CFB offseason thread 2025

[Della9250]

And I don't think anyone wants it to resemble college basketball, where the postseason is the ONLY thing that anyone really cares about.

There's only 12 games. If you are a fan of a big time program, you want your team to win as many games as possible. 11-1 is still a hell of a lot better than 9-3. Winning a conference title means something. Being a top seed means something.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Well, this seems stupid. A half-empty NFL stadium on the Strip is not a college atmosphere.

 

[Slacker]

12 is fine with only guaranteed spots for conference champions. None of this SEC and B1G automatically get so many slots. No. If you're good enough you'll get in.

Eight was just fine by me, and that should be the ceiling. And none of this whining from teams on the bubble. That's what took it from four teams to eight pretty quick, what a surprise, and still the bubblers blubber and whine.

So for any team (and their fans) whining about being shut out at 9, 10, etc. – and to end this awful progression from eight to 12 to 16 and beyond – the proper message should have been this: "Hey, you wanna be a playoff lock? Be a top-5 team. We've already allowed a little extra room for the bubble whiners."

As said by others: In college football,
the regular season is the playoff system at large.

If you can't at least stake a claim to the top 4 or 5,
be better next time if boxed out from the group of eight.
"We're No. 9!" doesn't mean you're a legit title contender.

And constantly expanding turns a playoff into a tournament.
YMMV

 

[dixiehack]

At no point was their an eight-team tournament.

I’m OK with 12 because it allows for the top G5 team, which I doubt the bigger leagues would have consented to at eight. And even though all of them lost last season, I think having the top four teams get byes helps preserve the incentive to go all out in the regular season and conference championship weekend.

It’s been one whole year. Let’s give it a chance.

 

[BTExpress]

It's been one whole year. Everybody will have 95% new players this year. Let's give it a chance.

FTFY

 

[MileHigh]

At no point was their an eight-team tournament.

I'm OK with 12 because it allows for the top G5 team, which I doubt the bigger leagues would have consented to at eight. And even though all of them lost last season, I think having the top four teams get byes helps preserve the incentive to go all out in the regular season and conference championship weekend.

It's been one whole year. Let's give it a chance.

And they will not shrink from 12 to 8 or back to 4. And the tweaking this year of the byes as the top four ranked teams instead of the top four conference champions is a good step. If it goes to 16, so be it.

 

[dixiehack]

I think people’s angst is less about the expanded playoffs and more about expanded playoffs + free transfers + NIL all hitting practically at once. It’s left a lot of people dizzy and unsure if they want to continue this ride.

 

[Slacker]

At no point was their an eight-team tournament.

Eight teams as a discussion point. No more should be needed.

But, fine, use 12 teams as the model instead. That's quite enough, too.

 

[Meat Slapping Sound]

Looks like Auburn is learning from its big brother:

 

[dixiehack]

That’s adorable.

 

[SixToe]

Wayne Atcheson started all that

 

[dixiehack]

I just can’t wait to see the 1913 champs at the grand reunion they announced.

 

[BTExpress]

Pat Dye probably played for a tie to clinch that championship.

 

[HanSenSE]

I just can't wait to see the 1913 champs at the grand reunion they announced.

When Toomer's Corner was a sapling.

 

[Della9250]

Looks like Auburn is learning from its big brother:

I’m surprised they didn’t already claim 2004

1910 seems like they only garbage claim. There are like eight undefeated programs and they have a loss. I don’t know how you can saw you are a national champ in that setup.

 

[dixiehack]

The 1910s are tricky in general because Southern football was regarded as so inferior to the other regions then. Think about an undefeated or one-loss MAC or C-USA champ before playoff expansion. They were treated as a polite novelty and not a serious contender.

Now the regional pride part of me says that was probably bull****, but everything before World War I (and for the most part before 1934 and the breakaway of the SEC) is a big gap in my FBC history knowledge. So I can’t say that for certain. Some day I ought to go back and fill that knowledge gap in.

 

[Meat Slapping Sound]

I'm surprised they didn't already claim 2004

1910 seems like they only garbage claim. There are like eight undefeated programs and they have a loss. I don't know how you can saw you are a national champ in that setup.

The 2004 claim seems kinda garbage to me, also. They can argue they got screwed by the BCS, and I'd probably agree, but they didn't they didn't even finish No. 1 in any reputable poll. And polls stopped being how we decided the national champion in 1998 anyway.

At least in 2003, USC finished No. 1 in the AP poll

 

[dixiehack]

They already had the parade and made rings in 2004 after the ultra-official Eufaula Tribune national championship poll so I’m surprised they are just now getting around to counting it on the books.

Of course now Tommy Tuberville has an entirely new career based on enforcing an alternate reality.

 

[Della9250]

The 1910s are tricky in general because Southern football was regarded as so inferior to the other regions then. Think about an undefeated or one-loss MAC or C-USA champ before playoff expansion. They were treated as a polite novelty and not a serious contender.

Now the regional pride part of me says that was probably bull****, but everything before World War I (and for the most part before 1934 and the breakaway of the SEC) is a big gap in my FBC history knowledge. So I can't say that for certain. Some day I ought to go back and fill that knowledge gap in.

I just don't get saying that our 6-1 team in 1910 is better than:
Pitt 9-0
Harvard 9-0-1
Vanderbilt 8-0-1
Navy 8-0-1
Illinois 7-0
USC 7-0-1
Washington 6-0

That's SEVEN teams which have a better argument.


The other years I get. You didn't have a loss, although some had ties.

 

[dixiehack]

I literally haven’t even looked at the records yet. I’m all for dragging Auburn at any opportunity.