Hey, you gotta admit I haven’t mentioned the P-word in a while. Bill Connelly pulls me back in with this post.
This is pretty much spot on:
In mid-October, when there are somewhere between about eight and 15 undefeated teams remaining, everybody projects the most fantastical, least-likely, every-conference-ends-up-with-an-undefeated-team scenario. “THIS will be the year everybody gets screwed and the BCS blows up!”
In mid-November, once a supposedly great team has lost a game or two (preferably to other great teams), everybody mourns the fact that they are probably ineligible for the title despite the fact that they are clearly great. By late-November, we have poked every hole we can find in the “The current system is great because every game matters” truism. In early-December, every person with an Internet connection has shared their idea of the perfect playoff, gives examples, and tells you why their way is clearly better than the current system.
Anyway, Bill describes himself as an agnostic on the subject, but goes on to list a long number of variations on the them. The thing is, his list reinforces something that’s already clear to anyone who’s voted in the Mumme Poll this season, namely that there aren’t ten élite teams in college football this year. So exactly why do we need a big playoff?
Get The Picture 
Not a big Senator, you know that would be wrong and play into the antis’ hands. It only takes eight under our present set-up, and when we get to 4 SuperConferences it will still be eight because you will likely have two 8 team divisions whose winners will play for our first true National Champion.
We will still argue about who was the very best team that year, but for once, someone will have earned it on the field. No voting, no politics, no bias. We deserve that. Hate on, haters!
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And I will long for the days when the best team was acknowledged as champions. Your feature is my bug.
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I understand that. I just don’t acknowledge any champions in D1, ever, and you do. As much as I want to see that changed, it won’t be unless we get to the SuperConference structure. You have had your way for a century, just want to have mine to see if it isn’t better. I am pretty sure it is, but just as sure there is no way to make everyone happy. But they all deserve respect for their stated preference, even the 16 and 32 team advocates, as bad as we both may feel about what that would mean. I look at mine as a moderate position that addresses both camps stated concerns. The present system is too exclusive and subjective to me, the 16/32 is not selective enough. Just an opinion. I want to protect the value of the regular season but give it a conclusion/title that is earned.
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+1
I think an 8 team playoff would be the perfect number of teams. The problem is keeping it at 8 and not letting it expand which to me is highly unlikely. Once it grows beyond 8 teams the regular season loses too much value in my opinion. The only issue is you could have a team like Alabama this get screwed in the Super Conference Division Winner model. They would be left out because they didn’t win their division but could be a better team and more deserving than 7 other teams that get in for winning easier divisions. Same with Arkansas. Say they end up beating LSU and you have a three way tie. 2 of those 3 teams would be left out.
Because of scenarios like this I almost favor using a BCS like system to determin the 8 teams.
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Having #1 and #2 battle it out at the end of the season is the best way to decide a champion. If a team is #8 they don’t deserve a chance. It sounds like you are looking for a handout. Make sure they play the game in the Sugar Bowl every year because that’s where you and all the people looking for handouts should go to decide your Charity Champion.
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Funny that an anti-playoff advocate would accuse anyone for wanting a handout, because the BCS modell is the one that gives out “awards” and doesn’t require someone to earn them on the field. No problem with your having a different opinion about BCS or playoff, but don’t twist words. There are always more than two that deserve consideration, if going to eight means a couple are included to legitimize the the first ever earned champ, so be it.
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The problem with it all is this weekend. If we have a playoff and the conference champions go to the tourney with 6 or 8 teams, then we could clinch this weekend.
Then, we’d have UK and Tech left, with essentially nothing to play for. Why wouldn’t you spend those 2 weeks getting ready for LSU? Why wouldn’t you rest players to be healed and ready for the SECCG? What good does beating Tech do if IC or Murray or Jarvis gets banged up in the process? Why wouldn’t we let Malcome rest his hammy those 2 weeks and be 100% in the Dome?
To say, “Well, because it’s Tech” is dumb. Yes, you want to win, but you play for championships. And, the first time a coach loses a starting QB in a regular season finale after he’s already clinched his division will spook every other coach in America.
That’s why any system that guarantees that the 6 conference champions go will hurt the sport. Non-conference games won’t matter. Now, you can put byes and home field advantages in there, like the NFL, and that helps tremendously. But, we’re in a weird situation. 2 losses would almost guaruntee us no bye and no homefield, so it doesn’t matter if we lose 3 or 4, as long as we win the one in the Dome.
People should be careful what they ask for. I’ve always thought 4 is right number. There are never more than 4 teams that have had NC caliber seasons. Usually, there’s only 2 or 3. 4 just about guarantees that if you go undefeated in a power conference and you won’t be left out. And it means that a one loss team in a league like the SEC gets in. It leaves room for the undefeated Boise’s of the world. And, you could still reward elite status with hosting a semifinal at home. Imagine Stanford and OSU playing out this string trying to blow people out to get that #2 spot so they could host a semifinal game. Boise in Baton Rouge and Stanford in Stillwater would be fun in mid-December, with the losers going to New Orleans for Jan. 1 and the losers going to New Orleans for Jan. 9.
Six teams? It gets a little sketchy. Why should Bama, Clemson or the Big 10 champion get into a tournament that they obviously don’t deserve to be in?
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“Why should Bama, Clemson or the Big 10 champion get into a tournament that they obviously don’t deserve to be in?”
But that’s the thing! They deserve the chance to PROVE IT ON THE FIELD!!!!1!!
I mean, I know that Bama just played LSU on their home field and lost. But that game was in November. And everybody knows that games don’t REALLY start to matter until late December or January. So proving it on the field doesn’t count for as much in November. Maybe we could make the tournament into 16 teams, with each round actually being a 3-game series played home/away/neutral.
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Yes, and then for those 3-game series, we could add up the total score of the 3 games to find who ultimately wins, like soccer. This is brilliant, brilliant I tell you!!!!11!!!
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Schedule NSMU and Coastal Carolina as the last two games?
Actually, I agree…4 team selection process among BCS qualifiers. But I hate the computers and don’t trust pollsters, so not sure how THAT gets fixed.
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Correction…16 game season if from conference with a championship game like the SEC.
No way.
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Derp…this goes down in response to Charlottedawg.
/spills coffee, trips on dog, curses getting up this morning.
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16-team playoff, factor it into the bowl system. Teams go hard every game, to the end of the season. Bowls mean more, because they’re a part of a national championship playoff.
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I’m with you on the inevitable playoff expansion once they get the thing established. A few years ago I was a staunch playoff supporter, but you’ve convinced me there are serious flaws with putting a playoff in. However, you can’t convince me that the best way to decide a champion is to listen to an endless barrage of tv talking heads arguing and debating over who gets to play in the championship game while we wait for voters and computers to spit out the lucky two teams. It’s a completely ridiculous scenario that we currently have where we hope the season ends neatly with 2 undefeated teams.
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I always love the “earn it on the field”…..Take LSU vs. Boise. LSU has “earned” more on the field than Boise. Boise may have a better team, but because they only schedule one noteworthy game a year (and yes, that is their choice), guess what? That has consequences. Boise calculates to get to a BCS game, not a national title. And they do it well.
The last two weeks of college football I have told a friend of mine…”college football is awesome. It’s the best.” All the games have been amazing to watch. That’s what the regular season does.
The last 20 years or so have been the golden age of college football. But hey, let’s go change something that is increasingly unique and wildly popular. The current system works. It has flaws as does the NFL (13-6 Giants better than 18-1 Patriots. YAY playoff system ), but all-in-all, the college system is awesome. It produces more excitement on the whole year than in any other sport.
Senator, you had a great line recently. “It’s called the NFL. They play on Sundays. Check it out sometime.”
Long live college football in its current form.
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Wildly popular? The BCS? Nah.
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To answer your last question, Auburn 2004.
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You didn’t need 10+ teams for that. In fact, you didn’t need more than four.
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A true Plus One Game, that’s the ticket. #1 plays #4 and #2 plays #3 in bowls–then the winners play each other in the BCSNCG.
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Right, but four teams is a “playoff.”
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Well, technically speaking, two teams is a playoff.
But my question addressed a “big” playoff.
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If there is a “big” playoff that diminishes the value of the regular season which is supposed to be a playoff itself. The problem I have with the current system is when people ignore the results of games. That is what is going on right now with the LSU-Bama game. Mark my words, the power structure is setting the stage for a rematch. The BCS and the SEC leadership are in bed together to make this happen because the BCS people see this as a TV money-maker and Slime..er..Slive sees it as a chance to get both sides of the BCSNCG money.
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it’s all just playoff creep.
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Here’s my uninformed proposal: a five team playoff. teams 4&5 in a play in game winner faces top seed in semi finals 2&3 play in the other semifinal winners of the semifinals play in the championship. this system still preserves the regular season and i don’t think there has ever been more than 5 teams with a legitimate claim to being the top team so u still avoid an auburn or boise situation. the current bcs bowls can rotate who is the play in, semi final, and championship game. example this yr: sugar is final, orange and fiesta are semis, and rose is play in, then rotate next year and so on. but hey who’s asking me?
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Play-in teams play/travel 3 times in exactly what time-frame? And would have a 15 game season?
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Sounds like nobody is really opposed to 4 (the “plus one”), but the argument against is the slippery slope to a “big” playoff. (Basketball started with 8 teams). College football needs to preserve the pursuit-of-perfection regular season. I would never want to see starters rested against Tech. I point to the ’09 Colts. They had a chance to go perfect, but pulled Manning et al. in shameful losses to the Jets and Bills in the last two weeks of the regular season. The football gods reacted, shifting karma to the Saints, who already had a significant karmic deficit due to Katrina and 32 years of never even winning a conference title.
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*Sorry, 42 years…
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The plus-one after the bowls might work (sometimes), but not that much better than the BCS. A plus-one with seeding before the bowls will always be a disaster and won’t do anything to curb controversy – http://thenationalchampionshipissue.blogspot.com/2009/01/somebodys-always-gonna-get-hosed.html
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I’d like to know, from the playoff supporters, how many times they think ‘the talking heads’ have gotten the national champ game wrong versus the number of times the whole season was amazing.
In other words, is risking a 2004 Auburn situation once in a blue moon worth destroying 10 games worth of excitement.
And AusDawg, if you really think the schools would schedule FBS/FCS teams as the last two weeks of the season, I’m here to tell you that would wind up costing the schools and ESPN millions. No way that happens.
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I wasn’t being serious. I too believe that we are creeping towards super-conferences and a de facto playoff like the NFL which could water down some end of season games. It’s not a good formula for FBS football.
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ESPN would have no problems sacrificing regular season ratings in return for postseason ratings (see NCAA basketball).
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One of the good things about having Mizzou in the SEC is that we might get to hear from Bill Connelly more often. I have really enjoyed reading some of his pieces.
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And also too collectively we pale in comparison to that talented krewe of photo caption writers he’s got on Rock M Nation
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I’m not sure how a person defines an “elite team”. I guess I become an annoying Boise State fan at this point in my explanation because I didn’t give them a prayers chance against OU, VT, or The Dawgs this season. Yet, I still don’tthink they are “elite” even after winning those games. Alabama “was” the only team I would have called “elite” this entire season. Now, if the Dawgs finish out the season at 10-2, then win the SECCG, most college football fans would love to see a team on that kind of a streak contend for a NC, wouldn’t they?
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I falied to finish my point about BSU deserving a shot at the NC if they win out. The whole playoff debate is a philosophical one that will never be solved, and I think we all know that.
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“Now, if the Dawgs finish out the season at 10-2, then win the SECCG, most college football fans would love to see a team on that kind of a streak contend for a NC, wouldn’t they?”
As a Georgia fan, sure, I’d love that. As a college football fan I’d absolutely hate it. This Georgia team doesn’t deserve to be anywhere within three states of a national championship this season. If you can make a valid argument that Georgia might be the best team in the country this season I’d love to hear it.
That’s my litmus test for this whole discussion…can you make a legitimate argument that you’re the best in the country. If not, then just go away and let the truly great teams decide who the national champion should be. At this point we only have four teams in that mix: LSU, Oklahoma State, Stanford, and (sigh) Boise freakin’ State. Houston’s schedule is so cupcakey that they make BSU look like the 1899 Sewanee team.
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They were kicking ass well prior to 1933
http://sewaneetigers.com/hof.aspx?hof=2&path=&kiosk=
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If you don’t see how a playoff would be better than the current crap we have, please read the book “Death to the BCS”.
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Dude. Dude.
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Irwin Fletcher, December 8, 2010 at 8:00 AM:
“No hyperbole. You are right. I think you are a communist. Having said that…. There are two separate positions….It isn’t that you are a wuss.”
I kind of miss Irwin and wonder if he ran off with Russ The Temporary Bulldog
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You have been in Fla too long, Dog. They don’t play the animal card in Ga, else they would have passed a law like they did in Fla. Didn’t you read Mike’s report about his pig trail odyssey into So Ga? Now ,I’ll grant you in my youth I heard some strange stories at the little country school where I grew up. One was about Boyce and his horse. His friends told me about it. Seems Boyce had a mare that backed up to stumps or any opportune 2′ high structure whenever Boyce was near. It was kinda embarrassing to contemplate why,but I had heard he was a horse lover, just hadn’t figured it that way. Thought they were just putting me on anyhow. Until Boyce and a few of us took a pee behind the gym together one day ( we were country) . After noticing Boyce’s proud prod I realized they might not have been kidding me after all. I just wasn’t in his class nor the same home room. Never felt the same way about the mares in our stable after that. Got through puberty without any mishaps, but noticed that when I fed them, the chickens were always nervous. And our pigs and goats were liars.
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By the way. This BCS thing can be solved by bracheting all D-1 teams at the start of the year. Seeding won’t be any different than Bball or Tennis. Have a loser’s brachet and you not only find the best team, but the worst one in the country as well. Your tickets would always be for the same team just like you went to school there. Works in the SEC already. Just ask Ole Miss and LSU.
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Only if Tennessee gets to wear their Davy Crochet hats in the playoff…
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“You have been in Fla too long, Dog.”
Yes, I have. I need to get out more and get away from these manatees
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Got one of his books. He goes on worse than I do. Sometimes his descriptiveness is like me describing a clock.
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I can see 4. Four teams and that’s it. That way teams still try to stay undefeated or 1 loss in order to get in. Anything more and you start killing rivalires and conf championships become meaningless and you turn college football into the NFL Minor. If you like the NFL better, watch it on Sundays. I do not. There is no such thing as a rivalry in the NFL and of the many things that make CFB better, that might be the biggest thing that makes it better.
Also, when you adopt this 4 team system, the money and talking heads will only say we need more, more, more…Which will eventually lead to more playoff teams – killing rivalries, conf championships and turning CFB in the NFL Minor.
We will have washed away this sport that we hold oh so dear, and turn it into something that holds no interest until playoff time. CFB is the ONLY sport in which you can duel and debate and argue 365 days a year why this team was better than that team. Who, in their right mind, would EVAH wanna loose that??
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The slaves that play the game?
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I believe the politically correct term is ‘indentured servants’ not ‘slaves.’
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Nope, they all have good teeth.
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Death to the BCS changes nothing….. it’s clear that having a playoff system devalues the regular season. Looked at properly every week is a playoff including the week the schools make their schedules . I love the ambiguity mentioned above. I love that I can argue that the 2008 Sugar Bowl team might have been the best team in America.
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Wish there’d have been a playoff after that season…instead, we got to play Hawaii. Meaningless game, but hey, that’s life in the BCS.
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Wouldn’t you have liked it better if that team had been anointed BCS National champions and stood on a stage holding a crystal football? That is what UGA was robbed of having.
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We were not robbed. We were ESPN’d. Robbers use guns. ESPN uses words like “didn’t even win their division”.
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By the way, has Jim Rome self-emolated yet?
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8 team playoff is needed so teams like Boise will have to win 3 games against excellent opponents to claim the title…not one all year. How many ranked teams will LSU have beaten if they win it all this year? 8? How many top 10? 4 or 5? This is where the current system is unfair to the big boys. Say LSU beats 7 of 8 ranked opponents, they could still be left out in favor of the BCS darling Oklahoma. BTW, what’s the deal with that?
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