lol at playoff expansion

[18IsTheMan]

The dumbest idea in the history of sports exposed this weelend.

But, hey, let’s expand it further so we get more non-competitive games.

Don’t even bother offering up any lamebrain solutions to how do you think expansion could work. THIS is what expansion will give you. No way around it.

Amazingly, the solution will be further expansion.

And yet, jackasses will keep spouting the line that players are opting out non-playoff bowl games because they don’t get to play in meaningful playoff games. Which of these games this weekend look meaningful to you? LOL

anyone who still buys the line of meaningless bowl games after watching the games this weekend has poop for brains, and that’s being overly generous.

 

[Harvard Gamecock]

Higher seeded teams, who played at home, and were all favored, FLEXED.

I'm surprised, that some are surprised.

 

[BftCocks09]

It’s obviously been hashed out from every single angle the last few weeks, but I’ll say it again. This is what you get when your expansion resembles college football. Both the teams that were selected and the way the matchups came about. It was a joke all the way around. And yes, I’m even talking about Tennessee. Credit to JC Schurburtt (or however the heck you spell it). He called this weeks ago, questioning what merit Tennessee truly had to stand on when getting selected into the playoff without any questions asked.

 

[Blues man]

... but everyone was calling the bowls meaningless. Now we want to go back and defend meaningless bowls? BTW I can tell you cared 18IsTheMan. When was the last time you cared about a bowl game in mid-December? I for one dont see whats the big deal that a few pretenders that shouldn't be here are already eliminated. That said, I do like people voicing their displeasure at this point. There's a lot of them for sure. That's good. It must be part of the process to getting this thing closer to right, There's plenty of room for improvement for sure.

 

[gamecock stock]

... but everyone was calling the bowls meaningless. Now we want to go back and defend meaningless bowls? BTW I can tell you cared 18IsTheMan. When was the last time you cared about a bowl game in mid-December? I for one dont see whats the big deal that a few pretenders that shouldn't be here are already eliminated. That said, I do like people voicing their displeasure at this point. There's a lot of them for sure. That's good. It must be part of the process to getting this thing closer to right, There's plenty of room for improvement for sure.

I have spent more time in front of the TV watching the playoffs, thus far, than I did watching bowl games ex-South Carolina the past 5 years. If you are going to reduce the number of playoff participants, don't just stop there. Also reduce the number of bowls to 7 or 8, as there were when I was a kid.

 

[Blues man]

I have spent more time in front of the TV watching the playoffs, thus far, than I did watching bowl games ex-South Carolina the past 5 years. If you are going to reduce the number of playoff participants, don't just stop there. Also reduce the number of bowls to 7 or 8, as there were when I was a kid.

I'd be perfectly happy with an eight team playoff if our ranking system was better than it is. But because it is crap and so easily manipulated, I feel the more teams get in, the less the rankings play a role. Let's just make the playoffs a season in and of itself and have the committee get out of the way. Best way to do that is add more teams. So with that said, give me 16 teams as long as guys behind a desk are calling all the shots. Again if they decide to relinquish their power, eight would be great.

 

[gamecock stock]

I'd be perfectly happy with an eight team playoff if our ranking system was better than it is. But because it is crap and so easily manipulated, I feel the more teams get in, the less the rankings play a role. Let's just make the playoffs a season in and of itself and have the committee get out of the way. Best way to do that is add more teams. So with that said, give me 16 teams as long as guys behind a desk are calling all the shots. Again if they decide to relinquish their power, eight would be great.

Base playoff participants on merit. Then you reduce the chance of blowouts. For those who don't qualify, you get a trip to the beautiful cities of Memphis, Shreveport, etc to play in a bowl.

 

[Blues man]

Base playoff participants on merit. Then you reduce the chance of blowouts. For those who don't qualify, you get a trip to the beautiful cities of Memphis, Shreveport, etc to play in a bowl.

Agreed. I feel the only way we'll get that is by computer. That said, you will always have teams like Tenn that will choke under the spotlight from time to time. lol

 

[Gradstudent]

So with that said, give me 16 teams as long as guys behind a desk are calling all the shots. Again if they decide to relinquish their power, eight would be great.

Expansion gives more SEC teams a better shot to get it, and thus would improve South Carolina chances, so expansion sounds fine to me.

 

[CWW]

Expansion will give even more boring games.

 

[KingWard]

Expansion added unworthiness. More expansion will add more unworthiness. I told y'all, but like the father in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Nobody listen to me."

 

[Gradstudent]

Expansion will give even more boring games.

True, but there are always boring bowl games etc, and I don't watch them, and don't need to see every playoff game either in a 14 or 16 game format.

There was boring games in the reduced format to, the championship game of TCU and UGA was pretty boring, 2years ago.

 

[Gradstudent]

Expansion added unworthiness. More expansion will add more unworthiness. I told y'all, but like the father in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Nobody listen to me."

True, but it gives us a better shot, going forward then 4 teams and it made the season more interesting.

 

[18IsTheMan]

The empirical data to date unequivocally validate my position. There is no available data that supports any other conclusion.

You can argue what you think or what you feel, but facts don’t care about feelings.

 

[SouthernBelly]

Here's what I would like to see: 8 game regular season with the BCS formula ranking all teams. In game 8 everyone plays their biggest rival and after the game there is a fight. If you win the fight that will feed positively into the ranking formula. Then there will be a 64 team playoff. There will never be ties but from now one there will not be overtimes and instead cheerleader mud wrestling. This is asinine but is better than the current mechanism and it's not even close.

 

[KingWard]

True, but it gives us a better shot, going forward then 4 teams and it made the season more interesting.

I'm speaking as an advocate for the best process, not as a member of a myopic special interest group.

 

[Gradstudent]

I'm speaking as an advocate for the best process, not as a member of a myopic special interest group.

Understood, I speak as a member of a myopic special interest group

 

[Anon1734820979]

I'd be perfectly happy with an eight team playoff if our ranking system was better than it is. But because it is crap and so easily manipulated, I feel the more teams get in, the less the rankings play a role. Let's just make the playoffs a season in and of itself and have the committee get out of the way. Best way to do that is add more teams. So with that said, give me 16 teams as long as guys behind a desk are calling all the shots. Again if they decide to relinquish their power, eight would be great.

What about 16 teams. The 4 major conferences get 2 each, no conference championship games,(top 2 from regular season)and the remaining 8 are at large bids. Use an RPI ranking system like basketball to select the remaining 8 and to seed the entire field. This keeps the regular season meaning something and awards other teams outside of tbe top 2 in each conference. It also removes the human BS element. 11 game regular season, first round are at home, then to the nuetral sites for the remaining games.

 

[lexgamecock]

12 teams are fine. But no automatic qualifiers. Have play in games instead of conference championships. I don't object to computer ranking either.

 

[KingWard]

What about 16 teams. The 4 major conferences get 2 each, no conference championship games,(top 2 from regular season)and the remaining 8 are at large bids. Use an RPI ranking system like basketball to select the remaining 8 and to seed the entire field. This keeps the regular season meaning something and awards other teams outside of tbe top 2 in each conference. It also removes the human BS element. 11 game regular season, first round are at home, then to the nuetral sites for the remaining games.

No automatic qualifiers of any kind. 12 or 16 teams weighed by a computer using a dispassionate set of requisites to blindly appraise all FBS teams. It's possible. Why not just do it?

 

[Anon1734820979]

12 teams are fine. But no automatic qualifiers. Have play in games instead of conference championships. I don't object to computer ranking either.

You have to have some guidelines or you get NIL. Conference strengths are somewhat cycular. In no playoff system is tbe say 5th or 6th seed in any league good enough to win it all. A playing game is a Conferences championship game. But hey if fans from all over the country from different fan bases can have true discussion about this, then them old geezers should be able to figure out something. You need to reward conference champions, but a 2nd 3rd or 4th place team needs to be merit based. An RPI could award the champs a seat regardlessof where they are, but the champ from any league could be 16. They are but good luck!!

 

[Blues man]

What about 16 teams. The 4 major conferences get 2 each, no conference championship games,(top 2 from regular season)and the remaining 8 are at large bids. Use an RPI ranking system like basketball to select the remaining 8 and to seed the entire field. This keeps the regular season meaning something and awards other teams outside of tbe top 2 in each conference. It also removes the human BS element. 11 game regular season, first round are at home, then to the nuetral sites for the remaining games.

I'd prefer 16 but I'd be ok with 8. Bottom line is i dislike byes. I would not have AQs at all if I had my way. Top 16 of the rankings are in. Conferences can do whatever they want to decide a champion. Doesn't matter. To each his own. Personally I would eliminate a CCG.
Yes ranking should be done by computer. Cant say I like the idea of at-larges tho. It suggests someone is inviting based on the criteria in one's head at the time. Just invite the top teams. Period. Why the powers that be can turn something so easy in to something so complicated is mind blowing. And to be honest, I don't much care how they want to decide where to play. Neutral, home or whatever. With no byes, giving the higher seed home field seems fair in the first round tho.

 

[adcoop]

The sample size is too small to make any reasonable conclusions. So, there were no close games in the 1st Round this year. Doesn't mean that has to be an every year occurrence. On the other hand, a couple overtime games next year wouldn't prove visionary thinking in expanding the playoff. Some people want to be right so badly that they can't allow anything to play out. I think a couple other variables were at play in addition to the higher rated teams being superior. i think weather played a role in SMU and Tennessee playing so poorly, and I sort of like that variable being brought into the playoffs. It will force our teams (SEC) to try and get out of that 1st round to avoid going into an ice box in Mid-December.

 

[SILVERSPUR-rier]

Do away with conference champtionship games and just use FCS Rules:

The NCAA Division I Football Championship provides for a field of 24 teams to compete in a single elimination tournament. Of the 24 teams, 10 conference champions will receive automatic qualifications with the remaining best 14 teams being selected on an at-large basis by the Division I Football Championship Committee. The top eight teams in the 24-team bracket for the championship are seeded and receive First Round byes. Team pairings are determined according to geographical proximity. Teams from the same conference will not be paired for First Round games or for Second Round games when both teams are playing their first games of the championship (except for teams from the same conference that did not play against each other during the regular season; such teams may play each other in the first and second round).

 

[Gamecock72]

Do away with conference champtionship games and just use FCS Rules:

The NCAA Division I Football Championship provides for a field of 24 teams to compete in a single elimination tournament. Of the 24 teams, 10 conference champions will receive automatic qualifications with the remaining best 14 teams being selected on an at-large basis by the Division I Football Championship Committee. The top eight teams in the 24-team bracket for the championship are seeded and receive First Round byes. Team pairings are determined according to geographical proximity. Teams from the same conference will not be paired for First Round games or for Second Round games when both teams are playing their first games of the championship (except for teams from the same conference that did not play against each other during the regular season; such teams may play each other in the first and second round).

Good luck convincing the conferences and networks into doing away with those very lucrative games.

 

[SILVERSPUR-rier]

Good luck convincing the conferences and networks into doing away with those very lucrative games.

Exactly...

 

[HI Cock1]

One thing that hasn't been said is that you don't have to be the best team to win. It happens a lot in basketball and baseball... and in FCS. But there's no question who the national champion is. Even with the 4-team playoff, we didn't question who the champion was... and it wasn't always the best team.

 

[Piscis]

One thing that hasn't been said is that you don't have to be the best team to win. It happens a lot in basketball and baseball... and in FCS. But there's no question who the national champion is. Even with the 4-team playoff, we didn't question who the champion was... and it wasn't always the best team.

Having a committee to decide who is in the "playoff" ensures there will always be deserving teams that get left out.

 

[atl-cock]

The sample size is too small to make any reasonable conclusions. So, there were no close games in the 1st Round this year. Doesn't mean that has to be an every year occurrence. On the other hand, a couple overtime games next year wouldn't prove visionary thinking in expanding the playoff. Some people want to be right so badly that they can't allow anything to play out. I think a couple other variables were at play in addition to the higher rated teams being superior. i think weather played a role in SMU and Tennessee playing so poorly, and I sort of like that variable being brought into the playoffs. It will force our teams (SEC) to try and get out of that 1st round to avoid going into an ice box in Mid-December.

Exactly. It'll take a few years of tweaking to ge this right. Give it time.

I heard that Spencer Rattler was taking practice snaps in a walk-in freezer this week in anticipation of the weekend's game. Hopefully someone had a fan turned on in there to simulate wind....

 

[gamecock stock]

The 2 prime time playoff games drew the 2nd and 3rd most viewers of any college football games this season.

The opening games averaged more viewers than the non-CFP New Year's bowls after the 2023 season. And they also topped the average for this year's four major conference championship games.

The 2 playoffs shown by TNT were the most watched college football games ever shown on TNT.

I'm not surprised by any of this. You can bet your bottom dollar that after the 2-year contract expires after this year's games, the number of participants will increase to either 14 or 16-teams. The networks see the $$$$ from these games.

The NCAA basketball tournament proved long ago that college football playoffs would be popular with the masses. Most college basketball teams in the "Big Dance" have little chance at winning the national championship. So what? Conference championships mean little when a couple of conferences are akin to winning a minor league championship. Of course I'd feel differently if I was in one of those minor leagues. But, even then, I'd know deep down inside that I was simply talking my book and, thus, was biasedly WRONG. Flying a banner bragging they are champion of the pee wee league should be reward enough for those people. College football simply needs to adopt the selection and seeding criteria based exclusively on merit to work out the kinks. When exceptions are made, then there is no merit. I suspect they will.

 

[atl-cock]

I posted this link on GC a few years ago. It's old (from 2009), but still a good read.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/wetzels-playoff-plan-money-talks-085100096--ncaaf.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

 

[gamecock stock]

I posted this link on GC a few years ago. It's old (from 2009), but still a good read.

Wetzel's playoff plan: Money talks

Even Washington spin doctors can't sell the BCS over a college football tournament. It's all about the Benjamins.

sports.yahoo.com

Money does talk. The real fact is that sports fans are talking with their eyeballs. Some can hide their heads in the sand about all this. But people get what they want. The NCAA basketball tournament expanded to 64 in the mid-1980s. This year's first round was the most watched ever. The 2nd round viewership increased by 5% over the previous year. Rather than being destroyed by expansion, the "Big Dance" is more popular than ever. Some may not like college football playoff expansion. But those people are swimming upstream. Rather than complaining about inevitable expansion, the wise approach is to improve the product. And that would be by selecting and seeding teams by merit, regardless of conference.

 

[Uscg1984]

One thing that hasn't been said is that you don't have to be the best team to win. It happens a lot in basketball and baseball... and in FCS. But there's no question who the national champion is. Even with the 4-team playoff, we didn't question who the champion was... and it wasn't always the best team.

I have made that point in other threads. Even though there was sometimes some controversy, "national champion" in FBS football always meant you were the best team that year. When you introduce playoffs, especially expanded playoffs, you add more degrees of randomness to the process. "National champion" simply comes to mean "playoff champion." It's why the NFL produces a "Superbowl Champion" and not an "NFL Champion."

If people are fine with that, OK, but it's a fundamental change to FBS/I-A college football.

 

[gamecock stock]

I have made that point in other threads. Even though there was sometimes some controversy, "national champion" in FBS football always meant you were the best team that year. When you introduce playoffs, especially expanded playoffs, you add more degrees of randomness to the process. "National champion" simply comes to mean "playoff champion." It's why the NFL produces a "Superbowl Champion" and not an "NFL Champion."

If people are fine with that, OK, but it's a fundamental change to FBS/I-A college football.

When I was a kid, there were just 7 or 8 bowl games. Being in a bowl game then meant something. Now look at it. Making a bowl today is a joke. College football fundamentally changed decades ago, not this decade. When I was growing up, there was a baseball National League and a baseball American League. The winners met in the World Series. That was it, just 2 teams going head-to-head to decide who was the best. Today?????????? Times change. Things change. Either we embrace change or we stress over change. And stress can lead to cancer. That choice is ours.

 

[Uscg1984]

When I was a kid, there were just 7 or 8 bowl games. Being in a bowl game then meant something. Now look at it. Making a bowl today is a joke. College football fundamentally changed decades ago, not this decade. When I was growing up, there was a baseball National League and a baseball American League. The winners met in the World Series. That was it, just 2 teams going head-to-head to decide who was the best. Today?????????? Times change. Things change. Either we embrace change or we stress over change. And stress can lead to cancer. That choice is ours.

Oh, people are going to roll with it. I doubt anybody has any sleepless nights over the expanded CFP. Since you mentioned MLB, I think that's a good example. People just rolled with the changes . . . right into other stuff. Based on the contracts I see in the news, MLB must be making more money than it ever did, but that's not because people are more interested than they've ever been.

 

[atl-cock]

Good luck convincing the conferences and networks into doing away with those very lucrative games.

Why not use FCS rules and have conference championship games (if the individual conferences choose to have a championship game)?

 

[HI Cock1]

Expand to 16 teams. No byes. First round is at home for the higher seed... and fix the seeding.

 

[atl-cock]

Expand to 16 teams. No byes. First round is at home for the higher seed... and fix the seeding.

All rounds through the semi-finals at home for the higher seed.

 

[Cackmandu]

Expansion will give even more boring games.

A boring playoff game beats a boring bowl, kids aren't going to opt-out of a playoff game (I don't think)! Playoff games are meaningful (I think)!

 

[Cackmandu]

No automatic qualifiers of any kind. 12 or 16 teams weighed by a computer using a dispassionate set of requisites to blindly appraise all FBS teams. It's possible. Why not just do it?

Well they do have a contract! I like it though, my only issue is Notre Dame! They can play anyone they want and they are going to be in 95% of the time, it's just not fair to the field!