Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
Yeah, but it wasn't for all the marbles. If Alabama won, they probably still need to beat Missouri to get to the NC, assuming Florida State and Ohio State win out. Next week's SEC championship has a claim to be for all the marbles too, because the winner has a shot at jumping into the top two, even though we don't know for sure how the BCS is going to score it.
The system has the appearance of making games more important because it keeps the effects of outcomes unknown until after they happen. The iron bowl game seemed more important than it was because people thought that it might be enough to vault Auburn ahead of Ohio State. When you're inside the narrative, a lot of things seem huge. But in retrospect, few games are actually as large as they seemed. The Oregon/Stanford game seemed huge when it happened. Now it's a 'meh' moment of the season. If Auburn fails to reach the NC game, then the importance of this game will shrink significantly. Yeah, it took someone out of the championship picture, but it didn't get anyone into the championship. So it's definitely not an all-the-marbles game.
I'm not saying the new system is better. Actually, it's a lot worse. I hate it. Not because the games count for less, but because we'll have even less idea what the actual repercussions of particular results are, even after they happen. Media will hype up these games just as much, because nobody can tell them with authority that they don't have massive implications. We'll get the same 'all the marbles' lines, and they'll still be false 90% of the time. Fans will get caught up in these narratives and be just as into it, and then be outraged when their signature win didn't sway the selection committee as much as they thought it would.
That said, I do think there will be less controversy overall under the new system. Because ultimately people only care about the winner, and the winner will have legitimacy by surviving a playoff with three other elite teams. The team that finished 12-1 and with an okay schedule but lost out on a playoff berth to another 12-1 okay schedule team will be forgotten by the start of next year.
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I'm sure we will find out over the next few years, but I'm positive this will create as many if not more controversies than the current system. Take this year, and pretend there is a 4 team playoff. Auburn wins the SEC this weekend and we are left with OSU, FSU, Auburn and Alabama. What if Auburn plays OSU and loses, and Alabama plays FSU and wins? Say FSU's QB goes down at some point so they get a cake walk. Then what was the point of the Iron Bowl? The only answer to that question is that there was NO point to the Iron bowl. How is Alabama any more legit of a champion in this system? They aren't its just different and we haven't (but will soon) see the scenarios that will make the regular season less important … a slow walk towards College basketball. Cool tournament but an absolute wasteland of a 3 or 4 month regular season.
Just wait, some kind of version of the above will happen and guess what? 8 team playoff will be all the rage. Once we get this system Conference championships become a pain the ass, and back ups start playing because who needs the injuries. Undefeated, 12-0 teams get some bad weather in the first round of their playoffs and, poof, they are out. Only to be supplanted by a couple 10-2 teams … which probably lost to the 12-0 team.
We just saw maybe the best game in the history of college ball last weekend. If we had a 8 team playoff, or even a 4 team, it would have meant much less. Nobody with a straight face can argue against that.