NCAA GDT: 2017 Bowl Season

[GKJ]

If you're an Ohio State fan and you're MMQBing the committee, you probably think today that you deserved to get in over Clemson, even though they were #1. ACC really looked bad with Miami giving up all those points in Miami to Wisconsin, Virginia looked bad against Navy, Virginia Tech and Louisville also lost, and Clemson getting clowned the way they did. Of course, that's not how it works, if the defending champ only has 1 loss, they have to get in the playoff. But I think that's where you'd direct your ire.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I'm an Illini fan with no expectations that my team will ever play for a national title, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are supposedly five power conferences and yet only four playoff slots. What would happen if next year Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, and USC all went undefeated and won their conferences? One of them would have to sit despite being perfect and having done nothing wrong for no reason whatsoever. That's a fundamentally broken system, and further ignores the idea that one conference is likely better than the another so that a one-loss divisional champ in one conference might very well be better than an undefeated conference champ but still get locked out of the playoffs even if their only loss was to a consensus #1 team. And add to that the potential that BYU or Notre Dame could have tough records but still go undefeated or a midmajor would be locked out regardless.

The four team system makes absolutely no sense other than to protect the useless bowl games.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

 

[spintheblackcircle]

If you're an Ohio State fan and you're MMQBing the committee, you probably think today that you deserved to get in over Clemson, even though they were #1. ACC really looked bad with Miami giving up all those points in Miami to Wisconsin, Virginia looked bad against Navy, Virginia Tech and Louisville also lost, and Clemson getting clowned the way they did. Of course, that's not how it works, if the defending champ only has 1 loss, they have to get in the playoff. But I think that's where you'd direct your ire.

Our ire is at losing by 30 to Iowa.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

The only team with a right to be pissed off is UCF. Everyone else made their own bed with regards to the playoff.

 

[Canes]

Saban really started the trend. It was one of the first things he got done after taking over was to schedule a cupcake every year before the Iron Bowl. Smart when you consider that the game is more often than not the SEC Championship semi-final.

Why do people give Saban shit for their scheduling? They played Penn State in Happy Valley not too long. They'll play pretty much anyone at a neutral site. Who cares if they play Mercer? Would you rather they play Ball State or some other garbage midwestern G5 school many Big XII and Big Ten schools play instead of a FCS team?

Saban is the last coach I'd single out as being afraid of playing good teams.

 

[flyershockey]

I'm an Illini fan with no expectations that my team will ever play for a national title, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are supposedly five power conferences and yet only four playoff slots. What would happen if next year Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State, Oklahoma, and USC all went undefeated and won their conferences? One of them would have to sit despite being perfect and having done nothing wrong for no reason whatsoever. That's a fundamentally broken system, and further ignores the idea that one conference is likely better than the another so that a one-loss divisional champ in one conference might very well be better than an undefeated conference champ but still get locked out of the playoffs even if their only loss was to a consensus #1 team. And add to that the potential that BYU or Notre Dame could have tough records but still go undefeated or a midmajor would be locked out regardless.

The four team system makes absolutely no sense other than to protect the useless bowl games.

There's virtually no chance that 5 teams would go undefeated and win their conference championship game, so yeah.

I've been a big proponent of a 6 team playoff with the top two seeds getting a bye for a little while now. It gets each of the power 5 conferences into the mix if it plays out that way, and in a year where you have something like UCF this year, it gives you that sixth slot for a non-power 5 school to get involved. I don't want conference champions getting an auto-bid though. There are going to be years where multiple conferences have multiple teams deserving of a playoff shot, and conference winners getting in automatically pretty much does away with that.

 

[flyershockey]

Why do people give Saban **** for their scheduling? They played Penn State in Happy Valley not too long. They'll play pretty much anyone at a neutral site. Who cares if they play Mercer? Would you rather they play Ball State or some other garbage midwestern G5 school many Big XII and Big Ten schools play instead of a FCS team?

Saban is the last coach I'd single out as being afraid of playing good teams.

I don't know either. There's not a ton of easy outs on an SEC West schedule either. I'm sure Saban would love a bye week every once and a while against Rutgers or Indiana or Kansas or Wake Forest or Syracuse, etc.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

There's virtually no chance that 5 teams would go undefeated and win their conference championship game, so yeah.

I've been a big proponent of a 6 team playoff with the top two seeds getting a bye for a little while now. It gets each of the power 5 conferences into the mix if it plays out that way, and in a year where you have something like UCF this year, it gives you that sixth slot for a non-power 5 school to get involved. I don't want conference champions getting an auto-bid though. There are going to be years where multiple conferences have multiple teams deserving of a playoff shot, and conference winners getting in automatically pretty much does away with that.

Even if there's virtually no chance, there's a) still a chance, and b) even beyond that, still a good chance of multiple conference champs with identical records. So an undefeated SEC champ and an undefeated Big Ten champ, and then each of the PAC 12, Big Twelve, and ACC champs are one-loss teams. Which sits out? And if a one-loss SEC or Big Ten divisional champ is also in the picture, should they have a greater chance to get in if they only lost to a top tier team versus a conference champ with a weaker loss?

These are contingencies that shouldn't even be an issue with a meaningful playoff. This four team playoff is the only circumstance where it would be an issue.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

I don't know either. There's not a ton of easy outs on an SEC West schedule either. I'm sure Saban would love a bye week every once and a while against Rutgers or Indiana or Kansas or Wake Forest or Syracuse, etc.

Wake Forest ain't no joke.

 

[GKJ]

This was predictable. Ratings up huge since the games were on a day people were actually off.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Even if there's virtually no chance, there's a) still a chance, and b) even beyond that, still a good chance of multiple conference champs with identical records. So an undefeated SEC champ and an undefeated Big Ten champ, and then each of the PAC 12, Big Twelve, and ACC champs are one-loss teams. Which sits out? And if a one-loss SEC or Big Ten divisional champ is also in the picture, should they have a greater chance to get in if they only lost to a top tier team versus a conference champ with a weaker loss?

These are contingencies that shouldn't even be an issue with a meaningful playoff. This four team playoff is the only circumstance where it would be an issue.

The playoff is for the best of the best. I don't think it needs to include every strong team just because it's conceivable that a 7th or 8th ranked team could get hot and win the thing every once in awhile.

Part of the allure, at least for me, is that your back is already against the wall in Week 1. One loss can sink your season. If you start giving auto bids to conference champions, you've just built a mulligan into the system for everyone. Instead of "don't lose a game", the mentality is downgraded to "just make the CCG". Under this system, nearly the entire month of November would have been meaningless games for Georgia, Wisconsin, and Miami.

 

[End of Line]

Alabama does schedule good opponents to begin the year, though. All 3 of their OOC opponents at the start of the year went to bowl games.

Neutral site. Not the same.

 

[rangerssharks414]

This was predictable. Ratings up huge since the games were on a day people were actually off.

I never would have guessed.

Playing the playoff semis on NYE was one of the dumbest things they could have done. Now, I wonder what will happen the next time that New Year's Day is on a Sunday. Will the ratings go way down? Or will people really not give a **** about Week 17 of the NFL and watch the playoff instead?

 

[End of Line]

I don't know either. There's not a ton of easy outs on an SEC West schedule either. I'm sure Saban would love a bye week every once and a while against Rutgers or Indiana or Kansas or Wake Forest or Syracuse, etc.

They do, they're called Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Just because the last two are "names" doesn't mean they're decent in any way. The SEC as a whole is pretty crap.

 

[GKJ]

Neutral site. Not the same.

Doesn't matter if it's the same. You can't say they don't schedule anyone when they're running NFL stadiums.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

The playoff is for the best of the best. I don't think it needs to include every strong team just because it's conceivable that a 7th or 8th ranked team could get hot and win the thing every once in awhile.

Part of the allure, at least for me, is that your back is already against the wall in Week 1. One loss can sink your season. If you start giving auto bids to conference champions, you've just built a mulligan into the system for everyone. Instead of "don't lose a game", the mentality is downgraded to "just make the CCG". Under this system, nearly the entire month of November would have been meaningless games for Georgia, Wisconsin, and Miami.

There are almost 130 teams at the FBS level. NCAA football is the only sport with a playoff format that people seriously make the argument that about 3% getting in is a good idea and having more somehow waters it down. We're on a hockey message board, a sport where over half the league gets in, but I don't think many would say that the Stanley Cup playoffs are awful. I don't see increasing that to 8/130 (6% of teams) or 12/130 (9% of teams) really waters the talent level down too much. Sure, their might be some blowouts in the earlier round(s), but that doesn't diminish from the good games or invalidates the later games.

The argument that having one's backs against the wall from the very beginning is a relevant argument for the importance of the regular season, but it was essentially killed the second the playoff was created in the first place. We've already seen teams with bad losses get in. And I'd hardly say that increasing to 8 or 12 or even 16 teams would invalidate entire months, as teams would still likely have to be one of the best teams in their conference to get in and even sliding to second or third best might put you in for an awful first round matchup or put you precariously close to not getting in.

Plus, as mentioned, this year we have an example of a school that literally could do nothing to get into the playoff. That's a sign of the system being fundamentally broken, whereby a team could conceivably do everything right and still not get in to the national title conversation. Where's the back against the wall situation for UCF?

 

[GKJ]

I never would have guessed.

Playing the playoff semis on NYE was one of the dumbest things they could have done. Now, I wonder what will happen the next time that New Year's Day is on a Sunday. Will the ratings go way down? Or will people really not give a **** about Week 17 of the NFL and watch the playoff instead?

They'll run New Year's Eve because it's a Saturday. They only marry themselves to New Year's Day when it's the Rose/Sugar Bowls, and the next time that takes place is in 2021 when January 1 is a Friday. Otherwise, the other bowls will run the playoff on the previous Saturday, except when New Year's Eve is on a Friday, since it would then be a federal holiday and people will be off. For next season, the semifinals will be on December 29.

And it works out, because the schedule sets up for the National Championship to be on a Monday. If this is the eternal format that we'll be stuck with the rest of our lives (it won't), the semifinal-New Year's Day won't be on a Wednesday until 2027, and won't be on a Thursday until 2054 (I'll be 70).

 

[Kyle McMahon]

There are almost 130 teams at the FBS level. NCAA football is the only sport with a playoff format that people seriously make the argument that about 3% getting in is a good idea and having more somehow waters it down. We're on a hockey message board, a sport where over half the league gets in, but I don't think many would say that the Stanley Cup playoffs are awful. I don't see increasing that to 8/130 (6% of teams) or 12/130 (9% of teams) really waters the talent level down too much. Sure, their might be some blowouts in the earlier round(s), but that doesn't diminish from the good games or invalidates the later games.

The argument that having one's backs against the wall from the very beginning is a relevant argument for the importance of the regular season, but it was essentially killed the second the playoff was created in the first place. We've already seen teams with bad losses get in. And I'd hardly say that increasing to 8 or 12 or even 16 teams would invalidate entire months, as teams would still likely have to be one of the best teams in their conference to get in and even sliding to second or third best might put you in for an awful first round matchup or put you precariously close to not getting in.

Plus, as mentioned, this year we have an example of a school that literally could do nothing to get into the playoff. That's a sign of the system being fundamentally broken, whereby a team could conceivably do everything right and still not get in to the national title conversation. Where's the back against the wall situation for UCF?

But out of those 130 teams, you can probably dismiss 110 right off the bat. Of those 20 remaining contenders, a dozen of them will remove themselves from the conversation by the halfway point of the season. If there were 25 NHL teams with no chance whatsoever of winning the Stanley Cup, you could make a pretty compelling argument that 16 teams would be way too many.

The other question is, just when are all these extra playoff games going to be played? Keep going well into January? At some point it needs to be remembered that almost every player on the field is not going to be making the pros, and getting an education is a priority. These players already give a great deal of their time to the football program.

UCF not making it despite doing everything right is not a condemnation of the system, it's a condemnation of the integrity of the selection committee. Let's just come right out and say it: ESPN was not going to allow Alabama and/or Ohio St to be kept out for UCF. Given that UCF was laughably ranked 12th by the committee, an 8-team playoff probably leaves them out as well. The only way to completely prevent them from getting the shaft would be provisioning that one playoff spot automatically goes to a G5 school. And most years that would be spot #8 and probably result in a one-sided matchup with the #1 that is of little intrigue.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Every other level of college football has significantly longer playoffs just fine. The easiest way to prevent games from being played too late into the new year is to not have a month long break between the conference final games and the start of the playoffs. And sure, there are a lot of teams that don't have chance, but if that's the case why even waste time with all the games and opponents that don't matter in the regular season? Just because a few teams would be prohibitive favorites doesn't mean that upsets wouldn't happen, nor does it necessarily mean that legitimate conference champions shouldn't have a shot. Build that into a playoff format, that power five champs and undefeated mid major champs get in and fill the remaining wild card slots with the best power five non-champs. You'd still have the best going up against the best and the door wouldn't be inherently blocked just because.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

I just wish that they'd go to at least an eight team playoff already. For all intents and purposes, there's nothing that Central Florida could've done to get into the playoffs this year, despite going undefeated and even beating teams that beat other teams.

Their schedule and out of conference matchups were on par with the likes of Alabama, this year, sadly. Hopefully with this win over Auburn, if UCF truly wants to prove itself moving forward, they'll make better scheduling decisions, for the future. It's what smaller schools like this need to do in order to be taken seriously.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

The only team with a right to be pissed off is UCF. Everyone else made their own bed with regards to the playoff.

If they scheduled better out of conference, and didn't play in such a laughable conference, they'd be taken more seriously, sadly.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Their schedule and out of conference matchups were on par with the likes of Alabama, this year, sadly. Hopefully with this win over Auburn, if UCF truly wants to prove itself moving forward, they'll make better scheduling decisions, for the future. It's what smaller schools like this need to do in order to be taken seriously.

Please tell me how they can make better scheduling decisions? They've played Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Clemson in the past and every single one of those games, outside a bowl, were at their place not one of them came to Orlando. They aren't coming here anytime soon, FSU isn't coming here, UF isn't coming here. What we get is North Carolina, Pittsburg, Georgia Tech type schools who don't have a problem playing G5 schools 1 for 1. We shouldn't have to go on the road to big name schools to get respect when they get to play all their games at home.

 

[HoseEmDown]

If they scheduled better out of conference, and didn't play in such a laughable conference, they'd be taken more seriously, sadly.

You do realize they make these schedules years in advance? They scheduled Maryland and Georgia Tech who aren't perennial top 25 teams but respectable P5 programs. They like to play an in state team each year so they play FIU or FAU most years. They also want to get an easy home game like everyone else so they schedule and FCS team. You should probably check out the AAC a little closer if you think it's a laughable conference. UCF, USF, Houston, Memphis, Navy, Temple and Cincinnati have all been ranked in the top 25 since the conference was formed. They have several wins over some top P5 teams.

 

[Duke33]

If they scheduled better out of conference, and didn't play in such a laughable conference, they'd be taken more seriously, sadly.

This. Besides, like many have said, who's to guarantee UCF will be consistently good going forward and not just a flash in the pan. Say UCF gets one or two of the "power" schools to sign them up, it won't be for a few years likely. Will UCF still be a 13-0 type team then? Odds are someone like Alabama or Ohio State still will be.