When it comes to playoff expansion, here’s a nice example of throwing enough shit rationalizing against the wall until something sticks:
The 2017 season provided an interesting case for the College Football Playoff committee. In years past, the committee’s final rankings were mildly controversial but ultimately understandable. That wasn’t so much the case in December, when three squads were shoo-ins and the fourth spot was completely up for grabs. Alabama had a case (a very, very good one, as it turns out), as did Ohio State, as did USC, as did UCF (although it was largely ignored until after the fact).
With the eventual No. 4 seed Crimson Tide winning it all for the second time—and beating the No. 3 seed Georgia, to boot—there’s a case to be made that these rankings set the cut line for college football’s elite tier too early, and that perhaps those teams left hanging deserve a chance to compete with the best for the title. This year’s postseason, in its aftermath, will only add to the argument for the eight-team field, but after just four seasons of a playoff format that was years in the making, change won’t come too swiftly.
In other words, because number four won the whole enchilada, that’s her case for having an eight-team playoff. Jesus, I can’t wait to see the excuses these people come up with for expanding to sixteen.
By the way, all these people advocating for UCF — how many of them would have bet on the Knights had they faced off against Alabama? Yeah, that’s about what I thought.
Get The Picture 
“there’s a case to be made that these rankings set the cut line for college football’s elite tier too early,”
Or maybe the prognosticators aren’t good at prognosticating.
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The AP Poll plays a part in that by shaping perceptions before we have any data. I assume they were advocating for getting rid of that, too?
I get the argument that the ‘best’ teams should play. I’ve always said it should be the teams that are deserving but deserving should be objective.
Why D1 football is the only major sport league that is governed like a beauty pageant or gymnastics I’ll never understand. Name any other sport where you can go undefeated and not be a champion. (And before you start, that’s not an argument for UCF 2017. That’s actually why the UCF argument is so stupid. The schools and the AD’s have all agreed for over 100 years that there is no championship formula regardless of how many games you lose or don’t lose. They didn’t sway enough opinions and therefore they aren’t worthy.)
It would bother me none if they expanded to 6 and had a system where the bids were automatic for the conference champions and an automatic bid process for Independents/Non-P5. That’s the only honest way of setting up a system that let’s in those who are ‘deserving’. Otherwise, it’s still a beauty pageant, who is deserving and who is best will be subject to someone’s opinion, and the rationalization for continuing expansion will always be there.
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I perhaps naively thought the 4 game playoff was about insuring that the 2 best teams played for the trophy. So if you don’t have an argument that you should be in the top 2, you don’t have an argument at all.
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I thought that the fact that two SEC teams played in the BCS championship game in the 2011 season was the reason for a four team tournament,
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thus the reason for 8 in a couple of years
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They’re going to ruin college football. It’ll be a sad day.
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Alabama’s already busy ruining it.
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With the help of corrupt officiating
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If I remember correctly UCF was ranked at #9 in the CFB playoff rankings. They would not have made the 8 team playoff. I guess they would then say: ” see it should have been a 16 team playoff”.
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Precisely!
We now live in a Snowflake society where we must appease every sensitivity. Let’s all give national championship trophies and parades to all Top 25 teams and pass out 20 Heisman trophies to the top 20 players. It’s not PC to crown a single individual or team a champion. “We’re all champions in our own SPECIAL way.”
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#triggered
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That’s not fair. What about the 21st best player? He certainly shouldn’t be excluded from the trophy rainfall when he is only 1 place down the list.
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Quite right! Hell, let’s forget keeping score. There’s no such thing as winners and losers any more!
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I’ve asked some of the UCF screamers if that very question. Of course they lied when they answered it.
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If you want to be correct 99.9% of the time, just say the reason for something is either money or sex.
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I don’t care if Alabama was the 4th best team. And call me backward thinking, but I don’t believe anyone deserves to play for the “national” title if they can’t win their “regional” title or conference title. But. I also don’t like the expanded playoff in MLB. I prefer the old days of Division winners facing off in the LCS. Keep it at 4. We can always be like Bama and just claim this years title based off of standards from Pre-BCS era.
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ROSE BOWL WAS THE REAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME PAAAWWWWWL!
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if the two best teams are from the same division in the same conference, then they should play for the championship. Let’s get the best teams in so we can see a great game. Or, we could put Notre Dame in their against Bama a few years ago and see an epic beat down. i like a 4 team playoff; and it doesn’t need to expand to 8 because the number 9 team will complain that they deserved a shot. Clearly, the 4 best teams made the playoff this year. OSU would’ve been slaughtered by Clemson; and no other team deserved to be included.
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Wouldn’t they have already played? Wouldn’t we know who was better of those two teams?
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I keep asking: What do y’all think the outcome would have been had UGA faced off against UCF?
Here’s what I think: Power 5 teams have to be conference winners, pick 3. Leave one slot open for an independent Notre Dame-ish type team or an FCS, Group of 5 team. Have a psuedo-conference championship game for the fourth slot so everyone plays the same number of games. Then you seed it just like normal and let the chips fall where they may. This avoids the Alabama back door play (Yes we lost. I saw the whole thing. That’s why I’m so butt-hurt about it) That cost UGA the Natty, IMO. Well, that and the referees.
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If we want the 2 best teams, Bama certainly belonged. We both lost 1 game. That one loss was to AU. Sure UGA beat AU in the SECCG and Bama is getting credit for winning a game they didn’t have to play. UGA got an easy ticket to the SECCG cause the East was unusually weak this year. I’m not Dawg grading, we deserved being in the NC game and showed it. Bama also showed they belonged there. This is one year where things turned out right. The 2 best teams were in the NC game and it was a great one.
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That’s crazy talk. Here’s what would happen in your proposition, a deserving AND better team would be left out and you’d have an automatic bid for Notre Dame almost every single year. You could take that to the bank.
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Let me add one more thing. What AU were in the East. Then AU would play Bama in the SECCG and we would be watching. Do you think this UGA team didn’t belong in the playoffs? If u say we do belong in the playoffs, then so does bama.
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I’m playing devil’s advocate Ghurka. They got it right. Damn straight, the two best teams in the country played one hell of a ballgame. The Rose Bowl was the finest football game I’ve ever seen. The SEC championship was almost as good.
On the other hand, UGA would have trucked UCF
I am not in favor of an 8 team playoff. Nor do I really think the independents or lower tiered conferences should be given a spot “just because”.
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As an advocate for playoff expansion I would think Alabama winning it all would prove that the committee got it right by letting them in.
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The people who put up the UCF billboard in Tuscaloosa should instead put one up in Auburn asking the Tigers for a home-and-home. If UCF had gone into Jordan-Hare and caught the Tigers motivated, they would have been annihilated.
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True dat! Auburn is the NC of Jordan-Hare!
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Go to 6 teams, and include all the conference champions of the P5. The last one can come from any of the other conference champions that are ranked in the top 15 or independents. If no one is ranked in the top 15, then let it be a wildcard.
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GD’it. I live in Memphis…. there are 2 think i watched on TV all year. Not shows, not reality TV… nope, i watched NOTHING but SEC football and American Athletic Conference football. The AAC defenses are total trash.
What these people don’t understand is that nobody ever doubted UCF could beat Auburn (or anyone) in a one-off game. But you know who else could too ? Iowa State. They beat OU and TCU in one-offs…. but they also had 5 losses. And then I watched them come into the liberty bowl and stifle my memphis tigers “juggernaut offense” in their home stadium. A tigers team that was an eye lash away from beating UCF in a true road game with 117 puts scored.
The AAC is fun to watch but is TRASH. Trust me I went to like 5 AAC conference game this year and watched countless others.
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