What Happens?

[BarryBobPosthole]

....if Mizzou beats Alabama this weekend?

Oregon-FSU and TCU-OSU in the playoffs? Or its possible Baylor could end up in there if OSU were to also get beat. And the Badguhs might be the team to do just that.

Eddie already thinks nobody would watch since there wouldn't be a SEC team in the playoffs.

Personally, that's what I'm rooting for. Then lets see what the ratings are. I mean there ain't no football fans outside of the SEC are there?

And all those years the Big 12 had a playoff and hardly anyone else did. Now everyone else does but the Big 12 doesn't. Seems strange. And this 'One true championship' slogan they've been touting all year sounds kind of strange when the friggin conference championship ends in a tie. What happened to tie breakers? Why isn't Baylor ranked over TCU when Baylor beat them in the regular season?

And we threw out the BCS for this?

Oh the humanity.

BKB

[jb]

The sun will come up Sunday morning as always.

[Chicken Dinner]

If Bama loses, the SEC gets shut out. Wouldn't that be a hoot! I also don't see FSU beating Ga Tech. (I don't see FSU slowing down the triple option.). With no QB, OSU will struggle against Wisconsin. So, that could put both Baylor and TT in. Either way, it's going to be an interesting weekend.

[LJ3]

I don't follow college ball like you dufes. Seems to me there's no reason not to have an elimination based playoff schedule like all other pro sports. The best teams keep playing until there's one team left. All this "they should be X because they didn't beat Y" seems like it would be addressed for the most part.

The only reason not to is money. And we all know what kind of people are around money. Just axe BBP.

[LJ3]

OK... so I poked around a little and it seems like a decent start.

http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/overview

Just take the top 16 teams instead of 4. That will reduce the crying and make sure that whoever wins didn't get there by luck.

3 playoff weekends get you a champion.

Or make it the top 32 teams and have 4 playoff weekends.

[BarryBobPosthole]

There really isn't anything at all wrong with a football playoff. They've been doing it for years at the FCS level and it works well. They've expanded to like 20 teams and that's way too many IMO. But unless there is some sort of qualifier, like conference winners and runners up or something to that effect, there'll never be a 'true' playoff. See, what happens is when you have automatic qualifiers that makes the opinions of folks at the AP (sports writers) and ESPN (sports motherfuckers) irrelevant. In today's world, the networks are essentially the pimps of the conferences and whomever they have a deal with is who they will pimp to the world as the team most deserving to be involved in the championship. the BCS used a somewhat scientific formula that de-emphasized the poll rankings and the sports writers and meduia hated it and railed against it every single year. and now they have a four team playoff that basically is decided by a panel of people that use, you guessed it, rankings as their primary rationale for their selection. Its as mythical a national championship as any pre-BCS national champions ship ever was and to say the current system is more accurate at selecting participants in a championship game is poppycock. Emphasis on the COCK.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

8 team playoff. Conference champion from the Power 5 conferences plus the next best three teams. Done.

[LJ3]

Sounds like plenty of poppy, as well :)

Is there any way to take opinion out of it? No polls, no opinions, no secret committee. Just data.

[BarryBobPosthole]

You actually could do it that way, but I think the fear is not including some deserving team. The FCS, when they had 16 teams, had eight automatic qualifiers (conference champs) and eight 'at large' teams that were invited. I'm not sure who made those determinations, but it kind of worked like the NCAA basketball Selection Committee. In actuality, its the money involved that is the only reason there are at large qualifiers. That process also takes care of the smaller conference schools where they get no national rankings because of their size and the conferences don't participate to the extent to get an automatic bid. But it really just comes down to money.

BKB

[Buckrub]

I love sports networks. Keeps me from having to watch Survivor, fags dancing, or the news. I don't listen to their commentary, so I don't hate em.

Should be 16 teams, and there will be. Patience....16 is the number that includes all contenders and excludes all pretenders.

SEC haters amuse me. Most of them come from conferences that can't even count. None could play an sec west schedule and survive.

[quercus alba]

As long as ohio st loses, life is good

[Chicken Dinner]

The last time I checked, the SEC West was not a conference...

[BarryBobPosthole]

Yes, three teams in the SEC West have better than .500 records against top 25 teams, which is slightly better than the SEC East, which has only one team with a winning record against top 25 teams. The SEC is no different than any other conference and that is a fact. They have a few teams that are top contenders every year and the rest are pretty much pretty good teams but are not much better than the also-rans from the other conferences, Big 12 included. What is hard to take is the constant boasting and bull feathers being blown about by fans of SEC teams like its some kind of gauntlet. No more, no less than anybody else. But at least CBS and ESPN make their billions off of them, like Eddie said! That's something to be proud of!

BKB

[Buckrub]

Hahaha.

Like I said.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Here's the future of college football thanks to the current playoff system. and note, this ESPN writer says its what ALL teams should do.

BKB

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/104486/dont-like-your-ranking-hire-a-pr-firm

The news trickled out Monday that Baylor -- currently No. 6 in the latest rankings from the College Football Playoff selection committee -- had hired a public relations firm to make the Bears’ case for the playoff. The move was largely derided as unbecoming of a college football program, lobbying off the field rather than worrying about winning on it.

But here's the thing: Baylor's got it right.

[+] EnlargeArt Briles
AP Photo/LM OteroArt Briles and Baylor haven't been able to convince the committee on the field, so they're taking their case to the court of public opinion.
Politicking by coaches was a longstanding tradition under the old system, but one-third of the BCS equation was determined by those pesky computers that wouldn’t be swayed by emotion or personal bias. They were fed by cold, hard data, and their decisions were final.

This system, where a 12-0 team is ranked fourth and the winner of a head-to-head matchup with the same record ranks three places behind the loser? This one responds to narrative.

Hiring a PR staff to state your case is really no different from bringing a lawyer to a trial. They’re not there to change the rules or bribe the jury. They’re there to make sure the prosecutor isn’t the only one telling the story. And in this landscape of splitting hairs and parsing résumés, that’s not uncouth or objectionable for a program. It’s necessary.

Let’s take Baylor as an example. The narrative the committee believes is that the Bears have had a weaker schedule and only narrowly beat TCU in a game the Horned Frogs actually dominated for the first three quarters. But what the PR firm might remind those committee members is that TCU went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Baylor 45 with just over a minute left to play because it knew it had no chance otherwise. In fact, here are Gary Patterson’s own words after the game: "Even if we kicked it to the 5-yard line, I didn't know if we could stop them," Patterson said. Does that sound like a team that’s significantly better than Baylor? Even TCU’s coach didn’t think he had an answer for Bryce Petty.

Or how about Alabama? The Tide doesn’t need a PR staff to create its narrative. It was repeated everywhere after a 55-44 come-from-behind win in the Iron Bowl. Of course, Oregon’s PR firm might want to remind the committee that Alabama scored those 55 points against a team that fired its defensive coordinator two days later. Or it might remind them that, since 2000, no national champion has ever allowed more than 566 yards in a game, and the Tide coughed up 628 to Auburn. Or it might be worth a mention that Alabama needed a missed PAT to get past 6-6 Arkansas, or that its loss to Ole Miss sure doesn’t look quite as good as Oregon’s defeat to an Arizona team that’s now playing the Ducks a second time with a Pac-12 title on the line.

Ohio State could certainly use a PR firm at its disposal. The committee has judged the Buckeyes’ loss to Virginia Tech as a glaring sign that they aren’t playoff caliber, and with an injury to quarterback J.T. Barrett, it’s going to be tough to change many hearts and minds now. But a good publicist would certainly point out that football is a game of matchups, and while the Hokies’ 6-6 record looks shoddy now, they still rank ninth in the nation in defensive efficiency, and it was that defense that thwarted a young QB making his second start behind a battered O-line. If Ohio State had played Alabama’s nonconference slate, the Buckeyes might well be undefeated right now.

College Football Playoff Top 10

TCU moved past undefeated Florida State in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Rankings | Bowl Projections
1. Alabama 6. Baylor
2. Oregon 7. Arizona
3. TCU 8. Michigan State
4. Florida State 9. Kansas State
5. Ohio State 10. Mississippi State
How about Missouri? If any team needs a publicist, it’s Gary Pinkel’s squad. The Tigers are headed to the SEC title game for the second time in as many years, and they’re still a complete afterthought. They can beat Alabama on Saturday, and there still won’t be many lobbying for them to make the playoff.

Wisconsin and Georgia Tech figure to be long shots for the playoff, too, but if the committee is willing to rank one-loss teams ahead of a 12-0 squad, why not take a red-hot two-loss team, too? Someone should really be making their case.

And, of course, there’s Florida State, which after all it's been through the past two seasons, should probably have a host of PR professionals on retainer at all times. The Seminoles keep winning, yet they also keep dropping in the polls. How’s that possible? It’s all about perspective.

The committee clearly sees a flawed team that has barely squeaked by marginal opponents week after week. Surely if the Seminoles played a schedule as tough as Alabama's, they wouldn’t be sporting that sterling 12-0 record.

But that’s where a good publicist would come in handy, because FSU’s case is pretty solid. The ACC got its fourth win of the season over a nonconference, top-10 team last week. That’s more than any other league, so shouldn’t FSU get some credit for another 8-0 conference mark?

And while FSU has only two wins over teams currently in the top 25, it also has played 11 Power 5 teams, and will add a 12th Saturday. Do you know how many other teams in the country will have played 12 Power 5 opponents this year? Not one.

And it’s probably worth noting that those unranked foes FSU faced had a 29-22 record (.569) before playing the Seminoles and a 12-26 mark (.316) afterward. Should FSU be held accountable for teams’ late-season slides? And if so, doesn’t that likely mean Jimbo Fisher’s crew did some serious damage?

When the committee shouts game control, the PR man can talk strength of record. When the committee touts big wins, the PR man can mention zero losses.

In this new era of subjective decision-making, it’s all about perspective. Remember that scene in “My Cousin Vinny” when Joe Pesci explains to Ralph Macchio that the prosecutor’s supposedly rock-solid case is really a house of cards? That’s exactly what Baylor and Ohio State, Missouri and Georgia Tech, Florida State and Wisconsin all need to do.

The case for the playoff can be bricks or playing cards, and it all just depends on who’s selling the narrative. Baylor is taking control of its storyline, and the rest of the teams on the committee’s margins might be wise to do the same.

[Buckrub]

If that makes sense then Marshall is more deserving.

Not sure what folks want. Seems no system satisfies em.

[Hombre]

I personally think the move to a four team playoff has been a big improvement. Down the stretch it has given more teams incentive to play for the Nat. Title. Going to 8 would be an improvement, but 4 this year was better. Thing I'd like to see in college football next year:

1> Move to an 8 team playoff
2> Start paying players something (quite profiting off these kids)
3> Hire Roger Goodell to oversee the NCAA

[BarryBobPosthole]

And here we thought Captain was the Master Shit Disturber.

Funny, I never knew you were a college football fan until now! Must be the air up there in Seattle.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Personally, I've been trying all day to get Eddie and Bucky riled up. Bucky's responded, but you can tell his heart isn't really in it and Eddie has pulled a disappearing act. It must still be too soon.

[Buckrub]

I watched a mama and little doe, a spike, and a 4/5/? Point eat my corn. No time to argue with goobers.

Meeting wife at farm tomorrow for a few days to inspect the damage then back to camp for the last week.

Real national championship is next Saturday. Then the wannabe ' s try to get up on stage.

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

8 is the magic number in my opinion. How many teams outside of the top 8 really have a shot at winning the title? I really doubt you will see a team outside the top 4 win. 5 conference champs and 3 at large teams. Don't even rank them, just draw numbers. Take as much of the human element and media BS out as possible.

[Big Muddy]

It's hunting season, you buncha dufussyies....been busy....deer, ducks, coons, squirrels, and rabbits that need killing and grilling.....it'll be over before ya know it.

On the football note, besides winning 8 of the last 10 Nat'l Champs., why the heck ya'll wanna diss and hate the SEC???....oops, sorry, I already know the answer to that quershun. ;).....and, ya'll can change the playoff system, any way you want, to suit the wannabe conference's desire to make it more "fair"(whiners), but we will STILL be in the running, at least 80% of the time....and, prolly more....just like the sun rising in the east, it's a fact....I'm back to the woods....love you guys. ;););)