Andy

I get that they have a rapist at QB but what is it about the rest of the team? They don't seem any worse than the typical elite college team. Their starting RB beat his pregnant girlfriend, and their coach said with a straight face after they beat ND that their program is about class and integrity. Which is worse than ND how? I was explaining why one might find FSU loathsome. Anyone is free to find ND loathsome if they want, but the post I was replying to didn't mention them, so I don't really see the need to shoehorn them into the discussion.

I get that they have a rapist at QB but what is it about the rest of the team? They don't seem any worse than the typical elite college team. Their starting RB beat his pregnant girlfriend, and their coach said with a straight face after they beat ND that their program is about class and integrity.

I originally thought I should want FSU to win tonight, but the committee made it pretty clear they don't give a rip about "quality of loss", as far as such a thing can exist, so I'm thinking a Louisville win would be better for ND so they could shoot up the rankings prior to the 11/22 game.

He does in my book.

I can't believe Bumgarner. This is literally unprecedented. Over twice as long as any other SP with 2 other WS starts in a Game 7 bullpen outing.

Citation needed here. Sure a couple teams will probably be more assured of their playoff spot in the last week or two, but if anything there's far more teams gunning for #8 in November than there will be teams gunning for #4. Also, the 'mulligans' you're referring to are basically 'the right to play one of the best couple teams in the country in the 1st round of the playoffs, possibly on the road'. More does not always equal better, and the tension will be lessened by the #12 team or whatever still being alive even after at least 2 losses in mid-November. If you can lose twice and still be very much alive, the week-to-week tension plummets. Self-replying here - for instance, the ND/FSU game two weeks ago, while fun, wouldn't have near the meaning in an 8-team system. Both would easily be able to make it to the playoff. In the current system, ND, now having lost the game, is by no means a lock to get in even if they win out, especially since their schedule looks far less overwhelming than it did in July. The entire SEC West season would be different because any team could lose twice and still easily pick up enough quality wins to get an at-large bid. Hell, even as it is, 2 losses might still win the SEC West and therefore give the champ a shot at playing their way in. Both ND and FSU can pretty easily still make the playoff in the current format. I mean, there's 4 SEC teams alone in front of ND with like 4-5 games against each other, TCU plays K-State, etc. If your premise were true then no one would care about conference tournaments in basketball season, but those continue to be very popular. The same logic applies, more teams have at least an outside shot at a playoff berth so people tune in to see if it comes to fruition, and teams that are more assured of their spot still have seeding to play for. If anything this is even more significant in the football playoff, because even if a team is a 'lock' the season is short enough that they could stumble into a game where they're a potential underdog or even playing the best/near best team in the country. If the season ended on Saturday in an 8 team playoff, do you think Ole Miss/Auburn would be a pointless affair? No, even if both were guaranteed a spot(they wouldn't, your certainty about locks before championship week is exaggerated), they'd desperately want to win to avoid having to play Florida State/Miss State in round 1. All your points have some degree of merit, frankly. I think I might just be an old man on this topic.

Not gonna lie, this is kind of exciting.

'Almost certainly' might be a stretch as there is any number of scenarios that could end with multiple SEC West teams tied with 2 losses for the division - and given the committee's initial rankings, it looks like the loser will still have plenty of chances to pick up quality wins. But it should affect the playoff picture as much as any game before it.

Citation needed here. Sure a couple teams will probably be more assured of their playoff spot in the last week or two, but if anything there's far more teams gunning for #8 in November than there will be teams gunning for #4. Also, the 'mulligans' you're referring to are basically 'the right to play one of the best couple teams in the country in the 1st round of the playoffs, possibly on the road'. More does not always equal better, and the tension will be lessened by the #12 team or whatever still being alive even after at least 2 losses in mid-November. If you can lose twice and still be very much alive, the week-to-week tension plummets. Self-replying here - for instance, the ND/FSU game two weeks ago, while fun, wouldn't have near the meaning in an 8-team system. Both would easily be able to make it to the playoff. In the current system, ND, now having lost the game, is by no means a lock to get in even if they win out, especially since their schedule looks far less overwhelming than it did in July. The entire SEC West season would be different because any team could lose twice and still easily pick up enough quality wins to get an at-large bid. Hell, even as it is, 2 losses might still win the SEC West and therefore give the champ a shot at playing their way in.

I still like the idea of an 8 team playoff where the first round is at the home stadiums of the top 4 seeds If they went to 8, I have to think this is what would happen. It's already pushing it asking fan bases to send thousands of people to two different neutral-site locations within a week and a half. Add a third and you've got problems.

Citation needed here. Sure a couple teams will probably be more assured of their playoff spot in the last week or two, but if anything there's far more teams gunning for #8 in November than there will be teams gunning for #4. Also, the 'mulligans' you're referring to are basically 'the right to play one of the best couple teams in the country in the 1st round of the playoffs, possibly on the road'. More does not always equal better, and the tension will be lessened by the #12 team or whatever still being alive even after at least 2 losses in mid-November. If you can lose twice and still be very much alive, the week-to-week tension plummets.

How is an 8 team playoff "too many games" for the FBS schools, but not the FCS schools? I know nothing about the FCS, but I'm pretty sure most of them don't play 12 games and none of them play conference championship games.

Literally every other major American sport has an overly inclusive playoff system. We can't just have one that isn't? They would never go past 8 because of the additional number of games and all that. If you don't think an 8 team College Football playoff wouldn't be fun as hell to watch, then you're a communist and hate puppies. The seven playoff games would be fun, sure. Playoff games are always fun. Would it be fun enough to make up for the loss of some of that week-to-week tension generated by the exclusivity of a small playoff? I don't think so, though obviously I'm in the minority. The idea of any contender automatically having a mulligan no matter how bad the loss is, and most SEC contenders probably having 2, plus the loss of any real reason for any power-conference fan to care what happens in any other power conference because they'd all have auto-bids for their champions, doesn't seem very much fun to me.

Literally every other major American sport has an overly inclusive playoff system. We can't just have one that isn't?

I don't think this is true at all. Mid-major teams can now shoot for a New Year's 6 bowl every year, and lower-tier Power 5 teams (Minnesota, Kentucky, Wazzu to use a few examples) still know they're not likely to make the playoff and can use a certain number of wins or even an occasional New Year's 6 bowl appearance of their own as benchmarks. I do think the further you expand the playoff, the less of that there will be.

Michigan State has no business ahead of Notre Dame. ND beat Michigan and Purdue by more and looked far better in their loss than MSU did. MSU has a better top win, but they also played an FCS team and Eastern Michigan. I'm 100% ok with ND at 10 if 11 smart people and Tyrone Willingham came to that conclusion, but I think Arizona has a better case than MSU to be ahead of them. TCU and Arizona are too low, and Oregon and Auburn are too high. That being said, none of this matters. If the committee fully re-evaluates every week and adjusts accordingly, rather than falling into a poll inertia situation, all of this is fine.

I remember Jacque Jones hitting a home run over the hill, and I feel like I remember him making a great catch up there too, but I might have someone else in mind.

Written by a Florida State grad. Who decided not to disclose that in this piece. That's not to say his points are without merit, because they aren't, but I find that suspicious.

For S's & G's, my top 4 right now would be, in order, Mississippi State, Florida State, Alabama and TCU. I feel like it's a lock that the committee top 4 will waver from the polls' top 4 in this first ranking, just to prove that they're different.

I'm putting in a FAAB claim on Lorenzo Taliaferro and planning on dropping James Jones for him in my 14-team league. Assuming I win the bid (which I may not because I've blown most of my budget already), I'm not crazy, right? For context, I'm stocked at WR (Demaryius, Hilton, Maclin, Hopkins, Terrance Williams) and short at RB (at present, just Ben Tate and Ronnie Hillman, with Isaiah Crowell as a Tate handcuff). Ideally, the only time I'll be playing Taliaferro (or Jones, if I didn't win the bid) will be Week 10, when both my flex-starting WRs are off.

SRO tickets for tonight's WS game in KC are starting at $328 on StubHub. Factoring in the bigger city, smaller park and bigger fan base, I'm thinking it might be close to double that for a Cubs game. That may even be conservative.

Though they continue to cherish their independence, I wonder if this would lead ND to consider a conference. As of now, theoretically, there could be 4 teams in the playoff that aren't conference winners (extremely unlikely, I know), but that number goes down to 3 with this potential format and, more importantly, guarantees the conference champ a spot. I don't think they would join, but you never know. Chance at a guaranteed spot for joining the B1G or ACC might make it more appealing. I'm sure they would make some sort of ND rule like they did for the BCS, like if ND is in the top 8 of their rankings they have to be picked. Their continued sway over an entity far bigger than them is unbelievable. I actually don't mind ND, but am perplexed as to why the powers that be continue to let them do whatever the hell they want. It's really something, probably helped out by the fact that the NCAA is such an awful organization with no real power. Good for them, I guess. The NCAA lets everyone do whatever the hell they want, especially with regard to football. The only thing that makes ND different is that they decided to shop their own TV rights rather than hand them to a conference. (Actually, the MWC lets Boise do that too, although that doesn't seem to be doing much for them.)

Though they continue to cherish their independence, I wonder if this would lead ND to consider a conference. As of now, theoretically, there could be 4 teams in the playoff that aren't conference winners (extremely unlikely, I know), but that number goes down to 3 with this potential format and, more importantly, guarantees the conference champ a spot. I don't think they would join, but you never know. Chance at a guaranteed spot for joining the B1G or ACC might make it more appealing. I'm sure they would make some sort of ND rule like they did for the BCS, like if ND is in the top 8 of their rankings they have to be picked. That seems highly unlikely to me. They made no such rule regarding ND qualifying for one of the New Year's 6 bowls, so I'm guessing they'd just be thrown in the pool with everyone else battling for one of the other 3 spots.

And it's going to suck. The only good thing that came out of the BCS was it made every game affect every other one in the title picture. If every power conference gets an automatic bid, there's no reason for anyone in B1G country to care about an SEC game, and vice versa. ND could finish #5 this year and I'd still be vehemently against any further playoff expansion. Like it or not, it's going to happen. A) AD's and conference commissioners are going to lose their [expletive] when their teams are left out this year. B) Mo money, mo money. I honestly would love to see it. Miss St vs TCU, Mich St vs Bama, Georgia vs ND, Oregon vs FSU? Yes, please. I know it's going to happen. That won't make me like it.

waiting for the autopsy report Being perfectly honest, that was one of my first thoughts given the organization's history. But hearing about wackadoodle drivers in Latin America does make it make a bit more sense.