That didn't age well. They collapsed and barring a miracle, will not even qualify for a bowl game.How bout them Buffs!?
It's been a long couple of decades since I've been able to say that without sarcasm!
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I guess we need to discuss the debacle that is College Football
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you mean FBS, right?
FCS is the football with playoffs where the teams aren't decided by a committee of randos deciding which teams make it based on eye test only.
Colorado was a Hawthorne Effect. Fizzled out after a few games. Now they got a bunch of players who ditched the schools who recruited them to be a part of the show.. They'll be hitting the portal again because loyalty means nothing to them. Sucks for the players Sanders chased out. Next season's going to be a total disaster there..
The only difference will be that the complaints about an unfair system will come from the team ranked 13th rather than the team ranked 5th.
I don’t care who complains. The 13th “ranked” team would have had the opportunity to do something to improve their standing. If you’re an undefeated champion of a major conference you should be given the opportunity to win a national championship.
Thread Starter
TS
A big hot mess it is. The committee just makes it up to justify what they want and is driven by the politics and money. There as no way an SEC team would've been left out...was never going to happen. At least with a larger field, the arguments will be weaker when it comes down to a team that gets left out that's ranked #13 or 14. But this is still just a big money grab.
Meanwhile....please give props to my Washington Huskies. Underrated and disrespected and they thoroughly outplayed Oregon and are into the playoffs and the last Pac 12 champ ever. So sad the conference is gone.
Meanwhile....please give props to my Washington Huskies. Underrated and disrespected and they thoroughly outplayed Oregon and are into the playoffs and the last Pac 12 champ ever. So sad the conference is gone.
Transfer portal chaos opens today. That, combined with ridiculous NIL money, is ruining the game for the average fan of an average team. My son, who runs at a (lower tier football)SEC school, was talking to a guy from the football team and anyone who is decent is heading to the portal. Georgia apparently has 30+ guys making $300,000 or more per year. Crazy.
I was going to say, are we pretending that college Athletics isn't a business?
FSU had an opportunity to play for a national championship. They had two games to impress the committee without their starting QB and, even though they managed to win, their offense was anemic and they didn’t look like a legitimate contender in either game. So it goes. That’s the reality even if you don’t like it. Injuries are unfortunate part of the game. The fact that the odds makers put them as a 13.5 point underdog against Georgia shows pretty clearly that its not just bias from the playoff committee.
Who do you think Michigan would rather be playing? Alabama or FSU?
Unless every FBS team is seeded into a tournament, someone is going to complain that THEIR team was unfairly left out because of politics or money. It’s the way it is. That’s not going to change with 12 teams.
Who do you think Michigan would rather be playing? Alabama or FSU?
Unless every FBS team is seeded into a tournament, someone is going to complain that THEIR team was unfairly left out because of politics or money. It’s the way it is. That’s not going to change with 12 teams.
Michigan would rather be playing Washington or Texas over Alabama. Alabama‘s Georgia win was impressive but helped by a bad call. They were not impressive against Auburn, South Florida and others. Impressing others with questionable motives is not the way to determine a football champion. Leave that to figure skating.
If you win a conference championship you should be in. So if they were only going to include the Power 5, they should have had a minimum of 5 teams competing. And at that point, make the non-Power 5 Division 2. Now that there will only be 4 power conferences keep it 4 for all I care. If they want to add more at large bids after that, fine. But I don’t care if you think you should get an at large bid and miss out - you had your chance.
It should have nothing to do with “impressing“ people with undefined criteria.
If you win a conference championship you should be in. So if they were only going to include the Power 5, they should have had a minimum of 5 teams competing. And at that point, make the non-Power 5 Division 2. Now that there will only be 4 power conferences keep it 4 for all I care. If they want to add more at large bids after that, fine. But I don’t care if you think you should get an at large bid and miss out - you had your chance.
It should have nothing to do with “impressing“ people with undefined criteria.
Thread Starter
TS
Well said. The problem was 5 Power five conferences and four slots. That allows this situation. I think we all agree FSU isn't one of the four best but its almost like they had to achieve some imaginary criteria like win by 40 in the title game or something...that's the part that's unfair. Would they likely have gotten blow out? Yes. Does that guarantee they would? No. They did everything in their power including overcoming injuries to two QBs. Plus I think the backup was scheduled to be back. Doesn't matter..it shows what a tv-driven farce this all is. At least with the NFL....the criteria to make the playoffs is clear and unambiguous...it's also a bigger field and lower seeds get and go all the way in certain years.
I've always wondered about everyone's affinity for playoffs and how they're perceived. I love playoffs and would like to see fair criteria, but I also don't think playoffs prove who the best team is at all. But I think a lot of people do think it proves that somehow.
I actually think the older non-playoff systems were more likely to pick the best team - more so than playoffs. (Though that's especially hard to say in college with such drastically different unconnected schedules.)
Per what you said, if FSU had gotten in and ends up not only not getting blown out, but winning a game... are they the better team? IMO, only on that day; They could also be a "cinderella". One game doesn't prove a whole lot. So when some folks argue that a Georgia or Alabama should get into the playoffs over, say, an undefeated FSU, I think they're probably right if you think only the "best" teams should get it. But it's awfully hard to prove that, and all the "they should have won by more" soft, undefined criteria stuff has always been a problem with such a large, varied, unconnected set of teams.
At the end of the day, without being able to play a lot more games among a smaller set of schools, there's always going to be a ton of variability. And if you like playoffs, and like or don't mind Cinderellas, and stop thinking that playoffs "prove" who the better team is, I think a 12 or 16 team playoff with some clear criteria is pretty awesome.
Thread Starter
TS
We are getting deep now....how do you decide who's "best"? Playoffs are really just a tournament and we all know a team can get hot and play above its baseline and win a short duration tournament. I think having to win multiple elimination games against other teams who proved themselves over a larger sample size (regular season and conf championships) gets you pretty close.
The main issue here is the disparity of competition in the conferences like Big 10 where there only two real strong teams and they didn't even have to play a rematch in the Conf Champ due to their division structure, as compared to the PAC 12 where Washington had to be OR twice to be crowned champion. It was very lame to hav UM play a feckless IA team in that championship when the right answer was a rematch between OSU and UM. As for the SEC, they just aren't going to have a their champ left out in this current structure. If you are the ACC, you just got put on notice that you aren't equal but they already knew that. Might as well expand the field so at least the P5 champions are guaranteed a spot and then argue over the at-large bids. Plus with the 4 Pac schools joining the Big and TX and OK joining the SEC, the conference competitions in the mega conferences are going to be more fierce now. You can't hide based on a weak schedule as much.
Three UNDEFEAED P5 Conference Champions.. But SEC isn't one of them.. and their one loss Champion, Bama LOST to the B12 one loss Champion Texas. The committee doesn't have the stones to snub the SEC even though a NO loss P5 Champion belongs in there over a one loss conference champion.
They can't put Alabama in there without also putting Texas in ... because Texas beat Alabama IN Tuscaloosa this season already. So, they screw FSU instead to put the SEC back in.
Yes, I know FSU struggled greatly on O with the 3rd string QB. They still found a way to win and remain undefeated.. which is something two of the teams that got put in ahead of them couldn't do at full strength.
So, ya FSU got screwed because a playoff without the SEC is sacrilege.
The right thing to do would be WA. MI, FSU and TX (Because Bama lost to TX and GA lost to BAMA)
SEC must stand for Special Exceptions Case
They can't put Alabama in there without also putting Texas in ... because Texas beat Alabama IN Tuscaloosa this season already. So, they screw FSU instead to put the SEC back in.
Yes, I know FSU struggled greatly on O with the 3rd string QB. They still found a way to win and remain undefeated.. which is something two of the teams that got put in ahead of them couldn't do at full strength.
So, ya FSU got screwed because a playoff without the SEC is sacrilege.
The right thing to do would be WA. MI, FSU and TX (Because Bama lost to TX and GA lost to BAMA)
SEC must stand for Special Exceptions Case
That way madness lies
There was a website a while back called "Beat Paths", that sought to rank teams purely based on who beat who, and tried to undo all the loops that creates in some way. (I don't remember what their algorithm was. I think in some cases it just ignored the results. Like if teams A, B, and C all went 1-1 against each other, none of those games got counted.)
It actually did a pretty good job I think, but would also come up with some real oddities when there were obvious upsets.
Here's another one I've had some "barstool arguments" about. In the early 90's, FSU, and Notre Dame were both highly ranked. Notre Dame beat FSU. But then later Notre Dame also lost to some also-ran, like Boston College. My contention was the FSU was the better team and should go to a bowl ahead of FSU, even though the had the same record and Notre Dame beat FSU. My rationale was that if they both only have 1 loss, the team that had the better loss should be ranked higher. (I.e. ignore head-to-head and just look at how good their loss was).
Beat paths work when each team in the conversation only has that ONE loss ... similar rankings.. similar schedules..... and it isn't circular.That way madness lies
There was a website a while back called "Beat Paths", that sought to rank teams purely based on who beat who, and tried to undo all the loops that creates in some way. (I don't remember what their algorithm was. I think in some cases it just ignored the results. Like if teams A, B, and C all went 1-1 against each other, none of those games got counted.)
It actually did a pretty good job I think, but would also come up with some real oddities when there were obvious upsets.
Here's another one I've had some "barstool arguments" about. In the early 90's, FSU, and Notre Dame were both highly ranked. Notre Dame beat FSU. But then later Notre Dame also lost to some also-ran, like Boston College. My contention was the FSU was the better team and should go to a bowl ahead of FSU, even though the had the same record and Notre Dame beat FSU. My rationale was that if they both only have 1 loss, the team that had the better loss should be ranked higher. (I.e. ignore head-to-head and just look at how good their loss was).
Thread Starter
TS
I think we learned what we already knew...TV contracts drive the matchups. FSU earned a spot but got shoved aside b/c the CFP and TV execs didn't want to see them play (and likely get smoked) by Michigan. I don't think it's right.....but this is what CFB has become.
Correction, it's about the SEC $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Can't exclude them even though they were not the most qualified team based on the final records. They get a lot more money from the SEC base than everyone else probably combined..
FSU #2QB should be back by NYD 6 bowls. And their defense is legit. Might still get smoked but 3amaybe not.
Thread Starter
TS
Agreed...that's sort of implied. The SEC drives a lot of revenue. I don't have a real problem with FSU being left out...they aren't better than BAMA. My issue is with the committee not being honest about whey they do what they do and always shifting the rationale to suit the outcomes they want.
