NCAA GDT: 2017 Bowl Season

[AtlantaWhaler]

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.

USF, Memphis, Navy, Temple...Yeesh.

Well, not a debate is the fact that UCF's schedule was ranked #54. That's not going to get you in squat unless the top-10 is littered with .500 teams...lol.

 

[HoseEmDown]

USF, Memphis, Navy, Temple...Yeesh.

Well, not a debate is the fact that UCF's schedule was ranked #54. That's not going to get you in squat unless the top-10 is littered with .500 teams...lol.

Look at the top 50 in strength of schedule, it's all P5 schools. It's not just UCF it's all G5, there's no way for them to be ranked highly in that because they play 8 conference games against G5 teams. I know computers aren't relevant anymore after the BCS but there's a ton still out there and a lot of them have UCF top 10 and a good amount have them at #1.

 

[PanthersPens62]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that UCF would have fared much better under the old BCS system as the computers had them rated quite high. @HoseEmDown you have my full support on this.

 

[Baxterman]

Isn't this the best scenario for UCF though?

They got an Auburn team that didn't give a crap and had guys sitting versus playing a Clemson team that would be going all out and easily beat them by double digits.

Now they can cry and whine and talk about how they were screwed and are the "real" champions instead of ending their season with an ass kicking and showing that they don't belong.

Either way they aren't coming close to winning the title either way but one way allows for a much more positive spin.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That's an argument for getting rid of the playoff entirely, though. The idea of claiming a national title is better than getting stomped, but it's not better than actually having the opportunity to compete for one. I don't think that there's a single team alive that would trade a playoff slot for a now obsolete bowl game.

 

[Baxterman]

That's an argument for getting rid of the playoff entirely, though. The idea of claiming a national title is better than getting stomped, but it's not better than actually having the opportunity to compete for one. I don't think that there's a single team alive that would trade a playoff slot for a now obsolete bowl game.

Of course they wouldn't because teams are stupid and overrate themselves thinking they have a better chance than they do at winning.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

What kind of logic is it to say that it's stupid to want to play in the playoffs? The importance of bowl games compared to the playoff are completely invalidated, and essentially the only way that winning a bowl game would give you more positive exposure than losing in the playoff is if you got utterly and completely destroyed.

Guarantee you that fans in ten years will look at bowl games as just outdated wastes of time, if we're not already there now. Oh, so [insert university here] beat [insert other university here] in some neutral site game while actual good teams were playing each other in the playoff? Yawn.

 

[Baxterman]

What kind of logic is it to say that it's stupid to want to play in the playoffs? The importance of bowl games compared to the playoff are completely invalidated, and essentially the only way that winning a bowl game would give you more positive exposure than losing in the playoff is if you got utterly and completely destroyed.

Well you answer your question right there.

UCF is the perfect example. They can use this season in recruiting to say they went undefeated, beat a SEC team, should have been in the play-offs etc.

If they are blown out by double digits by Clemson they can still claim they are a great program for making it to the play-offs but it sure seems like it validates all the talk about them not being good enough. I don't think it has nearly the impact when they show they don't belong versus people just knowing that.

Anyways the point of the play-offs isn't to give every team a participation medal it is to get the best teams in there and they did that this year. UCF wasn't close to being a top 4 team this year and didn't deserve to be in the play-offs at all.

The play-off system did what it was supposed (and should be designed) to do.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

The playoff system is supposed to crown a national champion while putting the best teams up against each other, and this year an undefeated team didn't get in nor did conference champions from two of the five power conferences. All it's done is further establish a level of arbitrary decision-making by the powers that be behind closed doors, and even beyond that as I mentioned previously mentioned back when the selections were still up in the air I was fully expected them to overweight Alabama's past to let them in over Florida State had they won their conference, and we've also seen actual debate over who deserves in and who deserves out of elite contenders with identical records a number of times in the short existence of this format.

I honestly can't fathom the notion that the way things are is at all an end product of what we should view as acceptable as fans. This is a sport with 130 teams competing but going beyond 4 going head to head against each other is too much of a watering down?

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Look at the top 50 in strength of schedule, it's all P5 schools. It's not just UCF it's all G5, there's no way for them to be ranked highly in that because they play 8 conference games against G5 teams. I know computers aren't relevant anymore after the BCS but there's a ton still out there and a lot of them have UCF top 10 and a good amount have them at #1.

Actually, that #54 ranking is the most updated. So that includes Auburn. Going into the bowl picks, they were WAY lower.

And the 8 conference games are not the committee's problem. If the out of conference isn't strong enough, then you'll need to look for better matchups than Florida Int., Maryland, and Austin Peay (I could have told you years ago that those teams would not get you to the playoffs).

 

[HoseEmDown]

So UCF shouldn't have been given a playoff spot because they wouldn't been crushed and beat by double digits? Hasn't Michigan State and Ohio State been shut out and crushed? Didn't Washington and Clemson get beat by double digits while not looking good? There's no reason to have kept UCF because they might have been killed when every year there's been at least 1 big boy who has.

 

[Baxterman]

So UCF shouldn't have been given a playoff spot because they wouldn't been crushed and beat by double digits? Hasn't Michigan State and Ohio State been shut out and crushed? Didn't Washington and Clemson get beat by double digits while not looking good? There's no reason to have kept UCF because they might have been killed when every year there's been at least 1 big boy who has.

No they shouldn't have got a play-off spot because they weren't one of the best 4 teams in the nation.

 

[HoseEmDown]

No they shouldn't have got a play-off spot because they weren't one of the best 4 teams in the nation.

Undefeated, conference champion and the #1 scoring offense in the nation says otherwise.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

It's beyond that. They didn't even get the option of being able to prove if they were worthy or not.

Again, the core issue is this.... Division I FBS's current playoff format makes it so that a significant number schools simply put have no chance whatsoever to earn a playoff spot regardless of what they do. If you think that's remotely sensible with a sport of any kind within a single level of competition, I'm sorry but that's a core difference of opinion that I can't wrap my head around. I don't even want to guess how many power five schools would've had to stumble (likely repeatedly) for UCF to even have been given a shot.

 

[Baxterman]

Undefeated, conference champion and the #1 scoring offense in the nation says otherwise.

When the undefeated season and conference champ comes in the AAC no it would not say otherwise at all.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that UCF would have fared much better under the old BCS system as the computers had them rated quite high. @HoseEmDown you have my full support on this.

They’d probably be around 4

Oklahoma vs osu/Georgia would be the natty probably

 

[HoseEmDown]

When the undefeated season and conference champ comes in the AAC no it would not say otherwise at all.

The AAC finished with 3 teams ranked in the final AP and coaches poll, just like the Big 12 and ACC while 1 less than Pac 12. The AAC isn't some crap conference with just 1 good team.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Actually, that #54 ranking is the most updated. So that includes Auburn. Going into the bowl picks, they were WAY lower.

And the 8 conference games are not the committee's problem. If the out of conference isn't strong enough, then you'll need to look for better matchups than Florida Int., Maryland, and Austin Peay (I could have told you years ago that those teams would not get you to the playoffs).

It is the committees problem when they discredit the conference because they aren't P5, they are starting at a disadvantage unlike the 65 P5 teams. The G5 only gets 4 OOC games, I don't know which G5 school if any schedule a P5 in all those games. These schools need to have a balanced schedule, you can't go on the road for all 4 OOC games, your fans want to see more than 4 home games a year. It's unfair to the players and fans to try to force that on them just so they can impress the committee when P5 schools can schedule 7 to 8 home games and can play whoever they want and it not hurt them.

So years ago when Georgia Tech won the coastal and UCF scheduled them you could tell they wouldn't be that good anymore, or you could see a Hurricane was coming that would cancel the game? You could see that after going to a bowl for 3 of 4 years Maryland would have a terrible season? UCF has played FIU or FAU for just about every year for the past 10, why should they cancel these series? Alabama can schedule an FCS school but a G5 can't? Who should they play each year to appease you and the committee? Because FSU doesn't want to play them, UF doesn't want to either. Penn State will but only if you go there first so they can threaten to cancel the return trip unless you move the game somewhere else.

 

[Rossi Rat]

Penn State will but only if you go there first so they can threaten to cancel the return trip unless you move the game somewhere else.

I LOVE this from the haters.

At VT in 2020. Home and home with Auburn, WVU on the horizon. Did this annoying little back to back home and home series with sPitt but we’ll be done with them soon. Aside from Auburn, those are programs who have the potential to give the Lions a fight, but more oft than not they are inferior to.

We had the lighter OOC opponents in part because of the sanctions. Now that we’re back to being one on the blue blood perennial contending programs... frankly, being in the B1G with the likes of OSU, Michigan, MSU and crossovers here and there with the likes of Wisconsin, Iowa is plenty.

Look at Bama and Georgia’s OOC next year:

Alabama - Louisville, The Citadel, UL-Lafayette and Arkansas State
Georgia- Ga.Tech , Middle Tennessee- UMass and Austin Peay.

But then you look at their SEC slate. Realize it’s plenty. Elite programs don’t need to cater to the likes of the “G5”. What they have as is... that’s enough to help with the ultimate goal, a championship.

 

[HoseEmDown]

I LOVE this from the haters.

At VT in 2020. Home and home with Auburn, WVU on the horizon. Did this annoying little back to back home and home series with sPitt but we’ll be done with them soon. Aside from Auburn, those are programs who have the potential to give the Lions a fight, but more oft than not they are inferior to.

We had the lighter OOC opponents in part because of the sanctions. Now that we’re back to being one on the blue blood perennial contending programs... frankly, being in the B1G with the likes of OSU, Michigan, MSU and crossovers here and there with the likes of Wisconsin, Iowa is plenty.

Look at Bama and Georgia’s OOC next year:

Alabama - Louisville, The Citadel, UL-Lafayette and Arkansas State
Georgia- Ga.Tech , Middle Tennessee- UMass and Austin Peay.

But then you look at their SEC slate. Realize it’s plenty. Elite programs don’t need to cater to the likes of the “G5”. What they have as is... that’s enough to help with the ultimate goal, a championship.

What does that have to do with the fact that after we went up there in 2013 and won you threatened to cancel the game in 2014 if we didn't move the location because you didn't want to come to Orlando to play us? We were forced to move the game to Dublin and missed out on a marquee home game.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

You’re mad that teams that have more clout & draw more money than UCF does uses that leverage at the negotiating table. UCF needs those schools more than the other way around. They can find other schools who will happily go on the road in a one off game for the money. They can also find more profitable & brand name teams to do a series &/or neutral site game with as well.

 

[HoseEmDown]

You’re mad that teams that have more clout & draw more money than UCF does uses that leverage at the negotiating table. UCF needs those schools more than the other way around. They can find other schools who will happily go on the road in a one off game for the money. They can also find more profitable & brand name teams to do a series &/or neutral site game with as well.

I'm not mad it was just a dick move on their part. They really didn't have leverage, they would to have paid us to cancel the game. O'Leary had no problem with going to Ireland so that's why we moved it, if we had a different coach or AD we most likely take the PSU money and find another opponent for a home game. We don't need schools like PSU who only want it their way, we will gladly play the Pittsburg, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Stanford's who'll do a true 1 and 1.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Ucf raising a banner is pretty embarrassing. They definetely should have had a chance and I would have gave them it but you can’t raise a banner if you beat auburn.

 

[Rossi Rat]

I'm not mad it was just a dick move on their part. They really didn't have leverage, they would to have paid us to cancel the game. O'Leary had no problem with going to Ireland so that's why we moved it, if we had a different coach or AD we most likely take the PSU money and find another opponent for a home game. We don't need schools like PSU who only want it their way, we will gladly play the Pittsburg, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Stanford's who'll do a true 1 and 1.

As long as you understand your place, and understand Penn State’s place in the college football realm.

God speed. And after we murder sPitt in early September, I’d be thrilled to see UCF beat the dead horse later that month.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I'm not mad it was just a dick move on their part. They really didn't have leverage, they would to have paid us to cancel the game. O'Leary had no problem with going to Ireland so that's why we moved it, if we had a different coach or AD we most likely take the PSU money and find another opponent for a home game. We don't need schools like PSU who only want it their way, we will gladly play the Pittsburg, North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Stanford's who'll do a true 1 and 1.

They were on sanctions & looking for something that could make up for not having a bowl trip that year. If it wasn’t UCF it would have been someone else.