Playoffs

[FedEx227]

Those Whocares.com bowls do a lot for recruiting though. If you're Temple recruiting against Syracuse, having bowls and TV coverage to your name is a definite leg-up.

 

[St. Francisco]

In college football the regular season is the playoff and generally the BCS does get the top 2 teams right.

Any system that awards only two of it's 120 teams a chance at the national title is flawed beyond belief. And if you don't believe that, you're at a level of denial I've never even heard of.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Those Whocares.com bowls do a lot for recruiting though. If you're Temple recruiting against Syracuse, having bowls and TV coverage to your name is a definite leg-up.

I agree with all of that.

You can have a playoff, and still have a million bowls to fill up ESPN's schedule the last wek of December.

Difference is, as it is now, only one postseason game matters. With a playoff, you have a month of intense games leading up to a championship game, and you can still have all of those other bowls that only gamblers and alumni watch.

 

[FedEx227]

Well how many teams would you propose be in the playoff?

This is the part that I usually end up jumping off because people so badly want college football to be like college basketball and have 32 or 64 teams. Upsets, blah blah blah.

I still at the end of the day want the best two teams in the nation playing for the national title. If it requires 2 extra games to get there, okay. But I really don't want huge upsets. I don't want Colt McCoy to get injured in a first round game with Troy, causing Texas to lose to Tennessee in the 2nd round. That shit is not appealing to me.

As long as we can keep it to STILL the cream of the crop, I'd be fine with it. I think 4 does that perfectly, but I can also justify 8. Anything more than that starts to get a little fishy for me.

 

[Cryolemon]

Bullshit.

Let's say league champs go to the playoffs. Under your scenerio, loser would go home.

That game would become more important.

And the idea that "every game counts" in CFB is a myth. There is no sport where less games count. Just ask Boise St, they are playing 12 meaningless games.

Exactly.

I hope they all win out, and win their bowls, and I hope two 1 loss teams play for the title.

This way, the BCS gets shit on again, like they do every year (unless you have two unbeatens, and it that case, you dont need a computer anyway).

That would be cool. But it would be cooler to see what happened if Florida and Alabama both lose twice and Boise win out.

I agree with all of that.

You can have a playoff, and still have a million bowls to fill up ESPN's schedule the last wek of December.

Difference is, as it is now, only one postseason game matters. With a playoff, you have a month of intense games leading up to a championship game, and you can still have all of those other bowls that only gamblers and alumni watch.

People who are against a playoff ignore this fact.

As long as we can keep it to STILL the cream of the crop, I'd be fine with it.

That's fine as long as teams who are close but not quite there like Boise State and TCU have a chance.

 

[FedEx227]

Yeah, I'm fine with that. This year when it's all over it'll likely be TCU, Florida/Alabama, Texas, Boise State/Cincinnati. That's two top teams, two mid-majors, close teams.

That would set up a Florida/Alabama vs. Boise/Cincy game and a Texas. vs. TCU game.

That would be pretty solid, no?

Otherwise we're looking at something like:

Florida vs. LSU (2-loss team)
Texas vs. Boise State
Alabama vs. Georgia Tech
USC would probably be in there with 2 losses.

I'm not sure I'm down with that.

 

[JeremyHight]

Top 4-6 league champions in the BCS rankings go to a playoff. If you aren't a league champ, you don't deserve to go, plain and simple.

Right now, it would be...

1. Florida/Alabama winner
2. Texas
3. Cincy
4. TCU
5. Boise State
6. Georgia Tech

 

[FedEx227]

Florida/Albama vs. Ga Tech
Texas vs. Boise State
Cincy vs. TCU

I guess I could fuck with that.

4-8 works for me. People lose me when they start throwing 12, 16 and 32.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

8 teams.

I'd take the 6 major league champs, plus the 2 best mid major champs.

Anyone unbeaten from a mid major gets in. 3 or more unbeaten, you go to the computers.

The big schools who dont make it have no gripe. Win your conference, or tough shit.

Anything more than 8 is excessive, stupid, and not realistic.

 

[ralaw]

Any system that awards only two of it's 120 teams a chance at the national title is flawed beyond belief. And if you don't believe that, you're at a level of denial I've never even heard of.

IMO you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. Obviously if you compare college football to the other sports it does seem ridiculous, but more so than any other sport college football is heavily rooted in tradition, and the polls and bowl games are as much a part of the tradition as anything else. The polls and bowl system are as much college football as the brackets are a part of college basketball. The BCS certainly has its flaws, but it generally rewards teams over a 12 game schedule, where as a playoff may reward teams based on bracketing, matchups and/or who ever is playing the best at the time.

 

[JeremyHight]

8 teams.

I'd take the 6 major league champs, plus the 2 best mid major champs.

Anyone unbeaten from a mid major gets in. 3 or more unbeaten, you go to the computers.

The big schools who dont make it have no gripe. Win your conference, or tough shit.

Anything more than 8 is excessive, stupid, and not realistic.

Am I the only one that is sick of hearing that just because a team wins say the ACC, they instantly get a playoff bid? Why? Last year, some of the major conference champions finished outside the top 10. Why do they even get considered for a bid?

Just give it to the top 4-6 conference champions, no automatic bids by conference.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Am I the only one that is sick of hearing that just because a team wins say the ACC, they instantly get a playoff bid? Why? Last year, some of the major conference champions finished outside the top 10. Why do they even get considered for a bid?

Just give it to the top 4-6 conference champions, no automatic bids by conference.

Because then you get all of the same arguments we have now, with computers deciding who goes.

 

[St. Francisco]

IMO you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. Obviously if you compare college football to the other sports it does seem ridiculous, but more so than any other sport college football is heavily rooted in tradition, and the polls and bowl games are as much a part of the tradition as anything else. The polls and bowl system are as much college football as the brackets are a part of college basketball. The BCS certainly has its flaws, but it generally rewards teams over a 12 game schedule, where as a playoff may reward teams based on bracketing, matchups and/or who ever is playing the best at the time.

This particular tradition sucks.

"That's the way we've always done it." It's a phrase you hear often in the oilfield when safety comes up against what you're trying to do. Just because that's the way it's always been done doesn't make it safer, or better.

It applies to college football as well. Yes, that's the way it's always been done...but it's not the best way to do it.

 

[ralaw]

This particular tradition sucks.

"That's the way we've always done it." It's a phrase you hear often in the oilfield when safety comes up against what you're trying to do. Just because that's the way it's always been done doesn't make it safer, or better.

It applies to college football as well. Yes, that's the way it's always been done...but it's not the best way to do it.

That's a pretty bad comparison (ie lack of safety leading to death=should be changed), but I get your overall point; however, even if it isn't ideal the BCS does "work".

 

[Vinsane]

That's a pretty bad comparison (ie lack of safety leading to death=should be changed), but I get your overall point; however, even if it isn't ideal the BCS does "work".

Where it doesn't "work" though, the BCS only cares if you win ALL of your games. It doesn't take into account what ALL stands for. Look at the "cupcake" OOC scheduling that major teams do. They have 3, 4 wins before heading into conference play. I say move the scheduling ahead two-three weeks and you play your conference games from the get-go. Screw this USC-Troy, OSU-YSU, and TEX-ARK St, BS.

That's where the BCS is flawed. It also doesn't take into account that a loss is a loss. It counts losses but a Week 12 L > Week 3 L. This is where the system needs fixed. No matter when you lose it needs to be equally as important. USC loses to Oregon, and Unranked Washington. Still in the Top 10? That's ridiculous.

I'm opposed to having these conference champions be the ones to get automatic bids. If that's the case then you're going to need to give ALL conferences automatic bids, like College Basketball. And that makes the field too big.

I dig the idea of only having four teams, but that should only be used if we're given four undefeated teams. I really think the field should be set at eight using the BCS rankings. And give the Championship Bowl the spot light and headline the other major bowls with teams and talent you otherwise wouldn't see.

 

[trojan49er]

League winner should definitely not get an auto-bid. And just because you dont win a division doesnt mean you're not one of the top 8 teams. If Bama beats/loses to Florida, does that mean the other one is no longer a top team? I think not. Especially if its a close game, theres no way of knowing what would happen in a rematch. I say 8 teams because I think that at least over the ast two years, you could make an argument that a team outside the top 4 was the best team out there. Case in point, USC last year and Georgia (or maybe USC) the year before. I really do think SC wouldve been able to, at the very least, give Florida a run for their money last season and they were ranked #5, as was Georgia the year before.

 

[ralaw]

Where it doesn't "work" though, the BCS only cares if you win ALL of your games. It doesn't take into account what ALL stands for. Look at the "cupcake" OOC scheduling that major teams do. They have 3, 4 wins before heading into conference play. I say move the scheduling ahead two-three weeks and you play your conference games from the get-go. Screw this USC-Troy, OSU-YSU, and TEX-ARK St, BS.

That's where the BCS is flawed. It also doesn't take into account that a loss is a loss. It counts losses but a Week 12 L > Week 3 L. This is where the system needs fixed. No matter when you lose it needs to be equally as important. USC loses to Oregon, and Unranked Washington. Still in the Top 10? That's ridiculous.

I'm opposed to having these conference champions be the ones to get automatic bids. If that's the case then you're going to need to give ALL conferences automatic bids, like College Basketball. And that makes the field too big.

I dig the idea of only having four teams, but that should only be used if we're given four undefeated teams. I really think the field should be set at eight using the BCS rankings. And give the Championship Bowl the spot light and headline the other major bowls with teams and talent you otherwise wouldn't see.

Everyone knows the system is flawed....I'd be willing to bet the BCS committe would admit that as well. However, that isn't the point and its isn't going to be the reason why it would change. Again, college football is about the polls and bowl games....this is the tradition.

Its also why the major programs tht have a tradition of success (on the field and with TV ratings) are generally rewared over the "one year wonder" type schools like Cincy, TCU or a Kansas, USF a few years ago. Unlike the playoff system the BCS system gurantees two top tier programs (money) will be playing in the championship game. What if a TCU made its way to the championship game against Florida? Who would want to watch that? The bowl games are about revenue and they are the NCAA's cash cow and they aren't going to change the system. The only thing that they'll do is tweak the BCS/Bowl game system to make it seem more "honest," but that is it.

 

[Fox1994]

Boise State and TCU have been really good for a while. They've been perennially in the upper-echelon of records and winning 9-12 games a season. I'm not opposed to a sixteen-team playoff. I think if we dropped the regular season games from 12 to 10 or 9 it'd be more viable...

 

[FirstTimer]

Ok, keep the BCS for the rankings, but (and it could be my pure love of watching college football) maybe they should keep 3 of the 4 main bowls and rotate them out as 2 playoff semi-finals and 1 playoff championship. Forget about 8 teams it should be at least 16 maybe even 24. That would give everyone in the top 25 a fighting chance at a championship. I'm just sayin, I enjoy seeing the SEC win, but I'd like to see other teams get a chance too. It gets old watching the same teams every year.

A suggestion.

8 playoff teams based on BCS rankings. Restrict scheduling to the first 12 weeks of the season. Do away with conference championship games, and the cupcake OOC games. This also prevents a team jumping an idle team by having essentially an "extra game" (Conference Championship) on their schedule. Take the eight qualifiers and have them play round 1 and 2 during week 14, and 15. The top two teams will meet in "The Championship Bowl".

The first six teams that didn't qualify for the BCS Playoffs will be featured in the other three bowl games. This gives teams 9-14 a top Bowl spot that under the current system they wouldn't sniff unless they were members of the now automatic bowl bids.

I don't understand this line of thinking and never have....

"The BCS sucks!"

"Yeah we need a playoff system!"

"Ok let's do it!"

"Alright, how do we choose the teams?"

"Uhhhhh"

*crickets*

"Let's use the BCS rankings!"

"I thought we agreed the BCS sucks"

"Shut up! It's playoff!"

"Uhh what?"

 

[FirstTimer]

Top 4-6 league champions in the BCS rankings go to a playoff. If you aren't a league champ, you don't deserve to go, plain and simple.

Right now, it would be...

1. Florida/Alabama winner
2. Texas
3. Cincy
4. TCU
5. Boise State
6. Georgia Tech

Gun to my head I go with this model.

Although, I will and always will advocate a playoff system that has every conference champion in it.