I was coming back from an interview last week when I heard Mark Cuban on with Bob and Dan talking about a book he's reading: Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series by Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter and Jeff Passan. In the book, the reporters write that the only reason the "brain-dead Bowl Championship Series" exists is because of "an ocean of corruption: sophisticated scams, mind-numbing waste, and naked political deals." You don't say.
Cuban told the Ticket hosts he was cooking up an alternative to the BCS, a plan for an honest-to-God college-football playoff system that he said -- if memory serves -- would only work if you paid college football players. Just not like they did in the old days. Last night, Tim MacMahon at ESPN Dallas asks Cuban to tell me more, tell me more. He did, and now his plans are everywhere -- well, OK, the Huffington Post, but still. And while his proposal is still in the very vague "exploratory stage," it sounds far more expensive than Norm Hitzges's plan for playoffs:
Cuban said he envisions either a 12- or 16-team playoff field with the higher seeds getting homefield advantage. The homefield advantage, Cuban said, would ensure the college football regular-season games would not lose any importance. The bowl games could still exist under Cuban's plan, but he said he would make it more profitable for programs to make the playoffs than a bowl.
"Put $500 million in the bank and go to all the schools and pay them money as an option," Cuban said. "Say, 'Look, I'm going to give you X amount every five years. In exchange, you say if you're picked for the playoff system, you'll go.'"
