Soccer, sports and politics (R)

Top 4 byes next year will be Big10/SEC.There will likely be third place teams in the first round along with the dregs from the basketball conferences.

 

They might give one spot out of charity to the highest ranked of the "other 5" conferences, or whatever they refer to them as. But the rankings will be done to ensure that those teams aren't ranked in the top 15, regardless of their record.

 

True, but I'm not sure what can be done about it given the short length of the season (in terms of # of matches) and the large # of teams in Division I-A. I guess they could implement a pre-playoff playoff where winners of smaller conferences would play each other until you are left with maybe two teams who would join the nation's top 10 in the 12-team playoff? But how long would that take to play?

 

Here in the states, we have conferences. It's not like futbol in Argentina or Europe where there are 20 teams in a league and that's it for that division. There are way too many schools for everyone to play everyone else, not even close, and to just play for a national championship would elude literally hundreds of programs, so they're divided up into (used to be, anyhow) regional organizations that sanction championships of their own. Winning your conference is a big deal anywhere you go, and it gets everyone a ring. all that to say that the regular season matters for anyone good enough to contend for their conference title, even if they don't end up winning the bigest prize.

 

It's really simple actually. There are 10 conferences (9 next year?). All conference champions advance. You can fill up the rest of the spots the usual way, by people voting because ... reasons. (But the only reason this is actually needed is because of Notre Dame's refusal to join a conference).

In my opinion, if you're not good enough to win your conference, you shouldn't be in the playoffs for the "national champion". Full stop.

 

This is a non sequitur because the regular season doesn't determine the conference champion. The intra-Conference post season tournament does. And even if you finish dead last in the regular season, you are still invited to the post-season tournament (at least for most Conferences afaik)

As such, the regular season for NCAA b-ball means nothing for teams that have no realistic shot at an NCAA tournament at-large spot (i.e. most NCAA schools). It also means nothing for teams that are so good that they will comfortably obtain an at large bid should they mess up in their Conference post-season tournament (i.e. most schools worth watching).

 

The regular season conference champ is the conference champ, period, and they get the rings. The conference Tournament is a bunch of games to get someone into the Dance who might not otherwise get there. It's just an invitation to get on a bus and get boatraced by Kansas or somebody.

 

Ok, I stand corrected on how the Conference champ is determined. So, the intra-conference regular season games have some meaning (if you have a legit shot at finishing first). But still...

 

Georgia lost to Alabama at a neutral location (I presume), so they're out.

Alabama lost to Texas at home, so they're out.

That leaves Michigan and Texas, with a nice participation trophy to Washington and Florida State saying that because we don't think you are good enough, you won't get to play for the national championship. It doesn't matter if you actually could win, our feelings are more important.

We're sure you understand that it is better to go by our feelings than to actually let you prove whether you are capable or not. This is college football after all! Perhaps the most ridiculous major sport in the country and we will do everything we can to prove it! [edit: After all, that's what America is about - keeping the poor suppressed and giving the rich every opportunity they don't deserve. You simply shouldn't be allowed to run for office if you're not from the right family!]

 

People who know more about this than I do have had their say. Alabama is in, tell it to a lawyer.

Do you have a prediction or just more emoting about how the itty bitties are left out?

 

Way back in 2007 Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports wrote an article about a theoretical 16 team bracket. 11 conference champs and 5 at large bids. Higher seed at home, until neutral site semis and final.

https://sports.yahoo.com/dw-playoff112707.html

It would be weird at first but I think after a few years you'd get some marginal players at big schools/really good players at middle of the road schools migrating to like the MAC or CUSA to get a shot at the playoffs.

 

I predict I won't watch a single minute of college football's meaningless postseason.

 

Because money.

If we recall one of the main reasons why the BCS and then college football playoff was created in the first place, it was precisely to prevent the sort of thing that has just happened to FSU. IOW, a major objective of the playoff is to decide the national title on the field and for that to happen you have to give a shot to the team(s) that did everything they could possibly do on the field throughout the season.

Pre-BCS/playoff, nobody ever watched a team get tea bagged in their Conference championship and then cry that they got robbed of a chance to be national champions.

 

You say that now, but I bet on Monday, Dec. 18th, you won't be able to resist the fireworks display that will surely be the Famous Toastery Bowl. I mean. . . COME ON! You can't tell me you haven't spent your life as a sports fan just waiting for Western Kentucky and Old Dominion to meet up on the gridiron?

 

Let's see, Monday December 18th I will be swimming in the lagoon on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. I don't think they'll be televising the Fruit Loops Toastery Bowl from Podunk Stadium.

Oh wait, I honestly thought you were being sarcastic. I just looked at the bowl schedule and saw that it is an actual bowl game and those are the actual teams playing in it.

I also saw Minnesota is being rewarded for their fantastic 5-7 season, and last place in their division, with a trip to the "Quick Lane" Bowl. Seriously.

 

Maybe back in 2007 it would have worked but the landscape is so different today. The Big 10 and SEC now control the game. The NCAA is trying to put on an air of control but really it's at the point where what those two conferences want is what College football will be. Heck even the teams in said conferences are not promised they will be part of whatever mega college league that eventually takes shape. Do the major programs in the SEC and Big 10 really need the likes of; MN, the Iowa schools, Northwestern, Rutgers, Maryland, Vanderbilt, the Mississippi schools, when they finally merge to create their own 40 team conference while hoovering up the last remaining big programs from Big 12 and ACC? No. In 10-20 years whenever the latest tv contracts are up for those two conferences they will seriously talk about merging into a 40 team nationwide league.

Pfft. It's all about the Pop-Tarts Bowl, will Kansas State or NC State have the right to eat the Pop-tarts mascot?

I'll have you know they made that bowl game due to academic success.

 

Meh, alabama's player payroll and talent means that they should basically never lose a game. They're the PSG of college pointyball.

FFS, Bryce Young sucking out loud proves that he was playing for a much more talented franchise in Alabama than any of his competitors; when he went to go play Big Boy pointyball, he got found out as being a fraud.

Alongside my rule of thumb to never trust a native English speaking manager in soccer, I also don't believe any Alabama QB as being anything other than fraudulent.

 

C'mon - they aren't Penn State QBs

Jalen Hurts is pretty good

 

He had great legs....



Beautymist pantyhose can make any legs look like a million dollars.”