(10-28-2013 08:29 AM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote: I still think that the notion that fans are going to travel to three consecutive neutral site games is patently absurd and the height of arrogance. It will not work. Within five years, almost all conference championship games (the SEC will likely be the outlier) will be played on the campus of the highest rated team within that conference.
Just think about it for a second. Let's say that the system was in place this year and you are a fan of Florida State.
The Seminoles have legitimate national championship aspirations - especially in a four team playoff scenario. Tell me, who in their right mind is going to pay all of that money to go to Charlotte knowing that if they win that game (and the Noles will be heavily favored to do so), they are headed to New Orleans for their next game? And if they win that game, they would play in Dallas for the national championship.
That makes no sense. People will simply save their money and roll the dice on Dallas.
Duh!
How many people have that kind of money and are that passionate about their team? Remember, we are talking about ENORMOUS stadia here, not 20K seat arenas (most of which do not sell out and are primarily filled by locals - completely different model than football).
I honestly don't understand the mentality of the BCS power brokers? They are trying to split the baby here to some degree and marry the old bowl system with a more modern, potentially more lucrative, playoff system and that is definitely not going to work.
Most people don't have unlimited resources and/or unlimited free time and they are not going to travel to three consecutive road games. This system is doomed to fail.
Dr.,
You make it sound like Michigan and LSU and Florida State have 100,000 fans each...and those same 100,000 fans won't travel three weeks in a row.
Here's how I see it, as a PSU fan who lived in San Diego...
There are maybe 500,000 PSU fans (alumni or not) around the country, mainly in a 300 mile radius of State College. Enough of those fans will go to Indianapolis when PSU makes the Big Ten CCG. Then, if selected for a CFP bowl, there will be a good 20,000 people from other parts of the country who want to go to Miami or Dallas or Atlanta, or AZ or Pasadena or New Orleans for New Year's. This will still be the bowl vacation it has traditionally been. Those 60,000 seat stadiums only need 1/3 of the fans to come from each team playing. The rest of the seats can be filled with corporate sales and local sports fans.
Will these be the same people who just went to Indiana four weeks earlier? Some, but not many.
Now, if PSU wins their New Year's bowl and makes it to the CFP champ game, will those same fans turn around and go to another city less than a week later to watch? Heck no. But there might be 480,000 other PSU fans (or 460,000 if you want to discount the ones who paid to go to the Big CCG in Indy) who can dream about going. Of those, if 5,000 go, that'll be sufficient, because the CFP will be a "Super Bowl-like" event. They won't be worried about filling up most of the seats to that game.
And at the end of the day, 455,000 PSU fans will enjoy watching all 3 games on TV...and 55,000 will be glad they got to see 2 on TV and 1 live along the way.
(No need to make the "PSU will never be relevant again" comments...let's talk CFB please
)