Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Big Ten fans are a special, special bunch.

I remember our version of trivia pursuit had a question about which city has a baseball and football team with the same name. The answer was St Louis, but that's obviously not true any longer.

New York also had two Giants.

oh and also...no one gives a shit about the ACC. it's about to get broken up and swallowed up by the 2 big dogs.

B1G measures itself against the SEC.

All kidding aside, I think this is simply an acknowledgement that needing an elite W-L record is no longer necessary to make the postseason.  Risking another loss with a touch schedule is perfectly fine now.

College football doesn't remember what it looks like in the mirror.  So much makeup caked on.....might as well be a clown.

All kidding aside, I'd like to get the collective opinion of the board here. 

OAM has been clear over time that he considers anything but an undefeated or one-loss team being crowned the NC as sort of a travesty in the sport. I.e. that there's romance in that "elite W-L record" that is one of the aspects that makes college football special and unique. The idea of a 9-3 team getting into the CFP and running the table over teams that had elite W-L records shouldn't happen. (I hope I'm stating your position correctly, OAM, I'm not trying to put words into your mouth.)

To an extent, I agree, but I come at it from an angle of hating the CFP and how it's sucked all the oxygen out of the room as a fan of a team that never has a chance. I'd rather we talk about the MNC being only this tiny handful of elite teams, voted on at the end of the season without a playoff at all, which keeps the "romance" of the lesser bowl games relevant. The bowl games were one of those things that I thought made college football special, and now they're a complete and total afterthought--and will become even more so as the CFP expands in size.

Do the rest of you agree? If a team schedules brutal and goes 9-3, but because of SoS and the CFP committee they get into the CFP and run the table to become NC... Do you care? Do you consider that a terrible thing for either the sport of CFB, or the optics of the sport of CFB? 

All kidding aside, I'd like to get the collective opinion of the board here.

OAM has been clear over time that he considers anything but an undefeated or one-loss team being crowned the NC as sort of a travesty in the sport. I.e. that there's romance in that "elite W-L record" that is one of the aspects that makes college football special and unique. The idea of a 9-3 team getting into the CFP and running the table over teams that had elite W-L records shouldn't happen. (I hope I'm stating your position correctly, OAM, I'm not trying to put words into your mouth.)

To an extent, I agree, but I come at it from an angle of hating the CFP and how it's sucked all the oxygen out of the room as a fan of a team that never has a chance. I'd rather we talk about the MNC being only this tiny handful of elite teams, voted on at the end of the season without a playoff at all, which keeps the "romance" of the lesser bowl games relevant. The bowl games were one of those things that I thought made college football special, and now they're a complete and total afterthought--and will become even more so as the CFP expands in size.

Do the rest of you agree? If a team schedules brutal and goes 9-3, but because of SoS and the CFP committee they get into the CFP and run the table to become NC... Do you care? Do you consider that a terrible thing for either the sport of CFB, or the optics of the sport of CFB?

For the most part, yeah.  CFB, more than any other sport, crowned teams that had great seasons.  There was something about that I liked.  It always felt a little off to me when a 9-7 team made an unexpected run to the Super Bowl, or a 6 seed won the NCAA Tournament.  You never had to worry about that in CFB.

If a 9-3 team makes a run and wins a NC Idk if I will necessarily consider it a “travesty” but it will feel a little weird to me.

All kidding aside, I'd like to get the collective opinion of the board here.

OAM has been clear over time that he considers anything but an undefeated or one-loss team being crowned the NC as sort of a travesty in the sport. I.e. that there's romance in that "elite W-L record" that is one of the aspects that makes college football special and unique. The idea of a 9-3 team getting into the CFP and running the table over teams that had elite W-L records shouldn't happen. (I hope I'm stating your position correctly, OAM, I'm not trying to put words into your mouth.)

To an extent, I agree, but I come at it from an angle of hating the CFP and how it's sucked all the oxygen out of the room as a fan of a team that never has a chance. I'd rather we talk about the MNC being only this tiny handful of elite teams, voted on at the end of the season without a playoff at all, which keeps the "romance" of the lesser bowl games relevant. The bowl games were one of those things that I thought made college football special, and now they're a complete and total afterthought--and will become even more so as the CFP expands in size.

Do the rest of you agree? If a team schedules brutal and goes 9-3, but because of SoS and the CFP committee they get into the CFP and run the table to become NC... Do you care? Do you consider that a terrible thing for either the sport of CFB, or the optics of the sport of CFB?

Either way I hate that we've lost what I thought made CFB special.  One of the things I loved (and hated at times) was that a random mid-season loss to MSU (1998) or Purdue (multiple) could spike a NC chase.  That made EVERY game important.  It has been pointed out that sometimes some of those games didn't matter and that is true but you didn't know that until after the fact so that didn't diminish the intensity.  In past years I would watch every single tOSU game and really be into it even if it was Purdue/MSU and the Buckeyes were favored by 20+ because I knew that it was possible that if the Buckeyes had a rough afternoon in West Lafayette or a slew of turnovers in East Lansing, that *COULD* end Ohio State's NC hopes.  

Now . . . well the Buckeyes are opening the season in what previously would have been an absolutely humongous #1 vs #3 matchup against the Longhorns.  I attended the exact same Longhorns/Buckeyes matchup exactly 20 years ago in 2005 and I don't care what anyone says, that one was WAY bigger.  In 2005 we walked out of the Stadium and wished the Longhorn fans well.  We figured (rightly) that they were playing for the NC and we were now playing for lesser goals.  If Ohio State loses this game, I think Buckeye fans will walk out saying "see you in the playoffs" to the Longhorn fans.  

The intensity of the big matchups and of the random midseason PU/MSU games is just gone.  I want my team to beat Texas on August 30 and I want them to win in West Lafayette on November 8 and if they played MSU this year (they don't) I'd want them to win but if they lose to Texas or Purdue or even Michigan again it will not be the end of the NC dream it will just give them a lower seed and, so what?  I don't feel like I "have to" watch each game anymore because, realistically, I know that Ohio State has at least two and possibly three games to lose.  

Even as a fan of an elite program, I also feel that the lesser goals have been rendered meaningless.  When my team was knocked out of the NC race by the loss to Texas in 2005 I still had a goal for them to win the Big11Ten.  They ended up tying for that.  In lieu of that I'd have wanted a "Major/NYD" Bowl.  There were achievable goals for all:

• A winning season and bowl appearance
• A quality bowl
• A Major/NYD Bowl
• A league title
• A NC appearance
• A NC

Now I think that there are basically two goals:  Making and then winning the NC.  Winning your league has been made into a side issue and everything else is just basically meaningless.  

Do the rest of you agree? If a team schedules brutal and goes 9-3, but because of SoS and the CFP committee they get into the CFP and run the table to become NC... Do you care? Do you consider that a terrible thing for either the sport of CFB, or the optics of the sport of CFB?

On this 9-3 NC issue I have a few thoughts:

First it hasn't happened with a 3-loss team yet but that is inevitable.  That said, Ohio State winning the very first 12-team CFP as a 2-loss team is kinda the beginning.  The only previous 2-loss NC was LSU in 2007 and that took an insanely unlikely series of upsets involving the top rankings that year basically looking like a hot potato that everyone wanted to get rid of as fast as possible.  In 2024 it didn't take that at all.  There was an undefeated team (Oregon) a 1-loss team (ND), and another 1-loss team (IU).  Ohio State didn't get the chance because of a bunch of upsets, they got what will now be a routine chance for 2-loss teams that was also provided to Georgia, Texas, Penn State, Tennessee, ASU, and SMU.  Each of those teams had two losses.  

Second, I consider it inevitable so I'm not going to get worked up about it when it happens.  

Third, my view will depend largely on their SoS.  Wisconsin is viewed by many as having the toughest schedule in CFB this year.  Their schedule includes six ranked teams with four of those games on the road:

• #3 Ohio State at home
• #7 Oregon on the road
• #8 Bama on the road
• #12 Illinois at home
• #14 Michigan on the road
• #20 Indiana on the road

If the Badgers go 9-3 with that schedule and end up winning the playoffs, good for them.  I would view it a lot differently if it was a team with three OOC cream-puffs and a lightweight league schedule where the 9-3 was 0-2 against ranked teams and 9-1 against unranked teams.