2012 College Football Offseason Thread

[Derwood]

Can't they just make it a top-four playoff? It really sucks that the ACC and the Big East are going to get a conference-champ affiliated playoff just because they know damn well their conferences are awful.

 

sports radio chatter today suggested that the ACC and Big East may be no more in a few years, as the 4 super-conferences take over everything

[Andy]

Can't they just make it a top-four playoff? It really sucks that the ACC and the Big East are going to get a conference-champ affiliated playoff just because they know damn well their conferences are awful.

 

sports radio chatter today suggested that the ACC and Big East may be no more in a few years, as the 4 super-conferences take over everything

They've been saying that for 2 years. Not that it's impossible (certainly seems more likely than it did then), but I'll still believe that kind of thing when I see it.

[manbearcub]

Just go back to pre-1998 post season.

[Magnetic Curses]

http://www.beyondusports.com/big-ten-football-meets-game-thrones/

[jersey cubs fan]

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8078786/bcs-commissioners-reach-consensus-four-team-college-football-playoff

 

CHICAGO -- The BCS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick on Wednesday endorsed a seeded four-team playoff model for college football that would begin for the 2014 season.

 

The commissioners' consensus must be approved by the BCS presidential oversight committee, which meets June 26 in Washington, D.C. If approved, the four-team playoff would replace the current BCS system, which has been in place since 1998.

 

Sources told ESPN.com that under the recommended model, four participating teams would be selected by a committee, which would consider certain criteria such as conference championships and strength of schedule.

[Andy]

Best possible four-team playoff outcome if true IMO.

[Guest]

A selection committee might be the worst possible way of picking the 4 teams, but at least a seeded 4 team playoff is progress.

[Derwood]

Best possible four-team playoff outcome if true IMO.

 

Not even close. This is going to be a cluster [expletive] of massive proportions

[UMFan83]

I would think you have to have a selection committee with a 4 team playoff, however fallible it will be. Otherwise how can you do it to ensure that a high majority of the time no blatently obvious playoff team is left off?

 

I dunno, I could be completely offbase on this, but how would an automatic selection system address conference winners vs. non-conference winners, or non-BCS conference undefeated teams, or a 2 loss team in the SEC vs. a 1 loss team in the ACC, etc. What would be the other scenarios anyways?

 

Maybe 3 BCS conference winners and a committee selected wild card? What if the 3 conference winners are 11-2 Wisconsin, 13-0 LSU, 12-1 Oklahoma and the 4th spot is between 11-1 Alabama and 12-0 (with lets say wins over Michigan State, TCU and Utah) Boise State? Wouldn't the same crap that happened before occurr, with Alabama getting the nod. I realize there's always going to be controversey around that 5th team, but I would hope this system would at least partially eliminate undefeated non-BCS schools with decent schedules not getting a chance to play for the national title.

 

Of course there is probably an obvious way to do this that I'm just not thinking of, making the whole post moot.

[jersey cubs fan]

I would think you have to have a selection committee with a 4 team playoff, however fallible it will be. Otherwise how can you do it to ensure that a high majority of the time no blatently obvious playoff team is left off?

 

I dunno, I could be completely offbase on this, but how would an automatic selection system address conference winners vs. non-conference winners, or non-BCS conference undefeated teams, or a 2 loss team in the SEC vs. a 1 loss team in the ACC, etc. What would be the other scenarios anyways?

 

Maybe 3 BCS conference winners and a committee selected wild card? What if the 3 conference winners are 11-2 Wisconsin, 13-0 LSU, 12-1 Oklahoma and the 4th spot is between 11-1 Alabama and 12-0 (with lets say wins over Michigan State, TCU and Utah) Boise State? Wouldn't the same crap that happened before occurr, with Alabama getting the nod. I realize there's always going to be controversey around that 5th team, but I would hope this system would at least partially eliminate undefeated non-BCS schools with decent schedules not getting a chance to play for the national title.

 

Of course there is probably an obvious way to do this that I'm just not thinking of, making the whole post moot.

 

The most obvious way is the BCS top 4

[Guest]

Uh, you do it the way you do it now, except you take 4 teams instead of 2. Make whatever stipulations about conference champions you want, change the weighting of the rankings, change the algorithms for the computer rankings, that's all less important than the fact that there's an objective measure and not a room full of people who will (likely) create an obnoxiously bad result.

[Derwood]

Uh, you do it the way you do it now, except you take 4 teams instead of 2. Make whatever stipulations about conference champions you want, change the weighting of the rankings, change the algorithms for the computer rankings, that's all less important than the fact that there's an objective measure and not a room full of people who will (likely) create an obnoxiously bad result.

 

especially if the group of people in the room is some horrible mix of AD's, media members and former coaches

[UMFan83]

Uh, you do it the way you do it now, except you take 4 teams instead of 2. Make whatever stipulations about conference champions you want, change the weighting of the rankings, change the algorithms for the computer rankings, that's all less important than the fact that there's an objective measure and not a room full of people who will (likely) create an obnoxiously bad result.

 

They've been tinkering with the BCS formula for years and still haven't gotten it right...that's what worries me the most about doing it that way. They usually tinker the formula whenever an injustice occurs so it happens a year late. With the selection committee, if there's a clearly deserving team that for whatever reason doesn't do well with the computers, you have a chance to fix that immediately, instead of a year too late.

 

I'm sure one of the reasons why they are doing this is because there is more drama for more teams going into the last weeks, as opposed to having (hypothetically) 3 undefeated teams and 6 1 loss teams. In previous years, the team who is last in the BCS 1 loss team totem pole has pretty much no hope unless they have a huge game left to play or there are a lot of upsets above them. With a selection committee, each of those teams have hope that they will be selected.

 

I dunno, I'm not in love with the idea of a selection committee, and I know they are going to [expletive] it up at times, but I can also see some benefits to it in theory.

[Derwood]

It's going to be so exciting see 2 SEC teams in the playoffs every year, leaving the committee to pick between 10-2 Ohio State, 10-2 Texas or 11-1 USC for 2 of the other spots. Then, because they're going to use the BCS bowl sites for the Final Four, the SEC and PAC 12 teams get annual home field advantage.

 

The only way this works is to eventually get to 4 super conferences. The conference title games serve as the first round, then the four conference champs duke it out in the Final Four

[TruffleShuffle]

It's going to be so exciting see 2 SEC teams in the playoffs every year, leaving the committee to pick between 10-2 Ohio State, 10-2 Texas or 11-1 USC for 2 of the other spots. Then, because they're going to use the BCS bowl sites for the Final Four, the SEC and PAC 12 teams get annual home field advantage.

 

The only way this works is to eventually get to 4 super conferences. The conference title games serve as the first round, then the four conference champs duke it out in the Final Four

 

look it may not be perfect, but i remember doing an exercise a couple of years ago where i created a system of selection. pretty much all of the controversial omissions from the past 10 years were included. i guess people will still argue about #5 and #6, but i think a four team playoff keeps the regular season really important while making the national championship selection less shitty.

[Banedon]

Uh, you do it the way you do it now, except you take 4 teams instead of 2. Make whatever stipulations about conference champions you want, change the weighting of the rankings, change the algorithms for the computer rankings, that's all less important than the fact that there's an objective measure and not a room full of people who will (likely) create an obnoxiously bad result.

 

especially if the group of people in the room is some horrible mix of AD's, media members and former coaches

 

Just playing some devil's advocate here, but why do we trust a selection committee for basketball but not for football? Just because there's so many teams that any disputes involve teams that aren't all that good to begin with?

[Guest]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

[Banedon]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

I guess, but I'm kinda ok with the disagreement being with the 4th or 5th best team being pissed than the 2nd best team. At least we've moved the discussion further down the "ladder".

[Derwood]

But in a 4 team scenario, it's possible (nay, likely) to have 2 teams from one conference represented, which means you would have the champions of a major conference completely left out. This also doesn't really give the Boise States or TCU's THAT much more of a chance. The committee is more likely to pick an 11-1 Ohio State over a 12-0 Boise.

[Banedon]

But in a 4 team scenario, it's possible (nay, likely) to have 2 teams from one conference represented, which means you would have the champions of a major conference completely left out. This also doesn't really give the Boise States or TCU's THAT much more of a chance. The committee is more likely to pick an 11-1 Ohio State over a 12-0 Boise.

 

Well it's hard to say that now that both TCU and Boise will be in a major conference.

[Guest]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

I guess, but I'm kinda ok with the disagreement being with the 4th or 5th best team being pissed than the 2nd best team. At least we've moved the discussion further down the "ladder".

 

That happens regardless of how you pick the 4 teams.

[jersey cubs fan]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

Isn't it more like the 49th best team that gets screwed? I thought that was the argument, since there are all the automatic selections.

 

Anyway, your point remains. But that outlandish whining is going to exist no matter where the cutoff point is. I think 4 should be enough to get the teams that belong there in the hunt. But I don't like the committee.

[UMFan83]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

I guess, but I'm kinda ok with the disagreement being with the 4th or 5th best team being pissed than the 2nd best team. At least we've moved the discussion further down the "ladder".

 

What if a 12-0 Boise State left out after winning @ MSU, @ TCU and vs. Utah. Of course you could make the argument that they should have played a tougher schedule, then BSU fans say they tried, and we're left with the exact same argument as before. What is Boise State really is the best team that year and don't get selected? What if there are 5 teams with 1 loss and relatively similar resumes, to the point where the number 1 team could just as easily been 5.

 

I know these are a bit of extreme scenarios and many years there will be a clear gap between 1 and 4, but as soon as something like the above happens, there will be controversey. And the first time a 4 seed wins the title, there will be more scrutiny towards the selection process.

[jersey cubs fan]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

I guess, but I'm kinda ok with the disagreement being with the 4th or 5th best team being pissed than the 2nd best team. At least we've moved the discussion further down the "ladder".

 

What if a 12-0 Boise State left out after winning @ MSU, @ TCU and vs. Utah. Of course you could make the argument that they should have played a tougher schedule, then BSU fans say they tried, and we're left with the exact same argument as before. What is Boise State really is the best team that year and don't get selected? What if there are 5 teams with 1 loss and relatively similar resumes, to the point where the number 1 team could just as easily been 5.

 

I know these are a bit of extreme scenarios and many years there will be a clear gap between 1 and 4, but as soon as something like the above happens, there will be controversey. And the first time a 4 seed wins the title, there will be more scrutiny towards the selection process.

 

Now that BSU has been "on the scene" for quite a while I think it will be much easier for them to actually qualify if they do go undefeated, to get a spot. A big part of their problem before was nobody believed they were really any good and just a flash in the pan type team (which many teams have done in the past). I think that sentiment has changed.

[shnsajax]

Because the disagreements in the basketball tournament are over like the 65th best team, not the 5th. If the basketball committee screws up, then that team's fans are pissed, but they didn't really have a chance at a title anyway. More importantly, the basketball season is three times as long, which makes it much easier to differentiate between teams.

 

I guess, but I'm kinda ok with the disagreement being with the 4th or 5th best team being pissed than the 2nd best team. At least we've moved the discussion further down the "ladder".

 

What if a 12-0 Boise State left out after winning @ MSU, @ TCU and vs. Utah. Of course you could make the argument that they should have played a tougher schedule, then BSU fans say they tried, and we're left with the exact same argument as before. What is Boise State really is the best team that year and don't get selected? What if there are 5 teams with 1 loss and relatively similar resumes, to the point where the number 1 team could just as easily been 5.

 

I know these are a bit of extreme scenarios and many years there will be a clear gap between 1 and 4, but as soon as something like the above happens, there will be controversey. And the first time a 4 seed wins the title, there will be more scrutiny towards the selection process.

 

Now that BSU has been "on the scene" for quite a while I think it will be much easier for them to actually qualify if they do go undefeated, to get a spot. A big part of their problem before was nobody believed they were really any good and just a flash in the pan type team (which many teams have done in the past). I think that sentiment has changed.

 

Exactly this. If TCU or BSU were undefeated going into a playoff system last year they would have made the top 4. Houston on the other hand should they had run the table didn't deserve to make it. Nothing is ever going to be perfect but this still keeps bowls generating crazy money which is their primary concern.