End of the BCS

By: Megan Tuvell

The ending of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and introduction of the College Football Playoff system has elicited a range of emotions and reactions not only from college football fans, but coaches and players as well.

Before the announcement of the end of the BCS system, coaches were expressing their distaste for the format and their wishes for something different, while players has mixed feelings about the future of college football. In an interview with ESPN in 2012, Texas coach Mack Brown expressed his disappointment with what was the current BCS system and stated there needed to be some changes in order for the two best teams to be left standing at the end of the season. ESPN Magazine polled college football players from every conference asking them about whether or not they wanted a playoff style system as opposed to the bowl system. Initially most players answered in favor of playoffs, but, in follow up questions, it was concluded that they didn’t entirely want to get rid of the bowl system but have a combination of both playoffs and bowl games.

Fans on the other hand have mixed feelings about the change from bowl games to playoff games. Chris Low, a writer for ESPN.com, expressed  in his article how he will miss the BCS purely for the “unpredictable drama,” which is exactly what other fans hate about the bowl system. At first there was a lot of backlash from fans about the playoff system, but the College Football Playoff Committee came up with some effective media strategies to combat the negativity and give the new system a positive image.

The systems theory of Public Relations states that organizations are made up of inter-related parts that adapt to the changes in the environment, in this case the social environment the most relevent. The goal of the College Football Playoff Committee is to minimize the bad press surrounding the new system and promote it positively through as many channels as possible.

Under the Systems Theory, the CFP Committee has accomplished this by:

• Creating a Facebook page, Twitter account and Instagram account positions the College Football Playoff Committee as an open system looking for feedback from fans, coaches and players.
• Releasing videos on YouTube documenting the process of developing the College Football Playoff Committee, and system, they are spanning the boundary between the committee and the public by disclosing step-by-step information throughout the process.
• Launching a website where viewers can go to have questions answered and view information pertinent to the new system limits false information being spread, therefore, giving them the opportunity to control some of the bad press surrounding the new playoff system.

By using these different media outlets and PR strategies to positively promote the switch from bowl games to playoffs, the College Football Playoff Committee has received more positive press in regards to this topic. By the time this new playoff style starts in the 2014-2015 football season players, coaches and fans will be ready to embrace the change and continue on with the prestige we have come to love of the college football season.