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May 25, 2012

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Obama calls audible, backs college football playoff

Published Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 | 4:54 p.m.

Updated Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 | 4:57 p.m.

Barack Obama appears to have sidetracked off his no-turnovers strategy, asserting today that if he could change one thing in sports it would be the way college football decides its champion.

The Democratic presidential nominee favors a playoff system, which probably won't be popular with the university presidents who've resisted overhauling the anachronistic postseason bowls.

According to sports media blog Fangs Bites, Obama tells ESPN's Chris Berman in an interview to air later tonight: "I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other. Get eight teams -- the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a National Champion.”

Obama's mini-rant presumably will be greeted more warmly by teams in the smaller conferences who have almost no shot at a championship even if they go undefeated. (See Boise State, 2007).

Three teams in UNLV's Mountain West Conference are in the top 15 of the BCS rankings - Utah, Texas Christian University and Brigham Young University - and would benefit from the postseason system favored by Obama.

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