Posted on 12/04/2016 10:52:53 AM PST by PROCON
Alabama will play Washington and Ohio State is set to face Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals.
The selection committee stayed with the same top four Sunday as it had going into championship weekend, leaving out No. 5 Penn State even though the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten title game and beat Ohio State earlier in the season.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
One of Penn State’s losses was to Pitt, 42-39 so didn’t count on their Big10 record. Only two one loss teams in the east (thanks to my Hawkeyes upsetting Michigan and thus all the expected scenarios.) PSU won the game between them so they had to be in the Big10 championship. Had they won out their own state they’d have made the playoffs in place of Ohio State.
No argument that Ohio State was the best that year. Not as convinced they are even one of the 4 best this year, but still no real argument with their ranking. My argument is with the committee and putting them in the playoff. The committee has rules/conditions which they choose to follow when it serves their purpose and this year chose to ignore when it didn’t. BTW, the Big 12 changed their rules after that co-champion nonsence to satisfy the committee. The Big 10 has rules in place that cost Ohio State the right to be in the playoff imo. Penn State fans should be furious!
Don’t forget that the Pac-12 plays nine conference games, the SEC eight. So SEC teams need to schedule two P5 out-of-conference games to match the total of P5 schools that the Pac-12 teams typically play.
And no dobut an extra Pac 12 league game is tougher than the cup cakes scheduled by SEC.
Don’t be ridiculous. I’m from Seattle and went to Stanford, and even I’m willing to admit that virtually the entire PAC 12 conference schedule is nothing but cupcakes. Alabama plays in a conference that cannibalizes itself every year by playing within the conference. Most SEC teams would beat Washington. Hell, even Kentucky, which is so weak in the SEC that people forget it’s in the conference, beat Louisville. While the SEC is currently the strongest conference, I think the future may belong to the Big 10. Why? I see a number of great younger coaches in the Big Ten, and the quality of the coaches determines the long term strength of the conference. I don’t see the same thing in the SEC, and that future may arrive sooner than people think. BTW, Saban played for Don James at Toledo and began his coaching career under James. You’d have to be an old Huskies fan to know that bit of trivia.
Disagree. You’re buying too much SEC propaganda. You can play the “this team beat that team” game all day. Bottom line is the SEC is the only league playing fewer games and scheduling body bag games in November. That is a huge competitive advantage there.
So was hildabutchbitch.
Lol
It is interesting to note that the lack of a clear conference title and the lack of the "extra data point" penalized the Big 12 teams to the benefit of tOSU in 2014 but was ignored this year when it helped tOSU.
Secondly, the 59-0 beat down of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game put the Buckeyes in.
Had the committee just stuck to that as the rationale, fewer would have complained. On that basis, it made sense to include tOSU but the other two rationales are lame.
And in retrospect it was the right call as they went on to beat no. 1 AL and then Oregon with Heisman winner Mariotta.
Not necessarily true. Who's to say that TCU or Baylor wouldn't have done the same if given the opportunity? IMO, no one was playing better at the end of the 2014 season than TCU.
There is something inherently wrong with an evaluation system which one week has a team at #3 only to drop to #6 after winning by 52 points (and taking a knee to keep from scoring even more). I'm not a big TCU or Gary Patterson fan but TCU got hosed in 2014.
I don’t care for the current system because it makes the New Years Day bowl games of no consequence, but i think the playoff is here to stay so how about 12 teams, top 4 get a bye week.
Should probably get rid of the conference championship games due to the cost of travel for fans. An 8 team playoff with the top four getting home games in the first round would solve a lot of issues. Everybody with a legit beef who missed out this year would get in under that scenario.
Lol
Yep. That’s what I say when I look at Bama’s schedule. UT-Chattanooga? In November? Really????
Maybe Bama should have played USC to start the season and Arizona to end. At Zona. Lol. And then the SEC championship game.
Yes too bad for PSU, but basically a mulligan was allowed, 2 were not.
My main complaint is that Bama plays at 3 AM Thailand time, wish they had the later game.
RTR
Michigan has no one to blame but Michigan. They out played OSI but turned the ball over too much.
While the bad call excuse may have merit, but if UM had played right there never would have been OT.
Playing SEC teams constantly is a big disadvantage. I suppose the Coaches Poll and the AP just gobble up the “propaganda”, too. There were 8 SEC teams in the top 25 until they had to starting playing each other every week. Six teams in the Big Ten and 9 of 12 in the PAC 12 would have a hard time against Kentucky and Vanderbilt. If they had to play the mid-tier SEC teams week after week they would crawl to the end the season depleted by injuries. If you were actually doing analysis instead of waving the pom poms for some conference or team, you’d point out that Alabama has a 2 significant weaknesses that the Huskies and Buckeyes could exploit; namely, Alabama’s relatively young O line that doesn’t function at full strength until the second half, and Alabama’s lack of a top 10 (or even top 20) caliber quarterback. Alabama can be beaten, but if it played a series against the other three teams, it would probably win at least 70-80% of the time. Maybe the Huskies or OSU will get lucky. They’re good enough win under the right circumstances. But, because I’m not a “fan” of any conference or team, I really don’t care who wins.
Uh except the football polls pick the playoffs. So not quite a match, the board goes back.
Washington is the second best team in a not-very-good conference. The glory days of the PAC 12 (10) are history. Notice I said the mid tier SEC teams could beat 9 of 12. That excludes Washington, USC (actually the best team), and, maybe, Stanford or Colorado. Yes, I think Auburn could beat Washington, and in a series would win the majority of games. Other than Browning, who is an excellent QB, the talent is just good enough to beat the Arizona and Oregon teams, Cal, WSU, etc. The PAC 12 is weaker than the Big 10 and far weaker than the SEC...for now.
Disagree. OSU has a much stronger QB roster. Hurts is functional, but not anything special. If he is injured, Alabama has nothing at QB. OSU has a top tier QB. But Alabama is generally a little to a lot stronger than OSU in most other positions.
The NCAA isn’t ready to forgive Penn State for the Sandusky scandal.
You are so right. Hurts is nothing special. He just turned 18 in August. It will take a few years of development before he is ready for any championships.
There could be something to that.
Where was that? I cut and pasted your exact quote which was that "most SEC teams would beat Washington."
Yes, I think Auburn could beat Washington, and in a series would win the majority of games.
Right. A four-loss Auburn (probably to be a 5-loss team after the Sugar Bowl) is going to beat Washington consistently?
Other than Browning, who is an excellent QB, the talent is just good enough to beat the Arizona and Oregon teams, Cal, WSU, etc.
Just good enough? You do realize that among those schools, only one game was close and the others were Washington victories by several TDs?
Wow! Just because marijuana is legal in Seattle, doesn't mean that you have to smoke it. ;-)
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