College Football Playoff 2014

I think they will go to eight teams in a few years because I won't know what to do if FSU is still in the final four when you have three teams that could beat them easily by 10+ points (TCU, Ohio State, and Baylor)

Personally, I have been watching the D3 playoffs, and I like the way they do it.
All conferences that have 7 members or more get an auto bid into the play offs. Then there is an poolb bid for all independents and conferences less than 7. The remaining open spots are filled with at large teams chosen nationally. If you are in an auto bid conference, win your conference and you are in.

 

I will agree with you on that since Barrett is hurt, I think the playoffs should go to eight.

I'd like to see eight playoff teams. The five major conference winners plus three wild cards. But if/when there are eight teams the teams that finished nine, ten, etc. will complain they got shortchanged. It's the nature of things. Whomever doesn't make March Madness (#69) complains. Moving from four to eight teams depends on how it affects the major bowls. They have a lot of power aka $$$.

 

This is exactly right.

 

... oh, and pay the players. That's a lot of games to play without getting paid.

Mississippi State being out creates a spot for TCU and Ohio State.  I hear lots of commentary saying OSU will leap-frog TCU but that does not make any sense to me.  TCU destroyed Texas and they should logically move up into contention with OSU on the outside looking in.  OSU's quarterback situation should not affect decisions but it probably will.  All that said, I'd like to see D1 go to at least an 8 team playoff but as human nature goes, then we'll be having these same conversations about which two-loss teams are worthy.  I have friends who are college football fanatics and they love having less teams in it.  They love the excitement of arguing who is best for weeks at a time.  I guess there is something to that if that is what you enjoy.

I agree with RJM make it 8 teams with 5 power conference teams and 3 non power conference teams.

But that is not what he said.  A wild card team could be the runner up in a power conference.

Yeah but at least one of the non power 5 conference teams will have to get in if they go to 8

I don't understand that.   Why wouldn't a wild card be the second best team in the SEC or the PAC12? Or be an unaffiliated team?  Why would all 3 wild cards come from other conferences?  You'd still have a selection committee, and their job would be to pick the 3 remaining best teams in the country, regardless of conference.

Yes ONE of the wild card spots should go to an at large team such as Marshall before they lost to WKU The wild cards won't have to be ranked 5,6,&7 the selection committee could chose whoever they want in the top 25 I'm just saying one of those spots should go to a non power 5 conference team.

Here's my thoughts and no way in the world would it ever happen due to the bowls getting minimized even if they used a rotating system or bowls as playoff sites.

 

All football teams go into 8 conferences with one or two conferences being the mid major schools.  Play 11 game season with 8 games being in conference.  Each conference has a conference championship game from two divisions inside each conference.  Once all that is done and over with on the same weekend take a week off (or maybe no) then use the ranking playoff committee being used now to rank the teams 1-16 and go with a playoff from that.  

 

Things to consider -

 

1.  Can two conference champs meet up in the first round?

2.  Can two schools from same conference meet in the first round?

 

At the end of the day no system is perfect and there will always be someone on the outside looking in saying they got screwed.  At least in this scenario you create more opportunities to earn your way into a chance which is what the mid majors want and deserve.  I still think Marshall should not be punished for having a bad day especially at the end of the season.  Yes there is the argument that the number three teams in the SEC are better than anybody in the mid major conferences but oh well.  Can't make everyone happy.

Eight could mean an extra week of football, and I'd really like to know what the players (students) really think about it before deciding to implement.   So, you'd have the regular season + conference champ + national playoff.   That is a lot of games, travel, and focus on things other than the classroom.  This is akin to the NFL wanting to add two extra games because they can. First, I'd want to know if the number of concussions is declining because of the action taken by the schools, conferences and NCAA.  Let's make sure our college students are better protected before putting them at more risk.  JMO.

 

 

Just guessing but I would guess that a large number of the players would be OK with this but I could be wrong.

 

I think the issue of physical wear / tear along with concussions could be a legitimate issue and only thing to hold it back but the flip side is that the other levels of football already have playoffs.  I would like to see the numbers of injuries / concussions between the two styles if there would be an increase.

 

As for the academic issue IMO this is the most blown out of the water arguement against playoff I've seen.  First they have been on this schedule for 11 weeks of missing class to travel.  Another couple of weeks won't hurt anything because it's what they are used to already.  Second we live in the 21st century and their phones have the world's knowledge in their hands.  Technology has never provided a better opportunity to learn outside of the classroom.  I know when I was finishing my masters degree colleges were starting to use Blackboard for online class, assignments, staying up to date, etc...  At the high school level I use Edmodo to be able to extend the classroom outside of normal school setting.  Third most of this playoff system will take place over Christmas break.  They won't miss class.  Fourth they chose this life to be a student and an athlete.  With that comes the responsibility of staying on top of their studies regardless of what type of schedule they have.  Plus football probably misses the least amount of class than all the other sports.  I would bet that if they needed extra help the coaches / school would make sure they get it.

Miss what school?  This has always been the craziest argument for not having football playoffs.  It takes about two weeks to play three rounds of playoffs.  Games could start on Dec. 17 and be over on Jan.4.  Will not interfere with finals and if they miss any classes for spring it will be the first few days at most.  At Alabama for example finals conclude on Dec.12 and classes begin January 7. 

 

Imagine a prime time game on Wed, Thurs, Friday and Sat in the first week. Then come back the 2nd week on Fri and Sat again and the final on Sat.  Pretty much stays out of the NFL's way and 7 primetime playoff games.  The money will be through the roof.   

 

And yes - pay them. 

Oh and be careful what you wish for.  The College Football Regular season is the best regular season in sports because almost every game is a playoff game. 

 

That will be lost for good with 8 teams and you open it up to 3 loss teams if you got to 16 which is currently UCLA.  My prediction is that is where they go.  And the Football Regular season becomes much more like the basketball regular season - almost a worthless watch since no matter what happens you get the same 10 teams most years and a rotation of 25 others to round out the field. 

 

On the plus side it will finally kill the bowls.

 

 

Missing class for potential playoff games is a problem?  Let's remember the tweet of now-starting QB for The Ohio State University, Cardale Jones:

 

"Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS."

 

Something tells me none of the athlete-students that play at a "Power 5" school care if they miss a few more classes...

I love the bowl games.

There you go.  If you went to Mizzou a bowl game is probably a pretty fun way to spend some time with the old Alma Mater.  Me I am  DIII guy from a directional school, so a different angle on it for me.  Not right or wrong ...just different.

You would be very wrong. The graduation rate of D1 football players is higher than non athletes who attend college to play school. I don't understand how you could indict and insult thousands of D1 football players due to the bonehead comment made by one player.

 

An acquaintance I played high school football against went to med school after his All American and NFL career.  John Frank left the NFL for med school. Myron Rolle was a Rhodes Scholar. After attending Oxford he played in the NFL until he left to attend med school. 

 

Most college football players fall somewhere in the middle. But you gave me one moron. I gave you three brilliant college football players who were good enough to play in the NFL.

What does everyone think of the final selections?

First, there are six teams who could be named for the playoffs without anyone outside the two left out complaining. Second, I get the TCU over Baylor argument. TCU has a better body of work and a more challenging schedule over the season. Baylor played all mid major cream puffs in their non conference schedule. Baylor only beat TCU by three in overtime at home. 

 

TCU got screwed by the Big 12 not having a conference championship game. Conference championship games add a difficult game to a team's end of season schedule. It's not their fault their last game was against a weak team. How much more can they do than win by 52 points. 

 

Florida State isn't going any further. If they struggle against Oregon in the first half the way they've played this year, they will get blown out. Oregon will beat Alabama in the championship game.

 

Imagine the argument with four ticked off program if the BCS was still the procedure for a championship. I still say expand to eight with the five major conference champions and three wild cards. Then the argument against teams getting left out is, "you should have won your conference."

In college baseball, it is generally acknowledged that RPI doesn't mean much until teams have played 20-25 games. Just not enough games involving common opponents until that many games have been played. For the same reason, who-played-who analysis that tries to discern differences between fairly comparable football teams after a 12 or 13 game season is destined to remain unpersuasive to the teams left out. 

 

I think the committee made a very defensible choice even though I hoped to see how a Big 12 offense would fare in the playoff. 

The teams I thought would be selected were selected exactly in the order they were selected.  There was some grumbling with my oldest son who thought the committee sold out for money with the Ohio State selection but I see it differently.  TCU & Baylor have to do a better job of non-conference scheduling and they should add a conference championship, as all selections were conference champions.  TCU and Baylor are excellent teams but they didn't separate themselves as the others did with their scheduling.

 

Could the selection committee have done a better job of telling eveyone what exactly the guidelines would be and why?  Most certainly.  But, I like this better than a computer ranking, and I think the committee did a very good job.

 

I thought Kirk Herbstreit had it right in his discussion about the selections before they were announced.  His rationale was exactly how the committee was thinking.  The lesson learned through all of this is to play your 8 conference games, 2 non-confernce games and 1 FCS game.....win them and play in the conference championship to get a shot at the Final Four.

I thought Herbstreit was shamelessly promoting Ohio State like a homer. He was an Oho State QB.

In the end - the NCAA will follow the dollar trail...  It's really become disgusting...

 

When there were just two teams, people complained about #3 and perhaps #4 being screwed and they complained about polls, computers, and secret formulas.

 

Now there are 4 teams, we're seeing complains about #5 and #6 (although 5 did beat 6 head to head in a basketball like score of 61-58). There's also complains that the "select(ion) committee" could be biased or didn't have representation (Big12, Baylor coach comments).  We also see the media hyping up certain schools - the media from stations that pay the NCAA a lot of $$$'s - think about it.

 

If we go to 6 or 8 or 16, there will always be complaints about some team being screwed. Think about basketball - there were 64 teams... Complaints trickled in and they created a 64 v 65 "play in" game.... Seeing how much money they made off of that there's now I think 4 play in games (like any of them have a snowballs chance in hell of winning).

 

The bowls won't go away - too much money to lose.  I do wish they'd stop messing with New Year's Day bowls - now they're spread out over two days with virtually no overlap other than Outback, Cotton, and Citrus. The Fiesta and Orange on New Year's Eve... Really? I'd prefer the clicker in one hand and changing stations to avoid the commercials or poor matchups resulting in blowouts... Oh and by the way - other than one bowl (Sun Bowl) all games are on Disney owned stations - hmm... where's that money trail again?  

I'm with your son in that Baylor and / or TCU got screwed.  I do agree that the guidelines for selection were not communicated very well.  Did you hear the commissioner of the Big 12 speak yesterday?  He said that the question was posed to the committee if not having a conference championship game would hurt them and they were told no.  Now that's all everyone is saying is what hurt them and he said if they knew going it that it would have hurt them then they would have created one.  But when all this started going down it was too late to create one.  If all that is true then yes the Big 12 got screwed.

 

I hate the non-conference schedule was too weak argument.  DI football does not get to have scrimmages against other teams so until you strap it up and play some other team you are just guessing how good you are going to be.  So you have to play some weak teams to treat them as a scrimmage.  But let's also look at everything else.  It's not like Ohio State played a murderer's row of a non-conference games plus you factor in the played in the Big 10 who is just barely above a mid-major conference.  The Big 12 is either the second toughest or third toughest conference in the nation.  So you factor in quality of conference opponents that makes TCU / Baylor stand out more.  Was the non-conference schedules weak for TCU / Baylor?  Yes and yes they probably should play tougher teams but these schedules are set years ahead and probably before the whole playoff idea came out.  The Big 12 conference actually plays everyone in their conference so that's 9 conference games which means they play one less conference game than everyone else.

 

I agree that everyone will always have debates / complaints about the last ones in but (to me) this is obvious they got it wrong and played favorites to a name school and conference.  So let's think about this - Alabama beats Ohio State by 20 plus points and Baylor beats Michigan State by 20 plus points and TCU beats Ole Miss by 20 plus points - is that proof that the committee got it wrong?  

Coach 2709,

 

One thing the playoff system has not changed: every team that is not an undefeated champion of a power five conference is engaged in a beauty contest whose subjective rulings will never satisfy the fans of the excluded teams.

 

Once you lose a single game, you are at the mercy of the opinions of others. If you don't like it, run the table.

 

The scenario you describe would not shed meaningful light on what decision the committee should have made.  What a fired up, chip-on-the-shoulder Big 12 co-champ does in a bowl game against a Big 10 or SEC team that didn't make its conference championship game will not say anything about what would have happened in a TCU/Baylor vs. Alabama match up--but that won't prevent partisans from trying.

 

It could be worse.  Imagine if we still had the BCS structure and someone had to justify leaving Florida State, Oregon, or Alabama out.

If it were Oklahoma and Texas co champions of Big 12 does anyone believe the Big 12 would have been shut out? 

College football championships at the D1 level is a farce. Any time teams are selected for playoffs makes it illegitimate. Unless there's a playoffs involving all conference champions, there can be no real national champion.

I think a 5 plus 3 is the best scenario. Take the 5 power conference champions plus 3 at large teams and make it an 8 team play off. Its a shame Baylor and TCU are not in it. With this scenario both would be in.

I saw an article before this weekend's games stating if TCU is in and Ohio State isn't, one of the bowl games cities will lose significant money especially if it's the Sugar Bowl. It talked about Ohio State's large alumni base and it's willingness to travel anywhere to a game versus TCU people would travel to New Orleans for an overnight. Always follow the money trail.

Nope.  Writers love controversy, it's easier than having your own insights.  You think a national semi-final played in the Sugar Bowl or Rose Bowl would struggle to sell out? Ohio State is in b/c the selection committee thought they were the fourth best team. And I'm from Texas and grew up SW conference / Big 12.  Big 12 got the message.  Expect two more teams to get to 12, and a conference championship very soon.

 

 

I didn't question a thing about the game selling out. The point is Ohio state has an enormous alumni base with a reputation for traveling and making a vacation out of bowl trips. TCU is a much smaller school with a much smaller alumni base. To play in the Sugar Bowl would be an overnight trip for TCU fans. The city of New Orleans gains significantly by Ohio State being the selection.

 

LA and San Diego used to hope they wouldn't get Iowa in the Rose or Holiday Bowl. The joke was Iowans bring a $20 bill and don't change it or their underwear. However the dead giveaway who they were was the shorts with black socks and shoes on the boardwalk.

Sock color aside, Ohio State is in b/c they beat Wisconsin 59-0 in a championship game. If TCU played Baylor in a B12 championship game last Saturday the winner would be in instead of Ohio State.

 

Big 12 petitioned the NCAA for a waiver of the "no championship game unless you have at least 12 teams" rule in the past.  I'm sure they will "re-submit" their petition.  B12 has been mismanaged for a long time.  The UT dominance (of the behind the scenes power and money structure)  has pushed  Texas A&M, Nebraska and Missouri to other conferences.  UT's "Longhorn Network" agreement with ESPN instead of a model like the SEC Network supporting the entire conference is pushing the B12 to the back of the pack of the Power 5.

In a few weeks, it won't matter who is 3 & 4 and what conspiracy theories are being thrown around.  Because 1 & 2 will be playing for the National Championship, and duck will stop quacking right there.

It's worth remembering also that the Big 12's strategy almost worked. 

 

They needed only one of four games to go their way last weekend:  a lackluster performance by Ohio State, even if they won, or an upset in even one of the other conference championship games would have put a Big 12 team in the playoff.  Unfortunately for the Big 12, every game went against them.  Every one-loss team under consideration posted a dominant win and the undefeated team remained undefeated.

I think there is a bit of truth to the thinking of money talks in the case of these bowl games.  I distinctly remember a 10-2 Missouri team beating a 6-6 Iowa State team one year and getting passed over a bowl game for the same Iowa State.  The bowl representative even said they picked Iowa State because they thought more Iowa State fans would travel to Arizona because they havent been to a bowl game in a few years so they would be more excited than Missouri fans, who go to a bowl game practically every year.  Why is Notre Dame always placed in a bowl game that is too good for their team?  Because of the national brand, and how many tickets they will sell.  I have even heard concerns about it this year, about how many fans will be able to travel to two games in a matter of two weeks.

 

But I think they got the four best teams.  The Big 12 has nothing to complain about.  There are 5 power conferences and only 4 slots in the playoff.  Someone pretty much had to be left out.  The other 4 teams all did something Baylor or TCU did not do.  Won a conference championship game.