I come to bury the playoffs, not to praise them

[Born Boiler]

Oregon should be sitting home right now with the national championship trophy after going 13-0 while all the other alleged contenders were taking on losses.

That trophy was true through a good many of our lifetimes, before colleges went pro. The best team with the best record got the national title. Pretenders had to shut up because they hadn’t put up, even when given one last bowl showdown.

No way do 12 college football teams deserve a shot at the national championship after playing 12-game seasons plus conference final exams. That plain sucks. It’s more watered-down than the Titanic. Or the players’ academic transcripts.

What do you tell a team with two black eyes? Nothing. They’ve already been told twice. Anyone with more than one loss deserves no more than bowling in their wife-beater shirts. Three? Slink on to sweet home, Alabama. Pay back your NIL.

Oregon won every time out while Ohio State was gagging twice, including its big league showdown with the Ducks and a massive choke against a five-time loser, yet one rematch win by the Buckeyes over the understandably flat Ducks erased all that. Should an unbeaten team have to face an already conquered victim, a two-loss conference opponent, in the quarterfinal round of some damned playoffs? Hell no.

Want playoffs? Give the unbeaten Big Ten champion a mulligan to make amends for a single loss, fluke or not. Consolation bracket, anyone? Just like the playoffs are now, that would be only fair. And just fair.

 

[RossMackey]

Meh- you’ll never convince me the polls got it right in 1994, when Penn State was head and shoulders above everyone else, or when the pollsters gifted a co- championship as a lame lifetime achievement award to Tom Osborne when Michigan was easily the nation’s best team….

Beyond these and other pollster screwups— In a pure, altruistic, meritocracy-based world, you would be totally correct….

BUT

… there are waay too many boatloads and boatloads of cold hard $$$$ to be made: by both marginally-deserving Indinia- type upstarts getting a taste of the national limelight— and the gargantuan level of social media bliovating by college fans— for this Pandora’s box to ever be closed again!

 

[RossMackey]

An unrelated bitch- fest to add here- I’m LOLing at Finebaum’s hypocrisy in spectacularly failing to rationalize the almighty SEC’s face plant this year….

Yo, Paulie— You relished the truth that the better teams won in those years when the SEC dominated— why the denial and cowardice now?

Despite Texas’ survival (who is nowhere near a traditional SEC school), the results this season are incontrovertible: The Big Ten is the superior league!

 

[Tommaker]

What do you tell a team with two black eyes? Nothing. They’ve already been told twice.

Classic!

 

[nick614]

Oregon was lucky to beat OSU the first time. OSU lost their starting TE and LT in the game, had 2 turnovers and had a terrible OPI called on Smith on the last drive and still almost won the game.

The second game played out with a more normal game script with no injuries and OSU cruised to the win. OSU was always the better team.

With that said, Oregon did get screwed with the seeding because Ohio State, Oregon and Texas are the 3 best teams in the country after UGA lost their QB.

Oregon should have had Penn St's easy draw of playing Boise St in their first game.

 

[Indy_Rider]

With that said, Oregon did get screwed with the seeding because Ohio State, Oregon and Texas are the 3 best teams in the country after UGA lost their QB.

Oregon should have had Penn St's easy draw of playing Boise St in their first game.

Yes, the seeding is what the issue is. Now I am fine with giving conference champs a bye, nothing wrong with making a conference championship mean something. But I would adjust the seeding so the seeding doesn't mean the ones with the bye are the top 4 seeds. Yeah, that may mean some of your top seeds play the first round, but then you get to the second round and it all makes sense and you may have Oregon then playing a Boise State, both with a first round bye. Nothing says you can't have two teams with first round byes play each other in their first game.

Or maybe just not lock in the second round match ups until the first round is done and then basically reseed after the first round. There are definitely plenty of options.

 

[ImRonBurgandy?]

Add more teams to the CFP and get rid of the conference championships altogether?

 

[pboiler18]

Add more teams to the CFP and get rid of the conference championships altogether?

Or have a format where there are conference semifinals as a play in to the championship tournament.

End of the day I don’t hate the current format. We net 2 extra weekends of football out of it.

 

[Wolegib]

I would say the current playoff system needs adjustments do you want a 64 team dance like basketball? I believe 16 teams is better than 12. I also believe there were only 8 teams deserving of being in a playoff this year. I am a firm believer the march dance should be reduced to 16 teams. That would give conferences and conference championships a lot more importance. Do we really need 64 teams and additional play in games? Nobody cares about the first round of games unless you lose

 

[TC4THREE]

It's what happens when the sport and playoffs are set up to maximize money rather than to form a sensible system to determine a champion. You will never eliminate luck conferences shouldn't be 18 teams and the playoffs should be only 8.

 

[wallyboiler79]

Oregon should be sitting home right now with the national championship trophy after going 13-0 while all the other alleged contenders were taking on losses.

That trophy was true through a good many of our lifetimes, before colleges went pro. The best team with the best record got the national title. Pretenders had to shut up because they hadn’t put up, even when given one last bowl showdown.

No way do 12 college football teams deserve a shot at the national championship after playing 12-game seasons plus conference final exams. That plain sucks. It’s more watered-down than the Titanic. Or the players’ academic transcripts.

What do you tell a team with two black eyes? Nothing. They’ve already been told twice. Anyone with more than one loss deserves no more than bowling in their wife-beater shirts. Three? Slink on to sweet home, Alabama. Pay back your NIL.

Oregon won every time out while Ohio State was gagging twice, including its big league showdown with the Ducks and a massive choke against a five-time loser, yet one rematch win by the Buckeyes over the understandably flat Ducks erased all that. Should an unbeaten team have to face an already conquered victim, a two-loss conference opponent, in the quarterfinal round of some damned playoffs? Hell no.

Want playoffs? Give the unbeaten Big Ten champion a mulligan to make amends for a single loss, fluke or not. Consolation bracket, anyone? Just like the playoffs are now, that would be only fair. And just fair.

And should we baseball fans return to 1968 and just have a world series? No playoffs? No NCAA tournament? No high school state tournaments? Oregon has their trophy. The one they deserve.

 

[tjirish44]

Oregon should be sitting home right now with the national championship trophy after going 13-0 while all the other alleged contenders were taking on losses.

That trophy was true through a good many of our lifetimes, before colleges went pro. The best team with the best record got the national title. Pretenders had to shut up because they hadn’t put up, even when given one last bowl showdown.

No way do 12 college football teams deserve a shot at the national championship after playing 12-game seasons plus conference final exams. That plain sucks. It’s more watered-down than the Titanic. Or the players’ academic transcripts.

What do you tell a team with two black eyes? Nothing. They’ve already been told twice. Anyone with more than one loss deserves no more than bowling in their wife-beater shirts. Three? Slink on to sweet home, Alabama. Pay back your NIL.

Oregon won every time out while Ohio State was gagging twice, including its big league showdown with the Ducks and a massive choke against a five-time loser, yet one rematch win by the Buckeyes over the understandably flat Ducks erased all that. Should an unbeaten team have to face an already conquered victim, a two-loss conference opponent, in the quarterfinal round of some damned playoffs? Hell no.

Want playoffs? Give the unbeaten Big Ten champion a mulligan to make amends for a single loss, fluke or not. Consolation bracket, anyone? Just like the playoffs are now, that would be only fair. And just fair.

What a Silly post. Sour Grapes much? Your id is Born Boiler? What in the world do you care about Oregon? As A Purdue Basketball fan and Notre Dame football Fan I love the College Playoffs. My only issue is with the seedings and the byes... The Playoffs should be either lowered to eight teams or expanded to 16 removing the byes completely. Adjustments will likely be made next season more likely how the seedings were done. With legal betting soo much part of sports let the odds makers who have no emotion when forming sports lines determine the seedings.

Back to your post every Division college football team knew about the playoffs this season and the rules. No one's fault Oregon didn't show up against Ohio St except Oregon. BY your logic there should be no NCAA Basketball tournament and whatever Team finishes #1 in College Basketball should win the National Championship.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

Yea I think we should get rid of the NCAA tourney. No way 68 teams should be playing for it. Let's just pick the winner. No need to ever even play the games.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

What a Silly post. Sour Grapes much? Your id is Born Boiler? What in the world do you care about Oregon? As A Purdue Basketball fan and Notre Dame football Fan I love the College Playoffs. My only issue is with the seedings and the byes... The Playoffs should be either lowered to eight teams or expanded to 16 removing the byes completely. Adjustments will likely be made next season more likely how the seedings were done. With legal betting soo much part of sports let the odds makers who have no emotion when forming sports lines determine the seedings.

Back to your post every Division college football team knew about the playoffs this season and the rules. No one's fault Oregon didn't show up against Ohio St except Oregon. BY your logic there should be no NCAA Basketball tournament and whatever Team finishes #1 in College Basketball should win the National Championship.

16 is definitely the way to go. Going to 8 would have left out Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana and SMU. 16 would have added Bama, Ole Miss, South Carolina and the SEC people would have maybe been happy(if they could win a game). FCS does 16 and they couldn't careless what happens in the first or second round. I mean no one seems to care what happens in the first round of the NCAA tourney when there are blowouts. This year has been no different than the 4 team playoffs either. Plenty of blowouts like years past.

 

[HUD628]

Yea I think we should get rid of the NCAA tourney. No way 68 teams should be playing for it. Let's just pick the winner. No need to ever even play the games.

Hot take here, but I actually think the NCAA tournament is a terrible way to crown a champion. It is a great event that everyone loves, but there shouldn’t be 68 teams in it. Too much random nonsense.

 

[HUD628]

The 12 team CFP is definitely dumb. There are absolutely not 12 teams worthy of playing for the championship. 4 was fine. Hell, the BCS was fine.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

Hot take here, but I actually think the NCAA tournament is a terrible way to crown a champion. It is a great event that everyone loves, but there shouldn’t be 68 teams in it. Too much random nonsense.

That's the great thing about it. It's difficult to win. Kinda the point.

 

[RDUBoiler]

The 12 team CFP is definitely dumb. There are absolutely not 12 teams worthy of playing for the championship. 4 was fine. Hell, the BCS was fine.

Four was probably sufficient, but definitely no more than eight. Eight is enough.

 

[TC4THREE]

Yea I think we should get rid of the NCAA tourney. No way 68 teams should be playing for it. Let's just pick the winner. No need to ever even play the games.

Should be 64

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

Should be 64

I agree. I was fine with 64. Going to 68 was only a money grab. Pure and simple. Not that the CFP isn't but it is something that should have been done a long time ago. But if I could make it go to 64, then I'd have the power to strip conferences back down to what they were in 2003🤷

 

[msfboiler3]

Oregon should be sitting home right now with the national championship trophy after going 13-0 while all the other alleged contenders were taking on losses.

That trophy was true through a good many of our lifetimes, before colleges went pro. The best team with the best record got the national title. Pretenders had to shut up because they hadn’t put up, even when given one last bowl showdown.

No way do 12 college football teams deserve a shot at the national championship after playing 12-game seasons plus conference final exams. That plain sucks. It’s more watered-down than the Titanic. Or the players’ academic transcripts.

What do you tell a team with two black eyes? Nothing. They’ve already been told twice. Anyone with more than one loss deserves no more than bowling in their wife-beater shirts. Three? Slink on to sweet home, Alabama. Pay back your NIL.

Oregon won every time out while Ohio State was gagging twice, including its big league showdown with the Ducks and a massive choke against a five-time loser, yet one rematch win by the Buckeyes over the understandably flat Ducks erased all that. Should an unbeaten team have to face an already conquered victim, a two-loss conference opponent, in the quarterfinal round of some damned playoffs? Hell no.

Want playoffs? Give the unbeaten Big Ten champion a mulligan to make amends for a single loss, fluke or not. Consolation bracket, anyone? Just like the playoffs are now, that would be only fair. And just fair.

my only complaints. 1) this is a small complaint but there are too many teams. Football is not like basketball. 8 teams would be fine. 2) going to 8 eliminates the bye which i also dont like 3) seeding is my biggest complaint. You can give auto entries without locking teams into seeds. Also, the committee has too much power. Theyve already got a ranking system based on computer models like bball...use those. 4) nobody should have a home game.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

my only complaints. 1) this is a small complaint but there are too many teams. Football is not like basketball. 8 teams would be fine. 2) going to 8 eliminates the bye which i also dont like 3) seeding is my biggest complaint. You can give auto entries without locking teams into seeds. Also, the committee has too much power. Theyve already got a ranking system based on computer models like bball...use those. 4) nobody should have a home game.

Could you imagine actually making this Ohio State team sit at home because you for some reason believe 8 teams is enough for a division of football(CBS) with over 130 teams. Have you ever wondered why talent never spread out? That's because for the longest time, only 5-6 teams really had any shot because of the BCS. It didn't change but with the 4 team. But 12? Now you have Indiana, SMU, Arizona State and Boise State in the playoffs? That's great for the long run. I could see getting rid of home games. But I'd go to 16 and section of 4 chunks of the 1st and 2nd round into different cities like the NCAA tourney does. Indy, St. Louis, New York, LA, Vegas, Dallas can all host games in the 1st round. You could make the 2nd round be the Big 4 Bowls(Rose, Fiesta etc). Final 4 and championship game would be its own thing.

 

[nick614]

Could you imagine actually making this Ohio State team sit at home

Ohio St would have been in an 8 team playoff. You could argue they would have been in the 4 team playoff as well as this was a weird year.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

Ohio St would have been in an 8 team playoff. You could argue they would have been in the 4 team playoff as well as this was a weird year.

And they would have been an 8 and immediately played Oregon no matter what. And people would still be complaining.

 

[nick614]

And they would have been an 8 and immediately played Oregon no matter what. And people would still be complaining.

If you go by best teams (but keep requirement of 1 lower tier team) it would be more like:

1. Oregon
2. Ohio St
3. Penn St
4. Georgia
5. Indiana
6. Texas
7. Notre Dame
8. Boise St

 

[Thordog]

If you go by best teams (but keep requirement of 1 lower tier team) it would be more like:

1. Oregon
2. Ohio St
3. Penn St
4. Georgia
5. Indiana
6. Texas
7. Notre Dame
8. Boise St

ND might prove to be better than thought. the B1G was by far the best conference this year with OR, OSU, and PSU. IN would have been more fun to watch against GA or Boise State. B1G realistically had 4 of the top 7 teams. ND looks like top 3.

 

[SKYDOG]

I would say the current playoff system needs adjustments do you want a 64 team dance like basketball? I believe 16 teams is better than 12. I also believe there were only 8 teams deserving of being in a playoff this year. I am a firm believer the march dance should be reduced to 16 teams. That would give conferences and conference championships a lot more importance. Do we really need 64 teams and additional play in games? Nobody cares about the first round of games unless you lose

I would say 32 is enough and the teams left out could make the NIT relative again.

 

[nick614]

ND might prove to be better than thought. the B1G was by far the best conference this year with OR, OSU, and PSU. IN would have been more fun to watch against GA or Boise State. B1G realistically had 4 of the top 7 teams. ND looks like top 3.

ND just looks like top 3 because there isn't a single top 3 team on their side of the bracket. The top 4 teams were Oregon, Ohio State, Texas and Tennessee after UGA lost their QB.

 

[pboiler18]

People can bitch about the games and format but the outcome will be pretty undeniable as to who the best team is in the end IMO.

I prefer the top 8 format the most with maybe some intra conference divisions/playoffs first but this basically gave us 8 football games we wouldn’t have gotten in previous years/formats. I won’t complain…and my other team got sent home at the Sugar Bowl.

 

[Bank Shot Podcast]

If you go by best teams (but keep requirement of 1 lower tier team) it would be more like:

1. Oregon
2. Ohio St
3. Penn St
4. Georgia
5. Indiana
6. Texas
7. Notre Dame
8. Boise St

The other conferences wouldn't have agreed to that. The conference champs from the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC were going to automatically be in. Then the highest ranked G5. That's 5 teams. Then you have your last 3. This year those last 3 were Penn State, Texas and Notre Dame. The Top 8 seeding wise would have been...

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. Arizona State
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Notre Dame
8. Clemson

Ohio State would have been the first team out followed by Tennessee and Indiana.

 

[Katscratch]

Football? 8 or 16 teams. Either is good and 12 is odd to me.

Basketball? I know this will be an off-the-wall take, but I'd be a fan of doing it like they used to do the Indiana High School State no-classifications Tournament:

• All 355 D1 teams make it in.
• The top 155 or so get a one game bye that gets it down to 256 teams.
• Seven rounds after that for the crowning of a national champion.

 

[Poprudy]

Yes, just let the top 8 teams in the CFP. Conference champions mean very little in football, and it's the reason we have no conference champion left. Could you imagine Purdue in 22' winning the B1G and getting into the CFP.

 

[pboiler18]

Yes, just let the top 8 teams in the CFP. Conference champions mean very little in football, and it's the reason we have no conference champion left. Could you imagine Purdue in 22' winning the B1G and getting into the CFP.

Uh yeah. That’s why you give the champ the bid!

 

[Poprudy]

Uh yeah. That’s why you give the champ the bid!

So, you are saying if Purdue would have beaten OSU. We would have deserved to be in the CFP? WHAT!!???

Totally, disagree. Take the top 8 teams regardless or you'll end up with teams like IU and get destroyed.