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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe college football national championship game busts one of amateurism's greatest myths
Haven't we been here before?
LINDSAY GIBBS
JAN 7, 2019, 8:00 AM
On Monday night, the Alabama Crimson Tide will face off against the Clemson Tigers in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
If that sounds familiar, its because weve been here before. Alabama and Clemson have faced off in two of the last three national championship games, with Alabama winning in 2016 and Clemson winning in 2017. In 2018, the two programs faced each other again, just one round earlier, in the semifinals. Since the College Football Playoff system began in 2014, it has been the Alabama and Clemson show.
As former Clemson Student Information Director Tim Bouret pointed out on Twitter, after Monday night, either Clemson or Alabama will have won 11 of the last 12 College Football Playoff games that have been played.
This lack of parity is nothing new. Since 1998, as many as 42 schools could have conceivably sent a team to a national championship game. Instead, just 17 have made an appearance.
https://thinkprogress.org/college-football-parity-myth/
And as I was reading this article, I kept thinking that the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case of the college athletes forming a union or being paid
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/us/politics/supreme-court-declconsider-ncaa-rules-on-paying-athletes.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/sports/ncaafootball/nlrb-says-northwestern-football-players-cannot-unionize.html
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,040 posts)It's a committee.
High school football has playoffs.
The NFL has playoffs.
Even college basketball has playoffs.
College football has a committee.
Progressive Law
(617 posts)Lower divisions like FCS (formerly Division 1-AA), Division 2, Division 3, and NAIA organized college football all have playoffs.
Interestingly, none of the Ivy League schools (they play in the FCS division) participate in the playoffs. If eligible for the playoffs, those teams just voluntarily forfeit their spot.