Gotta love this complaint:
How many times have we heard from BCS supporters that — all together now — the BCS gets it right?
OK, sure, the BCS got it right with No. 1 Notre Dame versus No. 2 Alabama in the Discover BCS National Championship Game.
Damn it, I hate when that happens.
The BCS is a construct. It’s not a person or a group of people. It’s an arrangement that’s designed to do two things. Wojciechowski identifies the first one. The other isn’t to set up a bunch of compelling bowls that match “the best teams in the best games”, as he puts it. It’s to make sure that major conference greedheads like Delany and Slive control the conditions that allow most postseason revenue streams to flow into their respective leagues. That’s it. (NIU’s Orange Bowl appearance is simply a historical accident due to Delany’s conference blowing itself up this year as a result of a child molester and a liar and the Big East bleeding competent teams faster than it can replace them.)
And no, the four-team playoff isn’t going to make that much of a difference.
Get The Picture 
I remember the days when all ND had to do was go 8-0, 7-1, 6-1-1, or so and they would just get a bid to the Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton, or whatever and it didn’t matter if they lost every game they had coming down the stretch, it was a total rarity to have even the top two teams play each other.
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Next January, when the BCS takes its final breath and we bury it 10 feet deep under the dead Toomers trees, you should write a book called “Bring Back The BCS!” It could be a counterpoint to Wetzel. I bet it would sell 32 copies.
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I’m not defending the BCS, just pointing out that we’re being fed a bunch of BS. Nothing fundamental is going to change. Sad that you can’t see the difference.
Hope you like brackets, because they’re coming.
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I saw the difference the first 42 times. But when one out of every three posts are something along the lines of “Hey, the BCS isn’t all that bad…here’s why…” it’s hard to believe you’re not defending it. But I’ll take your word.
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Exaggeration is always a sign you’re winning the argument.
I’m okay with the four-team playoff. There’s an eight-team format I could support, as well.
I’m not pro-BCS. I’m pro-regular season. That’s what you can take my word on.
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42 times definitely not an exaggeration. One in three? Okay, maybe like one in five.
If you’re behind the four team playoff, then why not be happy that we finally got it? I think this is the best thing that’s ever happened to college football. Honestly. I don’t get the bitching. Since you just know it’s going to expand to 8, 16, 32, 130, then it sounds like you either need to get on the train or get off of it. That’s where CFB is moving. I personally don’t think it will go past 8, but that’s just my opinion.
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I’ve got well over 9,000 posts at GTP. Your math skills need work.
You don’t get my complaints about the postseason because you don’t want to – and that’s fine. I’m just way more pessimistic about what the assholes in charge of things are capable of than you are.
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Well, I was an English major.
You’re concerned about bracket creep. I get it. I honestly don’t think it will go past 8, but you and many others on here seem convinced this thing is going to expand into 16, 32, whatever. So if the BCS is about to go, and the 4 team playoff is here, and if it’s inevitable that this thing just keeps on expanding, as you say it will, then isn’t there something better to do than just bitch about the inevitable?
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It will go past 8.
But the rade-off, for me, is many more games at the end of the year like the one we just saw between our Dawgs and Bama, because they really, really matter. THAT is what the current system almost never offers.
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trade-off, sorry.
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The irony in that comment is awesome.
Because once that occurs, you’ll never see a meaningful SECCG again.
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Doesn’t matter to me personally if it’s SECCG or playoffs, because we don’t get it anywhere right now except the occasional MNC game where the teams are evenly matched. At least with a playoff you’d have five or six more chances to get a game like that every year, conference championship or no.
They already have that in basketball, and that’s why people like it.
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As I keep saying, if that’s what you want, that’s fine. I appreciate the honesty.
It’s just not my cup of tea, though.
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Oh goodness, he said basketball…you’re not allowed to do that on here. That will get you banned ; )
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Conference championships will be moot starting with the playoff. The worst thing you can do is what we just did: win your division but lose your championship game. Florida would be in, Georgia would be out.
In some cases, winning it won’t matter. This year, there’s a good chance Stanford would be watching Oregon play in the play-off.
#schedulememe
#unlessyouareOregon
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The SECCG will ALWAYS be meaningful. Always.
So will UGA vs. Auburn, Tennesse, Florida and Tech
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As somebody who was once as unabashed a fan of ACC basketball as he is of college football now, I can assure you that will not be the case.
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Yup. Which is why I really, really hope that they limit the participants in the four-team playoff system to conference champs only. I think that will preserve the freedom to still schedule tough out-of-conference games in the regular season so we’ll still have fun matchups, and it will ensure that games like the SECCG still have deep meaning. Now, it means that in our current set of circumstances, Georgia wouldn’t be in and east runner-up Florida would also be left out… but I’m OK with that. We already lost the national championship game on Saturday night in the Dome.
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The problem there is teams like Wisconsin, which are conference champs but have no business in a 4 team playoff.
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I don’t think it offers more compelling games. It just moves then around on the calendar. The nation watched Oregon lose to Stanford because it really, really mattered. Under an expanded playoff, it ceases to matter. Oregon’s game in December or January becomes the one that matters.
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Oregon-Stranford would have meant far less in September than it did in November. The calendar matters. The whole point is that without a playoff you have fewer games between two teams with the same thing at stake.
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I agree that the calendar matters. A playoff just makes it matter a whole lot more. And I guess you’re right that increasing access to the national championship picture would increase the number of important games. But I think that’s your feature and my bug.
If Wisconsin and Nebraska were playing for access to the national championship, the game would be more important. But not very interesting to me.
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“If Wisconsin and Nebraska were playing for access to the national championship, the game would be more important. But not very interesting to me.”
This nails it for me. In theory, with a (extended) playoff, yes there will be more games that have a bearing on the (extended) playoff picture. The increased “importance” of a showdown between these bubble teams, however, will come at the expense of the drama surrounding games with the higher ranked teams. Who cares if Baylor beats K-State in an 8 team playoff? But watch out, Wisconsin may just knock off Nebraska this week! Oh, the drama!
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You guys are kinda making it sound as though you only care about CFB when your team is involved…here I thought I had invented that.
A playoff would never be like basketball because you can only play the games so often, so you cannot compress it the same way you can with basketball. Additionally, the travel expenses would be astronomical if it gets beyond a certain level.
But if you like games with intercontinental interest–Oregon versus Florida State, let’s say–and very good teams that have a lot on the line, it is hard not to like the idea of a playoff. What we have right now is one game of that; I want more. Not a basketball tournament! A limited football playoff, with intersectional intrigue and hellacious intensity.
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Intra! Not inter! 🙂
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I’ve heard the argument that there are natural barriers to college football playoff expansion before. And I’m still not buying it.
FCS has a playoff that started with only 4 teams. Next year, it will expand to 24 teams. And those teams don’t have nearly the resources of the FBS schools and conferences. Brackets are coming.
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Under a four team playoff what would Georgia have gained (or bama) for playing in the SEC Title game? And what would Florida gain for not playing in it?
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The Championship of the SEC, numbnuts. That will always be an achievement height to reach in the CFB world. Fu, along with the rest of our SEC opponents, can go pound sand up their ass for all I care.
If the BCS eligibility is now constructed unfairly why in hell does everyone argue from that point like it can’t be righted? That issue will be moot with a playoff, but this is old repititious blogging.
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Exactly. It’s like Mrs. Lincoln, after the play at the Ford’s Theater, couldn’t think of a single nice thing to say. How rude.
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To all of us older folks that grew up with the “old” system and remember when winning the SEC was the goal every year not the BSCNCG the rivalry and conference championships will always matter. My fear is by the time my 6 year old son grows up College Football as we know it will cease to exist and it will be nothing more than a mini NFL. I like the NFL but I LOVE college football as it is where every regular season game matters. I just don’t see a scenario where if (WHEN) it expands past a 4 team playoff you can still say that.
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Not as long as it bugs me. When it stops bugging me will probably mark the time I quit blogging about college football, because I won’t be emotionally invested in it anymore.
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Fair enough.
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Robert stick to what you know. Which from what I can tell from your gravatar is a whole lot of nothing. Go back to school. This time read the right books.
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Yes sir, joyridingdawg. You forgot to mention my breath stinks and my mom’s fat.
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It’s the Internet, man. Nobody’s breath stinks on the Internet. 😉
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Haha. Well at least I got that going for me.
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Honestly Joy, I’ve been biting my tongue every time I read your comments out of respect for Bluto, because he (very fairly) lets everyone have a voice, even blabbering idiots. And I respect and appreciate his hands off approach, even if we had to put up with the Thomas Browns of the world for longer than we would have liked. I very aggressively supported the option to not require registration on this blog when presented the option.
But you’ve brought very little substance to this blog since you showed up and now you’re insulting someone who has a position and – while he is a bit coarse in his delivery, which can be said for many folks on here – is at least trying to argue that position. Meanwhile, you’ve contributed nothing to this discussion other than to insult the intelligence someone who’s main goal in life is to read a bunch of books (per his gravatar). Doesn’t even make sense. Your post about your daughter’s text the other night was completely unacceptable and screamed, “LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME!” It was a troll move on an otherwise respectable board (with the exception of a few *ahem* Cojones *ahem*)
This is a UGA college football blog. Please endeavor to bring actual relevant perspective in your future comments.
Bluto, I apolgize for the rant but this has been grating on my nerves for some time now. I’ll happily sit in timeout for a few days if you’d like.
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Joyridingdawg is astute in his ability to judge a man by his gravatar. And judging joyridingdawg by his gravatar, I’ve learned you never question an urban development expert about matters of college football blog commenting etiquette. You’ve entered perilous territory here.
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That won’t be necessary. Will it Senator? Maybe I should sit in time out for a few days. What do you think Senator?
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I am a woman. Dumb ass. I love my Daughter and am very proud of her. She graduated #1 in the school of EDUCATION at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 2006. Course you would not understand, since you probably don’t have a daughter that you are proud of.
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I have a third cousin who went to U Conn and majored in POLITICAL SCIENCE. Of course you wouldn’t know this because you don’t even have a third cousin! And I love carrots, don’t you?
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I am right there with you Senator. I am not anti playoff per se, but I don’t want to ever see a day where the regular season loses it’s meaning and there is a scenario where a “rivalry” game is less important because of resting players for the “playoff run”.
4 teams I can live with as long as it’s the top 4 teams regardless of conference. If it expands to 8 teams my fear is that you have a “conference champion” component come into play and we have an 8-5 Wisconsin in the playoffs over an 11-2 UGA or 11-1 Florida or Oregon.
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Rocket, I mean this kindly and I respect what you post, but please don’t bring up current NBA trash and apply it to this argument. Some of us agree on the conf champs position as not fitting well into what we have all naively wanted- a Playoff. I have consistently proposed and defended that the top ranked 8 teams should compete. Yep, there are holes in it, but that’s the best one in my view.
So many Boogabears, so little time for the Senator to change everyone’s minds. I can feel the heat of the upcoming summer somewhere other than on my face.
Senator, I feel your pain. Please feel ours. The inequities of this BCS bs overran any judgement any of us had on both sides of the question long ago. But to have your insight about what will occur through all these enduring travails in order to get there means to me that you want the system anchored somewhat in the old shitpile and not to ever venture into what you are characterising as a new shitpile. We get it that you may even feel panicky sometimes because the great unwashed can’t peer through your cynical approach and see what the future holds. We really do.
Bluto, you have taken your argument to the point of proposing what you think is a good 8-team playoff, but we don’t bite each time you kinda sneak the cheese into the trap. We don’t ask you what that proposal is. I just don’t want you to leave the field each time thinking we don’t read closely or comprehensively at least some of the great buffet you present. We intentionally don’t ask because we are trying to pressure back for you to champion the cause; for you to hold off on the little latchtraps placed in any such proposal(s) that will require more meandering away from the word “Playoff” ; for us to have meaningful intercourse about an 8-game playoff and slay the dragons as we go.
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You don’t know me. You only think you know me. 😉
I’m not posting my pessimism in the hopes that I’m going to change hearts and minds. I’m posting it because I honestly believe I’ve already lost the war. I’m just marking time, watching as things develop.
I’ve got no idea what you’re getting at in your last paragraph, but I can honestly say I don’t believe that what I have to say on the subject is meaningful in any large sense. It’s just my way of mourning what we’re on the verge of losing.
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In last paragraph I’m getting at asking you, in a roundabout way, to lead the charge for a true playoff and try to pick off some of the monsters that are waiting for us if we get one. I’m lawyering for you to lawyer up early for the cause, warts and all. Why not get the best out of what we are trying to create, even though it might end up looking like a frog? Champion this idea early to waylay the creep, to go for the gusto of a good and fair system, to confuse and exasperate the moneyed interests who jump into any system we contrive. Get behind it early like your championing of the players and their interests. Who are you kidding? You aren’t going to stand by and mourne when the alternative is to do battle. Unscrew the legal holds the money people will use to follow your vision of CFB Holocaust- enough to shine light for the rest of us to pound their asses through any means we may have.
Sometimes in your replies, I cringe to wait on the condescending language, but you never quite get there, leaving me muttering to myself whether I’ve been left in the dirt or not. 🙂
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Sorry, I should have begun with “Yes, Colonel”. Brain farts should be categorized and treated in old farts.
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Surely you jest. Nobody who matters is listening to me unless I get named head of Disney tomorrow.
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Senator, I feel you. I know you. I know so much more about you now than I did years ago. Great stories, good times.
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Hey! That’s an idea. Head of Disney Dawgs! It’ll make an Eisner out of you in no time.
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It seems where you differ from the Senator and I, is that you seem to think that somebody in a position to do something about the college football postseason actually cares about what you think. Unless your last name is Slive, Scott, or Delaney, I think you’re fooling yourself.
But, for the sake of argument, I don’t necessarily think that an 8-team playoff that is comprised of the highest ranked 8 teams would be that bad. But that’s only your plan. It’s nobody else’s plan. My plan is to name myself czar of college football and anoint a champion each year. But Bill Hancock keeps ducking my calls. I guess we’ll be stuck with brackets.
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Smile when you post that. 🙂
No, none of this is reality, but I try to make posts that insert a little humor(as you did) in a serious subject such that it might appear believable. Now go tell your children there is no Santa Clause and a grain of salt is only found in a saltshaker.
Bluto knows that all of us are multifaceted in blogging personalities and you can’t pin a blogger to certain beliefs just by viewing a blog or two. It takes quite a few blogs to get the idea of anyone’s core values, but on here we assume that love of the Dawgs joins us into a common cause. Any stranger coming upon this blog would be aghast that we would spend this much time over the Team that represents our school. They probably wouldn’t view us as at the tip of the IQ spear or that You or I either one have known the real world for some time.
The Senator is in a pensive depressed mood about the subject of us losing that inner fandom by having it diluted from our psyche while he watches(while knowing that the Aztecs were right and we are all space dust inside a couple of weeks), but like a parent he gives the children slack until he can’t contain himself anymore and pulls us back from the brink with food for thought to nourish us until the next blog. I’m just trying to cheer him up by enjoining him in to tilt windmills with the Donkey Hotys.
Assailing images of power with words will only get you in a loony bin if you take things too seriously. We wax and wane on trivial subjects and then Bluto parks some article in front of you backed by his choice of select pundits that encapsulates his view and turns it over to us. And some people in sports are deeply serious about the path sports in general is taking with moneyed interests leading us away from the bright light to be shined on their greedy endeavors. They feel powerless, as we the great unwashed do. But the power of words are used around the world daily to triumph over such rat fuckers. Think of me, an anonymous blogger, as naive, but someone stirs us all to action everyday in this world, and I think cutting one or two of the power aholes from the herd and bashing them with the light of a million bloggers and led by one that is cynical of all their obfuscating mewing and crying would be a nice aside to our summer blog projects on here. Who the hell knows whether you can make a dent until you put on a condom of internet push and poke it at the aholes leading our sport around by the nose. We could call ourselves the Dick Armey since he’s not around to piss on our parade anymore.
What about it Senator? Wanna think about unleashing your frustrations with a target or two? Want to get a vicarious thrill standing on the heights, looking down to see your minions blasting away from all directions at a surrounded pillbox of sports politicians who are wondering “Where did all the Fing Indians come from?” You been challenged.
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They have already stated Conference Championships will be a heavily considered component of selecting the four teams.
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So you LIKE paying $440 apiece to watch Buffalo, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern?
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“The BCS is a construct. It’s not a person or a group of people. It’s an arrangement that’s designed to do two things. Wojciechowski identifies the first one. The other isn’t to set up a bunch of compelling bowls that match “the best teams in the best games”, as he puts it. It’s to make sure that major conference greedheads like Delany and Slive control the conditions that allow most postseason revenue streams to flow into their respective leagues. That’s it.”
Senator, I completely agree with what you wrote. However, does that make it acceptable? Does that mean we should just sit back and say its ok? I will not do that. They are ruining my favorite game. I am actually starting to follow the pro game more now and really get into it. Hell, at least they don’t fake it.
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It’s not a matter of acceptability. It is what it is and it’s not going to change. And that’s how you need to view expansion.
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No. I won’t. I can’t. I hate seeing this game ruined by the $. Hate it. I can’t put into words exactly what I think but I do know deep down inside there has to be someone who will protect college football. I’m naive and a hopeless romantic but there has to be a hero out there somewhere. ; )
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Jarvis Jones will hold you.
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Ta Dahh!! 🙂
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I wish they would make it a conforming playoff scenario every year. If they were more than two teams that are clearly worthy of a shot (Auburn 2004) then “they” would excercise the option to expand the playoff to 4 teams. Really the only way I would support anything other than the BCS.
Think about it, and I’m being serious, the BCS is the only sport where you are GUARANTEED to get the two best regular season college football teams. Do Kentucky fans even care that they are losing basketball games right now? I’ll bet every UK fan thinks these losses will be good for them in order to grow as a team as they prepare for the tournament.
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I thought the college basketball season started in March.
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With a four team playoff, we’ll at least have three big time games worth watching rather than just one. I cant think of another BCS bowl I care much about this year.
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The new format codifies an NIU-type getting in an “access” bowl. So, if you think it sucks now, it is guaranteed to happen every year when the new setup is in place. The playoff does nothing to fix the bowl matchups. Even going to eight teams won’t change how the bowls select teams. The pecking order and conference affiliations are contractually setup in advance.
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Child molester, liar….Lord, I never thought I would see the day that those words would be associated with College Football. 😦
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It’s amazing how quickly the argument goes from “who deserves to play for the national title” to “who deserves to be in the playoff.” I’m sure to some people there’s no distinction, but I think it’s a pretty large one. Once playoff worthiness becomes the debate, the growth of this thing will be inevitable.
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So, that’s all the BCS was supposed to do, right? Match 1 and 2? Yes?
Brian Kelly is getting his pre-distressed ND gear at Abercrombie & Fitch now? Must be a recruiting edge or something…
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He is a plucky little Irishman! Imagine the scene: the Armani Bear vs. Mickey Palooka.
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Some people say – and they’re saying it straight up – that Armani Bear will make Mickey Palooka blow a head gasket
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I like the idea of the 4 team playoff, and might even be convinced to expand it to 8. But, in either case, if a conference championship game includes two of those 4 or 8 teams, it’s got to count as a playoff game. If we had the playoff this year it would be RIDICULOUS to have Alabama play another game before the National Title game.
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I understand this does not go here, so apologies Sen. in advance but it is part of the grieving process…
(I only yesterday could go back to view the wreckage of that game)
And another thing: watch the 2nd-and-2 play Alabama runs just over midfield following that interception. Maybe I am foggy on the rulebook concerning intentional grounding but how is THAT not called on McCarron when he launches a mortar shot into the 2oth Row after being pressured through the A-Gaps? I mean, it did not appear in doubt.
If that is whistled Bama is facing 3rd-and-about 7, and maybe the FG never goes on the board. You think those three points were not big? The entire face of the game changes because Saban no longer has reason to run the 2-pt. play down 21-13.
Then, run out the logical sequence of events and the game is 28-28 with that final possession to UGa. All things playing out as they did, which of course who knows given different variable. But … ouch!
I won’t watch the replay any more for fear of what I might find.
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You would have to go back and determine how close a player can be to a ball intentionally thrown in the stands. General direction, yes; specific distance, no. Whether he is inside or outside the hashmarks has a lot to do with the ruling plus whether he got it back past the invisible line of scrimmage that runs up into the stands and around the world whenever he is outside the hashmarks. Mortar lobs are ok when they are within those parameters.
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I didn’t go and read any rules, just ventured my opinion as I understood it.
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You should do yourself a favor, Cojo, and watch the tape. Of course, after the fact, I guess it is no favor at all and just another in a captain’s chest of questions. That flea-bitten game will haunt for months….
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I remember the “pass” to the right that looked like a “Hail Mary” into the stands. I didn’t remember it not meeting what I outlined. And you are right, I don’t want to go and review, only to feel for the players and their hurt.
Everyone hurts, but our coach is asking us to get through it. That request , of course, comes from his fear that we will obcess about it right on through the Neb game. Richt says he needs us and he is doing it to sooth our pain by being inclusive with coaches and team. When it comes to sensitivities, our Coach is a bright guy.
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A big turnout in Orlando would do a lot for all of us.
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Why don’t the conferences let ESPN pick the match ups for all the bowls except the NCG?
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I can’t remember who won the Super Bowl last year without putting some serious thought into it. Seriously. As for who made the playoffs? No idea. Same with baseball. Same with pro basketball. At some point, sports as entertainment became one big playoff blur.
I distinctly remember tuning into the second half of Oklahoma State-Iowa State last year. Got a text and mentioned it to our host, who flipped on the game. At the end, a Heisman candidate tossed a critical pick, and then a guy named Woody took 3 hand-offs and ended OSU’s championship hopes.
I think playoffs heighten the immediacy of the moment at the expense of the longevity of the moment. I’m not looking forward to them in my favorite sport. I understand why some people are. It’s hard to argue against a bigger party. There’s no clear causal link between expanding a sport’s post-season and that sport’s gradual fade into our 24-7 sports noise-buzz. But I would agree with the Senator that it’s coming. Slice and Delaney are CFB versions of Jerry Jones — tremendous at making money, less adept at putting something on the field that you want to watch, much less believe in.
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It didn’t work because ND is NOT the best team in America. It’s bullshit.
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