I was talking with a friend and we the sentiment was that the vast majority of fans would want games on college campuses.

So I will ask: do you want playoff games on college campuses?

And if you say you don't please tell me which bowl you are affiliated with.

Taken from Dan Wetzel Article on Yahoo article:


2. The semifinals should be played on campus; the title game should be open for bidding to any neutral site in the country.
For 95 percent of college football fans the playoff will be a television show. So once the 1-4 deal is settled, nothing else really matters. The games will be played on your TV. Everything is great.
Except for the fact that a college football game inside, say, Bryant-Denny Stadium or Camp Randall or Death Valley or the Big House is infinitely superior to a game played in Cowboys Stadium, University of Phoenix Stadium or whatever they are calling the place the Dolphins play this week.
It isn't even close.
One of college football's best attributes is its plethora of incredible on-campus game-day environments. It's the history. It's the pageantry. It's the tradition.
Home field also provides incentive to finishing in the top two – thus making the regular season more important. It assures every game is a sellout, with a wild crowd. It keeps the money from sport inside the collegiate system and offers millions in peripheral income to college towns that support the game all year long.
[Related: BCS officials put topic of selection and who'll get in on shelf]
And, once, again, it's really cool. It's a way to make interregional games happen, only with higher stakes. It's a way to bring weather into the equation – all weather is football weather. It seems ideal.
"The NCAA tournament is not played on home floors – for a reason," SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
Please, no more comparing football to basketball. It's one of the great canards of all time. Why not use NCAA baseball as the standard and have double elimination?
Football is football and the applicable standard is the NFL, which uses home field until the Super Bowl.
The semifinals in college football would be akin to the conference championship games in the NFL. Over the last 15 years, home teams are just 17-13 in those NFL games, even though the host team compiled a better record in a 16-game season and presumably should win at a higher level.
While home teams are overwhelmingly victorious in college football, very few games feature equal talent, so it's difficult to get useful numbers. We do know LSU beat Alabama a year ago in Tuscaloosa and then lost in "neutral" New Orleans.
The NFL produces the greatest and most popular entertainment option in America. If neutral-site conference championship games made sense, they'd do it. Instead, they look at the idea as absolutely idiotic. Just follow the NFL lead here, guys.
Scott's league, the Pac-12, already holds a title game at the site of the best-seeded team. (Getty Images)"I'm a big proponent of it," Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told the Associated Press. "That was the choice we made in our conference with our championship game. Collegiate atmosphere. Guaranteed sellout. We've said all along preserving the regular season is important. What better way to emphasize the importance of the regular season than having a chance to earn a home game? It's a proven NFL model."
Exactly. You give the road team say 20 percent of the tickets – in the big stadiums, that's 16,000 to 22,000 seats, a sizable block. A central organization collects the money and the host campus gets paid rent and whatever other applicable fees.
It's the hotels and grocery stores and bars of Blacksburg and Gainesville and Norman that benefit, not some touristy place that doesn't care about college football anyway.
[Mike Huguenin: Hammering out playoff details should be fascinating]
This is pretty simple, but then again, here comes the silliness.
One concern is over stadium size. Can TCU host a game in newly renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium (capacity 40,000 to 50,000)? That's a lot of lost seats, right?
Well, yes, for one game. This story by Jason Kirk of SBNation.com points out that the average capacity of the four current BCS bowls is 77,363.
Since 1998, the average capacity of the college stadiums that would've hosted the semifinals is 86,710.
Could TCU or Boise State or Oregon host a game and lower the average? Sure.
It is more likely, however, that Michigan (109,901), Ohio State (107,282), Alabama (101,821), Texas (101,624), LSU (99,500 with coming expansion) and so many others will be in the top two though. Over time there will be more seats, not less – at least as long as the Mid-American Conference doesn't start churning out national contenders.
Then there is my second-favorite anti-campus site argument:
"Where are people going to stay if Oregon hosts a semifinal game?" ESPN.com reported one BCS source saying. "In Portland?"
Um, yeah, sure. While plenty of hotel rooms are closer, Portland is a real nice place. It even has an interstate running right to Eugene. I'm sure the city – the entire state really – would love the economic boost of an Oregon playoff game.
The proper answer is they'll stay wherever they do when Oregon hosts any game. The Ducks always sell out and thousands of those seats are from visiting fans. It's not like the stadium doubles in size for the playoffs. So, just like every other week, fans that can't afford the Eugene hotel rates crash somewhere else and then drive to beautiful campus for the game.
Hey, problem solved? Right?
Actually there's more, and this is my No. 1 favorite anti-campus argument:
"Can Manhattan, Kan., take care of 1,200 media?" BCS executive director Bill Hancock asked reporters, wondering what would happen if Kansas State finished in the top four. "Where will people stay?"
Wait, now they are worried about the media? Finally I am 100-percent qualified to answer a question, and here's the answer: The media will stay wherever the heck they can. Topeka, Lawrence, mostly Kansas City. Then they will get up early and drive to the stadium because, you know, it's their job.
We do it every single week of the season. College-town hotel rates are ridiculous and usually require three-night minimums. Besides, I have never met a single sportswriter, broadcaster or television crew that doesn't know how to drive a car.
While the suits that run college athletics darn near faint if they don't get a police escort to the game, this isn't a media issue.
The NFL manages to hold playoff games, including the NFC championship game, in Green Bay, Wis., which is about as small, cold and remote as anything in college football. Manhattan, Kan., is 119 miles from Kansas City. Eugene is 111 miles from Portland. Green Bay is 117 miles from Milwaukee.
The media flies into Green Bay, or stays in Appleton, Milwaukee or even drives roundtrip all the way from Chicago. It's all done on one week planning in the middle of January. Whatever. It's the media's job to figure it out.
Have you ever woken up the day after a Packers playoff game and found no coverage because the reporters didn't know where to stay or how to get to Lambeau?