The College Football Playoff (yes, that's the official name) comes into being next season, and the winner of the four-team tournament will get a trophy. But it won't be the crystal football that has been given to the winner of the BCS national championship.
Why there needs to be a new trophy is a good question -- one we can't answer (though a good bet is that there is a sponsor paying big bucks). But fear not, lovers of the Waterford Crystal football: The American Football Coaches Association, which had awarded the crystal football to the No. 1 team, announced it will continue to do so in the future, though on campus and not at the title game.
"It's been clearly declared that the crystal ball, the coaches' trophy, has become the symbol of supremacy in college football," AFCA director Grant Teaff said at a Monday news conference. "It just has. It's incumbent on us to see that it continues, and it will."
Teaff and the coaches should be applauded for their decision. But something else Teaff said Monday was utter folly.
With the advent of the playoff, that means the coaches' poll and the Harris Poll -- which had been an important part of the BCS formula -- no longer mean anything. But that's not the way Teaff sees it.
The coaches' poll will continue, as will The Associated Press poll. But Teaff said he thought the coaches' poll "will even take on greater significance."
Say what?
Teaff and the AFCA certainly can have their opinion. But the idea that any of the 13 committee members who will be choosing the playoff field will say, "Gee, who should we choose as the No. 3 and 4 teams? I know -- let's see what the coaches' poll looks like" is ridiculous.
The committee members have been tasked with following college football on a national level. That they would lean on coaches whose conference biases are put on display every time they vote better not happen.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
