Well, sure, if this is your definition of “awfully good”:
If the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga receives an at-large bid into the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, the Mocs will have the NCAA to thank.
Not only because the Mocs — who must win at ninth-ranked Wofford today to have a chance — would have been chosen by the Division I football committee, but also because the committee two years ago pushed for the expansion of the playoff field from 16 to 20 teams starting in 2010.
“It’s increased a bunch of people’s opportunities,” Mocs coach Russ Huesman said. “If it was a 16-team field, I probably wouldn’t be popping off as much, saying how much we deserve to be in there. But I truly believe, if we win, that we’ve got a good enough football team and our body of work would show it.”
Wofford can clinch a share of the Southern Conference championship with a win, so the Mocs (6-4, 5-2) are well aware that all playoff talk is pointless if they don’t upset the Terriers (8-2, 6-1) at Gibbs Stadium.
Seven wins, plus a couple of tough losses to other FCS teams – there’s your formula for a shot at a national title. If that falls short, they can always expand the tourney to 24 schools.
Get The Picture 
JU, coached by Kerwin Bell, is petitioning to get into the tournament as a non-scholarship school. They’re 10-1 (the loss being 45-14 to App State), averaging 50 points and 542 yards per game. If they don’t get in, and a 7-win team does it would be a minor travesty.
I also hope to God the Gators don’t fire Addazio anytime soon and turn their eyes to Bell as an offensive coordinator. He’s done wonders at JU. I’d hate to see what he could do with top-flight talent.
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Food for thought:
1–The NCAA likes to be inclusive. It fits the mission and conveniently makes more money. It dilutes competition, admittedly.
2–Yes, it sounds a bit ridiculous that a team with four losses can make the playoffs even with their two losses to 1-A teams that scheduled them in the ultra-competitive every-game-is-a-playoff-game D 1. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t much of a caveat.
3–The NCAA most likely will in fact increase the playoff to 24 teams very soon. They have a history of expanding playoffs in multiple bumps until they find a format without seeded teams–they do this in part to allow new entries in the division to get their stride, competition-wise, or if they have impending joiners. There are about 10 schools, think, set to join 1-AA in the next five years. Obviously GSU has just done so.
Regarding that last point, what does not get mentioned much is that when the 1-AA/FCS was initiated in 1978 there were five conferences and about 60 teams. Now there are about 145 teams with more on the way. 145:20 is 7.25:1, while 60:4 is 15:1, not proportional to the original four (which was increased almost immediately in 1979 and then again the early 1980s).
The 16 team format was adopted in 1986, I think, and has remained that way for 24 years until this year. During that time, and I have to estimate because I couldn’t find exact numbers, 1-AA/FCS has grown from about 80-90 to about 145.
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What I meant by “seeded” was teams with byes. Bad usage.
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Less than weak Senator. Why flame the arguments and keep discussion at this level? Only Leftists want inclusion without performance. The discussion for a playoff, or not, should be kept at a higher level than this. While there are several political Leftists here, I don’t know of anyone wanting to include average teams in a playoff for CFB.
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So you’re saying guys like Barton and Hatch are lefties? I bet that’s news to them.
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Damned hippies.
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Ricky Stanzi? Is that you??
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So is the McGarity Doctrine a lefty thing or a righty thing?
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Geez. Try harder, guy.
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Yet, nobody in Division I is giving a playoff formula where that occurs
An 8-team playoff with 5 BCS Conference Title bids and 3 At-large to the highest BCS ranking teams ensure that EVERY team still plays its HEART out every weekend
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Unless one of those teams wraps up the conference championship, or a spot in the conference championship game early on, (like Auburn did last week). You don’t think that Chizik would be tempted to rest Newton and Fairley in a meaningless game against Alabama?
See the pros for the answer to my question (it’s yes, they rest starters in meaningless games).
And, of course, you’re ignoring the people arguing for a 16 team playoff. And there are several who are.
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I recall UGA playing all their players against GT in 2002, and 2005. Ditto for UF against FSU, and on and on. Those who use the pros as examples miss what makes CFB different…..and no, Chizik wouldn’t seriously consider sitting his players for the Iron Bowl any more than Saban would/did. The regular season argument thingy is very weak when based on reality and not scare tactics (as above with the Senator.)
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Mac, I’ll say it again: you’re dreaming if you believe that a playoff will be limited to eight teams.
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So my “dream plan” of having eight is trumped by your hyperbole that a playoff will inevitably lead to 32 or 64? Let’s debate 8 versus the present system. I don’t accept leaving a workable solution on the table because someone may screw it up later. We wouldn’t have electricity, cars, or the Internet with such reasoning. All were great ideas that improved the prior quality of life, but they have also been abused by many. (Now I am guilty of even greater hyperbole!)
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When have I ever said 32 or 64? Hyperbole is right.
I do think 16 is a more likely settling point than your 8.
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Even if it were to start with a +1 it would be expanded, just like every tournament that’s ever been created. 4 teams to 8 teams to 16 teams and probably eventually to 24.
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If utc gets in , will it be a payback for moving the championship game to frisco tx.(from chattanooga) ?
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UTc: the Big East/ACC champs of FCS!
Is there some maxim out there that states that all conference winners must be invited to an as yet unstructured D1 playoff system…or are we just assuming that there will be so as to strengthen the Anti – weaken the Pro argument?
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UTC wasn’t looking to qualify as a conference winner, but as an at-large qualifier, so I don’t get your point here.
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Kind of like Division 1 itself has expanded, right?
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