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Bowl Championship Splendor: The golden age of college football
Weekly Standard ^ | December 23, 2013 | Jeffrey H. Anderson

Posted on 12/27/2013 12:03:57 PM PST by rhema

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To: Alberta's Child

Well, if it wasn’t for the popularity of Big East Basketball at the time, we would have had an Eastern All Sports Conference with PSU, Pitt, WVU, BC, Syracuse, Temple, Rutgers, Maryland (maybe), etc.

Sure PSU took the money, but it wasn’t sports money. It was CIC money and the incredible increase in research grants that have resulted.


41 posted on 12/27/2013 1:23:13 PM PST by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: Cowboy Bob

You think it’s wrecked now? Wait ‘til you see what the “panel of experts” will do to it when they descend from Mount Olympus to give us peons the list of playoff teams.


42 posted on 12/27/2013 1:28:41 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: Gulf War One

I think he’s right about one observation. See post 42.


43 posted on 12/27/2013 1:30:02 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema

That goes without saying, but at least they are going to give us 4 teams instead of 2.


44 posted on 12/27/2013 1:33:39 PM PST by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: rhema
How about putting in a REAL playoff system instead of the phony one that allows people to VOTE on who gets into the champtionship rounds.

Only College football on the highest level rejects a true playoff system and subjects fans to meaningless 'bowl' games and tells us that we should like them!

45 posted on 12/27/2013 1:35:08 PM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: Alberta's Child
No, put all teams in conferences (including Notre Dame) and have the winners play it out.

How is it that the lower level college teams can do it but not the higher one?

46 posted on 12/27/2013 1:38:00 PM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: Fiji Hill

So, stop playing meaningless games against lower level teams and play REAL games.


47 posted on 12/27/2013 1:38:50 PM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: sean327

It seems that would be the simple way to do it, but instead they insist on subjecting us to this boring, meaningless Bowl system


48 posted on 12/27/2013 1:40:26 PM PST by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: fortheDeclaration

So far, so good. How many teams (and which teams, decided by what standard) would make the playoffs?


49 posted on 12/27/2013 1:43:52 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: rhema
Hail to Pitt!

Little Caesar-s Pizza Bowl

50 posted on 12/27/2013 1:45:22 PM PST by FroggyTheGremlim ("It is not the color of his skin, ... it is the blackness that fills his soul")
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To: fortheDeclaration

I’d like to see football break from the ncaa (and their conferences) altogether. Come up with 64 teams in a super division w/ sub-divisions and playoffs.

Have the schedules dictated to the teams - no more weak ooc games. Northern teams would have to play in the south in September, and southern teams would have to play in the north in November.

Keep rivalries, and rotate sub-division play like they do in the NFL and MLB.

Allow as many as 8 or so teams to float in and out of this super division yearly based on rolling performance over a few years.

The teams that don’t make the playoffs can play each other in the Outback Bowls of the world at the end of the season.


51 posted on 12/27/2013 1:46:18 PM PST by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: FlJoePa

Why that sounds just like......The Barclay’s Premier League.


52 posted on 12/27/2013 1:47:35 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: eCSMaster

I saw some of that exciting game, mostly the last part. So how high (first round?) will Aaron Donald be drafted?


53 posted on 12/27/2013 1:52:02 PM PST by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: eCSMaster

Tyler Boyd is a stud. Wish he was a Lion.


54 posted on 12/27/2013 1:55:50 PM PST by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: rhema

16 teams. The 10 conference champions are auto bids. The 6 highest ranked teams that didn’t win their conference get at large bids.


55 posted on 12/27/2013 2:08:58 PM PST by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: dfwgator

Considering there are nearly twice as many games, I’m not sure that is a fair comparison. I guess it depends on the team. It seems to me from a fan’s perspective, BBall starts slow and the excitement builds through conference tournaments, selection day, until the cream finally reaches the top for the Final 4. That excitement is enhanced by the emergence of Cinderellas and underdogs from small conferences, by tournament upsets and bracket busters. Football is largely over for most teams after the team’s first loss. And for some conferences, even being undefeated may not earn you a shot at a championship. There may be a valid reason for this, but I would prefer to settle it on the field, not in Bristol, CT and/or some computer database.

I imagine a similar football playoff of 16 teams that gives every FBS conference a legit shot to be seeded would be just as interesting, if not more, as March Madness.


56 posted on 12/27/2013 2:36:15 PM PST by Kandy Atz ("Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want for bread.")
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To: rhema
You think it’s wrecked now? Wait ‘til you see what the “panel of experts” will do to it when they descend from Mount Olympus to give us peons the list of playoff teams.

I'd rather have the panel of experts deciding the top 4 than the pencil-necked computer geeks who never, ever played the game like Anderson - the author of this article.

I prefer the coaches' and writers' polls to any computer-based ranking. All of the "metrics" the geeks program into their formulae have flaws and are usually not indicative of actual quality of play on the field. Sagarin's BCS rankings were the most absurd this year - even worse than the usually putrid Anderson. Sagarin had Northern Illinois as the 3rd ranked team in the country just 3 weeks ago when while most coaches & writers never ranked them no better than #15, despite a 12-0 record. A loss in the MAC championship to a mediocre Bowling Green and a bowl loss to Utah State shows the stupidity of Sagarin's evaluation.

I'll take the 4 team playoff as a vast improvement over the BCS. At least with this limited playoff I can be certain that only one SEC team will qualify and the nation will not be subjected to another SEC-only 9-6 snoozefest championship.

57 posted on 12/27/2013 2:37:05 PM PST by Sideshow Bob
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To: FlJoePa

“football break from the ncaa (and their conferences)”

It wouldn’t be football without the SEC. 14 teams, two divisions, everyone’s a rival and a conference championship.


58 posted on 12/27/2013 2:44:26 PM PST by duffee (NO poll tax, NO tax on firearms, ammunition or gun safes. NO gun free zones.)
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To: sean327
There are four SEC teams ranked #16 or higher in the current BCS standings. Georgia sits at #22 with an 8-4 record, and they would easily have been a fifth SEC team in that group if it weren't for injuries to key starters (including their starting QB).

Can you envision any scenario in an NCAA football playoff system where five SEC teams -- or even just three of them -- would be allowed in the playoffs?

59 posted on 12/27/2013 3:54:28 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: Sideshow Bob
Right. So instead of a 9-6 snoozefest you'd have a 41-14 drubbing of a top-ranked undefeated team from the Big Ten to a #2-ranked SEC team with one loss:

2007 BCS Championship

LOL. Notice the money quote in that article:

"Honestly, we've played a lot better teams than them," Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss said. "I could name four or five teams in the SEC that could probably compete with them and play the same type of game we did against them."

60 posted on 12/27/2013 4:00:02 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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