Posted on 12/03/2014 10:34:11 AM PST by blam
Cork Gaines
December 3, 2014
The college football playoff committee has released its latest ranking and it is a terrible sign for the undefeated defending national champions, Florida State.
The one big shakeup in the ranking came with TCU jumping up to take the spot in the top four vacated by Mississippi State who lost to Ole Miss. But more importantly, TCU leapfrogged past Florida State who fell to no. 4 after struggling to get by Florida.
Here are the new rankings for the seven teams that still have a realistic shot to make the playoff: 1.Alabama 2.Oregon 3.TCU 4.Florida State 5.Ohio State 6.Baylor 7.Arizona
The good news for Florida State is that they are still in the top four. The bad news is that, in theory, they would not be if Mississippi State had beaten Ole Miss.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
You betcha! Roll Tide Roll!
I’m still trying to figure out how TCU tops Baylor despite losing head-to-head. Same record, mostly the same opponents, 2 of the top 3 scoring teams in the NCAA, and a face-to-face game... all else being basically equal, the result should decide... and yet Baylor is several spots BEHIND TCU! SMH
Nothing supports that statement. If State had won, TCU would likely not have jumped into the top four and State would have remained there.
The committee dropped FSU within the top 4 because of their weak showing this year, but it's very unlikely they'd drop them from the top 4 when they are still the only undefeated team.
My preferred system: An 8 team playoff... the 5 power conference champions, the top non-power conference champion, and 2 at-larges (so ND doesn’t cry too loudly while they are still too cowardly to join a conference). The conference games matter more, EVERY team has a chance at the playoff, and still room for 2 non-champions to be wild cards.
Conference play should be based on a full round robin. Any “conference” that has split into two divisions, to my mind, is no longer really a conference. The divisions are the real conferences, and the larger entity is just a television marketing gimmick.
Eight teams is the right number for a playoff, but not because of academic or injury considerations. I’m old enough to remember when those were the reasons given by the colleges for opposing a playoff back in the ancient days of a ten game season. I took it seriously then. there is no credibility to it now.
That said, any credible playoff needs to include all major conference champions to avoid endless strength of schedule arguments. It needs to include all unbeaten teams. And it needs to have room for the occasional really outstanding team from a minor conference; otherwise the lower half or more of D1 will be shut out in perpetuity and might as well just leave. On the other hand, 16 teams is too many. There would be too many two and even three loss teams, and second and third place teams from the major conferences.
“This committee system is bunk.”
I agree with you. It is better than just 2 teams, based on some computer formula using human polls, however we will never have difinitive championships until we have an expanded playoff.
The difinitive playoff would include all major conference champions, then every team earning the automatic bid would have earned it on the field of play! Win and you are in.
Of course, given that we only have those 5 major conferences, we would be able to allow for 3 at large, somewhat subjective selections. That said, no major conference school could claim to have been “screwed” by a system that gives an automatic bid to the conference championship!
Any computer, or committee system is going to always be filled with controversy!
“Does this have anything to do with the rankings?”
No. That is an extra-legal school policy violation inquiry. Actually, if Jameis Winston WERE kicked out of school, he would be BETTER off: Straight into the NFL!
“B.S. Florida State wins they are in.”
Yes, they should be in if they win, as the reigning undefeated National Champion. If not, they should be allowed to play the WINNER of the Playoff Committee’s games, maybe on Saturday, January 26th, to determine the REAL National Champion.
Let me help...
H2H is but one metric. Others include losses (TCU 3pt. loss on road at #5 BAY, led all game)(BAY 14 pt. loss at unranked W. Va. Never led.), body of work (Minnesota as OOC, while BAY played cupcakes), recent game action (BAY squeaked by Tech, with Tech missing 2pt conversion to tie with about 1:32 in the 4th on Saturday, while TCU annihilated UT in Austin on Thanksgiving), etc.
The CFP Committee indicated early on that H2H would come into play “if all other things were equal” and in this case, they clearly are not. The W. Va. loss is considered worse than the Baylor loss, and the OOC games are also weighed, giving TCU an advantage. And, if Baylor hadn’t struggled mightily with Tech, a team that TCU annihilated by 50+ points...
I also note that no one is complaining about Ole Miss (#12) being ranked below Miss. St. (#10), despite the recent outcome of their game.
The true beauty of this plan is that it relegates Notre Dame to Harlem Globetrotters status - big crowds, but their games don't really count.
The same consideration goes for all the northern tier schools. Football is a rugged game meant to be played under all conditions. (I have gone soft and will make an exception for serious lightning and Category 5 hurricanes.) I do not think Miami, Florida State, Alabama, and USC should get to play for national championships pretty much at home year after year. I'd balance a playoff geographically, and if that means playing on Jaunuary 1 in Lincoln, Nebraska, or South Bend, or Ann Arbor, or the Meadowlands on a rotating basis, that's fine. Let the southern teams make the adjustment for once. The players can switch to sissy indoor football when they move up to the pros.
But seriously: let's take the idea of college sports and sportsmanship seriously. Flip a coin, and play the playoff games at the winner's home field, with tickets split 50/50.
No — I left room for a couple of at-larges to accommodate independents and the best of the minor conferences. But the major conferences would only get one team, which would push them to dismantle their divisional structures and return to round robin play, which is what conferences should be all about.
“RayChuang88 wrote:
I don’t think so. Being the only undefeated team in one of the Power Five conferences has to count for something....”
Now FSU is the ONLY undefeated team in college football! Marshall lost.
“Nothing supports that statement. If State had won, TCU would likely not have jumped into the top four and State would have remained there.
The committee dropped FSU within the top 4 because of their weak showing this year, but it’s very unlikely they’d drop them from the top 4 when they are still the only undefeated team.”
I HOPE that you are right!
I would love to see the teams from warmer climates deal with playing in the cold. I bet they’d drop that ball a few extra times. I know it will never happen, but it would be fun to watch.
Still college football is no place to worry about fairness or to stand on principle. If concessions have to made, then concessions should be made.
If all the games end up in Florida, California, or Hawaii then so be it.
Personally I'd like to see a college version of the "Ice Bowl" but we now live in a rose-eggshell-and-teal america rather than the red-white-and-blue one we were born in.
At the rate we’re going, the soccer players will be the only ones left who deal with adverse conditions. Plus soccer is the only major sport played without tv timeouts every 30 seconds or so. Just sayin’ ....
8 team playoff
128 teams divided by 8 conferences = 16 teams
16 teams divided by north and south divisions = 8 teams per division
7 games in division, 2 games other division and 2 games outside conference.
Playoff
Conference champs go into an 8 teams playoff as per their national rank
1&8
2&7
3&6
4&5
then the winners play
I agree that 16 teams is too many. But not for your reasoning.
If state champion high school teams can end up with 16 games (and they do in PA), then a handful of college teams could play that many games.
Bottom line is that we need to work with 4 teams here for a while to see how it goes.
People used to argue about who was #1. Then we got the BCS.
And people agrued about who should be #2.
Now, we can argue about who is #4.
Having 4 super conferences would be the logical way to do it, with conference championships being de facto quarterfinals.
Can’t we enjoy the fact right now that we don’t have Oregon playing OSU in the Roase Bowl while FSU plays someone else in the Sugar Bowl?
At least we get an actual bona fide tournament this year.
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