Well one thing for sure, the Pac12 and Big10 rivalry might not play out in the Rose Bowl but there are 2 huge games for them Cotton Bowl USC vs Ohio State ..sort of like old times, just in Texas Fiesta Bowl Washington vs Penn State ...another big time bowl and another big time Pac12/Big 10 match up. Throw in another Pac12/B10 matchup... Holiday Bows Washington State vs Michigan State. So if you Pac12 and Big 10 guys love seeing your guys play your traditional Rose Bowl teams You got 3 big games vs one another. Orange Bowl Wisc vs USC ..a 3rd big time bowl for the Big 10. Longhorns headed to Houston to play old B12 rival Missouri. Just glad to be back in the bowl business!
After sitting on the sidelines reading the arguments for and against inclusion of certain teams, conference champs, etc. I have an opinion to disclose. My dad always said, unsolicited opinions are never welcomed. He was correct, but I've never let that stop me. I get a sense (possibly wrong) that in some minds the choice playoff teams should reflect more closely how tournament teams are chosen/seeded in college basketball, especially regarding conference champs. I see two issues with that kind of thinking: 1) in a season with only 12-13 games, every single game has meaning and influence on the final outcome; 2) with only 4 playoff teams, the "best team" must trump a conference champ. In an expanded format (8 or more teams), P5 conference champs could have a automatic bid, but that's an argument for another time. I'm a B10 fan, but IMO the OSU beat down by unranked Iowa clearly was the deciding factor. You (rhetorical) can argue SOS and conference champ all day long, but in the end OSU lost control of its destiny on the day it lost to Iowa by 31 points. I believe there is a legitimate argument over AL vs. OSU as to who is the better team at this point in time, but the selection committee is the arbiter and it has spoken. I'm moving on. I believe the OSU-USC game is the championship game for 2-loss teams. It should be a great game between two outstanding teams. Did I just refer to USC as outstanding? Ugh!
With 4 teams we are always going to have at least 1 team who feels like they got screwed. Heck even with 8 teams we are going to have at least 1 team who feels like they got screwed. Even with 64 teams in the final 4 tourney, there are always several teams that feel like they got screwed. As I said earlier, the whole thing with Conference Champs not getting in is going to drive the bus to 8 teams some time, whether it's after the current contract runs out or sooner if everybody who is party to the contract agrees to tear it up and start over.
One thing nobody talks about (except Mike Leach) is that bowl games have become extra practice time. So many bowls are money losers for the teams that play in them, but they get the extra practice. Mike Leach said it gave bowl teams an unfair advantage for the following season and suggested that all teams get to have extra practice whether they are going to a bowl or not. Sort of an early Spring Drills I guess.
Another thing to note. Despite all the effort to get the 4 best teams into the playoffs...only 1 game in the 3 years that we've been doing this has been competitive in the semifinals. Last year both Ohio State and Washington were blown out, in the previous years only Ohio State/Alabama in the 1st year of the playoffs was competitive. But all of the championship games have been competitive.
Would have been even more interesting if the Irish had been able to finish the season strong at 11-1, the same record as Alabama and 1 more win that Ohio State. No way to know of course, we were #3 when we went to Miami, had we beaten Miami and Stanford I think we'd have held on to our top 4 ranking. But you don't know for sure, with teams having an extra game. Now last year and this year that lack of the extra game didn't hurt either Ohio State or Alabama...but you don't know till they vote. TCU and Baylor were dinged because they were both 11-1 and the Big12 didn't have a championship game.
Could be, but either way, it's a hell of a lot better arguing over #4 than it is #2 or even #1. You can still see and feel the stain of the old BCS process on the playoff that will, in time, go away and I suspect that will be right around the time the playoff expands to 8 teams. It's funny because the playoff really does depend on the bastard child of the BCS (the super conference), but in consecutive years has now shown that conference play and/or strength don't matter a whole lot. That being said, for fun, I'd like to see everyone just pick a local or favorite team at random in each of the Divisions FCS, DII and DIII and follow them through the playoffs. It's a lot of fun.
Here is a perfect segue from Corey's post above. Writer Dan Wetzel IMO makes a very strong case for an 8-team playoff. He suggests eliminating the conference championship games and making the 13th game the first round, composed of the P5 regular season conference champs and 3 at-large teams. The 4 games would be played in the stadiums of the higher seeded teams. The bowl games would host the 4 winners in the semi-finals as they do now. https://sports.yahoo.com/heres-make...rts&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social Note: I just realized that it was Corey who posted the article on FB. I was so drawn to the graphic that I hadn't noticed that before I posted this. I guess my reference to the segue was more appropriate than I thought.
Sid, Corey, that's an interesting proposal. I will have to think about that one. I like the idea of just taking the top 8 teams. Jacksonville State is my favorite FCS team, but they lost in the first round.
Call me old school.... I still like the idea of an 8-4 team getting extra practices and entertaining it's fan base aroung the holidays with a bowl game because they didn't quite make an 8 team playoff. I still like the idea of my team being a conference champion. I think that's a cool accomplishment in football. Eliminating conference championship games can still give you a champion but many times only through complex tie breakers especially in this day and age of 12 and 14 member conferences where so many don't play each other in the regular season.
Sid, Wetzel and I have agreed on quite a bit for a long, long time. He's making way more money than I am by having the same opinion. I really need to find a way to flip that situation. KP, Alabama had a good discipline year this year. Whenever Bama and Auburn have a lot of dismissals, Jacksonville State is REALLY good They've gotten away from raiding the Tennessee Valley these past few years, which is interesting because there's a much larger recruiting presence of the B1G, B12 and AAC and ACC here. Either way, tough year for the Gamecocks. I didn't think Kennesaw would get them.
This makes the plan unworkable, unless you go back to a 11 game regular season. No P5 conference is going to give up the Championship game, with the exception of the B12 who has 10 teams and didn't really want a championship game anyway, I can't see another way to determine the champion of the SEC with 16 teams, sure you could go with the best conference record but that has it's own set of problems. Also SEC Champ game brings in a lot of money.
It's especially hard because the SEC only has 14 teams. Two invisible teams makes it really tough!!! :wink:
Here is the good thing about a 4 team playoff beginning at the very end of December...... "Of particular importance to Tide fans, the three injured linebackers, Mack Wilson, Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis, who saw limited action against Auburn should be near full-speed for the Clemson game." If we had a 16 team playoff and teams were getting ready to play next Saturday it would be some mighty watered down football by the time the CFB Playoff Final rolled around.
From now on, I'm just going to post as if Dave was actually on point. You are so right Dave and thank you for proving what a bag of wussies we have playing in DI FBS. I'd say they are flat out little girls compared to the grown assed men playing DIII, DII and FCS, but there aren't bye weeks in flag twirling either. We really need to recruit tougher players and have more demanding work out schedules. I mean, the difference in spending between FBS and the other 3 is almost immeasurable. We need to stop wasting tax payer dollars on these candy asses.
I get it Corey..... you think injuries make no difference and that the NFL speed and strength of top FBS players doesn't invite more injuries than those at the FCS level. Ask Kp if he doesn't think getting those LBs back will make a noticeable difference in Bama's defense.
KP thinks that every team has to deal with injuries and every team in the playoffs will be healthier after a month off. Injuries are a part of the game and you just have to deal with it. 8)