College Football Thread

[Lebowski]

Oh man, I would be ecstatic if CFP went to 24 teams!!!

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/momentum-rapidly-growing-for-college-football-playoff-expansion-to-eight-or-more-teams/

[LIHoosier]

On 6/9/2021 at 4:27 PM, Lebowski said:

Oh man, I would be ecstatic if CFP went to 24 teams!!!

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/momentum-rapidly-growing-for-college-football-playoff-expansion-to-eight-or-more-teams/

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31604970/college-football-playoff-consider-expanding-12-team-format

Seems like its more likely to be 12 teams; the FBS only does 16. ND's AD was part of the original group in this proposal so that potential roadblock should be gone.

[NashvilleHoosier]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/last-seasons-college-football-playoff-213502132.html

Pretty cool to think we would have been in the playoff under a 12 team format last season.

I'm a very limited supporter of expansion, but not by much. 24 is waaaaay too many. It would water down big matchups during the regular season too much and end up with very mediocre 8-4 teams in the playoff. I think 12 is still too many. I'd be fine with 8 for an easy bracket but I think 6 would actually work well. It still preserves the magic of the regular season meaning so much each game. It would still incentivize the best teams as they would get a bye week, but also not completely eliminate a really good team who takes one loss to another really good team. I wouldn't give automatic bids to the power 5 champions unless they are undefeated or 1 loss teams (i.e. the Big 12 misses out last season, so the next highest ranked non-champion gets a spot). 

[IUc2016]

I guess I have never understood how allowing more teams into a playoff would water down the regular season. Doesn't it do the exact opposite? Other than maybe for Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio state who are shoe-ins. A lot more teams would still have a fighting chance in November to make a run at a championship. That has never been the case in College football and it is really the only sport that does it that way.

Is the regular season watered down in literally any other sport that allows more than 4 teams to play for a championship? 

Last year IU lost to Ohio State and it knocked them out of the playoff. Thus, for Championship purposes the rest of their games did not matter. If there were 8-12 teams allowed in the playoff it would have put MORE importance on the rest of their games not less.

[Hoosierfan2017]

Letting more teams play in the playoff would help combat players sitting out because they don’t want to play in a random bowl game. It would make the regular season a lot more competitive, imo. For any team not named Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson your playoff chances almost disappear once you lose a game. With a bigger playoff they still have a chance. A bigger playoff would be a ton of fun. 

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich]

40 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

Letting more teams play in the playoff would help combat players sitting out because they don’t want to play in a random bowl game. It would make the regular season a lot more competitive, imo. For any team not named Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson your playoff chances almost disappear once you lose a game. With a bigger playoff they still have a chance. A bigger playoff would be a ton of fun. 

I want to see 16 teams. 

[Lebowski]

It's coming folks.  We're going to get an expansion.  Now it's just a matter of when and how many. 

My dream formula is the following. 

• 16 Team Playoff
• Conference champs get automatic bids.  That means 10 schools are in.  
• Remaining slots are at-large bids.

That article I posted mentioned 24 teams and if we ever see that in our lifetime I think I would have died and gone to heaven.  Because we're talking about a playoff system that would pretty much include the schools that finished 3rd or 4th in a conference and just start peeking at the right time. 
 

[NashvilleHoosier]

1 hour ago, IUc2016 said:

I guess I have never understood how allowing more teams into a playoff would water down the regular season. Doesn't it do the exact opposite? Other than maybe for Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio state who are shoe-ins. A lot more teams would still have a fighting chance in November to make a run at a championship. That has never been the case in College football and it is really the only sport that does it that way. For me, it's the fact that chance of "making a run at a championship" in college football seems nearly impossible in comparison to say, college hoops. There is now too much disparity between the top 2-3 teams and the rest in college football. Hence why so many semifinal games in the current CFP are blowouts. There is no mediocre team in college football that was going to get hot and win several games in a tournament while knocking off an Alabama/Clemson/Ohio St. along the way. So it would be giving a bunch of teams a chance to play for a championship, yeah, but all those teams who now have a chance aren't in the same league as the very top tier. 

Is the regular season watered down in literally any other sport that allows more than 4 teams to play for a championship? Yes and no. There aren't that many games in football. Losing even 1 game is a huge deal right now in college football. Losing any particular game in college hoops is no big deal. I agree the NCAA basketball tournament is magical. Wouldn't ever want that to change. But if there were only, say, 8 teams that made it, the regular season would be way more high stakes. Now, you can have a terrible season 2/3rds of the way or more, be standing at 13-12 and win 3 or 4 big games down the stretch and you can have the chance to play for a national title. Or even have a losing record but win your conference tournament. There's a reason that so many people that tune into the NCAA tournament don't tune into the regular season. 

Last year IU lost to Ohio State and it knocked them out of the playoff. Thus, for Championship purposes the rest of their games did not matter. If there were 8-12 teams allowed in the playoff it would have put MORE importance on the rest of their games not less. I can see your point about it giving more meaning to games for teams that wouldn't otherwise get into the playoff. But if you think about the biggest games of the season, it's the ones where the highest ranked teams are playing each other. Bama/LSU, GA/Fla, yeah us and OSU last year. Those games mean so much less when its nearly certain that the loser will still get into the playoff. Expanding to 16 or more virtually eliminates the importance of conference championship games. You'd be shifting importance away from the games played between the highest ranked teams toward the games where 7-4 NC State plays 7-4 Virginia b/c the winner might have a chance to get beat 58-6 by Bama or Clemson in the first round of the playoff. To me, that waters down the importance of the regular season. 

 

[IUc2016]

@NashvilleHoosier I don't want to quote our posts as they are getting really long. 

I think for me it just seems illogical to make a championship IMPOSSIBLE for a good majority of the teams. teams have literally gone undefeated and not had a chance to play in a playoff (not even the championship). 

Also, are we sure that Alabama beating teams 58-6 is not a result of how college football has functioned for so long? Maybe if College football allowed more teams an opportunity to play for a championship the top kids wouldn't all feel like they have to go to Alabama or Clemson to play for it. I think it is reasonable to expect it would create more parity down the road. 

[NashvilleHoosier]

@IUc2016 good call on not quoting long posts! And yeah I'm opposed the scenario where an undefeated team doesn't have any chance at all, which is why I'm for minimal expansion (6 or 8 teams) along with stipulations that an undefeated conference champion will always get an auto bid. 

And your second point is really good. Yes, the lopsided nature of the sport and disparity between the powerful few and everyone else is likely a result of how college football has functioned for so long. And I can see an expanded playoff adding more parity slowly over the years. I'm still not convinced, but you're making me think...

(Is this the part where I start saying it doesn't matter anyway b/c in 20 years football will be on a fairly sharp decline and the amount of talented athletes playing football at a young age will be running thin therefore limiting the amount of high quality players playing college football and beyond b/c soccer has finally overtaken it as the most popular sport in America? No? Leave that out? Okay. Nevermind.) :-)

[IUc2016]

24 minutes ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

@IUc2016 good call on not quoting long posts! And yeah I'm opposed the scenario where an undefeated team doesn't have any chance at all, which is why I'm for minimal expansion (6 or 8 teams) along with stipulations that an undefeated conference champion will always get an auto bid. 

And your second point is really good. Yes, the lopsided nature of the sport and disparity between the powerful few and everyone else is likely a result of how college football has functioned for so long. And I can see an expanded playoff adding more parity slowly over the years. I'm still not convinced, but you're making me think...

(Is this the part where I start saying it doesn't matter anyway b/c in 20 years football will be on a fairly sharp decline and the amount of talented athletes playing football at a young age will be running thin therefore limiting the amount of high quality players playing college football and beyond b/c soccer has finally overtaken it as the most popular sport in America? No? Leave that out? Okay. Nevermind.) :-)

Yeah I have no idea how expansion will affect the disparity that has plagued college football, just some thoughts I have had for awhile now as I am sick of not only watching Clemson and Bama, but hearing about them nonstop during football coverage. Hoping that change will have a positive impact on the sport because I am tired of the status quo.

As for soccer, I am all for it. And that is coming from someone who played football k-12. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

This is the handout for Louisville's OV's this weekend.  Somebody flunked spelling and doesn't know how to use spell checker.

[HoosierAloha]

This is the handout for Louisville's OV's this weekend.  Somebody flunked spelling and doesn't know how to use spell checker.

It is Louisville so.. offical or official, what’s an I between recruit and uni?!


Sent from my iPhone using BtownBanners mobile app

[Naturalhoosier]

I was about to comment about someone being fired. But it is Uni of Louisville so a promotion was likely handed down. 

[Lebowski]

@NashvilleHoosier @IUc2016

Love the back and forth y'all.  Just wanted to chime in.  Hope you don't mind.  If so, just let me know and I'll go grab some oat sodas.  

In regards to semifinal blowouts in the current CFP these schools are typically conference champs of a P5.  When you think about the SEC a large percentage of those games are close.  And a lot of those schools would do fairly well in a playoff environment should they get a chance.  Even the 4 loss schools.  I think it would be safe to say expanding the CFP we'd more than likely be able to see some really competitive games.  And on the other hand we'd see some blow outs as well.  It just depends on the rankings.

I mean no team was going to play Bama close last year.  That team was special.  However take 2016 for example, Clemson won the championship 35-31 over Bama.  They beat OSU, who didn't even win their conference, 31-0 and Bama beat Wash, who lost to USC during the regular season,  24-7 in the semifinals.  During the season Clemson played fairly close games against Auburn, Louisville, FSU, NC State and VaTech.  Bama's 'competitve' games were against Ole Miss and LSU that season.  Washington won the PAC12 but lost to USC who got blown out by Bama at the beginning of the season but ended up beating the Big Ten's conference champ in a bowl game.  The top 12 schools in the last CFP Rankings prior to the playoff 5 conference champions and three schools with 3 losses, USC being one of them, were part of it.  Of those schools FSU is the only school mentioned above that played a competitive game to the eventual champion. If we expand it out to 16 teams 13-0 Western Michigan finally would get a crack at playing for all the marbles and Auburn and Louisville might get another crack at Clemson.  If we expand even further to 24 teams, LSU might get another crack at Bama.  

Here's my point, we're talking football here.  Teams matchup differently.  Seasons are long.  Injuries happen.  Conferences are brutal, I'm thinking SEC here.  Teams improve during the season.  I could easily see a 3 loss school, cough cough SEC, make some noise in an expanded CFP.  The likelihood of that happening is minimal.  But not out of scope.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey announces games will not be rescheduled this fall due to COVID. It is up to teams to get vaccinated.  If they don't have enough, they may have to forfeit.  Six of 14 SEC teams have reached the 80% vaccination threshold, he said.

The reaction from Assembly Call --

Look for the Big Ten to release a similar announcement soon, with two caveats:

• Ohio State opponents who have positive tests will indeed forfeit.

• If OSU has a positive test, game is postponed until they are at full strength.  If no makeup date can be found, OSU gets the W.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Rumors circulating both Texas and Oklahoma considering a jump to the SEC.   

[Naturalhoosier]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Rumors circulating both Texas and Oklahoma considering a jump to the SEC.   

Time to reopen conversations about super-conferences?

[Brass Cannon]

3 hours ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Rumors circulating both Texas and Oklahoma considering a jump to the SEC.   

Wonder if the big ten would look at Kansas and West Virginia. Since the loss of these two would all but certainly kill that conference 

[MemphisHoosier]

1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

Wonder if the big ten would look at Kansas and West Virginia. Since the loss of these two would all but certainly kill that conference 

Spitballing here, but if the B1G were to explore expansion I wouldn't be surprised to see them target major TV markets on the east coast & mid-south, e.g. markets in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, with strong academics and make a run at schools like UNC, Georgia Tech, UVA, etc.  May seem odd on the surface, but that would be consistent with the most recent additions of Maryland & Rutgers.