LAS VEGAS — As Charlie Baker moved through the Bellagio Casino last Tuesday evening, a man approached him with a complaint.
“What you guys did was wrong,” the man said.
“What did I do?” a perplexed Baker asked.
Replied the man: “You left Alabama out of the playoff.”
As NCAA president, Baker holds authority over many aspects of college sports. The College Football Playoff is not one of them.
The exchange, in a bustling, smoke-filled casino on the Vegas strip, is a reminder of the power of college football, the misunderstanding of its place within the NCAA structure and the off-field disarray gripping the sport (the CFP selection process is, perhaps, the least of the issues).