Running CFB playoff thread

The Clay Helton reunion game.

 

Considering there are only three non-conference games, I don't mind the lower-tier schools doing what they can do get bowl eligible. And as long as the blue bloods have a major OOC opponent, they can have two body bags

 

My youngest brother just emailed me and asked who I thought would win the playoff. For the life of me, I couldn't answer. There are so many good reasons none of the 12 can do it.

 

Understood. When Florida was very good, circa 2008 or so, I chided the Gator fans because their team would never leave the state of Florida for a nonconference game. I even suggested playing two home games for one away and was lambasted because that was stupid and beneath them. That is the one way some of Group of Five schools can actually host the big boys.
I understand Florida doesn't need to play a nonconference game out of state what with FSU and Miami and UCF available along with the neutral game vs. Georgia in Jacksonville. I guess if ain't broke, don't fix it. The Gators did play at Utah in 2023 and lost. They do have a home-and-home with Colorado for 2028-29, so maybe they've checked that box for this century.
But would be nice I would think if you're a Florida fan and have a game at USC or UCLA or one of the best Big Ten teams.

 

Won't happen until we can rid ourselves of Mark Ingram, the most worthless athletic administrator making $500k or more. UAB used to schedule two body bag road games for the money, because our finances are so limited. Bill Clark forced that down to one SEC buy game per season. Currently, the Tennessee game next season is the only such game we have on the schedule. Many of our conference mates are scheduled six or seven years out on their money games. Ingram claims that they've been hard to come by since the SEC is talking about going to nine conference games per season... as if there are no other power schools he could make a deal with. He refuses to make two for ones to get us better OOC home games.

We desperately need to get rid of the guy. He hired Dilfer, and has announced that we're sticking with (are stuck with) him next season. No one wants Ingram to select our next head coach except the University of Alabama Trustees and UAB President Ray Watts, who shut down our program ten years ago this month.

 

If you think some of the CFP matchups have big lines, check out the FCS quarterfinals


Idaho at Montana State (-12½, 55½)
Incarnate Word at South Dakota State (-17½, 54½)
Mercer at North Dakota State (-19, 53½)
UC Davis at South Dakota (-5½, 55½)

This backs up what I think a few others on here said about the gap between the Missouri Valley, Big Sky and the rest of FCS being bigger than the gap between the SEC, Big Ten and the rest of the FBS.

 

Done.

 

This is going fail spectacularly ...

 

Ack. Should have been in the coaching carousel thread. Off to the lake of fail.

 

Something pointed out today by Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins: Three of the four playoff teams with first-round byes — and all four Heisman finalists — have ties to the past or future Pac-12.

 

The SEC announced its 2025 schedule tonight. Nothing too earth-shattering, since the opponents are the same as this year, but they did shuffle the order for some teams in a way that's a little interesting:

• Georgia's first two SEC games are at Tennessee and Alabama at home, with a bye week in between. It plays Ole Miss in its fifth SEC game, and doesn't get Texas until November. The Tennessee game was in November this year, and they played Texas in October.

• Alabama keeps its open dates before facing Georgia and LSU, and the only change to the order of its games is flipping Missouri and South Carolina in October.

• Alabama also opens the season with a true non-conference road game (at Florida State) for the first time since 2000.

• LSU opens SEC play with Florida in mid-September. That game was in November this year. LSU opens up at Clemson to continue its proud tradition of overscheduling and getting its ass beat in Week 1.

• Ole Miss has an odd mid-October non-conference home game against Washington State.

• Texas doesn't play an SEC game until Oct. 4 at Florida. Including the Oklahoma game in Dallas, its first four SEC games and five of the first six are away from home. It has one home game between Sept. 27 (Sam Houston) and Nov. 22 (Arkansas).

• Tennessee vs. Florida, which was a mid-September staple for a generation, will be played in November as the next-to-last game of the season. It was on Oct. 12 this year.

• Oklahoma has a non-conference game with Michigan that, stunningly, is only the second time they've ever played each other. The other was in the Orange Bowl to end the 1975 season.

• Missouri and Kansas will play, on Sept. 6, for the first time since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012.

• Vanderbilt will play at Texas for the first time since 1903.

• Cupcake week and rivalry week in November remain intact.

 

I could make a lot of excuses but it has been embarrassing.

I went to UF-USC at the Coliseum in 1982 for the second-best tie game I've ever seen, and was looking forward to the proposed home-and-homes with Washington, Michigan State and Cal. There are 250,000 UF alumni scattered across the country who would like to see the Gators hit the road more than once a century.

But Scott Stricklin doesn't care what I think. He needs seven home games every other season because of the neutral site Cocktail Party plus having Florida State as a ninth permanent opponent. His bottom line matters more than any perceived national exposure.

This year, Florida hosted Miami, UCF and Samford -- so two in-state rivals and only one true cupcake (and nobody could have imagined the Seminoles imploding like they did). Oh, and a murderer's row of Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss and Kentucky in conference. I'd have gladly taken a trip to UCLA or Michigan State over the Canes this season, to be honest. Or loaded up on a heaping helping of Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, Rutgers and Maryland, thankyouverymuch.

I dare anyone to find a more difficult schedule than Florida played in 2024, despite not leaving the southeast.

But what's sauce for the goose is likewise for the gander. Of the schools you mentioned, UCLA has had a run of HBCU opponents in recent seasons. USC goes to South Bend, but Missouri State and Georgia Southern are padding the stat sheets in 2025. For every Texas-Ohio State and Michigan-Oklahoma, there are a dozen Penn State-FIU matchups because everybody needs revenue and wins. When was the last time Michigan played at a MAC stadium to "help out" a Group of Five conference?

If the college football playoff becomes a "three losses and you're out," I think you'll see even fewer good OOC games scheduled in the future.

If the SEC decides to schedule nine conference games, you can forget UF ever going any farther north than Lexington or west of Austin unless 1. Florida-Georgia moves out of Jacksonville, 2. FSU is part of an SEC-ACC merger, 3. they add a 13th game.