2020 College Football

[JerseyJimmy]

why is undefeated Coastal not in a NY6 game but 3-loss North Carolina is.

[DS729]

What a joke. Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina were robbed. 3-loss Florida is better than an undefeated conference champ? One which had any opportunity to challenge a power 5 team dashed in August? One which has the same number of top 25 wins? And there’s TWO of them? 
 

The CFP really has been a disaster. Why even bother anymore when we call 60% of the “power conferences” in August? Has this sport always been this predictable? 
 

I used to sit on the couch and watch college football from near noon to midnight every Saturday. Now I wonder what the hell was wrong with me. 

 

[sportsfan7]

1 hour ago, JerseyJimmy said:

why is undefeated Coastal not in a NY6 game but 3-loss North Carolina is.

Bowl Tie-ins. The Orange Bowl gets the highest ranked ACC team that isn't in the CFP (The Rose has a similar deal for the PAC-12 and Big-10 and the Sugar does with Big 12 and SEC, when these games aren't semis). Since Notre Dame, who always counts as an ACC team for bowl purposes, and Clemson made the CFP, the Orange Bowl needed to reach down for UNC.

[See Red]

1 hour ago, JerseyJimmy said:

why is undefeated Coastal not in a NY6 game but 3-loss North Carolina is.

 

Because of bowl tie-ins.  The Orange Bowl has a contract with the ACC to take the #1 ACC team (or Notre Dame, but ignore that part since Notre Dame is an ACC team this season) in years where the Orange Bowl is not one of the semi-final games.  In those years, if the #1 ACC team (this year Clemson) is in the playoff, they have to take the #2 ACC team (this year Notre Dame).  But if that team is in the playoff, the Orange Bowl takes the #3 ACC team... North Carolina.

 

1 hour ago, DScruggy729 said:

What a joke. Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina were robbed. 3-loss Florida is better than an undefeated conference champ? One which had any opportunity to challenge a power 5 team dashed in August? One which has the same number of top 25 wins? And there’s TWO of them? 

 

I mean... yes.  If the terminology you're using is better, the answer is absolutely yes.  More deserving is less clear-cut.  I know Florida overlooked LSU and didn't bother to play their best player, but it was also an extremely flukey loss.

Now, again... I'm arguing better since that's the word you used, not more deserving, since a loss is a loss as far as the latter is concerned.  On top of that... A. Florida just took Alabama down to the wire.  This is an Alabama team that's being considered maybe the best Saban's ever coached and that's effectively been a buzzsaw, with one of the best QBs in college football, definitely the best WR in college football, probably the best RB in college football, and maybe the best CB in college football.  B. Georgia opened as an 8 point favorite over Cincinnati despite the fact that five or six Georgia starters have opted out of the game and they don't afford those fancy buildings out in Vegas by not knowing what they're doing.  Florida beat Georgia comfortably.  SP+ would have Florida as about a 10 pt favorite over Coastal Carolina and I'm positive Vegas' spread would be higher.  So yes, Florida is better.  More deserving is more subjective, but as far as I know, the CFP committee has also used resume to rank teams by best, not most deserving. 

 

While I'll agree dropping one spot for two losses probably shouldn't be the case, I'm not sure how you could watch Saturday night and not think Florida is one of the seven best teams, at worst.

[JerseyJimmy]

1 hour ago, sportsfan7 said:

Bowl Tie-ins. The Orange Bowl gets the highest ranked ACC team that isn't in the CFP (The Rose has a similar deal for the PAC-12 and Big-10 and the Sugar does with Big 12 and SEC, when these games aren't semis). Since Notre Dame, who always counts as an ACC team for bowl purposes, and Clemson made the CFP, the Orange Bowl needed to reach down for UNC.

 

56 minutes ago, See Red said:

Because of bowl tie-ins.  The Orange Bowl has a contract with the ACC to take the #1 ACC team (or Notre Dame, but ignore that part since Notre Dame is an ACC team this season) in years where the Orange Bowl is not one of the semi-final games.  In those years, if the #1 ACC team (this year Clemson) is in the playoff, they have to take the #2 ACC team (this year Notre Dame).  But if that team is in the playoff, the Orange Bowl takes the #3 ACC team... North Carolina.

 

okay, here's my counter-argument: bowl tie-ins are stupid and bad and should not exist. UNC or Oregon don't deserve a NY6 berth the same way the [REDACTED]s or Giants don't deserve a playoff home game.

[See Red]

11 minutes ago, JerseyJimmy said:

 

 

okay, here's my counter-argument: bowl tie-ins are stupid and bad and should not exist. UNC or Oregon don't deserve a NY6 berth the same way the [REDACTED]s or Giants don't deserve a playoff home game.

 

They're fine to a point. I always liked that the Rose Bowl was Big Ten vs. Pac 12, but if you have that, the ACC will want to keep the Orange Bowl,  etc.  I think a rank requirement solves the problem.  With the playoff, the tie-ins are kind of pointless anyway, though. 

[MJWalker45]

Army is still hoping for a bowl game at 9-2. South Carolina has 2 wins and is going bowling. I'm almost certain Army could beat the Gamecocks this year. They've stressed Oklahoma and Michigan.

[See Red]

13 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Army is still hoping for a bowl game at 9-2. South Carolina has 2 wins and is going bowling. I'm almost certain Army could beat the Gamecocks this year. They've stressed Oklahoma and Michigan.

 

Army to face West Virginia in Liberty Bowl, replacing Tennessee

 

Had a feeling something like this would happen.

[waltere]

Not saying it's a positive or a negative necessarily, but it is interesting to me that (FBS) College Football seems to be the only major sport where still seem to think the national champions should be also the "best team in the country". Winning the Super Bowl, or the Stanley Cup, or March Madness, doesn't automatically mean you're the "best" team and people seem generally fine with this. Why is it that college football is different?

[Red Wolf]

3 hours ago, waltere said:

Not saying it's a positive or a negative necessarily, but it is interesting to me that (FBS) College Football seems to be the only major sport where still seem to think the national champions should be also the "best team in the country". Winning the Super Bowl, or the Stanley Cup, or March Madness, doesn't automatically mean you're the "best" team and people seem generally fine with this. Why is it that college football is different?

Because it started different, and became institutionalized to the point that there are so many moneyed interests that it becomes difficult to dislodge said institutions. The 1 vs 2 BCS system was progress. Getting to a 4-team playoff with over 120 teams was a damn triumph for the FBS. March Madness heavily favors brand names over actual resumes a lot, but with conference auto-bids it isn't much of an issue.

 

There's also the logistics of allowing teams to play even more games. If the playoff expands enough, then you're looking at needing to shorten the regular season at some point. The FCS plays 11 games without conference championship games and then has a playoff. Every FBS conference now has a championship game plus 12 games in a normal season. Or maybe it would be fine since a championship contender in FCS is playing 16-17 games.

[TBGKon]

6 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

Because it started different, and became institutionalized to the point that there are so many moneyed interests that it becomes difficult to dislodge said institutions. The 1 vs 2 BCS system was progress. Getting to a 4-team playoff with over 120 teams was a damn triumph for the FBS. March Madness heavily favors brand names over actual resumes a lot, but with conference auto-bids it isn't much of an issue.

 

There's also the logistics of allowing teams to play even more games. If the playoff expands enough, then you're looking at needing to shorten the regular season at some point. The FCS plays 11 games without conference championship games and then has a playoff. Every FBS conference now has a championship game plus 12 games in a normal season. Or maybe it would be fine since a championship contender in FCS is playing 16-17 games.

FCS also has a 24 team playoff that starts the same week as the last week of the regular season for FBS, which is why they play 11 I suppose.  They also play the semifinals (as of 2019) two weeks after FBS conference championship weekend.  The only thing that would have to change, and it might have to happen is that Army-Navy would have to happen in the regular season. 

 

Using 2020 dates as reference, you could have had a 16 team playoff in FBS as follows (in an ideal world).  At most, the final two play 16 total games.

 

- First Round: December 12th (8 games, campus sites)

-Quarterfinals: December 19th (4 games, campus sites)

-Semifinals: January 1st (2 games, CFP Bowl Rotation)

- National Championship: January 11th

[Cujo]

[MJWalker45]

5 minutes ago, Cujo said:

The 2020 New Mexico Bowl is a college football bowl game that is scheduled to be played on December 24, 2020, at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST on ESPN. It will be the 15th edition of the New Mexico Bowl, and will be one of the 2020–21 bowl games concluding the 2020 FBS football season.

[GDAWG]

19 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

Does Hawaii even have a place to play next season?

[sportsfan7]

6 minutes ago, GDAWG said:

 

Does Hawaii even have a place to play next season?

It appears there are 4 options for the 21 and 22 seasons; Use the practice facility, use a hs stadium, use War Memorial Stadium on Maui or play entirely on the road.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/12/17/uh-football-looks-new-home-after-aloha-stadium-shut-down/

[Magnus]

Rankings are entirely subjective and should be scrapped altogether. 

Similar to what TBGKon said:

If you want a playoff that includes close to every FBS conference (because they are all theoretically at the same level), take 8 of the conference champions, and seed them similarly to the pros, with teams with an equal record being ranked based on things like point differential, yards for vs yards against, etc.

Reduce the regular season (in normal years) to 11 games if you have to, because I know these are (supposedly) student-athletes and they don't want them to play too many games.
I know neutral site games are common anyway. Schedule 5 home games, 5 away, and 1 neutral for as many teams as possible, and outright BAN schools in the Power 5 from loading up on cupcakes. It's very simple, very fair, and it's what literally every other level of college and pro sports in North America does.

I realize that in Canada, University Sports football only has 4 conferences (also because in Canada, we don't consider colleges and universities to be the same type of learning institution), and so it is FAR simpler to stage a conference-champs-only playoff, but something has to give.

You can even keep the bowl games, including the New Year's Six. I have no issue with rewarding teams that have a good or even OK season with a pseudo-meaningful game at the end of the year. Just stack them. Four serve as national quarter finals, two are semifinals, as now, and then have the national championship. Done.
 

[sportsfan7]

I'm not sure I agree with the proposals for every conference champion to get in. My ideal scenario is infeasible since it requires flexibility, but I would have every undefeated team go to the playoff and add "at-large" teams to get to an even number. This year, Bama, tOSU, Cincy, Coastal, and SJSU would get automatic spots and Clemson, Notre Dame and aTm would get "at-large" spots to fill out the playoff. This would fix the two main complaints; that the G5 doesn't have a chance and that Notre Dame didn't deserve to get in over aTm.

[dont care]

You can’t ban teams from playing cupcakes because that’s where these cupcake teams get the majority of their money for the year. They would essentially be killing these programs off.

[waltere]

On 12/17/2020 at 6:00 AM, waltere said:

Eight teams: G5 Champs, best of the P5, 2 wild cards.

 

I know this was pages ago and no one cares but I got P5 and G5 the wrong way round

[ManillaToad]

4 hours ago, sportsfan7 said:

I'm not sure I agree with the proposals for every conference champion to get in. My ideal scenario is infeasible since it requires flexibility, but I would have every undefeated team go to the playoff and add "at-large" teams to get to an even number. This year, Bama, tOSU, Cincy, Coastal, and SJSU would get automatic spots and Clemson, Notre Dame and aTm would get "at-large" spots to fill out the playoff. This would fix the two main complaints; that the G5 doesn't have a chance and that Notre Dame didn't deserve to get in over aTm.

I'm pretty well against playoff expansion but this sounds like it would be a hell of a time. Full support