College Football Playoff (2016-2017 Season)

[Jaxbuck]

Absolutely, positively disagree re: (8) teams ie Clemson 37 ~ Oklahoma 17 /// Alabama 38 ~ MSU 0. Picking (4) teams may be difficult, but "they" just have to use "their" best judgment in picking said four teams. Increasing the # of teams is not a solution as it just further dilutes the competition.

leaving out powerhouse teams because of one bad loss is dilutes it as well

EDIT

Speaking of ridiculous B1G tiebreakers;

Watching The Game'82. tsun has 0 losses in B1G play, OSU 1. tsun had already secured B1G title and RB because even if OSU won head to head (they did) the tie breaker was overall win %. So when the smoke cleared each team had 1 loss in conference play, OSU had defeated tsun by 2 TD's head to head and tsun went to the RB.

 

[jwinslow]

leaving out powerhouse teams because of one bad loss is dilutes it as well

Then the powerhouse teams should play like it against the wannabes and not get bullied yet again.

Unless they do the unthinkable and leave out OSU this year, I'm struggling to see any unfair treatment of OSU in terms of the playoffs.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Then the powerhouse teams should play like it against the wannabes and not get bullied yet again.

Unless they do the unthinkable and leave out OSU this year, I'm struggling to see any unfair treatment of OSU in terms of the playoffs.

It's not just OSU. UW is in danger this year, OSU isn't out of the woods yet either.

If the answer is always "don't ever lose" why did they ever expand it? We had that nonsense forever. It's how BYU ended up a NC once.

 

[buckeyemania11]

I don't think they'd bother having us at #2 if they were just going to end up leaving us out in the end

Beat scU* and they are in, I think it's pretty clear cut.

 

[jwinslow]

It's not just OSU. UW is in danger this year, OSU isn't out of the woods yet either.

If your schedule is trash (or at best, fairly stinky), you better win. If you line up 3 versions of Rutgers and then get smoked by a 3-loss USC team, you earn your keep. If you play an average VT team and an average B1G schedule and lose the only premiere game, you earn your keep.

edit: unless you mean Wisconsin? Are we really convinced they should be in? They sure look like Sparty 15 to me (with different parts)

If the answer is always "don't ever lose" why did they ever expand it?

$$$

Which is the same reason they'll downgrade the regular season and go to 8 (or even 16) if they have the chance to do so.

We had that nonsense forever. It's how BYU ended up a NC once.

I have trouble feeling like the world will be deprived if Washington, Oklahoma are left out this year, OSU/Stanford last year or the defenseless B12ers the year before that.

If they change their tune and leave OSU out, then we can talk, and frankly that snub is only because the field is so weak (OSU has looked like the talented but young/flawed team that we expected).

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Washington gave up 13 points to Rutgers. They are not deserving.

 

[Jaxbuck]

If your schedule is trash (or at best, fairly stinky), you better win. If you line up 3 versions of Rutgers and then get smoked by a 3-loss USC team, you earn your keep. If you play an average VT team and an average B1G schedule and lose the only premiere game, you earn your keep.

If schedules were easier to update a year in advance I'd be more willing to agree on this but when you schedule Vt 10 years ago, things can change.

Which is the same reason they'll downgrade the regular season and go to 8 (or even 16) if they have the chance to do so.

I'm with you in not wanting a watered down regular season but I don't think 8 would do that. Anymore than 8 most likely would.

I have trouble feeling like the world will be deprived if Washington, Oklahoma are left out this year, OSU/Stanford last year or the defenseless B12ers the year before that.

If they change their tune and leave OSU out, then we can talk, and frankly that snub is only because the field is so weak (OSU has looked like the talented but young/flawed team that we expected).

I used to would have agreed with this more until I saw last teams in win the SuperBowl, World Series and the first CFB "playoff". You just don't know what's going to happen.

Everyone can't get in but 4 is too few imo.

 

[shiloh]

I'm struggling to see any unfair treatment of OSU in terms of the playoffs.

True and again the irony that this year the B1G have overtakien the SEC re: top tier teams. Two years ago SEC yahoos were talking about having (3) teams in the final four.

Hypothetically, if TTUN had not lost to Iowa and then lost a close game to the Buckeyes the B1G would have an argument for having three teams in the playoff also.

Amazing how a perception of a conference can change in a couple years. And yes Virginia, the B1G is better when all their Blue Bloods (Buckeyes/TTUN/Neb/ped state) are competitive and then throw in Wisky, Sparty, Iowa and voilá the new SEC.

ok, maybe I should rephrase as I go watch the 2015 'bama game again ...

 

[jwinslow]

If schedules were easier to update a year in advance I'd be more willing to agree on this but when you schedule Vt 10 years ago, things can change.

You can do kick-off classics much sooner, but you lose home revenue, recruiting, etc.

I'm with you in not wanting a watered down regular season but I don't think 8 would do that. Anymore than 8 most likely would.

Would this weekend's game surely eliminate either side with 8 spots?

I used to would have agreed with this more until I saw last teams in win the SuperBowl, World Series and the first CFB "playoff". You just don't know what's going to happen.

Which makes for a better tournament, not necessarily a better way to crown a season long champion.

Everyone can't get in but 4 is too few imo.

Or split up the B12 and just have CCGs. It's boring but fair.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Would this weekend's game surely eliminate either side with 8 spots?

No, not this year but in some years it absolutely could. Plus you will always pick up a few games that wouldn't have mattered and become important because of an expanded playoff field.

Year in and year out I don't think 5 conference champs and 3 at large teams (remember the Domers if they ever get back to relevant) is going to water down the regular season. You still don't want any part of more than 1 loss.

I do agree with your underlying premise though, too big a field could very much harm the greatest spectacle in sport (imo) which is the CFB regular season. I used to think any kind of playoff would do that, now after 2-3 years I have changed my mind.

 

[Jagdaddy]

No, not this year but in some years it absolutely could. Plus you will always pick up a few games that wouldn't have mattered and become important because of an expanded playoff field.

Year in and year out I don't think 5 conference champs and 3 at large teams (remember the Domers if they ever get back to relevant) is going to water down the regular season. You still don't want any part of more than 1 loss.

I do agree with your underlying premise though, too big a field could very much harm the greatest spectacle in sport (imo) which is the CFB regular season. I used to think any kind of playoff would do that, now after 2-3 years I have changed my mind.

Controversy has always been part of the fun of college football. The fact that at the moment at least one conference champion has to be left out is a good thing IMO.

 

[Dryden]

This debate in general is funny to me (not the people here, just in general). Every major professional sport I can think of identified, and solved, this conundrum years ago.

The conference champions aren't always the best teams. Sometimes a team wins the championship and has lost a few games along the way. On the other hand, winning a conference should matter or why are you playing?

They solved this seemingly incomprehensible puzzle with a thing called the "wild card".

Only because CFB has been in the dark ages for so long in the way it crowned a champion is this even a fucking question in this day and age.

1. Expand your stupid ass system to 8 teams.
2. P5 conference champs get an auto bid.
3. Pick 3 wildcards based on whatever criteria you want (ND twats can only ever get a WC until they join a conference).
4. Organize it however the fuck (homefield, seeding system, rotating Bowl sites, regional matchups etc) the fans like the most after a few years of tweaking and feedback
5. Play it off
6. Profit

I mean fuck me running. Watching Mensa candidates like Kanel, Galloway, Herbstreit et al go on and on about this is just too much to bear. It's like listening to 4-5 dumbasses at the bar argue over "dial up or broadband?"...in 2016.

IMHO, P5 conference champs don't deserve an auto bid unless/until all P5 conferences utilize same scheduling rules (8 conf games or 9, fcs cupcakes, divisions with ccg, divisional tiebreakers, etc...). If you give a slot in the playoff based solely on conference monetary prestige, you'll have a 17th ranked ACC or Big XII champ in a playoff field of 8 every so often.

Use a committee, use a BCS-style aggregate poll, or just use the final AP poll. Seed the Top 8 and play. It's fair. Some years a conference is so good it deserves to have three teams play. Other years a conference is so shit-tastic it should sit at home and watch TV with everybody else. But nobody should be handed an automatic anything.

 

[Oh8ch]

A few thoughts -

1. Folks arguing for an 8 or 16 team playoff need to remember this is not being played as a video game. These are real kids taking real hits. Too many hits over an already too long season. And in the playoffs they are big boy hits - not Youngstown St or Rutgers hits. The more you expand the more likely at least one of the teams in the CG will be playing without one or more of the stars that got them there.

2. Villanova's BBall championship and Florida's World Series are examples of the flaws in expanded playoffs - not their strengths. The bigger the playoff the greater the chance the "wrong" team wins. That is a mathematical certainty, not an opinion.

3. The goal of the committee is NOT to get the best four teams into the playoff. It is to ensure that the best team gets in. Even if PSU should somehow win the BIG (they won't) I don't believe they belong in a discussion about top 4. They certainly have no business in a discussion about top 1.

4. The current approach is about as good as you can reasonably get. Until we get a committee full of bone heads I think the way they are doing it is spot on and have agreed with their top four pretty much every week since their first vote 3 years ago.

5. Besides - as has been pointed out - controversy is half the fun.

 

[Jaxbuck]

A few thoughts -

1. Folks arguing for an 8 or 16 team playoff need to remember this is not being played as a video game. These are real kids taking real hits. Too many hits over an already too long season. And in the playoffs they are big boy hits - not Youngstown St or Rutgers hits. The more you expand the more likely at least one of the teams in the CG will be playing without one or more of the stars that got them there.

2. Villanova's BBall championship and Florida's World Series are examples of the flaws in expanded playoffs - not their strengths. The bigger the playoff the greater the chance the "wrong" team wins. That is a mathematical certainty, not an opinion.

3. The goal of the committee is NOT to get the best four teams into the playoff. It is to ensure that the best team gets in. Even if PSU should somehow win the BIG (they won't) I don't believe they belong in a discussion about top 4. They certainly have no business in a discussion about top 1.

4. The current approach is about as good as you can reasonably get. Until we get a committee full of bone heads I think the way they are doing it is spot on and have agreed with their top four pretty much every week since their first vote 3 years ago.

5. Besides - as has been pointed out - controversy is half the fun.

FCS teams go into the playoffs after 10-11 games

selfishly as an OSU fan, think of how many great teams we'd have like to seen get a chance in a playoff that were left out because of one bad day

Off the top of my head (and I just opened a bottle of Woodford double oaked so forgive the shit outta me when I mess up some things. I'm drunk. Beautiful, so what? I'm drunk. Lillian....)

1969
1973
1974
1993*
1994*
1995*
1996*
1997*
1998*
2005
2009
2010
2015

*fuck John fucking Cooper straight in his big game choking hillbilly fucking ass

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

1994 had 3 bad days, and then lost its bowl game as well to finish 9-4