Tennesse lost at OSU by more than Indiana. Indiana's only losses were to at #2 OSU and at #3 ND at the time played. No shame in losing to someone on the road better, but where's the real reason why everyone wants to hate on the Hoosiers? All the nonsense noise for leaving them out was for other teams losing more games and to lesser teams. Would not shock me if OSU and ND play for the natty which would validate IU a bit.
While technically true, I don't really believe Ohio St is the 3rd best B1G team, record aside. Same for Tennessee. Though the SEC teams have certainly proven they can lose to anybody, they have also shown they can beat most anybody, which is more than I can say for over half the CFP field
It's a paradigm shift from what we've believed for 100 years. As parity continues to expand, we have to wrap our brains around not having 1-4 juggernaut teams each season. Nobody has the depth anymore to play a tough schedule and escape unscathed. So we can either have the easiest possible schedules and reward those teams, or we can reward teams that play more tough games and understand that they will have a loss or two. I don't know the answer, but this year wasn't it
at the end of the day, the point of the playoff is to determine the true champion. it will serve its purpose as it has every year. we have to stop arguing over the 12th best team as there are always going to be teams that are not championship caliber when there's truly probably only 4-5 of those teams. Win the games you're supposed to and you'll have a shot
Of course they matter. And if we want the playoff to be the teams with the best records regardless of context, then just say that and we'll get what we get. I understand what people want to be true, but it doesn't make it true. I don't think we can just shrug our shoulders and say "yeah, there are unbalanced schedules, that's just bad luck for you this year," because we all know what we will get: schedule manipulation by both the schools and conferences. And that would suck. I'm hopeful that the conferences would agree to some sort of minimum criteria when it comes to scheduling moving forward. Something like you must play 2 p4 teams OOC and we all play the same # of conf games, whether that is 8, 9, or 10. It won't be perfect, but it is a lot better than it is now. Eliminate auto bids and we can re-seed after round 1. But what they're going to do is just keep expanding the number of teams in the tournament rather than trying to use the regular season as it should be used
6 is probably the correct number, but even then, most seasons there will not be 6 "deserving" teams
That was never on the table though. It was about SMU and another team. Indiana got a free pass because they play in one of the two ordained conferences. They did buy out of an OOC game, but with 16+ team conferences, sometimes you'll just get the luck of the draw (or the conference will put their thumb on the scale to ensure the best chance at maxing out teams in CFP). I have no issue with Indiana being in, or even where they were seeded. My problem is more on SMU, but even more so on the seeding and how they rewarded teams for neither beating or playing anyone with a pulse. Ohio St should have been ahead of Penn St and Texas, and Texas should have been closer in seed to Clemson based on what they actually accomplished this season.
As soon as Disney ponies up for that 9th conference game, it will happen in the SEC
Only reason SMU got in was because it was Alabama that stood to benefit. If we had been behind any of Ole Miss, South Carolina, Miami or BYU (who by every measure should have been in front of SMU), SMU would have been out too
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They can’t. I’ve said this forever.
Is it really that different to play a 9 game conference schedule and no P4 OOC games than 8 conference games plus at least 1 p4 OOC? By my count, every team in the SEC except Oklahoma played at least 9 games against p4 competition. Only 2 B1G teams didn't schedule a p4 OOC: Ohio St and IndianaFootball
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You can shit on the SEC. Leave some out of it when talking about scheduling if you would.
This is an extremely measured take that I would like to throw in the garbage bin and continue to shout into the void that is this forum
Agree with this.
I propose that half of the Sun Belt teams would have beat a visiting Vanderbilt team. Are we doing this right?
Transition period...
One thing to consider is that the OOC schedules were made when divisions were still a thing. I think that will normalize. I'm not sold on bringing divisions back due to the inequality present, though I guess with 12 teams and beyond, being second in a division to the best team in the country or whatever won't be as penalizing. I love how riled up other conferences get about the FCS game in November thing. The SEC schools are ready for a 9 game conference schedule. However, based on the way the TV contracts are written up, they will not do it until Disney agrees to pay more money. The other conferences get paid based on number of conference games, the SEC expects the same.
I don’t think Ole Miss deserved to be in but what evidence is there to support your belief that Ole Miss would have gotten embarrassed? They lost 3 games by a combined 13 points - two of them on the road, one in overtime in the toughest environment in football after a comedy of errors doomed them in the first half.
You're right Grove, that was a poor choice of words. Rather than saying "would have" I should have said "could have" embarrassed themselves because none of us know. My point was in response to the people that assumed Ole Miss and Bama(as the next two in line) would have definitely fared better. But my evidence for saying Ole Miss was susceptible to the same fate would be having lost at home to a team that won only 1 power 5 game all year and then being completely rattled and subsequently shitting the bed against a 5-5 team when the season depended on it. A team that is capable of those two things provided us evidence that they could shit the bed at Notre Dame or Penn State.
I think the committee got it right under the rules of the current format. I think the format needs to change but I don’t think Bama, Ole Miss, Miami, SC or anyone else has a real argument about this year.
