1st Round games

[WestCoastWildcat]

Tulane getting smashed early by Ole Miss. Saw Sullivan in for at least one play.

Bama looked strong beating OK last night. Indiana might struggle to get past them.

Entertaining first game today even with the number of missed field goals and low score. Miami did a nice job shutting down the Texas A&M offense though I was rooting for A&M to score to tie the game to send it to OT. Or maybe Aggies would have gone for 2. Big interception to end the game.

Expect Oregon to easily prevail in the last game. Don’t think James Madison should be participating in the first round games. It will be interesting to see if teams with byes look rusty after the long layoff.

 

[Evanstonian]

Alabama beat Oklahoma last night. Georgia didn’t play. They had a bye.

 

[WestCoastWildcat]

Corrected. Brain freeze.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Texas fans having a massive first round. The last two games… not seeing much drama

 

[Catreporter]

TNT must have been dismayed about their two blowout games. I stopped watching each in the second quarter. I wonder if second half advertisers will ask for a rebate. No more than one G5 should be in the field and even that is a stretch. Ironically, the TUlane-Ole Miss game played out exactly as their earlier rout did. And there were a lot of 3-5 play drives by both Ole Miss and Oregon.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

TNT must have been dismayed about their two blowout games. I stopped watching each in the second quarter. I wonder if second half advertisers will ask for a rebate. No more than one G5 should be in the field and even that is a stretch. Ironically, the TUlane-Ole Miss game played out exactly as their earlier rout did. And there were a lot of 3-5 play drives by both Ole Miss and Oregon.

Blame the ACC for being a joke of a P4 and not keeping up its end of the bargain producing a decent champion in either playoff year

 

[techtim72]

I rather enjoyed Tulane being smashed.

 

[Sheffielder]

I saw someone share an interesting thought on reddit: G5 programs finally have a fair and viable pathway to the playoffs, but now the P2/P4 are using NIL to decimate their rosters.

I'm fine with this playoff setup because JMU and Tulane both established themselves as top G5 programs and had a chance to prove themselves on the field rather than let a bunch of old men choose Notre Dame because they sell more t-shirts. In college football, you'd be better off relying on a coin toss than "the eye test." If the blue bloods don't like the format, then maybe they shouldn't have organized into 16-18 mega conferences in the first place.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I saw someone share an interesting thought on reddit: G5 programs finally have a fair and viable pathway to the playoffs, but now the P2/P4 are using NIL to decimate their rosters.

I'm fine with this playoff setup because JMU and Tulane both established themselves as top G5 programs and had a chance to prove themselves on the field rather than let a bunch of old men choose Notre Dame because they sell more t-shirts. In college football, you'd be better off relying on a coin toss than "the eye test." If the blue bloods don't like the format, then maybe they shouldn't have organized into 16-18 mega conferences in the first place.

Tulane and JMU are lucky to be in the top 25. They have zero shot at the Natty. They are warm up scrimmages for the 5 and 6 seed.

 

[its_the_sauce]

TNT must have been dismayed about their two blowout games. I stopped watching each in the second quarter. I wonder if second half advertisers will ask for a rebate. No more than one G5 should be in the field and even that is a stretch. Ironically, the TUlane-Ole Miss game played out exactly as their earlier rout did. And there were a lot of 3-5 play drives by both Ole Miss and Oregon.

Thinking TNT was even more dismayed at having to go up against NFL. Have to believe that regardless of the score of Oregon game they were pummeled in the ratings by Bears/Packers.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Tulane and JMU are lucky to be in the top 25. They have zero shot at the Natty. They are warm up scrimmages for the 5 and 6 seed.

Gave the 5 and 6 seed some importance this year with a mini bye.

also, those teams being ranked doesn’t even really mean the committee thinks they are necessarily top 25 teams (the rating systems don’t think they are from a predictive standpoint, if they are from a resume standpoint is highly subjective), it really just is where the committee stuck them to grant them the auto bids… and indicate the week in advance what the G5 pecking order was.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Gave the 5 and 6 seed some importance this year with a mini bye.

also, those teams being ranked doesn’t even really mean the committee thinks they are necessarily top 25 teams (the rating systems don’t think they are from a predictive standpoint, if they are from a resume standpoint is highly subjective), it really just is where the committee stuck them to grant them the auto bids… and indicate the week in advance what the G5 pecking order was.

A G5 Natty would be interesting. Current process not so much.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

A G5 Natty would be interesting. Current process not so much.

I don't mind the G5 getting one reserved spot for the odd year they can pull a big upset.

 

[Styre]

I don't mind the G5 getting one reserved spot for the odd year they can pull a big upset.

I'd be fine with reserved auto-bids for the P4 champs and the best G5 champion. But that means you'd have Duke in the field this year and people would be complaining about that instead.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

I'd be fine with reserved auto-bids for the P4 champs and the best G5 champion. But that means you'd have Duke in the field this year and people would be complaining about that instead.

1. Duke, or a team like Duke, should not be admitted into any playoff system until it’s way way the hell larger than 12. Totally undeserving team. They get their ACC championship trophy and get to go home to their middling bowl, as is right.

2. my understanding is there is also an anti-trust concern with putting specific conference title holders into the rules as the G5s will look for a reason to sue.

Again, this whole thing only breaks down because the ACC is a clown show. The playoffs are going to expand by then anyway, but it also won’t be around much longer.

 

[Sheffielder]

Tulane and JMU are lucky to be in the top 25. They have zero shot at the Natty. They are warm up scrimmages for the 5 and 6 seed.

I don't disagree - especially since the final scores are already in. However, I don't necessarily think it is always a foregone conclusion that the G5 teams are gimmes, and I think it's a bad narrative to perpetuate. Northwestern fans in particular should be leery of default assumptions that a committee would make about who would beat whom, as that intellectual exercise will almost never favor Northwestern.

As far as whether Notre Dame or Texas deserved to be in...for ND my argument would simply be that they agreed to certain terms as a prominent independent school, and so did Texas by joining an extremely crowded 16-team conference. You only have yourselves to blame for your circumstances.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I don't disagree - especially since the final scores are already in. However, I don't necessarily think it is always a foregone conclusion that the G5 teams are gimmes, and I think it's a bad narrative to perpetuate. Northwestern fans in particular should be leery of default assumptions that a committee would make about who would beat whom, as that intellectual exercise will almost never favor Northwestern.

As far as whether Notre Dame or Texas deserved to be in...for ND my argument would simply be that they agreed to certain terms as a prominent independent school, and so did Texas by joining an extremely crowded 16-team conference. You only have yourselves to blame for your circumstances.

Don’t disagree that ND screwed themselves. However, they beat Tulane and JMU by 2 TD’s minimum with a semi-normal game. Doubt anyone on these boards watched either of last weeks Tulane or JMU game past half time. That’s bad for business. If it had been ND/Mississippi and Texas/Oregon they would have stayed tuned.

 

[Sheffielder]

Don’t disagree that ND screwed themselves. However, they beat Tulane and JMU by 2 TD’s minimum with a semi-normal game. Doubt anyone on these boards watched either of last weeks Tulane or JMU game past half time. That’s bad for business. If it had been ND/Mississippi and Texas/Oregon they would have stayed tuned.

I acknowledge it would be foolish to argue "justice" in bids vs. tv ratings. That being said, when the occasional legit G5 buster (ie. Boise State) comes knocking, the ratings come with it.

The funny thing is, after this year's Tulane and JMU games, it's not difficult to see the idiocracy tinker with the formula AGAIN and get it wrong as another scenario they didn't anticipate slaps them in the face.

 

[Gatabowl]

I rather enjoyed Tulane being smashed.

They were powerless against a team from a state also impacted by Katrina.

 

[JustGary]

1. Duke, or a team like Duke, should not be admitted into any playoff system until it’s way way the hell larger than 12. Totally undeserving team. They get their ACC championship trophy and get to go home to their middling bowl, as is right.

2. my understanding is there is also an anti-trust concern with putting specific conference title holders into the rules as the G5s will look for a reason to sue.

Again, this whole thing only breaks down because the ACC is a clown show. The playoffs are going to expand by then anyway, but it also won’t be around much longer.

The answer is actually simple, whatever the number of teams that the CFP decide to have in the bracket, make it only the top ranked teams regardless of league champions. Notre Dame and BYU were more deserving because they beat better teams. Everyone knew that Tulane and JMU had zero chance. That doesn’t mean that a G5 team in the future will not be ranked in the top 12 or top 16. But I rather see a G5 tournament or a NIT-type tourney for those who don’t make the CFP. Take 16 in the CFP and 16 in the not-type and the non-type can have the champions who did not make the CFP, including a Duke That way all those championships mean something and the G5 and lower ranked P4 have a place if they want. My guess is some P4 teams will opt out of a consolation tourney but that’s their problem.

 

[Styre]

1. Duke, or a team like Duke, should not be admitted into any playoff system until it’s way way the hell larger than 12. Totally undeserving team. They get their ACC championship trophy and get to go home to their middling bowl, as is right.

2. my understanding is there is also an anti-trust concern with putting specific conference title holders into the rules as the G5s will look for a reason to sue.

Again, this whole thing only breaks down because the ACC is a clown show. The playoffs are going to expand by then anyway, but it also won’t be around much longer.

1. Eh, I disagree, they won the ACC and should be in. It's not their fault that the ACC decides its champion this way. What the CFP needs to do is mandate a uniform tiebreaker system across the participating conferences to eliminate the possibility of multi-team tiebreakers giving teams like Duke a shot in the first place.

2. I don't know enough about this to weigh in on the legal issues, but assuming you're right, the current system is about as good as it's going to get. The only other method would be to just take the top 12 teams in the rankings and ignore conferences entirely, but that would provoke a meltdown from the G5.

 

[prez77]

I think the criteria for the right system needs to be that it doesn't somehow exclude a team that would have a reasonable chance at being the national champion. This year's results pushed that line - it was not inconceivable that ND or Tex could have gone on a run and won it. It was inconceivable that JMU or Tulane could.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I think the criteria for the right system needs to be that it doesn't somehow exclude a team that would have a reasonable chance at being the national champion. This year's results pushed that line - it was not inconceivable that ND or Tex could have gone on a run and won it. It was inconceivable that JMU or Tulane could.

Huh