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It Can Pay To Lose In College Football
Forbes ^ | 12.05.06 | Matt Woolsey

Posted on 12/05/2006 7:33:22 AM PST by sean327

This year’s college football bowl pairings were released Sunday, and the last-place teams from the biggest conferences will be crying all the way to the bank. The top teams from the small conferences will be crying poverty.

In NCAA Division I football, profits are higher for doormats from the six "major" conferences--Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern--than for champions from the five smaller conferences.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: bcs; bowls; collegefootball; playoff
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To: sean327
The at-large teams should be the 5 highest ranking teams after the Conference champs.

That will just shift the argument from "who is #2" to "who is #16". Even with the 65 team field in March Madness, there is still controversy over who is #65.

I'm not hating on your idea, but subjective rankings cannot be used or the problem will be just as bad. Also, a team like Notre Dame complicates things since it can't be a conference champion.

I would think that going with the 6 BCS conference champions and the rest of the 10 would be ranked according to a very good computer ranking system that has been shown to be very accurate when ran against historical data. Some of the computer polls are just bizarre now.

Either that, or they adopt a somewhat simpler RPI system like the NCAA basketball uses.

In any event, the system for determining the 10 at large teams should be well known and well defined so that every team can adjust it's schedules accordingly.

41 posted on 12/05/2006 9:39:56 AM PST by JeffAtlanta
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To: sean327

I have to confess that I love to watch college football BUT it still bugs me that the NFL gets a subsidized farm system.


42 posted on 12/05/2006 9:42:51 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: Popocatapetl

You know, that may be the best conspiracy theory I've ever heard.


43 posted on 12/05/2006 9:44:17 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: Always Right

By allowing ONLY conference champions, you ensure that all teams play to their best abilities every week. Win it, and you're in it. Lose it, you go to a bowl.


44 posted on 12/05/2006 9:46:54 AM PST by Bat_Chemist (Ecclesiastes 10:2, NIV)
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To: Popocatapetl; Tribune7

Why did they give $30M to Edge?


45 posted on 12/05/2006 9:49:47 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative (...He had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here...-- Worst.President.Ever.)
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To: Always Right

Bowl games are not taken seriously by coaches so bowl game results are completely meaningless unless the it is high stakes game or both teams are trying to make a statement.

In the vast majority of bowl games, the games are a reward for the players and they spend their time exploring the town and attending banquets and parties.

The coaches love bowl games because it gives their team an extra month of practice. With the much tighter restictions on spring practice, this time can be crucial.

This time isn't used by the coaches to thoroughly scout the opposing team but to get underclassmen, especially freshman ready for the NEXT season. The game is pretty much an after thought and most teams go into it with base packages.

The priority isn't to prepare graduating seniors for the bowl game opponent but to prepare underclassmen for the next season.

Tubberville certainly doesn't scout and prepare his team against Wisconsin in a bowl game to the same level that he would against Florida in the regular season.

Now, if it is the NC championship game things are different and some coaches do take the bowl game a little more seriously than others


46 posted on 12/05/2006 9:50:22 AM PST by JeffAtlanta
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To: kevkrom

I don't mind the BCS rankings. Just grab the top 16 from that and do the seeding. Now, those results would be good games!


47 posted on 12/05/2006 9:53:04 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative (...He had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here...-- Worst.President.Ever.)
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To: GraniteStateConservative
Why did they give $30M to Edge?

(chuckle) You poor fool. You merely have to realize that Edgerrin James' is Bill Bidwell's love child THEN IT ALL BECOMES CLEAR!!!

48 posted on 12/05/2006 9:57:43 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: JeffAtlanta
Bowl games are not taken seriously by coaches so bowl game results are completely meaningless unless the it is high stakes game or both teams are trying to make a statement.

Never heard of a coach not taking bowl games seriously. Careers are made on bowl games. People remember bowl games for many many years.

49 posted on 12/05/2006 9:59:01 AM PST by Always Right
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To: mainepatsfan
It'd be nice someday to see a team handed a trophy that reads "NCAA DIVISION I FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONS".

Watch ESPN two weekends from now.

50 posted on 12/05/2006 10:14:11 AM PST by SoothingDave (Are you on the list?)
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To: MikefromOhio
There isn't a designation between D-1A and D-1AA anymore.

Sure there is. The NCAA has just decided to re-name it to "Bowl Subdivision" and "Championship Subdivision."

51 posted on 12/05/2006 10:15:35 AM PST by SoothingDave (Are you on the list?)
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To: JeffAtlanta; kevkrom

"I would think that going with the 6 BCS conference champions and the rest of the 10 would be ranked according to a very good computer ranking system that has been shown to be very accurate when ran against historical data. Some of the computer polls are just bizarre now."

Why only the BCS conference champs? Why is there such a bias and an elitist attitude against the 5 non BCS conferences? In my humble opinion, the only true playoff would include the winners of the MWC, WAC, MAAC, C-USA, and the Sun Belt.

"I don't mind the BCS rankings. Just grab the top 16 from that and do the seeding. Now, those results would be good games!"

Once again with that setup, the MWC, WAC, MAAC, C-USA, and the SunBelt are left on the outside looking in. I think every conference champ deserves a shot at the big crystal football.


52 posted on 12/05/2006 10:19:37 AM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: kevkrom
Not a bad set of matchups... perhaps the top-8 should have just been in the playoff to begin with rather than the yawner of a first round we saw for the most part.

We'll soon have a top 4 playoff and that will be good enough. Does anyone seriously think L'ville or Wisc. or Boise St. is going to run the table?

Let the teams and their fans have the bowls. They get a nice holiday, the bowls make money, we get football on TV every day for a month and half the teams end their season as winners.

The BCS bowls are now one week before the national championship game. How long until you figure they will use two of the BCS bowls each year as semi-finals? It's all slowly coming into place.

4 teams is enough. What are people talking about this year? Florida or Michigan. OSU is a given. That's three teams. Never in my life have people been confused about which of 5 or 6 teams should be #1.

53 posted on 12/05/2006 10:21:37 AM PST by SoothingDave (Are you on the list?)
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To: Always Right; Ditto

"Seeing the way UCLA handled USC, I'd predict the Rose Bowl will be over very early." and "USC is probably in for a long day."

Well, all year long we have heard that Michigan and Ohio State are 'far and away' the best teams in the country, so it stands to reason that they should run USC off the field. Shouldn't even be a contest.....


54 posted on 12/05/2006 10:27:33 AM PST by raptor29
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To: raptor29
Well, all year long we have heard that Michigan and Ohio State are 'far and away' the best teams in the country

Actually Michigan started off 15th and had to claw its way up to number 2. It took more than half a season before Michigan earned the #2 spot.

55 posted on 12/05/2006 10:30:29 AM PST by Always Right
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To: raptor29

I don't think it will be, and I am in no way a a Michigan or even Big 10 fan.


56 posted on 12/05/2006 10:30:43 AM PST by Ditto
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To: Ditto

And, while we're dreaming, why don't they put Notre Dame in an actual Conference?


57 posted on 12/05/2006 10:33:09 AM PST by princess leah
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To: Tribune7

Tribune7: conspiracy theory, heck. Just look at their stats since they landed in Phoenix in 1988. That's 18 years of exactly the same thing. To me that sounds like a two-headed penny.

Lots of people believe pro wrestling is honest, too.


58 posted on 12/05/2006 10:33:29 AM PST by Popocatapetl
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To: sean327
Why only the BCS conference champs? Why is there such a bias and an elitist attitude against the 5 non BCS conferences? In my humble opinion, the only true playoff would include the winners of the MWC, WAC, MAAC, C-USA, and the Sun Belt.

Because the teams from the BCS conferences have the vast majority of the talent. Compare the recruiting rankings for the BCS conferences vs the others. Also check out the number of players that each conference sends to the NFL. The talent disparity is huge.

Even the BCS has criteria set for the ACC and Big-East conferences to maintain it's automatic birth.

I wouldn't have a problem with setting a conditional criteria on an automatic birth for conference champions though. Maybe all of the conferences would receive an automatic birth initially, but the conference champion must win at least one game every 4 years or stay within a certain point difference to maintain it's automatic birth.

I think a 16 team field would be hard to pass without shortening the season by a game or two. To do that teams would have to eliminate some conference games or some out of conference rivalry games like UF-FSU or UGA-GT.

College fans would rather preserve these games and use an 8 team field made up of the BCS conference champions and 2 at large teams.

I wouldn't have a problem, though, with all

59 posted on 12/05/2006 10:33:51 AM PST by JeffAtlanta
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To: princess leah
And, while we're dreaming, why don't they put Notre Dame in an actual Conference?

It would be easier to get Paris Hilton to take a vow of chastity and join a convent.

Notre Dame doesn't need a conference and has no intention of sharing it's revenues with anyone.

60 posted on 12/05/2006 10:39:54 AM PST by Ditto
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