The regular season has now ended and the conference titles have been decided. All that remains now is the selection committee's final four picks and this year is a bit different with Ohio State, a two-loss team in the hunt. Regardless of whom the selection committee picks, there will be some hard feelings from Skybox members on this forum. How influential is a conference title in making the final four slots seems to be the root of the problem? I hope we can all respect each other's views and remarks. Let the discussion begin! :roll:
I have said a couple of times that Alabama did not play well enough against Auburn to get into the playoffs AND that a 2 loss team should not be in the playoffs either. That makes this very interesting. Miami and Alabama are the only one loss teams left. I think the discussion should be between those two. 8)
Besides conference standing let's look at 2 other categories 1. Strength of Schedule 2. Number of wins over FBS teams. Ohio State leads in both categories.
I would agree that what ever the decision between Ohio State and Alabama is made, that there will be hard feelings and controversy. In spite of my general distaste for 2 teams from the same conference making the Final Four. I do think that Alabama is the better team than Ohio State. If Ohio State had battered Wisconsin last night, who I don't think was anywhere near good enough to have even won either division of the SEC, they played no good teams at all in nnon-conf and their division was terrible, then I might have favored Ohio State. But they didn't and I just think Alabama is the best team and should be in the playoffs. I won't lose any sleep if Ohio State gets in though.
My take; I won't be bitter if we don't make it in this year...I don't really expect to (partly due to the Iowa debacle and partly due to the pasting we took against Clemson last year). Having said that, though...I feel the same way that I did last year. Last year I was perfectly happy to go to the playoffs yet I felt that (Notre Dame aside) you should pretty much win your conference to make the playoffs...and we didn't. I also felt that two teams from the same conference should not go (thus leaving 2 P5 conference champions out)...I still feel that way.
If I were on the committee I would ask myself do I think that Alabama would have beaten Georgia yesterday and if Bama had done everything they should have done with their schedule they should have been playing the Dawgs in Atlanta instead of Auburn. I'm not sure Bama would have beaten those Dogs yesterday. But then again Auburn was essentially without Kerryon Johnson yesterday... and Bama caught all that Kerryon had to give. But hey.... we can't let injuries impact this thing.... or so I'm told.
I have no problem with Ohio State going. They finished strong which is Meyer's calling card. I don't see anyone hangng with Oklahoma or Clemson. Those teams stand alone.
Gipper, how about number of losses to FBS teams by 30 pts or more? Hey I'm okay with all of this, but when the worm turns and someone from the SEC uses these same arguments against you then no whining, no complaining of the process being built by the SEC for the SEC. Agreed? Just a reminder, last year a non-conference champion was selected from the Big 10 (1st time) and now the argument is being made that a 2 loss team be selected from the Big 10 (1st time). 8)
Trying to be realistic about the situation, I think many of us tend to reach for straws that benefit our team or conference. I know that I am much more objective as I age. Whatever the outcome, I am confident we will all be ready to discuss the same issues next year and the year after that! :lol:
the one thing a lot of SEC fans are whistling past the graveyard with is strength of conference. The SEC was just not very good this year. It's hard to overlook that loss Ohio State had to Iowa, but Ohio State has much better wins. Aside from Georgia, Alabama and Auburn for a 4 week stretch, the SEC was pedestrian at best. LSU lost to Troy at home. Missouri got their ass kicked by Purdue at home. Auburn lost to Clemson, South Carolina was blown out by Clemson. South Carolina has a nice win over NC State to start the year, but they also have a 17-16 win over La Tech. Kentucky scraped by Southern Miss 24-17 and Eastern Kentucky 27-16. Kentucky was blasted by rival Louisville. Florida lost to FSU and Michigan, with Michigan pummeling them. I could go on, but it's really more of the same. Highlights are things like Texas A&M losing to UCLA in a shootout. There just isn't a lot of quality in the SEC like there normally is.
And just to get Terry fired up... here's how we'd be standing if it was an 8 team playoff with 5 auto bids to the champs: IN: Clemson Georgia OU Ohio St USC 3 spots left for the most worthy (Alabama and even UCF). Yep... that looks like a TERRIBLE field with a bunch of undeserving teams... :roll:
Since the playoffs were created from the BCS, it is fair to include their history in your analysis, KP. 2 loss LSU was selected for a championship game ( and, yes, I remember whom they beat) and fans of non SEC conferences had to sit quietly while two SEC teams were selected in another year to play for the title game while deserving champions from other conferences were placed in lesser bowls. We are familar with ending up being on the wrong side of a turned worm.
It's 11 AM on a Sunday morning and no Terry, yet, even through hot subjects are burning up the board. I need to check if they sell Rio Blanco in Milwaukee.
Last year I argued for Penn. St. over OSU because they had beaten them and won the conference. OSU got the nod so if this year the conference winner gets beaten out for a team that couldn't even win its division, there's some sauce for the goose. Ohio St. has quality wins over Wisc. and PSU. Just what are the Tide quality wins?
The Selection Committee has responded: Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia & Alabama Congratulations Kp! I am very comfortable with the committee's picks.
my only beef this year, like last year, is taking a team that didn't even win their division let alone their conference. I just couldn't be too vocal last year because I just can't support Rape State ever. Either way, this is a disturbing trend by the committee and it still points toward the need of an 8 team playoff. They just took 2 teams from a conference that was nowhere near the best conference in the land. Who you played didn't matter at all.
Hard choices any way you look at it. The Iowa loss was brutal but Alabama beat no high quality team. If OSU or USC had scheduled Mercer instead of Oklahoma or ND, they would have met KP's "1 loss" criteria. But, Alabama certainly could win the playoffs so will have to wait a few weeks to see if the right choice was made although a selection process that picks the second best team in the state of Alabamsa over the PAC12 and B10 champs seems flawed.
For the same reason i (distastefully) argued that psu should go over osu last year, osu should have been over bama this year. Maybe its a makeup call. The 2 one loss teams are wisc and bama. Interesting that their resumes are so similar, yet only wisc took hell all year for playing nobody, but it is bama that has a resume that osu doesnt even come close to matching. (Based on sagarin, wisc sos is #50 compared to #56 for bama, with identical records against top 10 and top 30 competition.) Immaterial either way, congrats kp and good luck in the cfp.