Research Needed for Playoff?s Slippery Slope

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Jo Potuto is giving a free public lecture on Wednesday, March 28, on “The NCAA: Who, What, When, Where, How and Certainly Why”. A Nebraska constitutional law professor and president of the NCAA Division 1-A Faculty Athletics Representatives Association, Potuto wrote the organization’s statement on the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) postseason, and it’s worth pointing out that it reflects the opinion of the entire membership regarding governance among BCS conferences in NCAA matters.

Since faculty athletics reps always put the academic, health and overall well-being of football student-athletes front and center in positions of governance, here are some important findings in Potuto’s statement:

1) We know that football student-athlete academic performance is adversely affected by their practice/competition schedules in season (she cites two Journal of Intercollegiate Sports finding on this).

2) We know that football student-athletes recognize that their athletics commitments detract from the time they can spend on their academic work (she cites a National Study of Student-Athletes Regarding Their Experiences as College Students finding).

3) We know that football teams have the second lowest academic performance as calculated by the NCAA academic performance rate metric (same reference as #3 and by the way, men’s basketball teams have the lowest academic performance rate).

4) We know that football student-athletes have by far the most competition injuries per player of any collegiate sport (she cites the 2011-12 NCAA Sports Medicine Handbook.)

5) We know that football student-athletes are second only to wrestling in practice injuries (she cites the sports medicine handbook again).

Three No-Nos from Faculty Athletics Reps

“These data converge to affirm that the well-being of football student-athletes is directly related to the total number of games they play, the time between games, and the length of the competitive season,” Potuto wrote. “These data call into question the number of games currently played and the current post-season schedule. Therefore, any post-season model must not:

Increase the number of games over those currently played (12 for teams that do not participate in a bowl game; 14 for the two teams in each conference that compete in a conference championship game and a bowl game; and 13 for all the rest).

Extend any further into the second term beyond the current January 9 (we urge contraction so that the post season ends on January 1 and certainly no later than the Saturday following January 1 each year).

Interfere with classes and exam schedules.

“A bowl system (with or without the Bowl Coalition national championship game) and the current BCS system appear to us to lend themselves most easily to a configuration that meets the first two criteria,” Potuto wrote. “Because these two systems leave entry into particular bowls to conference and institutional choice, these systems also make it easier to assure that the third criterion is met.

“A four-team playoff,” Potuto added, “seemingly could be configured to meet all three criteria (although even a four-team playoff likely means an additional game (15) for two teams and upwards of 200 football student-athletes). Given the multiplicity of exam schedules at the 120 FBS institutions, and the varying term end and start dates, we are very doubtful that any playoff model that entails more than four teams could meet the third criterion.”

Potuto, Fellow FARs, See Slippery Slope

Although there is support for, and probably no substantial FBS FAR opposition to, a four-team playoff that meets the above three criteria, Potuto said such a four-team playoff is “a game changer” and Division 1-A faculty reps “are worried about the slippery slope consequences over time to moving to a playoff model and the degree to which the present can control the future, regardless of the good intentions of and a clear statement of principles by those implementing a playoff.”

According to Potuto, the history of playoffs in all professional and college sports is “an ever-increasing number of participating teams and games played and an increasingly lengthy time frame in which a playoff occurs,” she said.

In that respect, Potuto and her group point to the trajectory of the Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. It began as a tournament of eight teams and, through incremental change over time, now encompasses 68 teams.

“We know that this concern is shared by all of us, including university presidents and chancellors; conference commissioners; and directors of athletics,” Potuto said. “We also know that all of us are concerned with the academic, health, and overall well-being of our football student-athletes. We therefore urge that a critical component in evaluating different post-season models should be what research tells us regarding the factors that most negatively impact student-athlete academic performance and that most contribute to football student-athlete injuries and serious injuries.”

Potuto’s free public lecture begins at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, at the Nebraska Union Auditorium.

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