College football 2016 Week 14/championship week running thread

Western Michigan for going 13-0?

Based on the rankings it would be Wisconsin but in the spirit of not having four from the B1G maybe it would be SC (who afterall would be automatically placed in the title game).

 

The caveat from that would be you couldn't have more than 2 teams from the same conference in the Final 8.

 

Why? With just five conference automatics and not 32, there will be a significant number of seasons where one conference would have two deserving at-large bid teams.

 

And so it begins.

 

And that would be wrong.

If, for example, you see Ohio State as an overwhelming No. 1 and Michigan as a last-team-in No. 8, that's how they should be seeded, even if it means a first-round matchup rematch. Tough shit. You wanted 8. Here's the price for it.

Fucking with the seedings to avoid such things just destroys the integrity of the seeding process.

 

That wouldn't be fair to the SEC.

 

Weren't you saying before they should fuck with the seeding to penalize the dogshit teams that couldn't manage to win their conference? In all the excitement, I've lost track.

 

What integrity of the seeding process? It is a morally neutral event. The committee has any number of priorities, and not the least of them is putting on an event that satisfies its stakeholders, the power conferences. That's not wrong, it's just a practical concern. The main reason for expansion to more than four teams remains the fact there are five power conferences. A partnership doesn't exist for long if one partner gets screwed each year -- even if it's nobody's fault.

 

"Failing to win a conference" is a legitimate failing. It's rewarding teams for . . . winning something.

"We don't want to see a rematch so soon" is not.

 

Let's say the SEC didn't suck so badly this year and that Auburn is a legit No. 8 playoff team.

You would want to move them to No. 7 --- sending another team for the sure first-round loss to No. 1 Alabama --- just to avoid the too-quick rematch? In effect, rewarding Auburn and penalizing the other team.

 

I'm sorry.

 

I'm not saying it's what I want, because I don't care. I'm saying it's what would happen because that's how committees work in human society. The concept of "reward" and "punishment" in seeding is applying standards that aren't relevant. The only bad seed in an eight-team tourney is ninth, in a four-team tourney it's fifth. I'd much rather be the eighth (or fourth) seed that plays Alabama in the first round anyway. Better to catch them when they might be a tad overconfident or stale than when they've built up some steam.