Why, Andy Staples, I never knew you were such a cynic.
This is why I question the concept of the committee meeting and releasing weekly rankings from this Tuesday until the first week of December. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament selection committee meets at season’s end, when résumés are complete, and then chooses the teams. That should also be what the football committee does, but the elimination of the BCS left a rankings release show-sized hole in ESPN’s programming schedule. ESPN pays the equivalent of the GDP of certain banana republics to televise this playoff. If it wants a weekly rankings show, it’s going to get one. While I understand the business side of this decision, I worry it will force committee members to become too caught up in the week-to-week ebb and flow of the season, and to get too married to notions that may be true in early November but are proven false by early December.
ESPN driving a course of action that college football doesn’t really need because of naked self-interest? I’m shocked, shocked, you would suggest something like that.
Get The Picture 
The gauntlet thrown down SEC prouduces a champion that is tough
Mentally as well as physically. It’s not just talent tha produces such a lopsided out of conference W-L record.
Except for SEC level expletive deleted officiating, OSU would have two losses. Agenda or lousyness?
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The money in the playoffs is so big fixing games so your conference’s best team survives at all cost to make the 4 team playoff now has spread from the SEC to the Big 10 and beyond.
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During the BCS era there were howls of “we need humans involved to figure out who are the best two teams, the computers are biased”, now it’s “the humans are biased, we need computers to give objective opinions”. I have absolutely zero confidence in the group of 12 to not F it up royally and leave out a deserving team from the SEC/PAC12/Big12 and put in Ohio St or Michigan State because “conference championships matter” (even if your conference is shitty and loses all it’s major OOC games).
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“conference championships matter” — Exactly what Coach Lou was arguing yesterday on the WWL.
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Which is really funny since the team for which he is the biggest homer doesn’t play in one.
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Right. He’s kind of stammered (even more than usual) when May pointed that out.
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I agree with Staples, there is no reason for the Committee to release a numerical poll at this time, especially one that goes all the way to 25. Wouldn’t a group of 10-12 teams cover what is needed? And do we need to know their Top 4 now and set the whining off across the land? Mid-November would be early enough. I would rather them show an alphabetical list of those within range of their final cut, and a dozen is more than enough, perhaps they need to follow the Mumme Poll’s Elite Eight concept. Maybe show their individual Elite Eight ballots, like the Senator’s, with names redacted.
Other than the issue with the with sitting ADs , why all the disdain for the Committee in advance of one single word? No on could satisfy everyone but their work will be as credible as any other group of 12, it is just opinions. Want to minimize the impact of subjectivity? Put the 5 conference champs into the majority of the 8 spots, that would reduce the number of people crying for the next 5 weeks. But let’s wait until they issue a statement before complaining, it shows bias against and undermines the credibility of future comments.
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“Other than the issue with the with sitting ADs , why all the disdain for the Committee in advance of one single word? No on could satisfy everyone but their work will be as credible as any other group of 12, it is just opinions…. But let’s wait until they issue a statement before complaining, it shows bias against and undermines the credibility of future comments.”
lolwut?
Rice “barely looked up” during the meeting and instead “read in a very stern manner” from a legal pad that was described by the editor as containing “just point after point about why this story would be damaging to the national security.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/RT_America/status/522160449346101248
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You blindness to this/her doesn’t deserve a debate on the subject, but it is exactly why those being “prematurely critical” should be dismissed. One thing predictable about you anarchists is your minds stay closed forever after the brainwashing. Your uninformed opinion was fully expected but you should let them actually say something before you fire shots, makes it look as if you actually think before popping off.
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My God, Mac. What happened? Ebola scare?
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The Russians can see Ebloa from their dachas
http://wonkette.com/564482/is-putin-spreading-ebola
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Ebloa? Not. But they can see the Palin complex fireworks every night.
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I’ll bet the Ruskies have binoculars trained on Sarah’s bedroom window every night. I heard she doesn’t have any blinds. 🙂
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Superwoman doesn’t need any window coverings. The lack thereof makes it easier for her to see Russia from her house
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The Condibots of the world have escaped and are searching for something
“things can get strange in Condiland pretty quickly:
Rice said the new complex ‘will allow this great school to push forward — it will allow this school to find more Condi Rices who are searching out there for what they might do and decide that they belong in a world quite different from their own. A world that is increasingly complex, increasingly diverse, and therefore needs the diversity of talents and people who can find and make sense of our common humanity when so much tries to tear us apart.’
Wait, whhhhhat? What’s all this about more Condi Rices out there? What is she saying, exactly?”
http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2014/09/condibots-on-loose-condibots-on-loose.html
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You should leaven your remarks by noting that most of us admire Condi’s long svelt legs that appear nowhere else in Cougar Land. Plus, some folks aren’t reading in the Stanford/Pac12 subjective reasoning that she represents. She may have more subjective reasoning power on this committee than the ADs.
The politics inferred from your remarks is overruling the subjective side of your comprehensive meaning.
By the way, did you vote early down there? It’s needed to tally-plan further campaigning before the 6th.
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Everybody loves Brown Sugar
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Is there a flute player on the committee? And Mars Attacks IS awesome but now I’m put off that for good.
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Dominatrixes of the World, Unite!
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Dominatrices, DIF, dominatraces…
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Mac, put the Herbert Spencer and Will Durant down.
It’s football season.
(But you do have a good point)
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Why the lack of faith? Surely you can’t be serious. (And I’m not calling you Shirley.)
Look, you and I disagree on plenty of things. But I have the perfect solution. My mother will serve as an independent arbitrator to decide who is right and who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow. That can’t possibly have any drawbacks, right?
What’s that you say? My mother would be biased toward me and not a fair judge? Why you’re not even giving her a chance! Why not wait until she’s screwed things up, I mean, decided things in a neutral manner, to start complaining?
On the other hand, perhaps some of us are just so prescient that we can predict the future. We can predict that Barry Alvarez will favor the Big 10 over the SEC based on nothing more than his public statements denigrating the SEC.
In any case, at least we’ll have brackets so nobody can ever complain about the college football champion or debate whether brackets are good or bad again, right?
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Beyond all the biases and whatnot, simply the fact that 20 of the AP Top 25 teams are either undefeated or have only one loss, I can think of no greater exercise in futility that trying to pick a top 4 at this point. I know the committee is going to rank a full 25, but we all know the top 4 is what’s going to get all the press.
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That was true last year, too (19 ranked teams with 0 or 1 loss). We finished last year with 3 0 or 1 loss teams. So, yeah, it’ll sort itself out and probably won’t be that difficult.
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What’s not going to be difficult will be picking the top 2 teams. The what will frost everybody’s collective arses will be the 3rd and 4th slots, proving that the BCS had it right all along–let the polls pick the top 2 and then let those 2 play for the championship.
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No, no, no! That proves that 4 teams aren’t enough and we need 8, or 12, or 24. Cinderella babeeeee!!!
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I don’t have a problem with the release of polls perhaps because I see the whining and politicking as a feature instead of a bug. If the committee waited until the very end to release their top 4 and then plugged in the bowls however they saw fit, the fans would just be bent over to the will of the committee. By releasing a weekly ranking, they subject themselves to the scrutiny of the internet, where their rankings will be broken down to the nth degree.
Whether they avail themselves to that criticism and actually consider it when making their decisions is another story, but at least they would be called out/openly mocked if they put Ohio State ahead of Georgia on Tuesday.
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I agree, but I think beginning the chaos in mid-November would at least narrow the debate to the more serious contenders. At this point, there are too many teams still in the discussion and it is already heated. A lot of energy will be spent by those who will play themselves out of the discussion in the next two weeks. Hope we aren’t one of those.
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It’s too early to release anything that matters at this point. It’s an excuse for the WWL talking heads to bloviate about something for the next week. This method seems to set the same process in motion that has been to blame with the polls – there’s a benchmark established and, as long as those 4 teams continue to win, it’s going to be hard to move up in the committee members’ minds. I would love to see what the BCS standings would look like right now compared to the committee’s top 25.
While I’m not a fan of the playoff going to 8, I can see how Macallan’s proposal works best to give a better outcome. If the Elite 8 were played on campus the Saturday following the conference championship games and the 4 losing teams were granted automatic berths into the big bowl games, I could probably find that to be a good solution.
I NEVER want to see this go to 12 or 16 teams, period!
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Those of us who have championed the 8-team playoff don’t want it to go any further either. The logic has always been that 8 teams represent a playoff that has been touted by fans for many years. Choose-2 and Choose-4 have preceeded it and neither represents a playoff, just footdragging to get mo’ money before arriving at the logical number.
I’m convinced that Andy reads gtp and took his lead from us. His thoughts were expressed here since before the weekend. It is heartening, however, that he agrees with us that this early manipulation of the committee is nothing more valuable than a fart in the wind (also expressed in that manner here). The West will cannibalize while we wait to come in and establish UGA as the best team in college football.
Pellini may get his day in cfb court.
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Cojones, I’ve been consistent that my only problem with 8 is that it gets close to the line of cheapening the regular season beyond repair due to the potential for rematches. With a Power 5 + ND, it seems to be that 6 or 8 is making more sense. At the end of the day, we have to trust that the powers that be understand that much more expansion risks killing the goose that laid the golden egg, the best regular season in sports.
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I agree with you on this. We still have the best regular season of any sport out there and I am honestly afraid that the whining, crying and gnashing of teeth after this year will expedite an 8 team playoff. I don’t want to see a rematch of a regular season game (with the possible exception of an OOC game) in the playoffs. I am one of those that thought LSU got screwed in 2011 by having to play an extra game and then losing the championship to a team that they had already beaten once on the road. For example if we go to an 8 team field that rewards all 5 power conference champions and allows for 3 wild cards/Notre Dame what happens if you get a scenario where UGA beats Auburn in our regular season match up but then they get into the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed and we have to play them again and lose. Or let’s say UT gets back to the glory days of old and we have a slug fest against them and squeak out a win eventually winning the SEC East as a result but lose the SECCG and the Vowels get into the field of 8 as a wild card and we go to the Outback Bowl. I think 4 is plenty for the playoff, if you don’t want to be left out then schedule harder OOC games, win them all and you are good to go.
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Rocket, I see both sides of this argument.
I want the regular season protected. I want rivalries protected. Those two things are what make the college game special.
I hated it for LSU that they won fair and square in T-town, won the SECCG, and had to play Alabama again in the BCS championship game. It rendered the regular season game meaningless because no one talks about LSU as SEC champion but Alabama as national champion when they didn’t even win their own division.
I did some research on this, and my reading of the data shows that teams outside the top 4 after championship games had a fatal flaw exposed during the regular season that made them unworthy of being national champion.
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True, but so far hasn’t it drawn more attention to the regular season? Isn’t each game more important than was thought thus far with a 4-team contest? I think that 8 teams will cause even more excitement for each regular season game since there will be more teams looking at their possibilities of being in it.
If you are speaking only about SEC teams/schedules, the same reasoning of regular season games being even more important looks true for us so far this season. If more than one SEC team gets in, the committee would be nuts to pair them off at the beginning, especially if they have played against each other already. By thinking so much of the SEC power, they just about guarantee they won’t pair them early because they would defeat the possibility of the strongest teams playing for the NC; otherwise, why pick two SEC powers in the first place?
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I think there are diminishing returns when you balance the regular season and the post-season. The NCAA has already done it with March Madness. Other than the mid-majors where only 1 team goes, the conference tournaments mean nothing except maybe seeding and placement. The regular season is practically unwatchable because basketball means nothing until March. I just don’t want to see college football go down the same path. Beyond 8 sends the sport down that path.
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You bet it does, but beyond eight hasn’t been proposed seriously. It has been used as scare tactics (“slippery slope”?) to blunt the reach for 8 teams. What the NCAA has done with March Madness has nothing to do with the logic of 8 cfb teams in a true cfb Playoff.
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I guess at the end of the day, I don’t trust the powers that be to stop at 8 when they look at the $$$ involved.
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The “powers that be” are us….and Mickey.
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Bingo, Old Timer. It has been scare tactics all along. The “devaluing regular season” silliness will be exposed when we get to eight as games now have a true end game that is within everyone’s control. Regular season games will mean more, not less, just as they do this season with the heightened sense of excitement. More fans are watching games from other areas of the country and seem knowledgeable their ” new rivals” because they are battling for a spot.
At 8 teams, only six percent of the teams would qualify, why do people leap to compare it to NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, or March Madness? It isn’t even close to being a legit comparison. I will fight like hell if we ever even begin to approach the 30% inclusion mark, I would fight anything above eight as well. The 16 and 32 team examples are not wise, or workable, imo. But it would be nice to finally get to a size that doesn’t motivate/drive the need for expansion from so many. One day…..
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You think the NCAA used logic when expanding the basketball tournament? Or that those same folks would use logic when considering whether to expand the football tournament? It is to laugh.
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It is a tautology that, the more teams selected for a playoff, the less the regular season matters. Under the BCS, only once did a 2-loss team qualify for the championship. That’s 3% of the teams that ever played for the championship. If the system had been a 4-team playoff selecting the top 4 teams in the BCS rankings, 9 teams with 2 losses would have played. That’s 14% of the teams. If we had a “perfect” 8-team playoff, 47 teams, or 37%, would have had 2 losses.
It should be obvious to anyone who is intelligent and honest that more teams in a playoff means more margin for error, which means less importance on regular season losses.
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That’s silly and you refute your premise. Let’s include all the 1-loss teams out there available for your “calculation” this year with a 4-team NC.
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Your objection is nonsensical. I used BCS rankings to exclude one and two loss teams that would not have played in a tournament. But the premise is absolutely supported. To say that a larger playoff makes regular season games more important is either dishonest or foolish.
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No, games aren’t more important with 4 teams. So far, the punditry has been debating whether the SEC will send 2 teams, or 3 to the playoff. Under the 2-team playoff, only once did the SEC send 2 teams and there was so much wailing and gnashing of teeth that it could never happen again. So, under a 2-team playoff, a team needed to win the SEC to play for the championship. Under a 4-team playoff not so much. It turns out that South Carolina loss may not have been so important after all.
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I just have a feeling that the selection committee will have us lower than most polls b/c they will be looking at that SCar loss. It’s likely the worst loss of any of the other one-loss top teams at the moment. Of course if we win out and take the SECCG, there is no issue
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We have to win out to get in. I can’t see any other way. In fact, if we don’t win out, we go to a mediocre bowl again.
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Most of the bowl projections have us in one of the committee controlled bowl games (likely Peach). Nothing to sneeze at as “mediocre” since those games are the ones where the semifinals will rotate through.
If we finish 10-2 (or 3) and in one of those games, I wouldn’t consider the season to be a failure.
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I agree with Doggoned that we are definitely in if we finish 12-1, and not in if we aren’t the SEC Champ, but I don’t think that means a mediocre bowl at all…unless we lose 2-3 more times. But I don’t understand all the “whose in” during the last week in October, there are some great games that will change the landscape every week. Any worrying and projections before mid-November are wasted energy. But there is so much increased buzz with an expanded playoff fans cannot help playing “what if” games even though they know you have to reset the table every week or two. Lot of worthy contenders for those four spots.
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Fatal flaw in the Scar game = cr@@ppy a$$ SEC officiating.
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Watching the polls is a waste of time. Then again, I don’t watch the talking heads at wwl anyway. Put a cfb game on and I’ll tune in. Winning on the field is what counts the most.
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Having them rank 25 teams is just asinine.
They should run their own little Mumme Poll, then we know who is in contention, where they stand across the whole committee, and they can focus on those teams instead of watching replays of blocking schemes from Iowa-Northwestern. Replays. On an iPad. For cryin’ out loud.
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