Conclusions regarding Playoff possibilities

[morbitzerker]

I think many people would agree with you that the Cards may not be one of the top two teams in the NFL, but they played well when they needed to and are one of the top two teams in a group of teams which make up the playoffs. And that's the problem with playoffs, it doesn't really give you a "true" champion, unless one feels objectively that all the teams within the group of teams in the playoffs are all equal in talent, OR, the obvious two best teams win the games they're supposed to and get to the Championship of the playoffs; in which case most people would agree that a "true" Champion had been crowned.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

can someone that is favor of a playoff system in college footbal please attempt to cnovince me that the Cardinals are one of the best 2 teams in the NFL.

9-7 in regular season (in arguably worst div in football)
2-8 outside of their division
during regular season, they lost to 4 of the 5 other NFC playoff teams

Suppose they win the super bowl,
so a mediocre (at best) team gets hot in January, and people think they are the "true" champion of the sport?
seriously?

ok, AFC game is just starting.
Pitt had better regular season record, won the division, and have already beaten Baltimore TWICE this year (yes I know both were really good CLOSE games).
Can anyone here make a valid arguement that Balt is actually the better team if they win this time?

the only thing i can say about playoffs on a day like today. id love to bring your boys up here nutria, you know 17 degrees, 6-9 inches of snow in the forecast... howd you southern boys like that?

 

[morbitzerker]

Also, without reading much of the other Playoff possibility threads, the most glaring problem in my eyes with a CFB playoff is home field. It is not feasible to have a tournament or playoff without at least regional games. People have suggested keeping all the bowl and using there locations for the games, but in reality, it just won't work at this point. If fans of CFB want a playoff, home field is a necessity or at the very least a regional location. NCAAMBB uses neutral, regional sites to hold the games, NCAAF would need to adapt to something like this in order to produce a playoff. Fans cannot be expected to travel to three or more different locations to watch the team for three consecutive weeks. Just my opinion.

 

[Nutriaitch]

the only thing i can say about playoffs on a day like today. id love to bring your boys up here nutria, you know 17 degrees, 6-9 inches of snow in the forecast... howd you southern boys like that?

If that's the way it falls, so be it.

I've never been against home field advantage. If it's part of the system, and you earn a home game, you should get to play at home.

Only thing I have said is that weather gives a northern home team a bigger advantage than a southern home team.
December/January weather in the south is like september/october weather in the North, so those teams are already accustomed to playing in that element.
There is no way for a Southern team to prepare for the weather y'all are getting this time of year.

 

[Nutriaitch]

they played well when they needed to

translation:

They didn't need to play well consistently from September through December. Crappy to Mediocre is all that was necessary thanks to an irrelevant regular season.


Am I the only guy that is NOT willing to sacrifice the first 3 months of the season for 3 decent weeks?

 

[jimotis4heisman]

If that's the way it falls, so be it.

I've never been against home field advantage. If it's part of the system, and you earn a home game, you should get to play at home.

Only thing I have said is that weather gives a northern home team a bigger advantage than a southern home team.
December/January weather in the south is like september/october weather in the North, so those teams are already accustomed to playing in that element.
There is no way for a Southern team to prepare for the weather y'all are getting this time of year.

no doubt. but the bowl system provides a geographical advantage (note different than "home field") as in you guys can play sugar (64 miles) or the pac 10 in the rose bowl, the florida schools in orange/citrus/outback (i know they have new sponsors).

and its 5-12 now so they say...

ill be frank id say thats the one thing right now and the one thing we saw in the cooper era at ohio state specfically, you can build a fast skill team but they cant win in the b10 in november. you cant go to ann arbor, minn, chicago, madison, state college (columbus, el, iowa, ill, ind) and win in the late season with a finesse team. you cant, well you can but not regularly... coopers teams proved that to me. zooks teams are reminding us and coach rod will once again reinforce that in my mind.

with the gophers new digs outdoors that might be one of the roughest places to play late in the year the next few years.

this is also why i see the badgers as one of jts hardest games.

you also see this in the nfl (see cowboys, saints, chargers) and their short playoff histories witih their dozy teams... you have to play a heavy and weighty game to win in this geographic region be at nfl, cfb, or hs.

 

[morbitzerker]

translation:

They didn't need to play well consistently from September through December. Crappy to Mediocre is all that was necessary thanks to an irrelevant regular season.


Am I the only guy that is NOT willing to sacrifice the first 3 months of the season for 3 decent weeks?

Consistency in the NFL is a most difficult thing, I agree that inconsistent play makes a team look unworthy, however, if the Cards were playing like they are now in that stretch would you question their abilities? Just playing devil's advocate here, I think the playoff system is just as flawed as other systems, but because it is more objective and "fair" it is more widely appealing. A playoff system is very much an opportunistic system, keep in mind the Cards were the first team to clinch a playoff spot and that was very early in the season. Couple that with the Eagles, if they had made it to the Super Bowl would you think that they were worthy either, even though they tied with the Bungals were inconsistent and needed help in the last weekend to even get a spot?

 

[jimotis4heisman]

translation:

They didn't need to play well consistently from September through December. Crappy to Mediocre is all that was necessary thanks to an irrelevant regular season.


Am I the only guy that is NOT willing to sacrifice the first 3 months of the season for 3 decent weeks?

no im against the playoff also. but if you have a playoff its a joke if they dont have true home games. a joke. granted ive always wished someone would pony up the money for a good ol northern bowl game. say pitt, or clev etc...

 

[Nutriaitch]

you also see this in the nfl (see cowboys, saints, chargers) and their short playoff histories witih their dozy teams... you have to play a heavy and weighty game to win in this geographic region be at nfl, cfb, or hs.

Agree completely.
But, the thing is that when a Northern team comes South, they can still play their style of football.
When a Southern team heads north, they have to change their philosophy.

Advantage: Northern teams.

Now if you want to make the argument of fan access, you would be 100% correct.

The Superdome is less than an hour's drive from my house. Makes it a lot easier to attend than playing in Atlanta.

Consistency in the NFL is a most difficult thing, I agree that inconsistent play makes a team look unworthy, however, if the Cards were playing like they are now in that stretch would you question their abilities? Just playing devil's advocate here, I think the playoff system is just as flawed as other systems, but because it is more objective and "fair" it is more widely appealing. A playoff system is very much an opportunistic system, keep in mind the Cards were the first team to clinch a playoff spot and that was very early in the season. Couple that with the Eagles, if they had made it to the Super Bowl would you think that they were worthy either, even though they tied with the Bungals were inconsistent and needed help in the last weekend to even get a spot?

Yes, I would be griping about the Eagles as well.

If the Cards had played like this through the season, they would not have been 6 games below .500 outside of their division.


My complaint is that the playoffs doesn't reward the team with the best season.
It rewards the team with the best January.

As far as them clinching early, that is due to them playin in an absolutely horrid division.

9-7 won that division this year. They would have finished 3rd in 5 of the other 7 Divisions in the NFL with that record.
Which would have left them out of the playoffs. Just like 9-7: Jets, Cowboys, Bucs, Bears. Not to mention the 11-5 Patriots.
All of whom are at least .500 outside of their divisions, unlike the Cards who were 5 games under that mark.

 

[BB73]

Agree completely.
But, the thing is that when a Northern team comes South, they can still play their style of football.
When a Southern team heads north, they have to change their philosophy.

Advantage: Northern teams.

Good point. So since we've played about 75 years with all of the meaningful bowl games in the warmer regions, we'll only need to have the first 50 years of the playoffs held up north to even things out.

 

[Nutriaitch]

Good point. So since we've played about 75 years with all of the meaningful bowl games in the warmer regions, we'll only need to have the first 50 years of the playoffs held up north to even things out.

OK.
Just need to find the cheapest rathole hotels around.
A trip to Columbus is probably a tad bit more expensive than an afternoon stroll to NOLA.

 

[methomps]

can someone that is favor of a playoff system in college footbal please attempt to cnovince me that the Cardinals are one of the best 2 teams in the NFL.

9-7 in regular season (in arguably worst div in football)
2-8 outside of their division
during regular season, they lost to 4 of the 5 other NFC playoff teams

Suppose they win the super bowl,
so a mediocre (at best) team gets hot in January, and people think they are the "true" champion of the sport?
seriously?

ok, AFC game is just starting.
Pitt had better regular season record, won the division, and have already beaten Baltimore TWICE this year (yes I know both were really good CLOSE games).
Can anyone here make a valid arguement that Balt is actually the better team if they win this time?

The NFL playoff draws far deeper into the bucket (12 of 32 teams) than any realistic college football playoff would. So, no, you can't go slightly above .500 and have a realistic shot at a playoff spot if we're only taking 4/6/8 or ever 12/16 teams out of 119.

Arguably, things are the opposite of how they should be. The NFL regular season is much better suited to a BCS system than the college football season. There is much more parity in the NFL and thus the schedules are much more balanced.

To think that you can have 119 very, very different schedules and expect to narrow things down below 3 teams after 12 games is simply unrealistic.

 

[cincibuck]

Consistency in the NFL is a most difficult thing, I agree that inconsistent play makes a team look unworthy, however, if the Cards were playing like they are now in that stretch would you question their abilities? Just playing devil's advocate here, I think the playoff system is just as flawed as other systems, but because it is more objective and "fair" it is more widely appealing. A playoff system is very much an opportunistic system, keep in mind the Cards were the first team to clinch a playoff spot and that was very early in the season. Couple that with the Eagles, if they had made it to the Super Bowl would you think that they were worthy either, even though they tied with the Bungals were inconsistent and needed help in the last weekend to even get a spot?

I think the weather argument is weak. It's the geography/fan base issue that needs to be drawn. Green Bay has won and lost home games in December/January to teams from warmer climes. Same, same the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers and NE Patriots and of course the Vikings lose any important game indoors, outdoors, warm, cold or medium. BUT the revenue flow favors the home team and home field advantage remains in the 6 to 7 point range in Vegas. Right now SEC teams seldom leave their region (and I consider Texas to be a part of their Region) for a Bowl game. USC has won only one of its National Championships away from LA. I believe there's a correlation.

 

[Nutriaitch]

The NFL playoff draws far deeper into the bucket (12 of 32 teams) than any realistic college football playoff would. So, no, you can't go slightly above .500 and have a realistic shot at a playoff spot if we're only taking 4/6/8 or ever 12/16 teams out of 119.

I agree with your point, but chances are that is not how the college game would draw their field.
The conferences would never sign off a system that doesn't give their champ an automatic bid.
That puts a 4 loss Va Tech into the playoffs last year.
Without watering down the field with multiple "at-large wild card" type teams, that takes a spot away from a 1 loss non-conf champ like Bama, Texas, Ohio State, etc.

If we go by just the polls, Texas probably gets in last year, but Texas Tech probably doesn't. Even though they had identical records, and TT won the head to head match-up.

 

[jimotis4heisman]

Agree completely.
But, the thing is that when a Northern team comes South, they can still play their style of football.
When a Southern team heads north, they have to change their philosophy.

Advantage: Northern teams.

Now if you want to make the argument of fan access, you would be 100% correct.

The Superdome is less than an hour's drive from my house. Makes it a lot easier to attend than playing in Atlanta.

how far is ATL from your house? its 8 hours for us (columbus) if you drive it pretty good. (580 miles or so). from nawlins youre looking at 470 miles (less for most tigers fans aka over the bridge etc). that would be our closest half way decent bowl game, 8 hour drive. and no one, i mean no one has peach bowl ambitions...

but my point is that northern teams (ie big ten, and bc, colorado, uconn, pitt-lesser extent rutgers, wv, kansas/mizzou/nebraska-maybe) have to be built to play in the north. so their games have to be built for the warm and cold. so the football and the best teams early on (sept/oct) arent always the best teams. this was a huge issue under our previous coach, a good ol boy from east TN who spent time in the lower plains and the desert...