The Rest of College Football

[Mike]

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[iam416]

Notre Dame is still ass on offense, but Georgia's turnovers (at least 10 points worth) and the kickoff return were enough. Georgia's offense is just bad.

I can't believe I'm in a position where I'll be rooting for Frames Janklin, but here we are. JFC.

But it's gonna be Notre Dame-Texas, which is just gross.

[Jeff Buchanan]

But it's gonna be Notre Dame-Texas, which is just gross.

Not if Will Howard has anything to say about that. The guy was phenomenal v. the Ducks dropping dimes to his NFL ready receivers to give OSU an insurmountable lead in the first quarter. If he and Chip Kelley put together another early performance like that against Texas it will be OSU and either PSU or ND in the National Championship game . ND is a heavy favorite to beat PSU. It will most likely be OSU v. ND with the Buckeyes winning the Natty and saving CRD's job.

[Mike]

It's gonna be OSU over PSU in the final in a matchup of the 2nd and 4th place teams from the same conference.

Outside of OSU finally remembering they have an NFL roster, these playoffs teams have been AWFUL compared to recent years' past. Mediocre QB play, disorganization, stupid penalties, you name it. The shit looks like NFL preseason games.

[iam416]

I mean, it's been matchups. Last year would have had two awful semifinals if UAT and M played the other 2. If they had been 12 and set up like this year, then you're looking at Georgia-Texas and Ohio State-Washington in round of 8 and, IMO, UAT-M and OSU-Georgia in the semifinals. That'd have been great.

Again, if we want to pretend that winning a conference regardless of the strength of that conference merits a high seed, then so be it. This is sort of what you get.

But, I think we could have had good games.

There's also the issue that Ohio State is probably the only "elite" team in the field when they play well AND the other teams (except Oregon) are fundamentally flawed on OFFENSE. So, Notre Dame, Penn State, Georgia and even Texas struggle offensively to varying degrees. That produces not great games. Penn State-ND is gonna be another strugglebus game.

Oregon had a flawed defense. Ohio State, if they can somehow run out the same starting OL for more than one week in a row, is pretty good everywhere.

In the actual games, I do expect UT's front 7 to give OSU fits and I do expect them to challenge OSU's WRs. If UT can get their OL healthy maybe they can run the ball. Or maybe Ewers goes off -- I think the former is probably how they win. OSU has been hurt in the playoffs almost exclusively by QB scrambles. Ewers is definitely a pocket guy.

[Mike]

I looked at the final CFP ranking (not seeding) and the semi-final games are actually #3 Texas vs. #6 OSU and #4 PSU vs. #5 ND. That would have been straight chalk in the quarterfinal round if not for the auto byes for Boise and ASU. If they went by ranking, Oregon would have played #8 Indiana, instead they got hosed with OSU. So we still have 4 of the top 6 teams (by ranking) playing in the Final Four. That's not bad all things considered.

[CGVT]

There is nothing wrong with the format.

What we have seen is what I have been saying for years. Perceived "best" conferences (I'm looking at you SEC) only perpetuated the SEC myth.

When all of a conference's mediocre teams are ranked, with most being in the top 10, it makes every win a "good" win and every loss a "good" loss.

Of course your conference is going to win the Natty most years if you are essentially guaranteed to get one, if not two teams in the National Championship game (when it was two teams) every year and two or three teams in the 4 team playoff every year.

It is just a matter of odds.

With ESPN making bank off of SEC success, it was not surprising to hear McDonough on the GA/ND broadcast unequivocally proclaim that that GA had the toughest schedule in the country, when in reality the SEC, out side of the top couple of teams was full of middle of the road teams and a few dogs and always has been.

Just because your fans are delusional or insane does not mean you have a good team

Living in SEC country, you don't know how many times I've heard my SEC friends proclaim that Kentucky, Arkansas or the perpetually mediocre Mississippi teams, or Auburn "Have a good team this year"

Hell, this year's best SEC team is a Big 12 team.

Maybe we need a different metric for strength of schedule?

[Sanders Fan]

My brother and I called it SEC-PN while we were texting during the game. But I was ranting against that network during the ND/IU game for basically saying another team (of course from the SEC) should have taken IU’s place.

[iam416]

Any format that treats winning the MW as more valuable than finishing 2nd in the B10 is flawed. Massively flawed. In fact, the whole "winning a conference should count for something" argument is entirely undercut by the fact that not even those defending the format want the MAC or AAC or CUSA winners to automatically get bids (or byes). It's a total acknowledgement that conferences vary in strength. By a fuckton.

So, the logical approach is to take it on a year-by-year basis, assess, the best we can, each team and PERHAPS give conference champion status a plus factor in seeding. But, in no way should it be an AUTOMATIC factor. That's just stupid.

[iam416]

And it's certainly true that the SEC is down, but it's also certainly true the SEC is gads better than the ACC or B12. I mean, we saw the ACC champion play 3 different SEC teams and lose to them all.

[iam416]

Eh, in any event, the SEC and B10 will adjust the Playoff to make sense. Thank god. And if the other shitbreathing conferences don't like it, they can form their own playoff where, I guess, they'll have better teams.

[froot loops]

Let's give it a few years to see how it shakes out. This year has been good. You have three huge change catalysts going on at the same time with the portal, NIL and the expanded playoff. This helps teams and conferences that were considered also rans. It doesn't mean they will win a national championship but they might get a chance.

The fact that winning the MWC can get you into a playoff is good. The mega conferences are bad. When you play 8 or 9 conference games you should not have 18 teams. It's stupid, if the expanded playoffs gives any incentive for these teams not to abandon a conference, that is good. I kind of didn't understand why FSU was hell bent last year on their scaling the SEC when it is clear they would not be helped by it (themselves beyond might be a bottom feeder). They can compete in the ACC, win the conference and get into the playoffs easier than going to a conference like the SEC. It's why Bill Belichick went to NC.

Most of the arguments coming from SEC and Big Ten mouthpieces should be viewed as Dragons hording their gold. Most of the time they shouldn't be taken seriously.

[froot loops]

My brother and I called it SEC-PN while we were texting during the game. But I was ranting against that network during the ND/IU game for basically saying another team (of course from the SEC) should have taken IU’s place.

The commentary at end of that Notre Dame/IU game was shameful shit.

[Mike]

The only change that needs to be made is get rid of the auto-byes. There's only 2 power conferences left and when they created this 5 team format there were 5. Just select the 12 best teams according to a committee or a mathematical formula like the BCS model and play it off.


I also think it would be good to have all the first round games played on campus. #12 at #1 and so on. THEN give a bye to the two highest seeded teams remaining after the first round and have 3/6 and 4/5 play each other with the winners matching up with the top two seeds in the semifinal. It would prevent the long layoff for teams that currently get a bye yet still reward the top two teams with an extra week's rest in the middle of the playoff.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Fans arguing, "there's nothing wrong with the current system" simply don't get how structural changes to the current conference based system and play-off format could make the CFB season so much better. Of course, the current system could just continue out of it's own momentum - and that sucks.

Lots of competing interests is making change hard. Broadcast rights and how money from TV contracts are distributed are a big part of making change hard. I get that and don't claim to know how a competent (meaning not the NCAA) organization at the top will emerge to make this happen.

CFB programs (college presidents) need to collectively detach themselves from the NCAA and reorganize under some kind of commission that adopts structural changes similar to the organizational structure of the the NFL. This can't happen soon enough and my thinking is that the current CFB structure is just fine is wrong headed. Trying to tweak the CFP format every year neglects the obvious short commings of the current CFB conference structure in delivering the most competitive (best) teams to an end of season CFB, NC playoff is a huge waste of time and energy.