Posted on 12/03/2023 9:27:52 AM PST by C19fan
1: Michigan 2: Washington 3: Texas 4: 'Bama
(Excerpt) Read more at collegefootballplayoff.com ...
I would say that went out the window when conference championship games were introduced. I believe these games should be seen as sort of a preliminary playoff round. Winning your championship game shouldn’t automatically make you a playoff team, but losing it should disqualify you from the playoffs.
And even then, the conference championship game becomes a problem in seasons when you have anomalies in one division of a conference. The SEC has had this happen several times over the years. The worst case was 2017, when Alabama won a national title even though it didn’t even play in the SEC championship game because its one loss was to division rival Auburn — who won the division with a 7-1 record but weren’t a playoff contender because they had 3 losses outside the conference.
Undefeated goes a very long way. Strength of schedule is important..but a power five undefeated...whatya’ gotta do to get to the final four??... if Alabama had beaten EVERYONE handily, and lost to Texas on a fluke play...well ok...but this decision {IMHO) seems to be weighing the past history going back 5-10 years in the SEC and Alabama’s favor.
I have no dog in this matter, so I think I am being fair. I would say to Alabama...”missed it by this much”.
Saban would show immeasurable class if he and his team deferred the nod and let FSU play. That would be magnanimously magnificent. It would install him and his team as the class leader in sportsmanship for a long long time.
....gotta’ get off my happy pills, you say?
The whole idea that FSU “didn’t play anyone” is retarded. They beat Florida in Gainesville with a backup QB, beat Clemson at Clemson, LSU, a 2-loss Louisville team, and Miami.
ESPN is simping for Alabama on the weak Auburn win, and saying “it was a rivalry game where anything could happened.” But so is FSU-UF, so is Clemson-FSU, so is FSU Miami.
FSU was excluded for political reasons, not because of anything having to do with football.
I don’t really have a Dawg in the fight, because the Huskies are in...GO DAWGS...
I called it.
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Roll Tide!
They pretty much had control the whole game. Yes, there were a couple plays where it may have made a difference, but it wasn’t a Hail Mary win.
I have a question for everyone. Do you agree that:
If Bama had lost, Georgia would be #1, and FSU no doubt would still been out.
Had Michigan, Texas or Washington lost FSU would been in.
IOWs beating Georgia made it pretty much a decision between FSU and Bama and it could have gone either way,
BUT DID THE COMMITTEE MAKE THEIR DECISION BASED ON THE FACT THAT FSU’S QB IS OUT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON?
I posted Vegas opening lines
Places actually taking bets
I have no dog in this fight either. Not a fan of Bama. I was just going by the parameters that seem to be influencing the committee all season long, not including the money, which we all know that eyeballs influence their decisions, and have every year for as long as the BCS/CFP (or whatever the current configuration is now) has been around. It’s never been fair or right. I have simply been arguing that what they decided is their latest system, even though it’s full of flaws.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe SOS has never been a part of their decision, but it sure seems like it has been going on all season long to me.
Can anyone here agree that the current system sucks, and that an actual playoff system will be an improvement?
Maybe next year, we will all no longer be bitching and complaining. Or maybe we will. Can’t wait to see what the next iteration of rules brings.
Absolutely!
...an undefeated Michigan should/would have been left out.
They've lost their last 6 bowl games(giving up an average 37 points on defense) and 8 out of 9.
Bo would be proud(he could never win those things either).
I think that’s an excuse. The decision was made based off of money and politics. The committee didn’t think that the NCAA could withstand the criticism of excluding the SEC, and that it would have had monetary repercussions.
An undefeated Power 5 conference champion should be in a 4 team playoff without question. There’s really no argument against it.
The people countering with strength of schedule arguments don’t understand how statistical models work. The SoS ranking is an opinion of the modeler and how they weight different data points and variables. FSU played several prime opponents this season and won all their games. They should be in.
The people countering with “But they had the 55th hardest schedule” probably believe COVID and global warming models too. They had impressive wins, but a schedule that was not as hard as Texas or Alabama. However, they won all their games and were a Power 5 champion. It shouldn’t even be a controversy. The only reason it is is because of SEC propaganda on ESPN that has convinced people that strength of schedule is an objective calculation (it’s not).
This Gator agrees. I hope FSU scores 100 in their bowl game just to show them. This is just wrong.
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If FSU plays Georgia in a bowl game they will be crushed, just like they would be if they played Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Who wants to see that?
FSU vs Georgia. The Anti-Gator Bowl.
I have nothing against FSU believe me. I used to root hard for them whenever they played the “U” whom I can’t stand. Even with Jordan Travis it would have been a tall order to beat Michigan.
FSU deserved to be in over Alabama, but not Texas.
Agreed. Next year no 13 gonna’ be complaining. They’re gonna seed teams based the techniques they are using now. So the playoffs will never be completely fair. Even head to head doesn’t always determine who is the best team..bad ref calls, weather, injuries, bad communications all effect an outcome.
Cheers and may the best team on that day win and will no one get seriously injured.
I often say, can they both lose?
I don’t think it will happen, but I’ll be pulling for Washington to win it all (as of right now). I may very easily change my mind by the time the games roll around.
Florida this year had a 5-7 record, and finished unranked. Clemson's final ranking with an 8-4 record was #22. LSU was #13 at 9-3, but Alabama had also beaten them much later in the season by a similarly-lopsided margin. Louisville, although having a final rank at #15, had previously lost to an unranked Kentucky (7-5 final record) and unranked Pitt (3-9 final record). Miami finished the season unranked at 7-5. (And Duke, who had been #16 at the time FSU played them in late October, finished unranked with a 7-5 record.)
Insofar as this year is concerned, the traditional heavyweights that FSU played (Clemson, Florida, LSU, and Miami) all underperformed relative to their usual standards. FSU's strength of schedule did not pan out by the end relative to Alabama (who claims victories over #11 Ole Miss with a 10-2 record; #13 LSU; #21 Tennessee with an 8-4 record; and, most importantly, the repeat national champions and all-season #1 Georgia, who had a final ranking of #6 after being beaten by Alabama).
Alas, the College Football Playoff was guaranteed to run into these sorts of scenarios when they only set it up as a four-team bracket, and likewise when they stated it would be the "four best teams", which has a rather murky standing when they openly admit that one's final record is not the sole determining factor as to what is "best". (The fact it's expanding to 12 teams next year will go a long way to resolve some of these issues, but even then there are still people who don't like the playoff system at all, for the simple reason that it devalues games played during the regular season. It all comes down to what you value more, I suppose.)
But hey, FSU will be able to put up or shut up when they face Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Then we'll be able to play the 'what-if' game until the cows come home.
FSU was excluded for political reasons, not because of anything having to do with football.
Based on what evidence?
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