College Football Playoff Rankings Running Thread

I was at the Big Ten championship game and, with two of the best fan bases in the country, Lucas Oil was pretty full.

 

Yeah, but when it was Wisconsin-Nebraska two years ago, there were 20,000 empty seats. It's basically Ohio State or bust (or maybe Michigan, if they ever get there) for that game.

 

Keeping the semis pegged to specific dates and bowls will help, people can plan ahead - as for home playoff games, even Oregon and ASU had hard times selling out when they hosted Pac12 championship games in years past. Might be the Friday night thing, might be having to pay to get new tickets and plan on short notice (when you'd rather save your cash for the bowl game).

 

I would bet significant money that four first round home playoff games would all be sellouts. Look at this year. Which of the four schools wouldn't sell out?

 

A lot of students would leave after finals rather than pay $50 (or more) for tix. Perhaps the first year, but I do think some people would wait and see saving their money for the semis or the final.

 

Are you talking about rolling them back and playing them right after Christmas if it's a quarterfinal format? I think Oregon could run into some trouble filling the stadium. It's two hours to the real population center of Portland, the out-of-state enrollment is about 40 percent, classes don't start till Jan. 5, and weather can be a real bitch getting there at that time of year. The roads are often closed.

First time there's a game, people make the effort. Second year, third year and beyond, not so much.

 

Quarterfinal format would likely be the first week of December, no? In place of the conference title games? Not that it matters much.

 

I see that Army/Navy is this weekend. It would have really put a crimp in the Playoff announcements if one of those two were undefeated right now.

 

That's an interesting point.

 

Whether the stadiums are packed isn't the issue anyway. It's all about the TV $$$$.

 

Actually, that's the exact issue being debated on the last 2 pages.

 

What percentage of these schools' regular-season crowds are students?