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During a sit-down with the Daily Journal/Messenger's Matt Wake, Clemson University 14th president, James F. Barker, discussed issues facing Clemson Campus. Photo by Mykal McEldowney/Staff

CLEMSON — The man who guides the NCAA isn’t crazy about the idea of a college football playoff system.

In addition to his day job as president of Clemson University, James Barker chairs the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. He admits it’s a “pretty ominous-sounding title.”

According to Barker, the board fears a move to playoffs would diminish the regular season. To illustrate the reluctance, the Clemson president offered up a contrasting assessment.

“When the Patriots played the Colts about three-quarters of the way through the professional football season, Tom Brady was quoted as saying, ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t mean anything. The only thing that means anything is the playoffs.’ You would never say that about a college football game,” Barker said.

BCS bowls offer big payoffs, but Barker argues the boon in small bowls is more than monetary. According to Barker, bowl culture creates opportunities playoffs would not. Through ceremony and celebration, players, fans and even university presidents get to intermingle with their counterparts at other institutions. There’s also the economic impact on the host city.

Said Barker: “I don’t think I see a ground swell at all of university presidents saying, ‘Well, we want to sacrifice that to create a playoff system,’ the results and impact of which we don’t know what that would actually be. It may be more money; it may be less money.”

Pigskin pundits have asserted that money is the reason the 18 presidents that comprise the Division I Board are reluctant to move to a playoff system. After all, the Sugar Bowl has a nicer ring to it than the semi-finals.

As head of the NCAA, Barker is often besieged with suggestions for playoff formats. Although fans continue to demand a playoff grid, his stance remains steadfast.

“Presidents ought to determine what the NCAA is doing. Not sports writers, not coaches, not athletic directors. And thank goodness it does because there was a time in the NCAA when that was not the case,” Barker said. “I’m not closed-minded to say that this will not evolve and change. I think it probably will. But at this moment and for the foreseeable future what we have is what we’ll keep. It’s certainly not lowered the visibility of college football.”

Since Barker helms the NCAA and a major university, people frequently come to him for answers. When he needs counsel, the CU leader seeks out the other presidents of the Division I Board or from other ACC schools.

“I have to admit I’ve been eight years on this job and I’m turning into a mentor with those folks as opposed to at one time I was the one being mentored by them,” Barker said. “I realized that the other day and it was sort of shocking, that conversion had taken place and I wasn’t really conscious of it.”

Barker also turns to sources from his own campus for input. Since the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, those conversations have often focused on student safety. With another university shooting Thursday, this one at Northern Illinois, campus protection is again in headlines and minds.

Since the Virginia Tech incident, Clemson has added several security measures. A text messaging system sends warnings directly to the phones of students and Clemson employees signed up for the program. The CU police Department has added six new officers.

Clemson has joined the Pickens County’s e-911 system so emergency responders can track callers’ locations, even from cell phones. In addition, voice messages have been added to the outdoor emergency siren system to provide specific warnings.

“I hear a siren, I think, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ and these are pretty clear,” Barker said. “ And they’re positioned so that they can be heard when you’re outdoors. Even if you don’t get it clearly, you can check e-mail text messaging on cell phone. We think we have a very safe campus now, but we can never take that for granted.”