2024 College Football Playoffs Discussion (12 Team Format)

[muffler dragon]

Didn't realize that the Triple Option podcast has Ingram, Urban, and Stone in it.
Listening now, and I sweat to Gawd that Urban is channeling @Jaxbuck in the first 10 minutes.

 

[woofermazing]

Maximizing shareholder value. They own all the rights to the SEC's product, and executive management is carrying out their sole legal fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value. We got off the plantation when we founded the BTN and made it all the way to Canada two years ago when we told them to go fuck themselves and went with FOX-NBC-CBS. It's entirely predictable that they demonize the B1G. The ACC, however, is all-in with espn, and I'm amazed that they don't sue over espn's harmful lobbying to favor SEC teams over ACC teams. Bama over FSU last year. Tennessee over Miami this year. Demonizing the selection of SMU over giving that at-large spot to an SEC team.

This, but I also suspect that ESPN saw metrics at some point that SEC fans were the ones tuning into their weekday content the most, so they doubled down on catering to them.

 

[Zurp]

ESPN having pretty much all control over the CFP and the narrative is absolutely part of making the sport less appealing.

I wouldn’t doubt if the committee stuck SMU in there this year cause they knew they likely would get pummeled and in the future they can use that as a reason to put some mediocre 3 loss SEC teams in instead of a 2 or maybe even 1 loss ACC or Big 12 teams. SMU landing on their face sets the tone for that for the rest of time.

Hm. Interesting thought about SMU. What about Indiana? Can we guess the committee can use Indiana as the example to exclude other teams performing way ahead of their trend? “That team is a Perennial 7-loss team. Just because they have 11 wins this year isn’t enough to take them. Remember what Indiana did to us?”
Basically, the playoffs are going to be SEC and other power teams only.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I read an article the other day that said the CFP turns power for scheduling/format decisions over to the B1G and SEC in 2026.

Right now all 10 conferences and ND have to unanimously agree on things. Makes a lot of sense on why some things are in there now that won't likely be in there in a couple of years.

It summarized teh whole thing pretty well; The CFP we see now was formed as a concept when there were 5 quasi balanced power conferences. By the time that idea became reality, we have two super conferences, ND and a bunch of mid majors.