As for the potential playoff format, Scott agreed with the position of the Big Ten, first reported by The Chicago Tribune, which favored home sites for the semifinal games and a neutral site for the championship game. After a number of discussions with the N.F.L., Scott said, following its model made sense.
“There’s a reason that in the N.F.L. they only play the Super Bowl as a neutral-site game,” he said. “There’s a reason they play playoffs and A.F.C. and N.F.C. championships with home hosting.”
Scott added that the Pac-12 chose a campus-hosting model for its title game because he felt it would create the best atmosphere. Fans, he said, would be unlikely to travel to two neutral sites in 10 days.
“If the N.F.L. thought that they could support that model, they would,” he said.
Since when did the NFL become the touchstone for what college football should aspire to? (Don’t answer that.)
The thing is, I like playing the semi-final games on campus, for exactly the non-NFL reasons Scott cites. It’s the idea that college football – which bases a good deal of its appeal on its uniqueness – needs to take the next step by modeling itself on the most bland and bloodlessly operated sport in the world that I find so depressing.
I know, I know – but the NFL makes so much money!
This is only going to get worse.
Get The Picture 
I’m struggling to figure out why Delaney wants the first round in the higher seed’s stadium because I doubt the Big10 will be the higher seed very often. My best guess is he is positioning the conference for when the playoff goes to 16+.
Scott is just going along with whatever Delaney tells him to do.
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Damn, Senator. That’s just depressing.
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Not too worried. We aren’t making a 4 or 8 team playoff once every 5 years anyway. *sarcasm*
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yeah seems like these guys have dollar signs in their eyes and there is nothing that we can do about it…I guess I need to make sure that my son makes it to all the important traditions in the next couple of years.
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This is why we can’t have nice things.
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Actually, the Plus 1 that Delany and Scott are pushing would basically be representatives from the B1G, P12, B12, and SEC most years, since they are pushing conference champions. Looking back over the past 10 years, home field advantage would have rotated pretty evenly among those.
The TV money’s for the game, not the locale. A home-field game is free advertising for the host school and community. It’s extra revenue for the host school and community. Imagine the difference between Georgia hosting a semi-final versus playing in Phoenix.
Big stadiums will bid the CFB SB. They won’t bid the semis. If they do bid the semis, that value just comes out of the CFB SB. You just can’t make a good financial case for neutral-site semis.
Which is why this hole playoff thing stinks to high heaven. Every choice becomes a short-term money decision.
And remember — all of this is coming into being solely to help the casual CFB fan have a slightly more positive feeling about Alabama or LSU as national champion.
Quick, without googling – who won the NCAA tournament the last 5 years?
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This is not exactly my preference, but it is close and no one will get everything they want.
I really do not want to see the bowl system totally wrecked, which is why I prefer the Plus One Semis or whatever played at those sites. Under this system, I would at least want to see the final played in the other bowl sites.
I have two issues with the proposal for right now. First and foremost for me, I want there to be representative visiting teams fans/bands. The NFL concept of no visiting fans would be an unmitigated disaster. And I would expect there to be a model like the SEC which traditionally gives visiting teams 7-9K tickets..not the BigTen model which gives visitors a paltry 3K. We do not need a staid, NFL playoff type atmosphere.
Second, there absolutely must be at least a two week gap between the conference championship games and this first round game. Ticket distribution, airline tickets and procurement of hotels is not something easily done on 6 day notice for visiting teams who will have no idea whatsoever where they will be going until the Sunday after those CCGs.
I do like eliminating teams that don’t win their divisions, thus getting rid of that abortion of a game we had this year.
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Alabama was the best team in the country last season. I might not like it, but I’d rather see the best team win than watch LSU dismantle OSU. Any scenario which makes puts 2011 Clemson ahead of 2011 Alabama in a tournament (such as an 8 team conference champion model) is far more a joke than what we saw in New Orleans.
All of this debate over particulars just proves my larger point, which I’ve been making since Day 1 – the squabbling just shifts with a new playoff model and arguably just increases the number of fan bases who feel shafted at the end of the season.
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Sorry, win your division and then your conference. Bama won zilch on the field and played no one outside of Arkansas and LSU. Both games at home and they were 1-1. Were they the best? Yep, on Jan 9 they were the best. But they did nada to deserve going to the game. And no, you would not have seen a Clemson, so don’t use that bogus excuse. You would have seen Okie State, Oregon and Wisky. And LSU would not have to have a resume` light years better than the team they already beat in Tuscaloosa in November.
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I said 8 team conference champion tournament, which would put Clemson ahead of Alabama. Your division winner scenario would have put Oregon in over Alabama, an Oregon team that did nothing other than beat Stanford which did nothing other than beat USC which did nothing other than beat Oregon.
Wisky was ranked number 9. Are you really proposing dropping that far down in the rankings to grab a conference champion?
There’s no more legitimacy to that system than the one which just crowned Alabama. It’s just different nonsense.
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And I was responding to the topic, which was a 4 team Plus One type format. I said nothing about 8 teams so Clemson would not have been in that format.
I do not support an 8 team playoff at all, but if it were to come about, then I agree a couple of non-champs are going to be involved. But under a 4 team scenario, if you don’t win your division you need to sit home.
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I never put the 8 team playoff words in your mouth. I was responding to multiple playoff narratives to conserve things to 1 post. I apologize if it seemed I characterized your position incorrectly.
Wisky in a 4 team playoff last year would still have been nonsense worse than the nonsense of Alabama-LSU. They were ranked 9 or 10 at the end of the season.
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Amen amen amen amen amen. I’d just like to say I’m in total agreement with Bob. Oh, and we’re gonna loose the awbarn game. Oh, and HVL Dawg down below was very, very funny. Thanks.
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I agree with your take on Bama getting a cheap pass last season, but don’t agree with your cap at 4 teams. Is it better than 2? Of course, but it demands expansion which could lead to what so many fear about spiraling out of control. Get it right the first time and you take away the whiners (except for the inevitable entitlement folks). But when you give enough room for all the viable contenders to be included, plus a couple just to massage regional pride, you can build a case that more than eight is simply not needed.
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Last 5 NCAA tournament winners (without looking) –
North Carolina
Duke
Kentucky
Indiana
UCLA
Am I right?
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I forgot the New York Giants
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Nicely played.
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Semis should be held on January 1 at two of the current bowl sites. They can rotate it, or let them bid for it, but only the opening round of an 8 team playoff need be at the campus site to insure success. Even GT could sell that out on short notice, although the atmosphere would still lack a true college feel.
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Come on Senator, don’t you think the NFL should have a say in its free minor league system?
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At the risk of getting a political argument started, I’m reminded of the Democrats getting their asses kicked in the 2002 midterm election. The pundits all said that it was a bad strategy for Democrats to act like Republicans, because the voters would still vote for the actual thing.
Here we’ve got college football trying to act like the NFL, but why would we think that any NFL fans are going to be wooed by this? Is a diehard Patriots fan going to start giving a crap about the Big Ten, much less the SEC, just because there’s a playoff? If you’ve lived and died with the Bears your entire life, would the Pac-12’s decision to hold an on-campus title game even register as a blip on your radar?
College football’s Powers That Be are taking something the public wants and trying to turn it into something it already has. Why on earth would anyone think this is a sound business model?
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Wait, I thought college football needed a playoff because the college basketball playoff (neutral sites) was so exciting! Now it needs to be the like the NFL? Here’s a thought, maybe each sport has a different set of variables that makes its playoff unique and we should stop trying to make college football fit into what works for other sports.
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Well looks like I better plan to start following High school football closer. There is a reason why I don’t follow the NFL, if I wanted to see a souless beast on the weekend I would just watch security tapes from work.
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This. A thousand times THIS.
I hate watching the NFL. I can’t justify it for anything but keeping track of my favorite athletes from the college level, or filling the void in December and January when there isn’t a college game every Saturday.
The Senator nailed it: “…bland and bloodlessly operated…”
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Under the proposed scenario, please explain to me who would have played last season, and how that could have been a fair and satisfactory assessment of who the #1 team in CFB would have been.
“Mythical” shall remain forever….
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because brackets are better…nom, nom, nom…brackets…nom nom….do you want to enter my pool, nom nom nom…
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I believe that a Political Action Committee(PAC)should be organnized so that the fans who actually put their butts in the seats can actually be heard as all the AD’s set about maximizing their schools TV revenues. Senator ,I’ll put you in charge of organization and fund raising. “The Donald” would love that form of delagation.” Make it so number one” Sorry letting my nerd flag fly.
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Suggestion: Write it on the back of your tickets and send them to McGarity. Send messages on the backs of copied Hartman Fund contribution “Thank You” letters (since Feb 15 was the last date to contribute for this year’s tickets, I’d assume you have such a letter by now), ticket selection letters, UGA solicitation letters…..well, you get the idea. A tailgate photo with everyone’s middle finger extended might work. Be sure to sign and give your grad class year. How about a choreographed one-finger salute from the South Sanford stands at halftime using the pirated PA System. Be sure to dedicate it to McGarity, Adams and Slive. The Coaches and the Team are innocent bystanders in this one.
Have you considered an assprint inked where you sit, write a message on it, take a photo and send it in? That would identify you as one of the asses filling the seats. Or you could paint it on your forehead and pose for the tv cameras. That oughta do it.
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I am reminded of a Steve Earl tune – ” F**k the SEC [ the Security and Exchange Commission], F**k the FBI, F**k the CIA”…and so on…….let’s add/change the lyrics- F**k the NCA[A], F**k the SEC [Southeastern Conference AD and Presidents], F**k the NFL………
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That songs so perdee it makes me wanna cry
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