Around the Big Ten

[Hannibal]

In a perfect world, you don't need judgements. You can have objective measures, namely scores, to decide it all. But in college sports it's really tough, and in college football there are way too many teams and way too few games to do this. The beauty pageant aspect of CF is inevitable. It's not one of the sports stronger draws, but there is no way around it.

[iam416]

It's not really that tough if each league has championship game. That sorts out each regional team -- on the field. And if you put them ALL in the CFP, then you'd have no more arguments. But, even right, now, it almost doesn't matter. Right now the conferences that aren't getting to show their wares are the G5 and P12 (mostly). The B10 got nixed twice, but as an Ohio State fan even I'm not gonna argue OSU was the best team in the country those years. But, regardless, if the argument that "its not decided on the field" boils down to the P12, Sun Belt, MAC, etc not getting their shots, then....LOL.

[iam416]

And, again, the biggest difference between the NFL and CFB is competitive balance and the biggest reason for that is salary cap/draft vs. best players going to the best teams.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Shaddup, Mike. I worked three days using a peg board and red string to scheme that all out.

[AlabamAlum]

Yes, and if you just had the top 32 college teams play each other there would be a lot more parity. Of that 32, you have 5 or 6 very good teams, then a cohort of solid teams, and, a cohort of mediocre. I think you would see a somewhat similar distribution in the NFL.

College has 60 or 70 teams that absolutely don’t belong in major college ball. But history/tradition and no easy way to relegate these guys makes it difficult.

I think, eventually, big time college football will break from the SoMiss’s and Kent State’s of the world. At least I hope so.

[froot loops]

I will give college football credit in that it is more watchable than it's equivalent in basketball. College basketball gets put to shame by it's NBA counterpart. It's an ok diversion for three weeks in March, but that's about it.

College football would be much better if the playoff did go to 12 teams. I doubt it would get rid of these silly college football specific arguments about who's elite and who's not.

[Hannibal]

You'd have to go to 64 teams to get rid of those arguments. Even that might not be enough. The basketball tourney doesn't eliminate them so much as it makes the tourney so big that they are inconsequential.

At this point, I don't care what CF does with the playoff. Go to 12, 16, 32. Whatever. Don't care. Rapidly losing my interest in the sport.

[iam416]

Yes, and if you just had the top 32 college teams play each other there would be a lot more parity. Of that 32, you have 5 or 6 very good teams, then a cohort of solid teams, and, a cohort of mediocre. I think you would see a somewhat similar distribution in the NFL.

College has 60 or 70 teams that absolutely don’t belong in major college ball. But history/tradition and no easy way to relegate these guys makes it difficult.

I think, eventually, big time college football will break from the SoMiss’s and Kent State’s of the world. At least I hope so.

Right. I mean, it's utter fucking nonsense to pretend that there are teams out there that an win the CFP. Like the SIGNIFICANT MAJORITY of FBS teams. Whereas in the NFL, every singe franchise can win the SB...even, in theory, the Lions.

I do think CFB will eventually break off into real programs and not so real. And it still won't have the competitive balance of the NFL for obvious reasons, but it'll be closer, I guess.

[AlabamAlum]

froot,

College football is, by far, my favorite sport. College basketball, NFL, and MLB battle for second. While a game between Iowa and Duquesne in early November may not be “must see TV,” I’m not sure an early season game between the Grizzlies and the Hawks is either. Different strokes, I suppose.

[iam416]

You'd have to go to 64 teams to get rid of those arguments. Even that might not be enough. The basketball tourney doesn't eliminate them so much as it makes the tourney so big that they are inconsequential.

At this point, I don't care what CF does with the playoff. Go to 12, 16, 32. Whatever. Don't care. Rapidly losing my interest in the sport.

You'd have to go to 64 to get rid of utterly specious arguments. Frankly, 8 addresses the issue plenty fine. Any argument for 16 or 32 or, lol, 64 is just so stupid and detached from reality that it's not serious.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[iam416]

froot,

College football is, by far, my favorite sport. College basketball, NFL, and MLB battle for second. While a game between Iowa and Duquesne in early November may not be “must see TV,” I’m not sure an early season game between the Grizzlies and the Hawks is either. Different strokes, I suppose.

The NBA is utterly unwatchable at this point in time. It's just bad. It's easily the worse regular season in any of the Big 3 professional or college sports. The players don't really care about it. 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs; at least 6 (probably more) of the other 14 are actively trying to lose to get better lottery odds; and there's maybe 5 teams actually fighting for a playoff spot that will result in a first round sweep of 5 games series. It's AWFUL.

The playoffs are only marginally better.

MLB, IMO, has the best playoffs if only because the nature of the game provides an opportunity for upsets. Personally, I hate 1-game playoffs in baseball, but it makes for compelling watching.

[AlabamAlum]

Talent,

Agreed. I usually do t start watching the NBA until the playoffs. And even then, I’m not wrecked if I miss a game between the Spurs and Raptors or whatever.

[iam416]

Well, the Spurs-Raptors in the playoffs would be the Finals, but, yes, I still agree.

[froot loops]

froot,

College football is, by far, my favorite sport. College basketball, NFL, and MLB battle for second. While a game between Iowa and Duquesne in early November may not be “must see TV,” I’m not sure an early season game between the Grizzlies and the Hawks is either. Different strokes, I suppose.

I'd tune in to watch Ice Tre in that hypothetical. If you tune in to the Iowa game you are treated to bad shooting, a lot of charges taken and overcoached games. The NBA is fantastic.

MLB is good, the playoffs are great. The games during the regular season take too long and they cannot figure out a way to keep them from getting longer.