College Playoff

[Oh8ch]

No One... and I mean NO ONE complains about how the NFL crowns its champion.

I'm one.

First time a Wild Card team won the Super Bowl the concept of a true Season champion was completed discounted. It is a post season tournament just like March Madness.

Fun to watch and somebody gets to be the tournament champion. But the more teams you let in to the tournament the less relevance it has to the regular season.

Same thing for baseball. 162 games and it is all about who gets hot in October. Granted, it has been that way since the first World Series. But even with Divisions you had to win SOMETHING during the regular season to qualify for a chance. Now you just have to be a few games over 500 and you are essentially even with the rest of the league.

 

[BB73]

I'm one.

First time a Wild Card team won the Super Bowl the concept of a true Season champion was completed discounted. It is a post season tournament just like March Madness.

[sarcasm] Just because the Browns had the same regular season record as the Giants, and one team won the Super Bowl while the other didn't make the playoffs, doesn't mean it's not a perfect system. [/sarcasm]

 

[OCBucksFan]

This is all Ty Willinghams fault.

 

[lvbuckeye]

um...was that comment tongue in cheek, BB73?

 

[BrutusBobcat]

Glad that's all resolved. Now I can go back to thinking about things that are still possible -- like where I'd take Jessica Alba for a weekend.

 

[TGfan06]

I think what college presidents and Commisioners are concerned about is exactly what the Big East Commish stated. Once they cave in too a plus one format, it will lead to demands for an 8 team playoff, then 16, so on and so forth.

For example, March Madness was once a simple 16 team playoff. It has since expanded to 32, and now 65. And now coaches like Jim Boehiem and others want that number to increase to 128.

Say there was a 16 team playoff and Maryland was the last team in at 9-3, while Virginia (who beat maryland) was left out with that same record but lost later on. Maryland gets hot, not unlike this years Giants, and wins the title. People begin to clamor that Virginia should have had a shot.

The question then becomes, when will fans ever be fully satisfied? And the reality is never!

 

[OCBucksFan]

I think what college presidents and Commisioners are concerned about is exactly what the Big East Commish stated. Once they cave in too a plus one format, it will lead to demands for an 8 team playoff, then 16, so on and so forth.

For example, March Madness was once a simple 16 team playoff. It has since expanded to 32, and now 65. And now coaches like Jim Boehiem and others want that number to increase to 128.

Say there was a 16 team playoff and Maryland was the last team in at 9-3, while Virginia (who beat maryland) was left out with that same record but lost later on. Maryland gets hot, not unlike this years Giants, and wins the title. People begin to clamor that Virginia should have had a shot.

The question then becomes, when will fans ever be fully satisfied? And the reality is never!

Exactly! Ok, so now we get 12 regular season games, this means we are guaranteed to see our teams AT least 12 times. People have said that more than 13 are going to interfere with class.

Ok, so now there's a chance of a +1, now we need to remove a regular season game to make sure that, on the off chance, our school goes, they don't interfere with class.

Suddenly it's changed to a 4 team playoff, now we have a 10 game regular season schedule, can't miss class.

Now it's an 8 team playoff, can't miss class, 9 games in the season.

Suddenly, we have a 16 team playoff, ok, just play your conference, no OOC teams, sorry, we can't do that because of the playoffs. That sucks, OSU beat Michigan, Michigan beat Wisconsin, and Wisconsin beat Illinios, be the Illini beat OSU and Michigan so even tho they have the same records, they win the conference. Nevermind what the nation wants to see, Michigan and Ohio State can sit at home.... Hope you enjoyed your 4 home games in your 100,000+ stadiums...

 

[Gatorubet]

I think what college presidents and Commissioners are concerned about is exactly what the Big East Commish stated. Once they cave in too a plus one format, it will lead to demands for an 8 team playoff, then 16, so on and so forth.

The question then becomes, when will fans ever be fully satisfied? And the reality is never!

I think the question is, can it be made better than the piece of shit that we have now? The answer is clearly yes. At some point in an effort to find the best two teams, if you aren't among the best 8 teams to start with, shut the hell up. Using the present system we are not able to (pre-bowl game) resolve the Michigan-Florida debate of 06, or the undefeated but left out Auburn fiasco, but both of those would be cured in a best of 8 or even a best of 4.

True - somebody will always be left out, but the spectacle of an undefeated or a universally recognized kick ass one loss team being left out might be eliminated. You will always have complainers, but the validity of the bitch will be lessoned by the inability to have a good enough season to get you in the top 4 or 8.

 

[osugrad21]

DDN

BCS nixes four-team playoff proposal


By Ralph D. Russo
Associated Press

Thursday, May 01, 2008

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. ? Even a four-game playoff scenario was too much.
Bowl Championship Series officials rejected a plan Wednesday, April 30, to turn the much-criticized system for deciding a national champion in college football into a four-team playoff, starting in the 2010 season.


The BCS format will remain the same until at least the 2014 season.
"After a very thorough, very good discussion among the group, we have decided that because we feel at this time the BCS is in an unprecedented state of health, we feel it's never been healthier during its first decade, we have made a decision to move forward in the next cycle with the current format," Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford said.



Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

College football: BCS tables discussion of four-team playoff

Thursday, May 1, 2008 3:13 AM



CHICAGO -- As expected, two words ruled the BCS meetings that concluded yesterday: status quo. Citing college football's "unprecedented state of health," Bowl Championship Series coordinator John Swofford slammed the door on talk of a playoff.
As Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany suspected, there was widespread opposition to a plus-one format that would have used two BCS bowl games to create a four-team playoff.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive's proposal drew little interest. Only the SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference even wanted to continue the discussion.
"I did feel like the notion the Big Ten and Pac-10 were obstructionist and blocking the way was too narrow a way to capture where the conferences were on this issue," Delany told reporters in Hollywood, Fla.
Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

Overheard: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany

Thursday, May 1, 2008 3:30 AM

"There was a strong sense in the room of the slippery slope view, that there had never been a collegiate or professional playoff that stopped at four teams." -- Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, on the rejected plus-one proposal for the Bowl Championship Series

 

[cincibuck]

Again; note those in favor, ACC and SEC. Not one game played above the Mason Dixon and only one on the West Coast.

Ask yourself this: How many NC titles did USC win while playing their final game on the Road? Try one. How many did any SEC team win outside the Sunbelt?

If it's a National Championship game then the playing field needs to be leveled.

 

[Oh8ch]

The question then becomes, when will fans ever be fully satisfied? And the reality is never!

One reason we go round and round on this argument is that different fans want different things from a playoff/non-playoff.

March Madness is the best example. Let everyone in. Wouldn't it be great if some team with a losing record made it to the Final Four? Wouldn't everyone be rooting for that Cinderella? Didn't we all love what George Mason did? I mean really, wouldn't that be incredibly exciting? And it would be - I am not being sarcastic.

It is just that the regular season would have absolutely no meaning other than as exhibition and practice. (And of course deciding conference champions - one during the regular season and one during a one-and-done conference playoff.)

I was around in the days of a more limited NCAA field and I can remember the intensity of February when your team was on the bubble because they might not win the conference and get into the tournament. The regular season actually mattered then.

The problem was that if your team tanked in January it was over for them. And it SHOULD be over for them. That is if you really mean it when you say that the championship should be determined on the court. Play good basketball - all year long.

IMO the people who want everybody in the playoff are the people who just don't want to pay attention during the regular season. They can't be bothered to pay attention all year long. They are not the hard core fans of the sport. And there are not enough of them to get the attention of TV sponsors who can max out during March.

I think the question is, can it be made better than the piece of shit that we have now?

It can also be made worse in the eyes of old farts like me who actually enjoy every Saturday of the season.

The thing to remember about the current piece of shit is that even though the two teams playing for the NC may not be the only teams who earned the right to be there, they are at least two teams who did earn that right.

Imagine the possibility that someone like 9-3 Michigan could have won the NC in 2002 as a Wild Card. Would that have been better?

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

As long as college football fans have this sense that the National Champion actually be "the best team in the nation" for any particular year, the system we are under right now is probably actually best at accomplishing that goal. You've got people and computers ranking precisely that - who's the best. Surely "subjective" but... frankly, so is our own perception of who is best. People smarter than I can maybe devise a better system, and that's fine. But... As has been repeated, a play-off satisfies nothing regarding "who's the best" and again, the whole if you have 4 teams, team 5 bitches about getting screwed. Have 8, and 9 bitches. 16? Here comes 17... I have no doubt when (not if) the NCAA goes to 128 teams, 129 will bitch.

I've given this a lot of thought and used to be a play-off guy.... but the more I consider the problem, I'd just as soon keep the BCS. But, when I say that - settle on a fucking formula! If there is ONE problem with the BCS it's that they change the fucking parameters all the time to account for last year's problem (or percieved problem). And... for shit's sake don't apologize for who the system selected. "Sorry USC, the system spit out LSU v. Oklahoma" We'll tweak the formula this off season...What the fuck? Tweak it for what reason, exactly? So the computers spit out the same shit the we already have people spitting out? If that's what we want, get rid of the computers and just have the old poll system. (That's too LLs Bill... no one wants to hear about your old pole).

The simple truth is, ultimately the playoff folks will win this debate. And it'll be a sad sad day for me. In years where Ohio State wins the title even though they slipped in at 9-3, I'll of course be thrilled. In years they get fucked going 12-0 during the regular season and then trip up on a bad call to a clearly inferior team, I doubt all the playoff proponents will be talking about how great a system it is. When Villanova wins the national championship in basketball people say "Isn't that great?" Give a title to fucking Vanderbilt in football and see how "great" it is.

I suppose a +1 isn't that bad an idea, really. In as much as the top 4 are picked in terms of their "BCS Rank" (or whatever). I don't know that the team who's 4th in the nation deserves a shot, but I'm not convinced they dont. But.. it won't stop there. It'll become 8 and 16 and 32.....

Hell, if you're a playoff guy - every week matters... must win... I give you the 2008 season... every game matters.. every game is a must win. It's a season long playoff. What more do you want?

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

The question then becomes, when will mid-major fans ever be fully satisfied? And the reality is never!

Fixed the quote.

They never will be happy. Give them a 16 team playoff, and they'll start whining about how unfair it is to play in higher seeded team's stadiums and demand all neutral sites. Give them that, and they'll start whining about the inherent unfairness in revenue discrepancies and start demanding that all television, radio and attendance money is put into one big pot to be divided equally. Give them that, and they'll start whining about how unfair it is that high school football players are allowed to choose where to go to school and demand an NFL style draft. Give them that, and I'm sure that they'll move on to their next conspiracy theory of how the big schools (The Man) is sticking it to them.

The reality is that the college football landscape predates the BCS or even the old bowl tie-in system. It was largely in place--with its fanbases and large stadiums--before WWII. No tinkering with the system or instituting a playoff is going to reverse history.