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Can a sub-optimal tournament be optimal when the prize can be collectively consumed? The case of college football's national championship

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  • James Swofford
  • Franklin Mixon
  • Trellis Green

Abstract

One of the most heated debates in all of sports is the annual debate over major college football's national champion. Since its implementation in 1995, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) system has often failed to quell the controversy concerning what team is the Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision football champion. Many of the BCS controversies have spawned changes in the title selection format, while others are perhaps the result of certain changes. What remains now is the cry from some college football fans for an expanded 'national championship playoff,' though college and university presidents and many college football coaches continue to resist these cries. We try to explain this resistance to expanding the number of teams invited to compete for the BCS championship and the persistence of the two team playoff format in college football. For three championship eras-pre-BCS, BCS and a futuristic post-BCS expanded playoff-we first relate some of the controversial details to concepts such as optimal tournaments and the public goods concept of collective consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • James Swofford & Franklin Mixon & Trellis Green, 2009. "Can a sub-optimal tournament be optimal when the prize can be collectively consumed? The case of college football's national championship," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3215-3223.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:41:y:2009:i:25:p:3215-3223
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840701765510
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    1. Robert J. Barro, 1997. "Getting It Right: Markets and Choices in a Free Society," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262522268, December.
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    1. Ryan A. Kent & Steven B. Caudill & Franklin G. Mixon, 2013. "Rules changes and competitive balance in European professional soccer: evidence from an event study approach," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(11), pages 1109-1112, July.
    2. Franklin G. Mixon & Rand W. Ressler & Richard J. Cebula, 2012. "Beyond the Friday night lights: Social networks, migration, and individual success in college football," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 16-26.
    3. John Considine & Liam Gallagher, 2018. "Competitive balance in a quasi-double knockout tournament," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(18), pages 2048-2055, April.
    4. Steven Caudill, 2009. "OSU and LSU: easy to spell but did they belong? Using the method of paired comparisons to evaluate the BCS rankings and the NCAA football championship game 2007-08," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(25), pages 3225-3230.

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