College Football Playoffs

[nogerO]

Throw it out the window. Conference Championship games, throw them out the window. No favoritism for Conference Champions. Top teams get a bye and play a HOME F@(KING GAME! The remaining teams play each other. Higher ranked teams have a home game. After those 4 games are played, pit the lowest ranked against #1, second lowest vs #2 and so on. After the quarterfinals play the semifinals in the traditional bowl games. Finals a stand-alone game in the middle of the country, not a FRIGGING home game for an SEC team! This isn't rocket science. OH, and one more rant. Remember when an undefeated team Florida State lost their QB in the last game and the committee kicked them out because they assumed the backup quarterback wouldn't be good enough to win a game? If Carson Beck's injury is a 3- or 4-week deal (which I guarantee you, we won't find out about, and his backup got his bell rung hard and may be out too) how do those Hypocrites in in the selection committee justify putting Georgia as #2? SEC ANYONE? Get rid of the politicians and do it on COMMON SENSE! I lied final rant. No polls until after week 10. Every year you have half of the SEC ranked in the top 25 and so they get a head start on everyone who isn't in it. Also punish these SEC teams who schedule 4 little sisters of the poor almost EVERY year. Make it mandatory that all teams play a 9 game conference schedule. The other teams have to be FBS-1A teams. Forget this bullshit "Best loss." A loss is a loss, no participation trophies.

[duckpoint]

The more things change, the more they stay the same! We were having more or less the same discussion at the end of the BCS era.

Unless I'm mistaken, the principal difficulty (excuse) against an (expanded) playoff was the additional games would be too physically demanding on the teams and the desire to maintain the traditional bowl system.

Now with the playoff expanded and traditions thrown out the window, the truth is evident. The traditional powers want to remain at the top and the system that relies on rankings and committees to decide which teams are deserving only preserves the old system disguised as a playoff.

Sorry Bud, but there is a great deal of truth in this article even if the "conspiracy theory" would be difficult if not impossible to prove.

I do agree with the author that the SEC is a very good conference with very good teams, but for the past several years advantages have been given to the SEC to create a perception of dominance.

Some of the arguments that are used to support the myth of SEC superiority:

1. The SEC has a championship game.

Although this is not unique to the SEC it is not a standard of all conferences and manufactures an additional "quality" opponent even though the teams involved had either a. already played and the outcome decided or b. had not played. In my opinion the old PAC 10 model was perfect. Every team plays every team every year.

2. The SEC has put more teams in bowl games.

The SEC routinely dines on cupcakes for AOC games, four of them to be exact and almost always at home. I do acknowledge that some SEC teams have added a quality team to their AOC schedules of late, but the point here is that the norm is SEC teams are set up to enter the conference schedule undefeated and only need 2 conference wins to become bowl eligible and it is possible to this without winning a single game in their own division.

3. The SEC has won more championships in the BCS era.

I think the article addressed this more than adequately.

In my opinion (I know I will catch some crap for this), there will never be a true, indisputable champion in college football until all teams and all conferences play by the same rules, ie. all conferences have the same format (number of teams), play the same number of AOC games, and are not allowed to play all AOC games at home. This would allow an equitable playoff system (only conference champions advance) that would not allow voters, ESPN or anyone else to stack the deck and manufacture a perceived greatness of any team or conference. Voters will never be 100% unbiased, the computers are only as good as the formulas they are programed with (GIGO) and ESPN and the like will always do whats best for their bottom line.

BINGO!!! Johnny tell that man what he's won!"

Trash this whole bullshit BCS crap and go with a 8 team playoff.

[alxtw]

Throw it out the window. Conference Championship games, throw them out the window. No favoritism for Conference Champions. Top teams get a bye and play a HOME F@(KING GAME! The remaining teams play each other. Higher ranked teams have a home game. After those 4 games are played, pit the lowest ranked against #1, second lowest vs #2 and so on. After the quarterfinals play the semifinals in the traditional bowl games. Finals a stand-alone game in the middle of the country, not a FRIGGING home game for an SEC team! This isn't rocket science. OH, and one more rant. Remember when an undefeated team Florida State lost their QB in the last game and the committee kicked them out because they assumed the backup quarterback wouldn't be good enough to win a game? If Carson Beck's injury is a 3- or 4-week deal (which I guarantee you, we won't find out about, and his backup got his bell rung hard and may be out too) how do those Hypocrites in in the selection committee justify putting Georgia as #2? SEC ANYONE? Get rid of the politicians and do it on COMMON SENSE! I lied final rant. No polls until after week 10. Every year you have half of the SEC ranked in the top 25 and so they get a head start on everyone who isn't in it. Also punish these SEC teams who schedule 4 little sisters of the poor almost EVERY year. Make it mandatory that all teams play a 9 game conference schedule. The other teams have to be FBS-1A teams. Forget this bullshit "Best loss." A loss is a loss, no participation trophies.

SEC also schedules one of their cupcake games late into the season, essentially giving their teams an extra week of rest.

[alxtw]

I think the structure of a playoff system has really failed when you wish you are seeded #5 or #6 every year.

[OregonFan4Life]

I can’t believe the committee is so incompetent when they designed this that they didn’t see this coming, when this format came out I remember QB11 and Doug talking about how the 5 seed is going to have it made in this flawed model. I hope it’s fixed sooner rather than later and I’m sure it will once an SEC team gets screwed over as a 1 or 2 seed.

[StevensTechU]

I can’t believe the committee is so incompetent when they designed this that they didn’t see this coming, when this format came out I remember QB11 and Doug talking about how the 5 seed is going to have it made in this flawed model. I hope it’s fixed sooner rather than later and I’m sure it will once an SEC team gets screwed over as a 1 or 2 seed.

What committee are you talking about?

[duckpoint]

I can’t believe the committee is so incompetent when they designed this that they didn’t see this coming, when this format came out I remember QB11 and Doug talking about how the 5 seed is going to have it made in this flawed model. I hope it’s fixed sooner rather than later and I’m sure it will once an SEC team gets screwed over as a 1 or 2 seed.

I don't think the origins of the underlying problem is that simple. Since the BCS era, the stated goal was to match the best two teams to play for the championship. Every iteration of the championship system has had enough controversy in most years to require adjustments. The insistence on voters or committees ultimately determining who is worthy of the playoffs is why Oregon is potentially going to have to play OSU and/or PSU again and the SEC will always argue that they should have more teams in the playoffs.

The concept of the 8-16 team playoff was to get to something closer to the NFL model, not act as extended conference championships for the BIG & SEC.

The 12 team playoff moved CFB theoretically closer to the NFL model, while the conference expansions & 'realignments' made it less possible in practice.

CFB is as broken as it's ever been IMO...

[webfoots2001]

They should go back to awarding the NC to the best team at the end of the conference season before they play any bowl games like they did for the first 80 years of the sport. Hang the banner!!!

[OregonFan4Life]

I can’t believe the committee is so incompetent when they designed this that they didn’t see this coming, when this format came out I remember QB11 and Doug talking about how the 5 seed is going to have it made in this flawed model. I hope it’s fixed sooner rather than later and I’m sure it will once an SEC team gets screwed over as a 1 or 2 seed.

What committee are you talking about?

The committee or university presidents that came up with this 12 team format. I forgot what they called themselves.

[duckpoint]

After the controversy this year, I expect that they will do away with auto bids for conference champions and go with the ranking system that allows for traditional biases to be applied. If it was done this way this year, the first round byes would go to Oregon, Georgia, Texas & Penn State. The rest of the field would be the same, except Alabama would replace Clemson, and the seedings would follow normal conventions.

Normal for the CFP going forward would most likely be;

8 teams from the P4-A (Big 10 & SEC)
2 teams from the P4-B (Big 12 & ACC)
1 team from Non P4 (Notre Dame & the rest of FBS)
1 team From at large (any properly ranked FBS team)

The demise of this system will be when they eventually cut out the non P4 team and put themselves back in the anti-trust scenario that led to the end of the BCS. The result will likely be that the Big ten & SEC do another expansion to plunder the last of the nationally 'relevant' teams and separate from the FBS so they don't have to keep up any pretenses that the FBS is a level & equitable playing field.

[UOducksTK1]

After the controversy this year, I expect that they will do away with auto bids for conference champions and go with the ranking system that allows for traditional biases to be applied. If it was done this way this year, the first round byes would go to Oregon, Georgia, Texas & Penn State. The rest of the field would be the same, except Alabama would replace Clemson, and the seedings would follow normal conventions.

Normal for the CFP going forward would most likely be;

8 teams from the P4-A (Big 10 & SEC)
2 teams from the P4-B (Big 12 & ACC)
1 team from Non P4 (Notre Dame & the rest of FBS)
1 team From at large (any properly ranked FBS team)

The demise of this system will be when they eventually cut out the non P4 team and put themselves back in the anti-trust scenario that led to the end of the BCS. The result will likely be that the Big ten & SEC do another expansion to plunder the last of the nationally 'relevant' teams and separate from the FBS so they don't have to keep up any pretenses that the FBS is a level & equitable playing field.

So:
#1 Oregon vs #8 Indiana / #9 Boise State
vs
#4 Penn State vs #5 Notre Dame / #12 Arizona State

And on the other side:

#2 Georgia vs #7 Tennessee / #10 SMU
vs
#3 Texas vs #6 Ohio State / #11 Alabama

I will say, this would bode well for Oregon this year...

[Duck07]

After the controversy this year, I expect that they will do away with auto bids for conference champions and go with the ranking system that allows for traditional biases to be applied. If it was done this way this year, the first round byes would go to Oregon, Georgia, Texas & Penn State. The rest of the field would be the same, except Alabama would replace Clemson, and the seedings would follow normal conventions.

Normal for the CFP going forward would most likely be;

8 teams from the P4-A (Big 10 & SEC)
2 teams from the P4-B (Big 12 & ACC)
1 team from Non P4 (Notre Dame & the rest of FBS)
1 team From at large (any properly ranked FBS team)

The demise of this system will be when they eventually cut out the non P4 team and put themselves back in the anti-trust scenario that led to the end of the BCS. The result will likely be that the Big ten & SEC do another expansion to plunder the last of the nationally 'relevant' teams and separate from the FBS so they don't have to keep up any pretenses that the FBS is a level & equitable playing field.

I think a more likely split would 7-3-1-1.

I'm of the opposite mindset that fewer teams overall means that more of these traditional powers are going to keep racking up more losses than they're used to. The only way to combat those extra losses is to keep the small fish and that probably means another round of expansion to 16 and not bringing more teams into conferences but rather giving 1-2 more of those teams chances at making the tournament. At that point I think it would probably mean more AQ's for smaller confs but then a straight re-seeding based on overall rankings.

[Duck07]

It's Playoff game week and perhaps a reminder of why winning the B1G was so important because we're back to the games.

Friday night is Indiana at Notre Dame as the first game, winner to play Georgia.

Saturday morning is SMU at Penn State, winner to play Boise State.

Saturday afternoon is Clemson at Texas, winner to play Arizona State.

Saturday night is Tennessee at Ohio State, winner to play Oregon.