Posted on 12/07/2025 8:17:56 PM PST by Red Badger
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I am not privy to how the bowl game selection sausage is made, but it seems to ND would have had a decent bowl game. Maybe playing Michigan or Texas. The stadiums would be full and TV money would be flowing.
And all the best players will sit out.
Yes my bad, it was closer, I got the games mixed up.
Agree - the Duke thing and some of the committee decisions brought out a lot of hate toward decision makers. Maybe a shakeup is in order. I’m kinda new to college ball, it is very convoluted. Stopped watching NFL after it went woke.
And yeah Miami fans are lit. They’ll nearly fill the Hard Rock during regular season games, and it’s a pretty small school. My daughter is a freshman there - under 20k students, around the same as Duke.
Both Florida teams have much larger student bodies. FSU 44k and UF over 60k.
Not as much as they used to be.
There is no perfect system; this one certainly ain’t it. A few thoughts:
1. The Committee didn’t choose Tulane and James Madison over Notre Dame. The selection criteria that required 5 conference champions is what chose Tulane and James Madison. The Committee had no control over that. The Committee actually chose Alabama and Miami over ND (for the last 2 discretionary picks).
2. The “5 conference champions” was intended to let 1 non-power conference team in. Now that 2 such teams got in this year, look for the SEC and the Big 10 to exercise their power and further restrict access for the little guys.
3. We are not going back to “the bowls,” but if we did, we should go back to when there were 4-5 big ones, and a few others. Not like now, with 40+ bowls, and every 6-6 team gets an invite, as well as a few 5-7 teams. But people wanted a “real” champion, not the top 4 teams playing in 4 separate bowls. More importantly, with the amounts of money at stake, there won’t be any going back.
4. Look for more teams to opt out of bowls (like ND) and stop scheduling tough non-conference games (like Texas is threatening).
5. Last year the top 4 seeds (the teams that got a bye) all lost their 1st playoff game. If that happens again, look for more of a push for 16 teams, with no byes.
6. I have pondered the question: what is the biggest change in sports in my lifetime (I am 59)? I don’t think it’s free agency, or multimillionaire players, or even college players getting paid. I think those are symptoms. I think the biggest change is that the pro leagues, and the college revenue sports, figured out how to properly monetize their products. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, but having succeeded, they couldn’t keep pro salaries low or continue to not pay college players - they had to share the wealth
I've heard that, but with NIL money do they have a choice?
One thing that is out of whack is head coach salaries in college.
Colleges are now more structuring their programs like NFL teams, so that success isn’t so much dependent on the head coaches.
“James Madison over Notre Dame, really? “
Rules prevailed.
“ND has maybe the best offense in the country and were a favorite to win the whole damn thing. “
They were ranked 9th. That doesn’t make them the favorite.
ND lost to the only decent teams they played.
I see this happening a lot in the future. If a major doesn’t get into the playoffs, I can see them being unmotivated to play in the Preparation H Bowl.
This was a terrible decision by ND. Although they were pushed just outside of contending for a national championship, they would have had a decent bowl selection and a likely opportunity to prove the selection committee wrong. ND decided to quit versus making their case on the playing field.
Spoiled red headed kid
Always fawned over by mostly Catholic yankee media and sports pundits and casters
One dose of reality
And an entertaining hissy fit ensues
As a southerner growing up listening to south bashing from sports comm for decades over race lecturing from people in whitelandia
I can’t say it ain’t sweet
Yes before you get going I think Alabama LSU and Georgia finally killed the anti southern bias
I still remember when the Rebels beat the high ranked Irish in 77
In Jackson
My buddies LQ and fast Freddy and charlie cage leading the way
All black and regulars at my legendary all night parties
I’m pissed Vandy didn’t make it
They actually have to get grades and their schedule much tougher
Btw Ohio state and Indiana are good teams
I watched it not bad
Any of the top ten can win on a given day over the other
And they beat Michigan
I have the shirt
Now I understand u better
New twist I think
In the old Pacific Eight, my team, the USC Trojans, played every team during the season. I was totally opposed to expanding the conference--besides, the new members were from Arizona, Utah and Colorado, which are not on the Pacific Coast.
I think that’s inevitably what we will go back to, not necessarily conferences, but a series of 8-Team Divisions, that will closely resemble the old conferences.
There are some other changes that would, sadly, require an ability to time-travel. For major-league baseball, I would like to get rid of playoffs--let the team with the best record win the pennant. I would also like to do away with interleague play. The season should be shortened--no baseball after Halloween--and we should bring back the organists who have been replaced with cacophonous rock music piped in over the PA system.
Opposite end of my ‘family’ connections ... second child works in the engineering capital of the world ... and it is true what Howard Cosell is reported to have said “Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Alabama, where Cosell famously announced that “at Notre Dame, football is a religion; at Alabama, it's a way of life.”
On my first trip to Huntsville, my son took me on a tour of the cliffs overlooking the city ... as we drove through, my son would point out ... there is a house divided... as two flags were planted in the front yard ...
Eight-team divisions might be a solution as long as they aren’t like the old NFL Western Division which included Baltimore
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