CFP and the Championship Game

H

Hoop

500+ Posts
It's odd for me to say something like this, but if I am honest with myself, I feel like the committee did a pretty good job this year. I don't like the format, but I feel that the four teams vying for the championship were the right teams. I also think that the two teams in the championship game were the best teams.

Many folks can play what-ifs with Wisconsin, UCF, Ohio State, etc. I would like to see that on the field some day, but this year, I feel the result would have been the same.
 
I respectfully disagree. Why do we have conferences if the criteria for the committee is 'four best teams'? Alabama may have been one of the four best teams but they couldn't even win their division within the conference much less their conference championship game.

I view conferences and the their championship games as a mini playoff within the regular season. Win your conference and you get a chance to play for a national championship game. The committee can choose the four best CONFERENCE champions at that point.

This is the second time that Alabama has played and won a national championship after it failed to win its own division and conference championship game. When will the obvious bias towards one team in college football stop?
 
militaryhorn said:
I respectfully disagree. Why do we have conferences if the criteria for the committee is 'four best teams'? Alabama may have been one of the four best teams but they couldn't even win their division within the conference much less their conference championship game.

I view conferences and the their championship games as a mini playoff within the regular season. Win your conference and you get a chance to play for a national championship game. The committee can choose the four best CONFERENCE champions at that point.

This is the second time that Alabama has played and won a national championship after it failed to win its own division and conference championship game. When will the obvious bias towards one team in college football stop?
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Completely agree, but first the "Committee" has to quit gerrymandering their rules to favor certain schools and conferences:
* Everyone plays 13 games (effectively rules out non-championship game participants)
* Everyone plays 9 conference games
* All victories over FCS teams either count as losses or is not counted (effectively disqualifying as they will not play 13 games) (CFP pays part of the playoff money to the FCS to be spread across the sub-division)
* Independents not eligible for CFP (when the Domer crowd yells - settle for the Domers playing the Big XII Champ as the 13 game for both. Winner is treated as a Conference Champ)
 
Hoop said:
It's odd for me to say something like this, but if I am honest with myself, I feel like the committee did a pretty good job this year. I don't like the format, but I feel that the four teams vying for the championship were the right teams. I also think that the two teams in the championship game were the best teams.

Many folks can play what-ifs with Wisconsin, UCF, Ohio State, etc. I would like to see that on the field some day, but this year, I feel the result would have been the same.
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Maybe. Maybe the NFL should consider a COMMITTEE. Maybe D-2, D-3 and high schools should have one as well. Maybe all other NCAA D-1 sports should have one. Maybe a playoff of at least 8 teams would result in one of the chosen few not winning a championship and ESPN ratings for viewers would drop. Maybe several teams could win if they got a pass for losing their conference and got the COMMITTEE to punch their ticket to the final four. Maybe...?

ESPN talking heads are glowing over the best, or one of the best, championship games ever. Their COMMITTEE is brilliant. Really? I would suggest that you could take the best two teams from any conference made up of teams that play the same style of offenses all year and have a game that is close all night and won by one team on the final play. And the average fan would know nothing of the level of play. Maybe.

But let’s just form more committees and stop wasting time and money on playoffs. NFL, are you listening?
 
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For the 2nd time out of 4, the lowest seeded team has won. The CFP should have 6 or 8 teams. With only 4 spots, only conference champions should be invited. The CCGs act as the 'round of 8'.
 
militaryhorn said:
I respectfully disagree. Why do we have conferences if the criteria for the committee is 'four best teams'?
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with all due respect, conferences existed before the playoffs and you were even a twinkle in your mother's eye. They have nothing to do with the committee.
 
militaryhorn said:
When will the obvious bias towards one team in college football stop?
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So you think a team who was a$$ raped like an aggy sheep twice deserved to get in over an Alabama team who lost one close game? Or maybe a team who played an entire schedule like Bamas non conference but didnt lose any deserved to get in? I laugh.....bama deserved to be in and the proved it by winning.
 
SEC rules because of strength of schedule. After all Alabama and GA survived a conference that went 2-5 in bowl games, exclusive of the playoff bowls. Top to bottom a world beater conference.

THE COMMITTEE
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
So you think a team who was a$$ raped like an aggy sheep twice deserved to get in over an Alabama team who lost one close game? Or maybe a team who played an entire schedule like Bamas non conference but didnt lose any deserved to get in? I laugh.....bama deserved to be in and the proved it by winning.
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No, but at least they won their conference. This committee selection process has made conferences irrelevant since it doesn't really mean anything to win your conference.

If you think 'Bama deserved it, then I would counter that UCF deserved it more, especially since they beat a vaunted SEC team.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
So?!? I want the best 4 teams in. Ohio State was not one of the best 4 and did not deserve to get in because they won the B1G.
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Ok, what criteria do you use to determine the four best teams? Who did 'Bama play during the year and beat that made you think they were one of the four best? Their best win was against #17 LSU at the final rankings and lost to their only top 10 team they played.
 
When I posted this, I was careful to mention that I am not a fan of the current format. We can go back and forth all day long about what makes more sense.

So, let me ask this a different way:

Who deserved to be in last night's game more than the two teams who played in last night's game? More broadly, were the top 4 the right teams to play for it all? I think those were the best 4 teams playing at selection time.
 
The four best teams at the time of selection IMHO were:

Clemson
Oklahoma
Georgia
tOSU/UCF/Alabama

That last spot is tricky for me. You know how I feel about who deserves that spot. I would give it to UCF if you put a gun to my head and made me choose.
 
I had no problem with Bama being in based on when the decision was made leaving aside fact that bama then went on to win it all.

Remember that if Wisconsin just takes care of business then there is no debate, but once the Badgers lost, as between Ohio State and Bama I thought Bama had the better claim. Shoot Bama has three national titles where if other teams took care of their business (Okie State in 2011, K-State in 2012 and Wisconsin in 2017) then Bama isn't even in game.
 
militaryhorn said:
Ok, what criteria do you use to determine the four best teams? Who did 'Bama play during the year and beat that made you think they were one of the four best? Their best win was against #17 LSU at the final rankings and lost to their only top 10 team they played.
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I can't stand Bama.....as a Vol fan too.....I wouldn't be disappointed to see Bama never win another game....I picked Georgia simply because I can't stand those guys.

With that said, I'll reword it this way. Alabama lost a close rivalry game. OSU got blown out twice one of which was at home against OU. Neither had an impressive schedule. Based on that I give the spot to Bama. Bama cant help it that their rival who was also very good this year is in their division and one close loss cost them a chance at their championship game. tOSU skated through that easy B1G schedule until they played Wisconsin who also skated through a pansy schedule.

If I were to say someone should have gotten in before Bama it would have been undefeated UCF who really had a cupcake schedule.....but that's a stretch.

We'll never agree on this because you think there is some grand conspiracy to prop up Bama. I say Bama was the right choice and proved it by winning.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
I can't stand Bama.....as a Vol fan too.....I wouldn't be disappointed to see Bama never win another game....I picked Georgia simply because I can't stand those guys.

With that said, I'll reword it this way. Alabama lost a close rivalry game. OSU got blown out twice one of which was at home against OU. Neither had an impressive schedule. Based on that I give the spot to Bama. Bama cant help it that their rival who was also very good this year is in their division and one close loss cost them a chance at their championship game. tOSU skated through that easy B1G schedule until they played Wisconsin who also skated through a pansy schedule.

If I were to say someone should have gotten in before Bama it would have been undefeated UCF who really had a cupcake schedule.....but that's a stretch.

We'll never agree on this because you think there is some grand conspiracy to prop up Bama. I say Bama was the right choice and proved it by winning.
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It's more of a philosophical point than a true team bias point. I just can't get behind the idea of a national champion not winning it's conference. It doesn't compute for me. Same goes for any other playoff for any level of football.
 
militaryhorn said:
I just can't get behind the idea of a national champion not winning it's conference.
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The other side I see is this: what if a team wins their conference with two losses because their conference is not very good that year? And a 1-loss team is clearly better (SOS, close loss in CCG) but left out because they didn’t win their conference?
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
With that said, I'll reword it this way. Alabama lost a close rivalry game. OSU got blown out twice one of which was at home against OU. Neither had an impressive schedule. Based on that I give the spot to Bama. Bama cant help it that their rival who was also very good this year is in their division and one close loss cost them a chance at their championship game. tOSU skated through that easy B1G schedule until they played Wisconsin who also skated through a pansy schedule.
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Don't forget they had to beat aggy in Collie Station.
 
The other side I see is this: what if a team wins their conference with two losses because their conference is not very good that year? And a 1-loss team is clearly better (SOS, close loss in CCG) but left out because they didn’t win their conference?
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If you have to be conference champs, then let's just stop counting ooc games altogether and consider them exhibitions. Anybody think we were the best / most deserving team in the Big 12 in 1996?
 
Dionysus said:
The other side I see is this: what if a team wins their conference with two losses because their conference is not very good that year? And a 1-loss team is clearly better (SOS, close loss in CCG) but left out because they didn’t win their conference?
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That's where scheduling your OOC opponents plays a factor and makes them relevant when choosing conference champions for the playoff.
 
I'm definitely a "X number of best teams" guy. I think conference titles are a huge factor, but it is pretty easy to see that two of the top teams might be from the same conference (division even).


In college basketball, 64 teams have "a shot" even if the 64 seeded team has no realistic shot.

In the NFL, all 8 division champions have a shot and 4 wild cards have a shot.

In the NBA and NHL, the top 8 teams from each conference have a shot. If you aren't in the Top 8 in your conference, you have no room to complain.

All of this confusion goes away if you allow for more than 4 teams. We have a bunch of conferences. We have the Power Five. In that Power Five, a 2nd place team in a conference might be an elite team.

4-team playoffs are the problem. At the least, an 8-team playoff allows for the conference champion from the Power Five to be automatically in. The 3 at-large could be other teams in those conferences, a minor conference champion, or an independent.

I mean, it's a message board so the debates are fun, but the real issue is that a 4-team playoff in any sport is a strange and broken. An entire sport decided by 4 teams? weird.
 
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I think most if not all of us agree that at this moment 4 teams ain’t enough.

Me personally I don’t think the conference championship games means diddly squat unless you include every champion.

I think for the smaller schools not in a major conference by choice or force should have to play 3 of the major schools each year and then 9 conferences games to even be in the Cfp but that would mean expanding it which I think they should do. The only way I see 4 teams working is if they create 4 huge conferences and the winner of each makes it in. If your school is not in one of those 4 too bad.
 
X Misn Tx said:
it is pretty easy to see that two of the top teams might be from the same conference (division even)
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This is what I was getting at. In 2008, for example, I think you could have easily made the case that both Texas and OU would be playoff-worthy. Maybe Tech too.
 
Vol Horn 4 Life said:
tOSU skated through that easy B1G schedule until they played Wisconsin who also skated through a pansy schedule.
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The B1G finished 7-1 in bowl games. The SEC was 4-5. The SEC may be getting too much credit. OSU and PSU had 2 losses a piece which eliminated them. I still think they are better than either that played in the championship when focused. Playoff football tends to heighten the focus.

This Alabama team played a pretty weak schedule and received credit for past year success to get in to the playoffs. As expected, Saban had them focused when they got there.
 
Junk the conferences - FBS playoff's begin with game 1. After you lose you can schedule games with the other losers.
 
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