re: My "Make Every Game Count" proposal for CFB Playoffs

quote:

---

yeah, every game except those 5.

---

No, they count. Ask the other ACC teams that went 7-5 but lost to Pitt, or 6-6.

I find it odd that conferences are virtually worthless to the CFP situation as it stands. Why they ever landed on 4 teams in a 5 power conference setup in the first place is beyond me.

Maybe something like being ranked in the top 15 as a prerequisite would be a compromise. But I see issues with that as well.

quote:

---

No, they count.

---

no, they don’t.

if they did count, a 5 loss team would not be in over a 1 loss team.

So why not just skip the playoffs and go back to voting on the champion based on deserving it?

There is nothing theoretically different between ignoring a 5 loss team beating a 1 loss team in a conference championship game/"round 1" game and ignoring a 2 loss 4 seed upsetting an undefeated 1 seed.

You play a round robin in division, so yes, every game counts in terms of who wins it. Literally every game is factored into that. There is no eye test or considerations for certain variables. It's decided by the outcomes of football games.

We're also talking about a ridiculously unlikely scenario as some sort of show stopper.

quote:

---

provide an automatic bid

---

Never been a big fan of the automatic bid in any sport.

quote:

---

I would like to see 8 conferences with 12 teams each. That's 96 teams. Each conference has a championship game, and winner of the championship game makes the playoffs.

---

I would prefer 8 conferences with 9 teams each. 72 teams is enough in my opinion. The bottom half of the Group of 6 are not anywhere competitive with the Power 5 teams.

No conference championship games. Every team plays the 8 conference-round-robin games, one randomly selected road game and one randomly selected home game. Then they can schedule anyone for the last game, so bigger schools can get that 6th home game and smaller schools can get the rent-a-win money. Conferences declare a champion and that team gets in.

Seed the teams using BCS rules and top 4 teams host first round weekend before Christmas.

quote:

---

There is nothing theoretically different between ignoring a 5 loss team beating a 1 loss team in a conference championship game/"round 1" game and ignoring a 2 loss 4 seed upsetting an undefeated 1 seed.

---

well, for starters, there has never been a 2-loss team in the playoffs.

Secondly, getting INTO the playoffs is your reward for the complete season (including the conference championship weekend).

Losing on Championship weekend can absolutely cost you a spot. And it should as it is part of the overall body of work. But simply winning that game should not guarantee you jack or shite if the rest of your body of work wasn't good enough.

quote:

---

It's decided by the outcomes of football games.

---

yeah, games start last weekend in August or first weekend in September and last through Conference Championship weekend the first weekend of December. ALL games during that stretch should be taken into account.

If you lose 5 freaking games, you don't automatically leapfrog the 20 or so teams ahead of you because you won 1 freaking game in December.

A ton of other teams plain and simply had better seasons than you did.

quote:

---

We're also talking about a ridiculously unlikely scenario as some sort of show stopper.

---

because worst case scenarios happen.
a lot more often than you realize.

several times just since the advent of Conference Championship games, a team that would have been in a 4 team playoff scenario has lost that weekend to a team that simply wasn't in that conversation.

the higher ranked/seeded teams that lost, lost their spots (except '03 OU), as they should.
the lower ranked/seeded team didn't get to just jump over a whole pile of teams with better resumes, and they shouldn't, because they didn't freaking earn over the course of a season.

I don’t like that all the P5 champs automatically qualify. I say 8 teams is fair. Imagine the excitement when 10-12 fanbases are going into the final weekend with a chance at the playoffs.

If a team that finishes 2nd in its division, 3rd in its conference gets placed in the CFP — the division winner should have an option to forfeit the CCG without penalty.

Is that unfair to the other division? Perhaps — but if there is an argument to put in two teams from the same division, it doesn’t sound like the opposite division has much of an argument to begin with.

There should never be a situation where a team benefits from losing a game. That is literally the entire reason the NCAA retooled the format to begin with.

Furthermore, it should be an explicit committee recommendation that post-season (not even just CFP) rematches from the regular season in a league that has 120 teams but only 4 available playoff spots should be avoided wherever possible.

A 120 team league is not comparable to the NFL at all — the head-to-head result of two teams up for CFP consideration should be seen as an excellent metric by which to narrow the field ...perhaps with potential exceptions for road teams that lose by 7 or less — actually, maybe even 3 or less.

quote:

---

Never been a big fan of the automatic bid in any sport.

---

why? The auto bid makes the conference championship much more meaningful.

quote:

---

Auto-bid is a terrible idea. These conferences and their divisions are not created equal. I don’t want to see some pedestrian team back into the CFP on a fluke.

---

but you'll never get each division in each conference to be equal. And the power shifts throughout the years - remember when the SEC East was dominant and the West was down? That applies to other conferences too.

You're seeking perfection, which will never be achieved. The fair way is to put all P5 conf champs in with an auto-bid, and then give 3 other deserving teams and at-large. Best of both worlds.