I guess I don’t buy that Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina have better resumes. I think they’re good, and while they’re probably capable of competing against a Big 10 opponent on any given day, there’s no comparing their conference to the level of competition that Ohio State plays within its conference. And you gotta know, this is coming from an obnoxious S-E-C! S-E-C! fanboy, lol, who has a bias against other conferences. But Ohio State is solid. No complaints at all about them getting in the final 4. Notre Dame on the other hand…debatable.
I would personally love to see the field expanded to 8 and cap it at that. I’ve always felt that 8 is a magic number that ensures truly deserving teams can survive one loss early in the season and not have it count against them. It would also solve the problem of a team like A&M, which has the misfortune of being in the same division as Alabama and, by virtue of that, likely getting locked out of its own conference title game despite only losing one game when the team was figuring out how to play together early in the season. Moreover, an 8-team format might give teams like Cincinnati, UCF, Coastal Carolina, Boise State, or San Jose State the chance to enter as a number 8 seed once in a while just to make things interesting.
As a Notre Dame grad, their inclusion in this is slightly embarrassing, especially right off the heels of the Clemson loss. The playoffs should be for teams who have both an argument to be in, and an argument they can clear the field - or at least be given the chance. I think they have the former, not the latter.
Alabama and Clemson are a given, unfortunately, no matter how sick of them I’m getting.
I don’t think there’s a good argument to put in Notre Dame or TAMU. Both already lost to a playoff contender. I don’t need a potential rematch. Especially a second one.
I don’t like Ohio State being in, but I can live with it.
I would be annoyed if OU was the 4 seed, largely because I want them to fail forever, and although they keep failing in the playoffs, which is great, I’d rather they failed at a lower level.
But this is honestly the year to put in a G5 team, and the committee just won’t do it. No matter what. It sucks. I don’t care if you go Cinci or Coastal Carolina, just give one of them a shot.
(And if they eventually expand the playoff to 8, I don’t want the commonly pushed “P5 champs + 1 G5 champ” autobids and 2 at large. I absolutely want winning your conference to be a ticket in, but just make it “top 6 conference champs plus two more”. Because this year, that would give us Oregon over Coastal Carolina, and that’s the wrong answer, and might be in some other edge cases too)
Actually if Cincinnati had crushed their opponents like UCF and Tulsa, I’d think that the pressure would be on the Committee to consider them. But UCF kinda spoiled it for the non-major conferences a few years ago when they were undefeated going on two seasons in a row and lost in the Fiesta Bowl to a good but not great LSU team.
The Big10 was an utter mess this year and tossing out names like Michigan and Penn State as examples of good teams will get you laughed out of any conversation outside of that conference.
Team A
Record: 6-0
Opponents Records: 24-24
Wins against teams with winning records: 2 (neither of which had more than 6 wins)
Best win: The team currently overrated at number 11 in the CFP rankings, as they won against competition with a record of 16-26.
Team B
Record: 9-0
Opponent’s Records: 42-34
Wins against teams with winning records: 5
Best win: Either the 9-2 team or the 6-2 team who played in the conference championship.
Team C
11-0
Opponent’s Records: 53-57
Wins against teams with winning records: 5 (2 of which would be undefeated except for this loss)
Best win: Either the team currently ranked 16th or 19th in the CFP rankings
Quite frankly, Team B has a better resume than Team A and Team C has one similar to Team A, except twice the challenge due to a longer season.
Hell, if we’re going to give it to Ohio State, might as well give it to OU, who is also undefeated since OSU started their season (they even won the game in the week prior to the start of OSU’s season).
Did I really hear the announcers say that so-and-so for Alabama had a Master’s in “Sports Hospitality?” I mean, what is that? Does the thesis consist of picking up a case of Bud Light for your Super Bowl buddies?
I’ll happily rethink any comments that you think weren’t warranted, but you’d need to actually tell me which ones you take issue with and think are somehow proven wrong tonight.
Sorry I think my post was more directed at bump than you; you at least acknowledged that the Big 10 had strength of schedule. Still, I don’t buy that 10-0 in a weak conference is the same as 7-0 in the Big 10 or SEC. I realize OSU was 6-0 but let’s be real and acknowledge that Michigan forfeited that game and found a good excuse to do so lol.
For all the trash I like to talk about the Irish, I’ll say this: they are consistently a top 5-7 team now under Brian Kelly. They’re consistently good, talented, and well-coached. They just need a few more really good players to kick up their talent levels against top tier competition. They could be a year or two away from having a legit title contender if Kelly can hang in their without having a coronary.
They may consistently rank in the Top 10 (whether that is deserved is another debate), and I absolutely agree that under Kelly they’ve improved (and that Kelly Screwed the Bearcats in the process) but since 1995, against ranked teams, their bowl performance is abysmal (13 Losses to ranked opponents, with only 1 ranked win in 2017 against #17 LSU), they’ve effectively eliminated at least one of their rivalry games, which they tended to lose (overall record vs Michigan has Michigan winning 25-17-1), and I’m largely unconvinced that their SOS is anything to write home about in a normal year, though I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.
Just this year alone, they lost to Clemson in the ACC championship by 24 points and to Alabama in their playoff berth by 17 points. Have they produced some great teams and players over the years? Yes, without a doubt. I’ve just not seen a lot of evidence that they’re as good as they are played up to be, and I say that knowing the perennial doubt Ohio State faces practically every year (and in some years, doubt about many of their toughest games, like last night’s 21 point victory over Clemson, or against the upcoming matchup against Alabama).
“Welcome to the website for Sport Hospitality at The University of Alabama. Faculty members within the College of Human Environmental Sciences have developed a 30-hour graduate concentration in Sport Hospitality at The University of Alabama. With online offerings, the coursework will prepare students for employment and careers in the sport, hospitality, athletics, tourism, and entertainment settings. This is a long-established program with alumni in a variety of industry settings throughout the United States.”
When I first heard of this, what came to my mind was, it was a program developed so somebody who graduated from another school with a year of football eligibility left could transfer to Alabama and play immediately under the “entering a graduate program not available at the athlete’s current school” rule.
They consistently get matched up against much better opponents in better bowls because they bring better ratings. Other than the 2012 season, being put in a better bowl has had zero effect on possibly better teams getting a shot at a title.
They certainly tended to lose those games prior to 1909. And if you want to count the 1888 and 1889 scrimmages before Notre Dame had a team or coach and Michigan came down to teach them the game, I guess you can…