College Football Playoff Rankings Running Thread

Would've been a lot simpler if Dan Beebe had just let the Big 12 die in peace(s), huh?

 

When are those first-round games getting played, though? If you still want semis on New Year's Day, you need first-round games on or around Christmas Day. I'm not seeing that happening.

You create a lot more uncertainty for the first-round teams, who would face having to make travel arrangements, sell tickets, etc. for a semifinal game in the week between Christmas and New Year's. And one presumes the structure would favor the top two seeds, so Michigan State could end up in Atlanta one week, Pasadena the next and Dallas the week after.

Not saying it couldn't happen, but I doubt it's as simple as tacking another round onto the existing structure.

 

I don't really see how Ole Miss or Arizona would have an argument if the field was 8 this year. That really would have worked.....this year. Next year? Who knows.

 

You play enough games and you're going to run into ticket-selling problems, too.

Columbus is a great place for a game in November. In early January when students aren't on campus anyway? Not so much.

 

LTL, they sell out NCAA first round basketball tournament games between schools located hundreds and thousands of miles away from the sites of the arenas. There would never be an unsold ticket to an on-campus football playoff game.

 

Do you really believe Ohio State wouldn't sell out a home playoff game?

 

Do you watch any of those early-round NCAA basketball games? For many of them there are a lot of empty seats -- fans of the teams who aren't playing often don't show up for that game. They sell out of tickets because they're selling for a 15,000-20,000-seat arena to fans of four teams.

That said, I can't imagine Ohio State wouldn't sell out a playoff game at its home field.

 

Basketball tickets are sold out months in advance, almost a year, with no regard for who's going to be playing there. You don't have that lead time in the home-game setup.

OK maybe Ohio State would be all right (although I think even that would be a more corporate than student/festive atmosphere). A lot of other schools would have problems. At most schools, the dorms are closed during breaks. Where are kids going to stay even if they do make the trek back?

 

All the usual suspects would sell out home playoff games. If they allow one of those shit conference winners in an 8-team playoff, maybe they wouldn't sell out. Maybe. But I doubt any of them would ever get a home game anyway.

 

I agree that home playoff games would always sell out, but I wonder about these neutral-site games eventually. Selling 12,000 tickets for a basketball regional is a whole lot different than selling 80,000 for a football game.

These playoff games are going to become like the Super Bowl, if not this year, soon enough. The majority of the crowd will be locals and corporate folks, rather than fans of the two teams traveling cross-country.

The SEC is the only conference that consistently sells out its conference championship game. The ACC, Big Ten and the Pac-12 have had 10s of thousands of empty seats at their games in recent years.

 

If it's any big state university, that would not be a problem.

If it's TCU, well, they might not sell out even with the students on campus.