[Moderating]
I’m not sure how this went unnoticed for nearly a week, but personal insults are not permitted in this forum. Cool it.
And for everyone else, if you see something that needs to be reported, please report it. We mods can’t be everywhere.
So it’s that time of year when sports talk on tv and radio as well as every blogger starts talking about expanding the playoffs.
I think it’s a stupid idea, but won’t it just exacerbate the trend of players sitting out their bowl games?
I agree with you that they need to get rid of bowl games.
I don’t think they’ll ever get rid of bowl games. Not just because of the money involved but the teams that make a bowl game get a few more weeks of practice and a meaningless game to try out new stuff.
That can be very valuable to a middling team.
coaches and even some ADs get bonuses for a bowl game. Can be $100k. Not sure how they would replace that bonus if no bowl games exist.
What is surprising is almost all the lower end bowl games are run by ESPN and they get enough ratings that ESPN keeps them afloat.
I think expanding to 8 would be perfect. There would be no excuse for teams playing weak schedules: if teams play really weak schedules and lose even a single game, they’re out. Teams like UCF would have to go undefeated just to be considered. But the fact that they would be considered and possibly have a chance to play for a title would be good for FBS. It might also give a team like Georgia - perhaps still the 2nd best team in the nation despite 2 losses - a chance to prove themselves a final time.
I agree the playoff should expand to include 8 teams. I disagree that it would force teams to play a tougher schedule. In fact, quite the opposite. Look at the playoff rankings right now. PAC-10 champ Washington sits at #9 with a 10-3 record, including two losses out of conference (Auburn and BYU). If they replace either of those with a creampuff victory, I think a 2 loss conference champ Washington team would vault over Michigan and into the top 8.
I’d like to see an eight-team playoff, but remove the advantage for playing cream-puffs. The reason teams play cream-puffs is that the win-loss record is so important. Then let’s remove that.
My proposal: only FBS conference champions are eligible for the eight-team FBS playoff. Period, non-negotiable, no exceptions, no wildcards, sorry Notre Dame and the second-place SEC team. Given the ten FBS conference champions, pick the eight that played the strongest strength of schedule. Seeding also based on SoS. I’d prefer SoS to be based on something like the sum of the final ELO ratings of opponents, but that’s negotiable. Three weekends of awesome football, where every team earned their place on the field.
Note that win-loss record does not directly affect a team’s playoff chances. It does have some impact, since becoming a conference champion obviously requires winning, but out-of-conference losses aren’t disqualifying.
So this year it would probably be Bama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Washington, UCF, Fresno State and either probably Northern Illinois or Alabama Birmingham. The big 5 conference champs would always get in just by the strength of their conference schedule, so not a ton of incentive to play tough nonconference games. The UABs and Alcorn States of the world will schedule big boys, win their conference with a 9-4 record and make the playoff over actual good teams.
True. My proposal favors teams who’ve earned their playoff spot over teams who are good but didn’t. (And as an Ohio State fan, I know exactly what that means.)
Been there, done that with the men’s basketball tournament. One too many instances of the #2 team in the country also being the #2 team in its conference caused the NCAA to actually listen to the fans and start allowing at-larges in.
“Sorry, Villanova, but we’re going back to ‘conference champions only’ in the men’s basketball tournament, and making it retroactive - please give back your 2016 NCAA title.”
8 game playoff gaining steam
some bowl game in Dallas was cancelled during the 1st quarter due to weather. Dozens of fans are upset.
That article makes it seem practically inevitable, which I think is good.
Does the coach and AD get their bonus for a bowl game that was cancelled? I would assume the answer is yes .
First First Responder Bowl ever. I guess next year’s will also be the first. :o
I have heard that both teams will receive their payouts, so I would assume any bonuses would still count - after all, they did get to a bowl game, even if it wasn’t played.
Then again, Boston College has to come up with the money for its promised make good (if you bought a ticket from the BC allotment, you will get not only a full refund, but a free ticket to any BC home sporting event in 2019) from somewhere…
The Servpro First Responder Bowl: Like it Never Even Happened. Seriously, Servpro needs to find a way to turn this into a commercial.
what is funny is ESPN actually canceled the game which shows if you did not already know, they own all these worthless lower bowls.
Not quite all of them. According to SB Nation, ESPN owns:
Texas
Gasparilla
Bahamas
Birmingham
Boca Raton
Potato
Frisco
New Mexico
Hawai’i
Las Vegas
Armed Forces
Camellia
First Responder
(and Celebration, but that’s between two FCS teams)
The only real change that’s needed to address the cream puff concern is to force all conferences to have a championship game and play the same number of in-conference games. IIRC, SEC teams typically play 8 conference games whereas other majors usually play9 - we could change that.