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Football Final Four?

Discussion in 'College Sports' started by DonShula84, Jan 7, 2008.

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  1. DonShula84

    DonShula84 Moderator Luxury Box

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    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3185000

    You'd think Pete Carroll would convince the Pac-10 to support this, it could only help USC right now.
     
  2. finswin56

    finswin56 Get a mop

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    I think 8 or 10 teams would be perfect. Still, saying this would be an improvement is as understated as it gets.
     
  3. DonShula84

    DonShula84 Moderator Luxury Box

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    The game day crew on ESPN bashing the Big Ten just now for not going along with a playoff is great. They are right though, in a playoff the samething would happen to them. So oppose the playoff, use an easy schedule to get yourself into a champ game and hope you get lucky on any given day.
     
  4. djfresh47

    djfresh47 New Member

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    If this system is put into place I think the top 4 teams would play. Which would still leave USC out. It seems like every year aside from Usc/Texas that their is an arguement. Ohio St played with their hands around their necks. Though is LSU the best team? When it's a one loss team we hear about the team playing the best and it's better to lose early. LSU and OSU lost late. I'm not trying to discredit them but it seems like the percentages say that two teams will emerge as having superior resumes. Though on the field it seems like that's not the case.

    Hypothetically USC and UGA are getting alot of love but if a plus one who plays? If it were to be a top 4 playoff before the Bowl Games USC and UGA are out.
     
  5. djfresh47

    djfresh47 New Member

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    The system just doesn't work. Every year fans hear that it should work more often than not. Though it hasn't worked more often than not.
     
  6. DonShula84

    DonShula84 Moderator Luxury Box

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    It's definitely better to have an 8 team playoff. It makes it harder to get to a championship game, which is why the Big Ten is against it according to the ESPN guys; and the argument makes sense. It's easier to win the Big Ten and walk into a championship game then get into the playoffs and beat the SEC/Pac-10/ACC etc to earn a spot in the game. A weak schedule helps because it gives you more wins, and improves your resume. So if you are in a weak conference, and have a weak out of conference schedule it's easier for you. Teams are picking up on this and making their schedules accordingly.

    In the NFL, do more than 5 or 6 teams really have a shot at a championship? I know there are a lot more college teams but if you just consider the big programs it isnt that different. You can expand it, how many NBA teams really have a legit shot at a title? Or baseball teams? A playoff in college football wouldnt really change how many teams have a legit shot at a title.
     
  7. DonShula84

    DonShula84 Moderator Luxury Box

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    I think it's hard to argue with most of the teams that have been selected to play in the title game, so in that sense it has done what it was made to do. It isnt perfect, I just dont see it as all that horrible either.
     
  8. Regan21286

    Regan21286 MCAT's, EMT's, AMCAS, ugh

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  9. DonShula84

    DonShula84 Moderator Luxury Box

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    I figured you were for it actually, I was agreeing with you when I said it was better to have 8 teams. My only point is that right now, and it will continue with a playoff, is that teams will schedule easy teams to ensure themselves a spot in the playoffs. But, the argument put forth by the ESPN crew was that the Big Ten is against it because right now they can schedule themselves into the championship game, and then possibly you get lucky in one game and you're champs. Whereas with a playoff it takes more than an easy schedule and luck to win it. But you can keep an easy schedule to improve your odds of getting in, not much you can do about that though.
     
  10. Roman529

    Roman529 Senior Member

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    A Final Four or even a Final Eight is something that could work. You could make certain bowl games (the Sugar, Orange, Rose, Cotton) start around the middle of December, and the winners advance to a final four around Christmas, and the following week you have a National Championship game. :ffic:
     
  11. finswin56

    finswin56 Get a mop

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    I forgot to add this before. It seems the plus one thing has been the most likely "playoff" that we'll see. I've largely been in favor of a true playoff, and here's why.

    If we had a plus one this year, under the current bowl set up, we'd have LSU, UGA, and USC.

    Pick two and tell me the other should be left out. I dare you.
     
  12. djfresh47

    djfresh47 New Member

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    It would've left USC and UGA out. The plus one format would've had Va Tech and Oklahoma I believe. Todd McShay stated the plus 2 is the best way to figure out a champ because the NCAA will never go for a playoff. If a plus one was added this year I think you flip a coin. USC lost to Stanford but UGA didn't win their division. I've been so turned off by the NFL recently and I love CFB but it's really the only thing that doesn't have an undisputable National Champion. I'm with the 'experts" and believe a plus one would be USC/LSU but that messes over UGA.
     
  13. n9necount

    n9necount New Member

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    While plus one is certainly better than what we currently have, nothing will really be good enough until we get a true playoff system.

    I don't know how many NCAAB fans we have here, but how awesome is March Madness in comparison to this BCS garbage? Football can do the same and run with it, yet here we are year after year talking about the title game, who got screwed, etc.
     
  14. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    This would be a great idea. After all of the teams that got screwed this year, I am definitely for this now. I was for it before, and now im really behind it. Mizzou goes from number one to dropping out of a BCS game. LSU jumped from # 7 to # 2 in the last week. Really? With two losses to Kentucky and Arkansas even. Yet #4 Georgia is idle and falls to #5. Illinois in the Rose Bowl. Really? An over-achieving average team who gets lucky and beats an overrated # 1 Ohio State team on the road, when's the last # 1 to lose at home to an unranked team anyways, like that? West Virginia got hosed. ASU, now I do not want to sound biased here, I mean we lost our two big time games on national television, but should that matter? I guess it does. We were a top 5 - 10 team all year long. Our only losses came to # 5 Oregon, at oregon mind you, with a healthy dixon. Our 2nd loss came to # 11 USC here in the desert. But USC, by many, was considered maybe the hottest team in the country right then, and now. And I wont lie, I think USC would beat LSU and Ohio State. Definitely. And I definitely think that a healthy Dixon lead Oregon team and USC are superior to a Kentucky and Arkansas(whom played way below their talent level) which LSU lost to. Due to the older gentlemen deciding on keeping the Pac 10 Big Ten tradition, over looking a definite mizzou or WV and going with an Illini team who was unranked half of the freaking year, ASU then gets kicked out of a BCS game along with Mizzou.

    I usually gave the benefit of the doubt to the BCS system, but this year they lost my vote of confidence for good. All it is, is a system which benefits the television networks. A quote from ESPN MVP, "The Bowl Championship Series has become a beauty contest largely stage-managed by the networks, which in turn protects the interests of their own partner conferences .....the bowls are guilty of closed circle decision-making based on traditional contract alliances. It is time to take the ultimate power out of their hands and give it to the student-athletes on the field." (ESPN MVP 2008)

    I couldn't agree with this any more. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in picking bowl games. My uncle, here in Scottsdale, is a partner with the Fiesta Bowl, and headed the entire bowl two years ago. I am on the field for every Fiesta Bowl, the team wants bananas before the game, I go and get bananas. Being a nephew of his is awsome. He has told me a lot of things, but he has also told me this, he told me that they look at alliances, traditions etc, but also into looking into whether or not a heavy fan base will travel to the game. If not they might go in another direction. He said its all about money. And thats sad. You can see how what he said happened this year. ASU in the Fiest Bowl here in Phx? Naw, hotels and travel expenses would be down.

    A playoff would still have its issues, getting into the top 8 etc / seeding, but at least the top 8 could duel it out.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2008
  15. GridIronKing34

    GridIronKing34 Silently Judging You

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    And that's the bottom line... because ASU says so!
     
  16. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    You have a different opinion Mat?
     
  17. GridIronKing34

    GridIronKing34 Silently Judging You

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    Nope... you had a long speech that I agreed with, just felt like you needed a catchy outro to it.
     
  18. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    Which makes you lose a lot of respect for that conference then.
     
  19. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    haha nice.
     
  20. Boomer

    Boomer Premium Member Luxury Box

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    I don't think anyone will sign off on an 8 team playoff format.

    The problem is that the whole system is fundamentally flawed. That's why you have to wait 50 days for the BCS Championship game. It's about the bottom line. The money. You lose the BCS system and replace it with a playoff, financially someone's going to be out of pocket.

    Also, when do you do it? Remember, a lot of these kids have Senior Bowls, Shrine Games, etc to get ready for. So do you move all the Bowl games that you keep, forwards? Do you remove the historical New Years Day bowl games? And which 8 teams do you choose? Because as sure as eggs are eggs, teams at 9, 10 and 11 will piss and moan about being on the outside looking in.

    West Virginia didn't get hosed. West Virginia lost to a very poor Pittsburgh team. If it hadn't tripped over it's dick at the final hurdle, they would have been in New Orleans.

    Oregon would have been in the BCS Title Game had Dennis Doxon not got hurt. It lost on the last play of the game to Cal. USC lost to Stanford at home when they were 42 point favourites. Sorry, but you have NO place in the National Championship game. No way, no how. LSU lost in 6 OT's against two SEC teams. Kansas got hosed.

    The BCS Championship game should have been Oregon-West Virginia had Dixon not gotten injured. It then should have been LSU-West Virginia because LSU never lost a game in regulation. But then WVU lost to Pitt in a defeat that had it happened in September, you can overcome. But it happened in the last game of the season. So it should have been LSU-Georgia or LSU-OSU.

    Thing is, everyone, every year gets hosed. That's part of what makes College Football so great. So the question you have to ask is whether you give up the tradition and pageantry that makes college football so great, in favour of knowing which team is the best but having 3 or 4 teams at 9, 10, 11 and 12 getting upset?

    Tough call.
     
  21. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    A lot that I bolded we agreed on. But see I think, that whether you lose in OT or not you still lost, regardless. And USC lost when they were favorites, but #1 Ohio State was a favorite and shouldn't have lost to an unranked Illinois team at home ither. Not to mention they couldnt even top Illinois and Juice the entire 4th quarter drive, what was it 7 minutes to end the game? And USC wasn't number one in that nation when they did that. WVU should have never lost to Pitt you are correct for sure there. I guess I just dont think Ohio State deserved it, over that weak weak loss to Illinois and weak schedule of the Big Ten. I also dont think Kentucky is a top team, or Arkansas ( could have been, but they were on and off playing to their talent level).

    Just my opinion Simon.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2008
  22. Boomer

    Boomer Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Thae argument about USC and Ohio State is thus; who's the better team, Illinois or Stanford?

    100% of the time the answer is Illinois.

    And I think if you put Kentucky or Arkansas in most other conferences, they're challenging for conference titles each year, such is the strength of the SEC.
     
  23. ASUFinFan

    ASUFinFan Uh huh

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    I will agree with that Boomer, the SEC is a tough conference. Definitely. Their records prove this. I definitely think Illinois is better than Stanford. I played with a few guys at illinois on my highschool team. So I am definitely in Illinois's corner, dont get me wrong. Do i think the game would be close. Yes. I also think that USC would play Ohio State just as LSU did. Not to mention, USC could have outscored Illinois 70-10 if they chose to in their bowl game.
     
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2008
  24. finswin56

    finswin56 Get a mop

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    Well, that's even worse :lol:
    I could have sworn the +1 added an additional game pairing the final top 2 rated teams, for the NC, after all the others are played out. Maybe that would require going back a few years where we had two less at large teams?
     

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