Running CFB Playoff Debate Thread

[Vombatus]

Wishful thinking, but who wouldn't love to see ...
(8) UCF vs (1) Bama
(5) Clemson vs (4) Oklahoma
(6) Georgia at (3) Wisconsin
(7) Wazzu at (2) Miami

Five champs, two at-larges (Georgia, Clemson) and the best G5 (UCF). It wouldn't suck. And it doesn't need to go any further than that.

AMEN!!!

 

[LongTimeListener]

That’s some cold-ass games in vacated towns at the end of December or the beginning of January (Norman and Madison in this scenario). College stadiums haven’t been retrofitted for weather the way most NFL stadiums have been.

It’s also taxing on fans to travel to two games, let alone three.

I’m not against an eight-team playoff, but I think the host team model has some problems in the northern half of the country, and going to all neutral sites is going to lead to some small crowds as fans balance their budgets.

 

[Cosmo]

Meant for those to all be neutral sites, sorry. You make a good point, though, re: attendance. I don't think there's a great answer there.

 

[TyWebb]

Wishful thinking, but who wouldn't love to see ...
(8) UCF vs (1) Bama
(5) Clemson vs (4) Oklahoma
(6) Georgia at (3) Wisconsin
(7) Wazzu at (2) Miami

Five champs, two at-larges (Georgia, Clemson) and the best G5 (UCF). It wouldn't suck. And it doesn't need to go any further than that.

I prefer the four-team playoff, but I'm warming to the idea of eight. That said, I'm less and less in favor of giving automatic bids to power five conference champs or the best G5. Stick with the committee/playoff rankings we have now and just pick eight. If your conference is so bad that you can't land your champ in the top 8, try again next year. I think most years this won't be a problem, but this year there isn't a Pac-12 team I think should be within sniffing distance of a playoff.

 

[Chef2]

Wishful thinking, but who wouldn't love to see ...
(8) UCF vs (1) Bama
(5) Clemson vs (4) Oklahoma
(6) Georgia at (3) Wisconsin
(7) Wazzu at (2) Miami

Five champs, two at-larges (Georgia, Clemson) and the best G5 (UCF). It wouldn't suck. And it doesn't need to go any further than that.

Winner winner chicken dinner.
I've never thought 4 was the right number.
4 is not enough.
16 is too many.
I'm way good with this scenario.

 

[Cosmo]

I'm only for the best G5 auto bid because it gives those league champs a reason to feel like they have a chance. As a fan of the sport, I'd really like to see what a special G5 team (a 12-0 UCF, for instance) can do given a chance in a playoff situation.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Some years, though, no G5 team leaps to the forefront and the best one may be a 9-3 Arkansas State. Then it’s up to the committee again.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Isn’t G5 currently under a rule that they have to be at a certain rank to qualify for a Big Six bowl? That would work here too.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Still don't see Wisconsin in the top 4. Curious if Auburn jumps into the top 6.

Thinking it'll be 1) Alabama 2) Clemson 3) Miami 4) Oklahoma 5) Wisconsin and 6) Auburn

Undefeated has to beat one-loss teams. Has to, or the system falls apart. This is basic social sciences stuff. There can be discrimination between teams with equal records. Not for teams who have worse records than a competitor.

If the Badgers finish the season undefeated they will be in the Top 4. They will not in the be in the Top 4 this week.

My prediction is that they will be, as Notre Dame will surely drop out and so will Georgia. Alabama, Miami, Wisconsin and Clemson, not necessarily in that order.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

Some years, though, no G5 team leaps to the forefront and the best one may be a 9-3 Arkansas State. Then it’s up to the committee again.

You can make like a top 20 minimum requirement or something but I can't think of the last time the best G5 or mid-major if we're talking Big East days wasn't a double-digit win team. Those Boise teams, Urban's Utah team, TCU and more recently Houston and Western Michigan, etc. etc. the best one is usually miles ahead.

The AAC still has an fun three-way fight for that NY6 spot. USF-UCF on Black Friday and the winner plays Memphis.

 

[tapintoamerica]

The Pac-12 won't be involved in the playoff, no question about that.
Just want to point out that the Pac-12 championship game is on Friday, Dec. 1. USC will have 13 days to prepare. Whoever they play will have 6 days. The Trojans played 12 consecutive weeks, no bye week. Their bye, technically, is Nov. 25.
Unfair? Yep.

Does this happen every year? In other words, is the schedule so unwieldy that somebody is always off the last week?

 

[tapintoamerica]

All of the bowls below the New Year's Day Six have scaled down the ticket quotas. Some bowls that required teams to guarantee 12,500 tickets are now requiring only about 8,000. They adapted.

They had to.. I also suspect they were able to do this in part because of residual TV cash stemming from the playoff.

 

[tapintoamerica]

So Wisconsin's SoS (past and future opposition combined) is 65th. UCF's is 40th. One of these teams has absolutely no shot at making the playoff. It's still a brand-name sport.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Does this happen every year? In other words, is the schedule so unwieldy that somebody is always off the last week?

SC has that weekend off because it played at ND this year. In the even years, ND plays at SC on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[I Should Coco]

So Wisconsin's SoS (past and future opposition combined) is 65th. UCF's is 40th. One of these teams has absolutely no shot at making the playoff. It's still a brand-name sport.

Ah, but the Knights don't have to battle through a conference grind like Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa ...

 

[Neutral Corner]

One thing that should be done if you want the playoff to be anything resembling fair - do away with the pre-season Top 25. It's bogus to give teams that big a leg up based on nothing more than their reputation, last year's record, and their perceived recruiting. Almost every year there is a team in the Top 25 that screws the pooch and drops like a rock, and others who simply are not deserving and slowly ooze down.

Once a team is ranked, there is a lot of inertia to moving up or down.

Florida State was the AP preseason #3. LSU at 13. Florida was 17. Texas at 23. Tennessee at 25.

Teams who started lower, and particularly teams who were not ranked in the preseason, have to fight uphill to make even the lower rungs, and they have to wait for the deadwood to drop before they can even begin to move up. Rankings shouldn't even start till week three or four, when there is an actual record to judge by. Rank teams based on who they actually play and win and some of the early season Enormous St. vs Coastal Carolina matchups will go away.

Of course, there is an entire cottage industry devoted to selling preseason rankings and analysis so it will never happen, but it should.

 

[ChrisLong]

SC has that weekend off because it played at ND this year. In the even years, ND plays at SC on Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm not sure of the specifics, but I think it had something to do with USC having previously scheduled a game against a school that just dropped from FBS to FCS. USC won't play FCS schools. Western Michigan was a late addition in Week 1.
Usually, when the Trojans play at Notre Dame in October, they play UCLA the last game of the season on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[BTExpress]

So Wisconsin's SoS (past and future opposition combined) is 65th. UCF's is 40th. One of these teams has absolutely no shot at making the playoff. It's still a brand-name sport.

I don't think the SOS takes into consideration the Big Ten championship game, which basically determines whether Wisky is worthy or not.

 

[Songbird]

I was on the elliptical when the SportsCenter ticker showed that one of the committee members (perhaps the chair?) said he has a problem with Miami not beating a winning team on the road yet.

LOL, the way they try to parse the **** out of this thing ...

 

[tapintoamerica]

I don't think the SOS takes into consideration the Big Ten championship game, which basically determines whether Wisky is worthy or not.

Correct. It does not. So Wisconsin would close the gap. I don't know how much that gap would close. Curious to see.