2019 NCAA Football Thread

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

I’m sure that I’ve said this before, but...

If you don’t win your conference championship, you don’t belong in the playoff.

And, at least for this year, a team that only played 6 games doesn’t belong in the playoffs either.

The whole playoff process is a joke and has been for years, but if anyone needed any proof that the whole system is just about the dollars, then this year should provide all of the proof needed.

All the conferences aren’t equal so winning the conference is only a part of it. It’s getting the 4 best teams into it.

No team that didn’t make it has a huge case to be upset about not making it so all in all it’s not that bad.

Alabama and (healthy) Clemson are much better than anyone else so it doesn’t really matter.

[Lubicon]

This year was a crap shoot. Outside Alabama and Clemson there are good arguments for and against the next bunch of teams.

OSU - still don't think they should have made it based on number of games played. And they did not look overwhelming at all yesterday against Northwestern. Only reason they jumped ahead of ND was to avoid a 3rd game between ND and Clemson. I don't think they are any better.

Notre Dame - I'm also of the school that says if you don't win your conference it's hard to justify making it. And they got schooled pretty good yesterday, and their earlier win vs Clemson is with a bit of an asterick.

Florida - looked real good yesterday but can't be there with 3 losses and not winning your conference.

Oklahoma (I'm a Sooner fan so probably biases). Since stumbling early they have been getting better every week. Win their conference and beat the #6 team in the country to do so they arguably could have been considered. But hard to get over the 2 losses.

PAC12 - conference champion did not even win their own division (!!) and are still ranked lower than the team they just beat. Go Figure. So yeah - no.

Cincinnati - probably deserved to go as the 4th team more than anyone else. There is still a huge bias against the Group of 5. Yes they probably would get smoked by Bama but so would most anyone else.

After Clemson and Bama honestly you could probably put in any of about half a dozen teams and they would all do equally as well.

At least the Cotton Bowl looks like it will be a good game. OU - Florida. Two pretty solid teams.

Looking forward to OSU and Notre Dame getting blasted.

And speaking of the playoffs - the Rose Bowl (aka Semi Final) has been moved to Dallas this year due to Covid restrictions in California.

[Weitz]

I agree with most of your analysis except for Cincinnati. They have no signature wins. They really didn’t have a shot.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by Weitz

All the conferences aren’t equal so winning the conference is only a part of it. It’s getting the 4 best teams into it.

Well, there may be some truth to that, but the statement is also self-perpetuating by continually excluding a team from a certain conference because of such a belief.

Outside of money reasons, I really don’t see why FBS football can’t have the same kind of championship playoff like the basketball programs have.

There are, what, 11 conferences in FBS? Make it a 16 team playoff, with every conference champion getting a spot and pick 5 other teams and let them go at it. Or do an 8 team playoff, with every major conference champion (5, by my count) getting a spot and letting the “lesser” conference champions duke it out betwwwn themselves for a place in the remaining 3 spots.

Sure, Alabama might still win it all under such a playoff, but at least it would be a more honest way of figuring out if they are really as good as everyone thinks they are. And, besides, maybe Cincy or BYU is actually the best team?

[FireGilbert]

The playoffs should be 6 teams, the Power 5 conference winners, and one winner from the group of 5. Rankings are used for seeding with the top 2 teams getting byes.

Yes some good non champions miss out and there is a potential for first round mismatches but the system is at least transparent with seeding based on results and not human rankings.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

Well, there may be some truth to that, but the statement is also self-perpetuating by continually excluding a team from a certain conference because of such a belief.

Outside of money reasons, I really don’t see why FBS football can’t have the same kind of championship playoff like the basketball programs have.

There are, what, 11 conferences in FBS? Make it a 16 team playoff, with every conference champion getting a spot and pick 5 other teams and let them go at it. Or do an 8 team playoff, with every major conference champion (5, by my count) getting a spot and letting the “lesser” conference champions duke it out betwwwn themselves for a place in the remaining 3 spots.

Sure, Alabama might still win it all under such a playoff, but at least it would be a more honest way of figuring out if they are really as good as everyone thinks they are. And, besides, maybe Cincy or BYU is actually the best team?

This is silly. Conferences are irrelevant. Winning the sun belt, or MAC, or mountain west doesn’t mean anything. It’s like winning the AHL and think you should play the Stanley cup winner.

The playoff system isn’t perfect but can you argue in any year since it’s been introduced the best team hasn’t won? I don’t think so.

[Lubicon]

So every team is bowl eligible this year however many bowls have been cancelled and many teams have chosen not to play in a bowl game regardless. But it sucks that Army is 9-2 but due to their tie in to the Independence Bowl now find themselves without a game as their opponent has pulled out. Another team needs to step up and give up their game and allow Army to take their place.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

They should skip the playoff and let ND and OSU play a competitive game against each other and call it a day. If espn wants another game the week after, make Bama vs Clemson two game total point.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

CFP makes it clear they want nothing to do with the group of five schools. Don’t blame them. Can’t think of the last time a team in consideration had a signature win.

Aggies had no shot because theres no way a rematch was justified. They got crushed by Bama already. I guess maybe they could have been #3 and put Ohio State #4?

Ohio State vs Bama and A&M or Florida vs Clemson would have produced better games but I don’t see how those matchups work given the previous rankings.

ND’s only job is to lose by less than 21, while not getting shut out. If they do, I’ll be shocked.

They lost to Alabama in Tuscaloosa in Week 2, lots has changed since. I think it's fair, unlike Notre Dame who just got obliterated by Clemson on a neutral field and needed overtime to beat them without a player who could e starting on sundays this year.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Doesn’t matter when it was they lost or what changed since. CFP don’t like rematches of regular season games. Only way A&M get in is if they’re #3 and play Clemson.

Bad phrasing in my original post.


Somewhat related, anti-CFP article.

Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Oklahoma have combined to take 20 out of 28 possible spots since the playoff began in 2014.

If Clemson and Alabama end up meeting in the national championship, it would be their fifth playoff meeting in the past six years.

That the committee actually says it "respects" the undefeated Group of 5 teams it is charged with evaluating smacks of so much hypocrisy you can only laugh.

There is no respect and never has been. Look at how the committee treated undefeated UCF in 2017. The Knights, the only undefeated team that year, finished 12th overall in the final rankings behind five two-loss teams and one three-loss team. It's no wonder they declared themselves national champions. There was no way the power structure would let them prove it legitimately. The following year, after another undefeated regular-season run, UCF was ranked eighth -- but only behind two two-loss teams that time!

Former Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier saw the same system rewarding only Power 5 programs during the BCS era. He once told me, "Had we beaten Nevada in [2010], we would have had a chance, and that was under the BCS system and this was after we had gone to Congress and put a little pressure on it. Now, there's no chance, in my opinion, for a Group of 5. They can go undefeated all they want, but that committee is not going to let them in the top four. I don't see that happening, and I think that's a shame."

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ly-predictable

No real surprise a committee comprised of employees of power 5 schools pick their own schools. They don’t even attempt to be neutral.

[HockeyIlliterate]

Originally Posted by Weitz

This is silly. Conferences are irrelevant. Winning the sun belt, or MAC, or mountain west doesn’t mean anything. It’s like winning the AHL and think you should play the Stanley cup winner.

And yet, in the NCAA basketball tournament, winning your conference gets you an automatic berth. Regardless of which conference you won. Why treat many of the very same conferences differently for football?

Originally Posted by Weitz

The playoff system isn’t perfect but can you argue in any year since it’s been introduced the best team hasn’t won? I don’t think so.

Well, you are asking to prove a counterfactual, but as I recall Alabama got in the playoff (and ultimately won the championship in a rematch against LSU) even though it didn’t win its own conference.

Was Alabama truly the best team? Who knows? They didn’t beat LSU the first time but did the second, so maybe it was just a draw?

All that can honestly be said is that the presupposed best teams got in and, of those 4, the best one may have won. And, of course, it just so happens that the “best” teams at the end of the season are often (but not always, true) the “best” teams at the beginning of the season even before any games have been played.

The current system isn’t perfect because the big conferences and ESPN do not want to make it perfect. I’m not saying that Alabama and Clemson aren’t good teams, but no one really knows how good they really are when other very good teams are excluded from the chance of even playing them.

And so the whole system becomes a self-fulfilling loop, where the same teams get the same slots and the same benefit of the doubt.

[corporatejay]

And yet, in the NCAA basketball tournament, winning your conference gets you an automatic berth. Regardless of which conference you won. Why treat many of the very same conferences differently for football?

Completely different sports with completely different competitive balances. Also 68 teams make the final four tournament, the FBS has 4.

[transplant99]

Brutal.

Utah freshman running back Ty Jordan has died, the school announced Saturday. He was 19.

The Denton (Texas) Police Department told ESPN that its officers responded to a shooting call at 10:38 p.m. ET Friday. Officers discovered a gunshot victim who had been shot one time. After life-saving measures were applied, the victim was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"Following a preliminary investigation, we do believe that this was an accidental shooting, where the victim accidentally shot himself," Denton Police Department public information officer Allison Beckwith told ESPN.

Jordan, the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year after running for 597 yards with six touchdowns on 83 carries in five games for the Utes, was from Mesquite, Texas, and attended West Mesquite High.

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...hman-year-dies

[Drake]

That King injury looked brutal. And you wonder why players opt out of bowl games that are meaningless

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by Drake

That King injury looked brutal. And you wonder why players opt out of bowl games that are meaningless

Looked like the knee went when he planted not the hit. Freak injury, not going pro, not a game he would opt out if I don’t think

[Drake]

When Kyle Trask doesnt have Kadarius Toney and Kyle Pitts he looks a trash can...

[ResAlien]

Florida must have hired Miami’s WR coach. Brutal dropped passes.

Edit: ouch. This is an absolute curb stomping.

[HockeyIlliterate]

As this CBS Sports article muses, maybe there should be an 8-team playoff.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbs...rout/live/amp/

Hard to say if OU could keep up with Alabama or Clemson, but we will never get to know for sure.

But I am very glad to see an SEC team lose in a bowl game, as it somewhat deflates the whole “SEC is the strongest, hardest, and bestest conference” mantra.

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by HockeyIlliterate

As this CBS Sports article muses, maybe there should be an 8-team playoff.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbs...rout/live/amp/

Hard to say if OU could keep up with Alabama or Clemson, but we will never get to know for sure.

But I am very glad to see an SEC team lose in a bowl game, as it somewhat deflates the whole “SEC is the strongest, hardest, and bestest conference” mantra.

Nah even the announcers were making excuses and discounting Oklahoma’s win before it was over. Too many Florida players opted out, injuries etc.

[transplant99]

MASSIVE brawl after the Tulsa/Miss. St. game.

Street fighting...kicking and punching.

As ugly as it gets.

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ed-forces-bowl