2024 NCAA football thread

[Strange Brew]

And they beat Georgia, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Can’t just point out their losses.

Little doubt they are a better team IMO. The linebackers on that SMU team look like high schoolers, they’d have a very hard time with most major programs.

But I have no issue with SMU making it. This is not about the 12 best teams, you have to keep hope alive for all division 1 teams in this process and if Alabama can’t be one of the top 3 teams in its conference, then tough luck. They had their chance.

If the CFP was about the 12 best teams then only two conferences would be represented.

[Senator Clay Davis]

ESPN bias and money are pretty meaningful factors, even if they shouldn't be. I think they'll take Alabama, either Alabama-Texas or Alabama-Penn State would do huge numbers.

[Strange Brew]

And I agree SMU was never the 8th best team. 75th strength of schedule, they’d played no one.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

ESPN bias and money are pretty meaningful factors, even if they shouldn't be. I think they'll take Alabama, either Alabama-Texas or Alabama-Penn State would do huge numbers.

Here are ESPN’s expert picks as of now. One out of about a dozen took Bama. All the rest of SMU. Not that their experts speak for the committee or the ESPN execs.

Spoiler!

Andrea Adelson: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Arizona State 4. Boise State 5. Texas 6. Penn State 7. Notre Dame 8. Tennessee 9. Ohio State 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Kyle Bonagura: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Notre Dame 6. Ohio State 7. Texas 8. Penn State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Alabama 12. Clemson

Bill Connelly: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Arizona State 4. Boise State 5. Notre Dame 6. Texas 7. Penn State 8. Tennessee 9. Indiana 10. Ohio State 11. SMU 12. Clemson

David Hale: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Notre Dame 6. Tennessee 7. Ohio State 8. Texas 9. Penn State 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Eli Lederman: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Notre Dame 6. Texas 7. Ohio State 8. Penn State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Chris Low: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Ohio State 6. Notre Dame 7. Texas 8. Penn State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Harry Lyles Jr.: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Arizona State 4. Boise State 5. Notre Dame 6. Texas 7. Penn State 8. Tennessee 9. Indiana 10. Ohio State 11. SMU 12. Clemson

Max Olson: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Arizona State 4. Boise State 5. Texas 6. Penn State 7. Notre Dame 8. Ohio State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Adam Rittenberg: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Notre Dame 6. Texas 7. Ohio State 8. Penn State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Mark Schlabach: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Penn State 6. Texas 7. Notre Dame 8. Ohio State 9. Tennessee 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Jake Trotter: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Texas 6. Notre Dame 7. Ohio State 8. Penn State 9. Indiana 10. Tennessee 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Paolo Uggetti: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Boise State 4. Arizona State 5. Notre Dame 6. Ohio State 7. Texas 8. Tennessee 9. Penn State 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

Dave Wilson: 1. Oregon 2. Georgia 3. Arizona State 4. Boise State 5. Texas 6. Penn St 7. Notre Dame 8. Tennessee 9. Ohio State 10. Indiana 11. Clemson 12. SMU

[Senator Clay Davis]

No matter how many teams the eventually make the playoff into until there is defined criteria for qualifying for all teams it's always gonna cause issues. When it inevitably expands again we'll be complaining about the 17th/25th/33rd team being left out. But I don't think anyone really thought the playoff needed to be more than eight teams max, so I'm not really gonna shed any tears for the 13th team out. There's no one who you'd say got totally screwed over.

[transplant99]

Bracket not out just yet but final rankings are....SMU drops behind Bama while Clemson gets to 13.

Oregon
Georgia
Notre Dame
Texas
Penn State
Ohio State
Tennessee
Boise State
Indiana
Arizona St.
Alabama
SMU
Clemson


https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Bracket not out just yet but final rankings are....SMU drops behind Bama while Clemson gets to 13.

Oregon
Georgia
Notre Dame
Texas
Penn State
Ohio State
Tennessee
Boise State
Indiana
Arizona St.
Alabama
SMU
Clemson


https://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings

That's just AP rankings.

Betting markets moved to 93% SMU in the last few minutes.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Clemson at 12 kinda suggests SMU is out? What would be the logic putting SMU ahead of them?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

No matter how many teams the eventually make the playoff into until there is defined criteria for qualifying for all teams it's always gonna cause issues. When it inevitably expands again we'll be complaining about the 17th/25th/33rd team being left out. But I don't think anyone really thought the playoff needed to be more than eight teams max, so I'm not really gonna shed any tears for the 13th team out. There's no one who you'd say got totally screwed over.

This is pretty fair. The World Cup does this and no one tries to compare the record of St. Kitts against the Netherlands in determining eligibility. Europe gets nearly half the slots going in.

But football is a short season and you have many teams. And there are only two conferences right now that are capable of producing a national champion. So if you have conference quotas, how many do you give the SEC? Because they will take their ball and have their own playoff if they don't get enough. And I don't know if you can expand the playoffs anymore without shortening the regular season. Which IMO wouldn't be good.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Clemson at 12 kinda suggests SMU is out? What would be the logic putting SMU ahead of them?

Must be some inside knowledge in the betting markets though as Alabama has no chance in them now.

[Senator Clay Davis]

So yeah Oregon gets the harder path than Penn State, Georgia a harder path than Texas. Gonna be fun to see teams tanking in games next year since winning seems to get you punished.

[transplant99]

Bama out...that loss to OK was a killer.

[transplant99]

[Cecil Terwilliger]

If this were a 4 team playoff, who would be in? Oregon, Georgia obviously.

Texas and Penn State are 3/4. Maybe they take Texas but even that risks a 3rd Texas Georgia game for the NC.

Notre Dame and Ohio State?

[Strange Brew]

Ask Penn State if they are happy with the decision. Minus 325 against SMU. Against Alabama they would have the home field betting edge and that's about it.

All of the first round games have at least 6.5 point spreads, but I wouldn't sleep on Tennessee.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I mean Penn State struggle against every half decent team they play, SMU looks a great value bet.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

So yeah Oregon gets the harder path than Penn State, Georgia a harder path than Texas. Gonna be fun to see teams tanking in games next year since winning seems to get you punished.

Nah, I would definitely take the Georgia path over Texas. One fewer game and the hardest opponent they would have to the finals is Penn State.

They're not too worried about the winner of ND/Indiana. Neither of those teams has beaten a team currently ranked.

Only six of the team in the playoffs are actual contenders IMO.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Are there six? Ohio State and Penn State have coaches who can't win against good teams, so they're out. SMU, Clemson, Arizona State, Indiana and Boise State are out. Tennessee don't have enough offense to win. Texas? Not sure either. Really this would have been a perfect BCS year, Oregon-Georgia would elicit no complaints if that was the only playoff game.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Ask Penn State if they are happy with the decision. Minus 325 against SMU. Against Alabama they would have the home field betting edge and that's about it.

All of the first round games have at least 6.5 point spreads, but I wouldn't sleep on Tennessee.

What decision?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

If this were a 4 team playoff, who would be in? Oregon, Georgia obviously.

Texas and Penn State are 3/4. Maybe they take Texas but even that risks a 3rd Texas Georgia game for the NC.

Notre Dame and Ohio State?

Good question. I think you include Ohio State, everyone has bad losses but they have some good wins.

Notre Dame has no good wins and one horrific loss, I don't think you can include them with that schedule. So then maybe Texas.

Those would be 4 good teams but there would be controversy for sure.