College Football Playoff Rankings Running Thread

Last year's game "meant something" (Auburn played for the national title) . . . in a two-team playoff . . . and Auburn was No. 7 in the BCS rankings at the time the game was played.

So, yeah, a lot of shit has to happen. But a lot of shit usually does happen.

 

I like the term "hate-watching". I'm not real good at it, but I like the concept. Like hate-fucking.

 

People wanting to push it to eight need to understand if that were the case, we'd really be talking about teams "not losing" to keep themselves in it at this point instead of teams needing to keep winning to have a chance. Figure the P5 champs and the runners-up in the P12, SEC and B12 (barring an upset in the SEC championship game, figure Bama and Miss. State. would be all but in if they win out. Not a lot of excitement about hoping for an upset to make things interesting at this point in the year.

 

The reason I'd prefer an eight-team playoff is to give all the major conference champions a spot. Take those five champions automatically, then three wild cards.
It might not be quite the level of chaos we have this season (which, to be fair, would've been crazy even in the BCS system given the huge number of one-loss teams and lack of undefeated teams), but you'd still have plenty of meaningful games. Teams like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan State would need to win their conference to shore up a spot. Others like Nebraska, Wisconsin, even Duke could play their way in.

 

Eight is inevitable. Look, the four-team playoff only came into being because the BCS was killing the ratings of many of the non championship bowls, not from a sense of fair play. It will require a passel of upsets to keep there from being at least two and probably three teams kept out of the playoff this year from squaking good and loud with a pretty good case for the squawk. Since eight will also mean more money than four, I think this will happen in due course, like next March.

 

Imagine if we had a 16-team playoff this year with 10 conference champs and six at large. This Cincy-ECU game tonight would be part of a five-team race for a playoff spot. People would care who wins the MAC and Sun Belt. We'd have similar debates as now about how many and which ones from the SEC, Big 12, PAC-12, etc.

Wouldn't it be fun to find out how good Marshall is in a first round game against, say, Baylor? How about Georgia Southern and that offense in its first FBS year with a shot to be the ultimate Cinderella (although we might have to fudge the rules a bit to get that because Ga. Southern isn't eligibile for a bowl)?

It would be March Madness on steroids.

 

It would be a cash cow on steroids too.

 

Which is why at least eight, and probably sixteen, is inevitable. They're leaving way too much money on the table.

The football playoff should produce dollars to rival March Madness if they do it right, and you can bet that has occurred to somebody by now.

 

Not if the 16th best team in the nation is getting left out to reward a champ from a shit conference.

 

March Madness is a cash cow but the quality is a shell of what it once was as is college basketball
in general.

College football is a near perfect product as it is. I want to see it stay that way. What people have to
come to realize is that from mid October on regular season games become almost like playoff
elimination games for teams in the top 10. There is no reason to expand the playoffs other than for
the money.

One thing that football has over basketball is that conference championship games can actually mean something.

 

This. Well said, Boom.

 

1 Alabama 9-1
2 Oregon 9-1
3 Florida State 10-0
4 Mississippi State 9-1
5 TCU 9-1
6 Ohio State 9-1
7 Baylor 8-1
8 Mississippi 8-2
9 UCLA 8-2
10 Georgia 8-2
11 Michigan State 8-2
12 Kansas State 7-2
13 Arizona State 8-2
14 Auburn 7-3
15 Arizona 8-2
16 Wisconsin 8-2
17 Utah 7-3
18 Georgia Tech 9-2
19 Southern Cal 7-3
20 Missouri 8-2
21 Oklahoma 7-3
22 Clemson 7-3
23 Nebraska 8-2
24 Louisville 7-3
25 Minnesota 7-3