CFP Thread

[NorthernOhioBuckeye]

What are the effective odds that an 8th seeded  team beats the 1 seeded team?  Presume the seeding is close to being accurate.

Short term, very little chance that an 8th seed beats a 1 seed. However, look at what the playoffs have done to competition in CF. The haves (Bama, Clemson, Ohio State) are getting ALL of the talent they want and the rest is being dispersed amongst the rest. This is a self serving formula. Those 3 teams will all be well represented in the playoffs for the next few years at the very least. The blue chip players are going to head to those three schools because they will be the most high profile and in the playoffs.

Expanding the playoff does not cure this, but it does at least expand the number of teams that will share in the talent. Some of the 5 stars may decide that instead of trying to compete for playing time in their sophomore or junior season at Bama, they could go to Auburn, start right away and still maybe make it to a playoff game. 

It won't happen overnight, but anything that could be done to give incentive to recruits to head to other schools, will help to alleviate the issue we have now of being able to look at the season before it starts and name 3 of the 4 playoff contenders. And if we don't do it, it will KILL college football as teams like North Carolina are going to say what is the point if we are not able to recruit at that level and make a playoff game because of the monster that is Clemson. 

[CWSooner]

There are unintended consequences to everything we do.

There is no guarantee that expanding the playoff will help have-nots become haves.

Having a playoff seems to be what has caused this problem.  Expanding the playoff could make it worse, not better.

Go back to bowls and polls and accept some ambiguity.

[utee94]

There are unintended consequences to everything we do.

There is no guarantee that expanding the playoff will help have-nots become haves.

Having a playoff seems to be what has caused this problem.  Expanding the playoff could make it worse, not better.

Go back to bowls and polls and accept some ambiguity.

I'm all for that.  I wish it were something that could realistically happen.

I'd also like to go back to conference alignments from about 1983 while we're at it.

And get rid of the 24/7 sports news cycle and the push for nationalization of the sport, which I think has actually done the most damage of all of these things.

[MrNubbz]

I'm all for that.  I wish it were something that could realistically happen.

I'd also like to go back to conference alignments from about 1983 while we're at it.

Great minds and all that .The only way to settle the issue is to expand the playoffs.But this could have consequences of screwing some kids out of a Sunday pay check because of injury.So even if expansion happens the field will be dilluted because of defections,so stick to what we have at least head to head and strength of schedule is factored in at the top wrung

[FearlessF]

I'm all for that.  I wish it were something that could realistically happen.

I'd also like to go back to conference alignments from about 1983 while we're at it.

the only way this happens is equal sharing of $$$ by all P5 programs

there's enough to go around and then the TV contracts would be with the P5 and not individual conferences

Then the conferences could go back to regional alignments w/o costing them $$$

but, alas, it'll never happen
unless they all come to their senses and put me in charge

[betarhoalphadelta]

Go back to bowls and polls and accept some ambiguity.

I'm fine with that. I think the answer has to be either doing that, OR doing a playoff right, which I define as 8 teams, with the 5 PF Champs, 2 at-large, and tallest midget. 

The BCS, and the CFP, are both beauty pageants that try to claim they're objectively legitimate. At least the old way of bowls and polls was unapologetic about being a beauty pageant. 

[bayareabadger]

And get rid of the 24/7 sports news cycle and the push for nationalization of the sport, which I think has actually done the most damage of all of these things.

So, I will cop to being young and not coming around until the early BCS era. 

But back in the day, was there a national discourse about local teams? Like did ESPN radio just delve on OSU or Texas? Or do we just have more national outlet visibility and access, so we keep looking at it?

I think about this with TV and radio a lot. Like it used to be a thing to pull out even recent tape. Now, if Herbie says something slighting someone, it's part of the record, highly accessible and there to parse. Shoot, back in the day, you got your weekly polls in the paper and maybe you had some friends to talk about it with. Now, it sets off 35 fanbase hurricanes the second it drops each week. 

[bayareabadger]

the only way this happens is equal sharing of $$$ by all P5 programs

there's enough to go around and then the TV contracts would be with the P5 and not individual conferences

Then the conferences could go back to regional alignments w/o costing them $$$

but, alas, it'll never happen
unless they all come to their senses and put me in charge

Next thing you know, the G5 will want some sharing. 

[MrNubbz]

but, alas, it'll never happen
unless they all come to their senses and put me in charge

Well they were but couldn't find you power slamming runza's and tossing back schooners

[FearlessF]

Next thing you know, the G5 will want some sharing.

they will get theirs when they earn it

[CWSooner]

So, I will cop to being young and not coming around until the early BCS era.

But back in the day, was there a national discourse about local teams? Like did ESPN radio just delve on OSU or Texas? Or do we just have more national outlet visibility and access, so we keep looking at it?

I think about this with TV and radio a lot. Like it used to be a thing to pull out even recent tape. Now, if Herbie says something slighting someone, it's part of the record, highly accessible and there to parse. Shoot, back in the day, you got your weekly polls in the paper and maybe you had some friends to talk about it with. Now, it sets off 35 fanbase hurricanes the second it drops each week.

There was no 24-hour news cycle, much less a 24-hour sports-news cycle.
So, no, there was no national discourse except in the "letters to the editor" in Sports Illustrated.
We raced out to get the newspaper on Tuesday morning to see the latest AP and UPI polls.  We didn't know which anonymous jackasses didn't vote our teams high enough.  And then we had to wait until the next Saturday.
After the bowl season was over and the final polls were out, we had to wait through winter and spring, and into summer, before Street and Smiths college football preview came out.  And then SI.  And then the Playboy All-American Team.
There was no ESPN.

[medinabuckeye1]

Ever since the two-team BCS was expanded to the 4-team CFP, I have assumed like it or not, that we will be expanding to an eight-team playoff in the near future.  I further assume that the set up will be:

• Five auto-bids for the P5 Champions
• One auto-bid for the highest ranked G5 Champion*
• Two at-large teams
• Quarter-finals at campus sites of the top-4 Conference Champions

If that existed this year the Quarter-Final match-ups would be (assuming the rankings were the same):

• #25 Oregon at #1 Bama
• #8 Cincinnati at #2 Clemson
• #5 aTm at #3 Ohio State
• #4 Notre Dame at #6 Oklahoma

So the best team left out would be a 3-loss UF team that already lost to two of the eight playoff teams.  

Second round (Bowl site) games would be:

• Bama/Oregon vs ND/OU
• Cincy/Clemson vs aTm/tOSU

And the CG would be:

• Bama/ND/OU/Oregon vs Clemson/tOSU/aTm/Cincy

*There might be some kind of qualifier like "if in the top-12" or "if ranked higher than the lowest ranked P5 Champion" but either of those would have been met this year.  

If you instead just had the top-4 host regardless of league titles then it would be:

• #25 Oregon at #1 Bama
• #8 Cincy at #2 Clemson
• #6 Oklahoma at #3 Ohio State
• #5 aTm at #4 Notre Dame

[OrangeAfroMan]

Funny, I was watching MLBTV's off-season coverage and I thought:  "Why isn't there a college football channel?"  There's only 30 MLB teams - FBS college football literally has 100 more than that.  College football's history extends back just as far as baseball's does, too.  
.
I could produce enough content for a college football channel, easy.  
.
Anyway, about the G5 issue - the NCAA could just be honest and tell them they're not citizens.  Cinci and the like might as well have a 3/5 compromise.  

[OrangeAfroMan]

I'm also enamored with this top-12 cutoff that is often cited.  Talk about arbitrary.