College football's playoff system will not involve games played on home sites, Michigan St. Spartans athletic director Mark Hollis says. Letting teams have home-field advantage doesn't square with the Big Ten's mission to ensure the Rose Bowl remains as big a part of the postseason as possible, though decision-makers also previously cited concerns about whether college stadiums could handle college football games.
Hollis says the hope for home sites in the playoff has been eliminated. Preserving value of Rose Bowl, he said, "is critical."
— Joe Rexrode (@joerexrode) May 15, 2012
Ironically, this also surely pleases the SEC, which now no longer has to worry about playing tournament games up north. Though that wouldn't happen all that often based on previous years, plenty of Big Ten fans have wanted to see whether Southern teams can handle the road trip for a change. If semifinals games are going to end up tying into current BCS bowls, Southern teams will continue to enjoy the relative home edge.
The playoffs get lamer and lamer by the day, don't they?