ACC Bowl Action

[leatherneckjacket]

The only people who broke college football are the greedy *******s taking in millions of dollars in salaries and “donations” who thought they could keep exploiting the actual players as long as they wanted.

The solution was easy. Let the players create a union so you can have a collective bargaining agreement that protects all sides and interests (except the coaches and AA administrators pocketing millions).

Colleges (and their representative the NCAA) fought hard against the obvious solution and instead got a heavily conservative Supreme Court to unanimously force them to create a real free market.

Now we all get to weep because of the crap we’ve watched the past 2 days.

Thank god the NFL an actually competent league is putting up a game tonight so there may at least be some redeemable football.

Uggh.

 

[awbuzz]

It would be interesting to know how much a “we’ll tank their bowl” mentality drove all the FSU sit-outs.

0% of the reason they opted out is so that "we'll tank their bowl".
JMO

 

[Techwood Relict]

Kind of like how nobody knows the circumstances behind 222-0.

I think Stech was there, but the student section drank a lot that game, so the details may be fuzzy.

 

[forensicbuzz]

Just remember UGA also had players opt out, but they are still making a statement here

not starters. That's the difference.

 

[ThatGuy]

I’m reminded of something my dad told me a long time ago:

“A long time ago, bowl games were just the gravy. They didn’t count towards AP or UPI or other rankings. They were the bonus. The team rankings were settled on the field in the real season.”

Now, this was a ways back, and I don’t know how true it is, and I haven’t dug around to find anything to support or disprove it…but I’ve been thinking a lot about that statement as bowl season has progressed this year.

Now that CFB has moved into a more “mercenary” phase, where we’re seeing more players opt out of bowls, perhaps it’s time to make the bowl games a bonus once again.

Next year, if you’re not in he 12-team invitational, and you get invited to a bowl game…great! Go have fun! The fans will show up and support you. The other team may all show up, or barely show up. If your top players opt out, that’s okay, because: it legitimately won’t matter.

Seriously. Let’s just rank non-playoff teams at the end of the season, and let the bowls be a reward for a good season. I think this would help with a lot of perception problems (the bowl $ probably won’t have any of it, but still).

 

[Root4GT]

I mean, did you see what the committee thinks of the ACC? No matter what happened today, there is no chance the ACC gets more than one team in the playoffs next year or going forward. Winning the ACC championship is all that matters.

If FSU and Clemson are both 1 loss teams into the ACC Championship game they are both in. I doubt either are that good

 

[Root4GT]

They want to leave the ACC, they might care about the perception of their own program.

Obviously their perception got to where it was - where an undefeated season wasn't enough to overcome an injury - by being bad to mediocre for close to a decade. It's not going to be an instant turnaround.

But there's no such thing as a "meaningless" 60 point blowout in a sport where perception is everything. They (and the ACC) had a hole they needed to dig out of. They just made it even deeper.

You remember over a decade ago when Clemson gave up 60+ points in a terrible Orange Bowl beat down? They recovered with 2 NCs in the next 7 or so years

 

[jgtengineer]

There is no hole to dig out of is my point. The perception is stone now. Nothing is going to change it. If we go 12-0 next year and lose the ACC championship by 1 point to a 12-0 Clemson team, we are not making the playoffs, even after beating Notre Dame, FSU, and UGA. That's the reality of the ACC at this point. The only possible change to that perception is a complete full court press by ESPN trying to change the narrative of the conference. Something they are obviously not interested in doing.

No way that happens with how many at larges are in the 12 team.

 

[L41k18]

I’m reminded of something my dad told me a long time ago:

“A long time ago, bowl games were just the gravy. They didn’t count towards AP or UPI or other rankings. They were the bonus. The team rankings were settled on the field in the real season.”

Now, this was a ways back, and I don’t know how true it is, and I haven’t dug around to find anything to support or disprove it…but I’ve been thinking a lot about that statement as bowl season has progressed this year.

Now that CFB has moved into a more “mercenary” phase, where we’re seeing more players opt out of bowls, perhaps it’s time to make the bowl games a bonus once again.

Next year, if you’re not in he 12-team invitational, and you get invited to a bowl game…great! Go have fun! The fans will show up and support you. The other team may all show up, or barely show up. If your top players opt out, that’s okay, because: it legitimately won’t matter.

Seriously. Let’s just rank non-playoff teams at the end of the season, and let the bowls be a reward for a good season. I think this would help with a lot of perception problems (the bowl $ probably won’t have any of it, but still).

Your dad is right.
There is proof.

Back in the day the national champion was chosen before the bowls, because, the bowls were exhibition games.

Mich State won the natty in the '65 season; lost the Rose Bowl. Alabama was named champs after the '64 season; lost the Orange Bowl. There are other examples. Notre Dame played in the Rose Bowl in '24, then refused to play in a bowl game again until 1969. They won 8 national championships in those non-bowl years. The Big 10 only allowed one team to go to a bowl; their champ, to the Rose Bowl. Also, you couldn't go two years in a row - if you won the conference again the 2nd place team went.

Crazy but true.

 

[wvGT11]

 

[WreckinGT]

No way that happens with how many at larges are in the 12 team.

Strongly disagree. With the SEC and Big 10 expansion, everything is setup for that. 1 loss ACC non champions will be passed over for 2-3 loss SEC/Big 10 non champions, which there will be plenty of with the size of those conferences now. Currently they are still taking the top 6 conference champions. That only leaves 6 at large. That isn't enough for a second ACC team to get in. Even if they moved it to the top 5 conference champions the odds are very small. We are effectively a G5 conference now.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Kirby Smart postgame laments that uga didn’t get to play against FSU’s best and suggests that in the future people will have to decide what bowl games are about that aren’t part of playoff. He wonders if people will want to see “glorified scrimmages.”

On defense FSU was missing 3 top defensive linemen, 2 top linebackers and half the secondary, nine starters overall and several key backups. On offense FSU was without all their top receivers, their tightend, top running backs, their best QB, and more. 29 key players overall opted out.

Norvell basically implied that the playoff committee snubbing FSU killed any chance of his being able to keep his team together. Disappointment ran team in the team.

One wonders if in the future people will look back on this as an anomaly or the beginning of a major transition in the relative importance, or lack thereof, of bowls.

 

[jgtengineer]

Strongly disagree. With the SEC and Big 10 expansion, everything is setup for that. 1 loss ACC non champions will be passed over for 2-3 loss SEC/Big 10 non champions, which there will be plenty of with the size of those conferences now. Currently they are still taking the top 6 conference champions. That only leaves 6 at large. That isn't enough for a second ACC team to get in. Even if they moved it to the top 5 conference champions the odds are very small. We are effectively a G5 conference now.

If the scenario is a pair of 12-0 acc teams each with wins over sec teams. The odds of the loser being left out are not like the FSU thing this year. If we beat UGA in the regular season odds are they don't win the sec. Trust me if say old miss had been a one loss sec champion this year they'd have been left out. It was only because it was Alabama that we got the bull**** we got this year. Also this attracted legal attention by state and national representatives. They do it again things will start to get ugly.

 

[Randy Carson]

"People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this," Smart said, lamenting the flood of opt-outs and portal entries on teams playing in non-playoff bowl games. "It needs to be fixed. It's very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program, and they're in the position they're in." Kirby Smart, post-game

The Seminoles played without their top two quarterbacks, top two running backs, top two receivers, starting tight end, three starting defensive linemen, two of three starting linebackers and three starting defensive backs. They were down 29 scholarship players in all.

 

[wvGT11]

Kirby Smart postgame laments that uga didn’t get to play against FSU’s best and suggests that in the future people will have to decide what bowl games are about that aren’t part of playoff. He wonders if people will want to see “glorified scrimmages.”

On defense FSU was missing 3 top defensive linemen, 2 top linebackers and half the secondary, nine starters overall and several key backups. On offense FSU was without all their top receivers, their tightend, top running backs, their best QB, and more. 29 key players overall opted out.

Norvell basically implied that the playoff committee snubbing FSU killed any chance of his being able to keep his team together. Disappointment ran team in the team.

One wonders if in the future people will look back on this as an anomaly or the beginning of a major transition in the relative importance, or lack thereof, of bowls.

I mean, I still.agree that FSU getting snubbed was not cool. However a good coach pulls the team together in times of disappointment. As much as I hate saying this, Kirby was pretty spot on in is comments and did a good.job holding the team together.

 

[TooTall]

Go back to only 40 or so teams make bowls. Make the bowls special again and folks (players and fans) will start showing up for them

 

[Techwood Relict]

Go back to only 40 or so teams make bowls. Make the bowls special again and folks (players and fans) will start showing up for them

I don't know what it looked like early, but the top down shot of the Orange Bowl crowd on the 2nd half was sparse. Not a good look for the 5 & 6 teams in the rankings for the powers that be.

 

[slugboy]

Go back to only 40 or so teams make bowls. Make the bowls special again and folks (players and fans) will start showing up for them

Some of the best bowls are the ones that would cut, and some of the crappiest bowls were today.

 

[WreckinGT]

If the scenario is a pair of 12-0 acc teams each with wins over sec teams. The odds of the loser being left out are not like the FSU thing this year. If we beat UGA in the regular season odds are they don't win the sec. Trust me if say old miss had been a one loss sec champion this year they'd have been left out. It was only because it was Alabama that we got the bull**** we got this year. Also this attracted legal attention by state and national representatives. They do it again things will start to get ugly.

If Ole Miss had only lost to UGA in the regular season and then beat UGA in the SEC championship then yes, I think they easily get in over FSU. Your point about the relative brand power of the teams has some validity though. Unfortunately, the SEC and Big 10 are now loaded with powerful brands. 2 loss Penn State and Oklahoma teams are going to get in over 1 loss ACC teams. Same for many other schools in those conferences. In the off chance that a 1 loss GT team is up against a 2 loss Miss St team then maybe there's a chance. It's still a small one in my opinion.

 

[FightWinDrink]

Some of the best bowls are the ones that would cut, and some of the crappiest bowls were today.

Yeah this is what I tell people. You can for the most part ignore bowls for teams #5-20 because they're full of opt outs or people who feel cheated and dont want to play. But give me some 6-6 vs 6-6 MAC vs Sun Belt team (make it spicier if you got an interim coach in there) and you see a game where teams go all out and bust out all the trick plays and stuff.