missing an opportunity to expand it’s fan base.

Let’s talk about the subject of meaningfulness. Advocates continually state that a playoff would make early regular season games meaningless. Of course, this cannot be said of the system outlined in this proposal because teams would fight desperately from the beginning of the season to the end of the season to not only obtain a #1 - #4 seed, but also just to get into a postseason tournament. Our emphasis, however, is directed at the current system instead. One of the best bowl games after the ‘99 season was Alabama vs. Michigan, where empty seats dominated the Orange Bowl. With a win, Alabama could claim as strong a finish as any program. How, then, did this bowl finish? In an absurd format disguised as an overtime, Alabama misses an extra point and loses a tremendously exciting contest. What were the ramifications? None. Nothing. It just didn’t matter who won or who lost or how it happened in the grand scheme, because both teams went home.

A few years ago, if college basketball had decided it’s championship game matchup under football’s formula, Duke probably would have played North Carolina for the NCAA title. And Kentucky - national champion Kentucky - would not have figured in the equation at all. They would not have been included because theirs was not as perfect a season as it could have been. Does this make sense and do other sports utilize this principle emphasizing the need for perfection? No and No. Imagine perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, striving and falling short of perfection of no regular season losses; and, subsequently not being allowed to perform in a postseason. Even the greatest falter from time to time. What ultimately defines his greatness (and the greatness of others) is that he delivers when it matters most!

‘ Contenders step up ...

as Pretenders go away! ’ _©

 Throughout this proposal, you will notice a recurring special and tantalizing ratio especially relating to sequential events probability, such as weekly football games.

The 63/37^* ratio! Explanation of this ratio’s origin and the mathematics defining majority and minority influences may be found in the patent pending proposition: ‘Quad-Roulette, win 1¹/₂ million $’, the tablegame to replace modern roulette - created and owned also by 3rd Millennium Sports.

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