NCAA tournament includes all conference champions. Sure they have expanded to a ton of at large bids, but every single team in NCAA division 1 has an opportunity make the 2025 conference at this point.
I know this. I was simply providing a counterexample to the statement "no other major sport..."
I think the argument about no other major sport is referencing pretty much everything other than FBS football. Teams "qualify" for the playoffs in every other sport that I know of. There are other NCAA sports where at large teams can enter the playoffs. However, none of those require a poll to see who "qualifies". NCAA football used to have no champion. It was only based on polls of coaches or reporters. Then they moved to the BCS, which was based on polls of coaches and reporters. Then to a four team playoff that was based solely on a committee who just decides who is in based on whatever reasons they want to use. Those reasons changed from year to year. Bill Hancock would say that some team was left out for reason A, then the next year reason A wasn't important and a team with that issue would get in. Now, there is a guarantee that five conference champions will get in, but the committee will decide which five conference champions those are and then fill in seven additional spots.
The thing I learned, and we all need to remember, is that this isn't a NCAA Fooball Championship tournament. This is the College Fooball Playoff and the winner is the champion of the College Football Playoff. They're not the CF National Champions, but the winner of a made-for-TV playoff that is not designed to equitably determine a National Champion.
To expand on this, ugag was able to completely ignore the SEC championship in 2021. It didn't matter at all that they got smashed by Alabama, and that's not right. The games, especially conference championships, need to matter, otherwise what's the point.
The NCAA tournament is extra inclusive instead of exclusive. It isn't leaving teams out that won their conference or went undefeated just because they don't like the cut of their jib. Everyone has their chance and the tournament isn't really trying to determine the "best" team. Pretty frequently, a team wins that no one would say was the best team. The final 8 frequently has multiple teams that wouldn't be in anyone's top 25 teams. Every team had a chance though and no one is really beholden to someone else's opinion.
I'm confused by your post. It may just be my reading comprehension. Are you implying that college basketball is not a major sport?
I am saying that the selection committee for the NCAA basketball tournament does not exclude any teams who "qualified" for the tournament. They don't have the ability to exclude the Patriot League champion because they know that they are not one of the top 68 teams in the country.
I totally understand that. Not much I can do about that. Hence, I gotta work within what is actually possible. When they created the BCS it was one of the happiest days of my “free time life” because as a kid I remember asking my dad, as we watched the New Years day games, why is #1 playing #5 while #2 is playing #4 and #3 is playing #9. I know now it’s all about money but the fact that our parents accepted this system is just still mysterious to me. At least my generation ended that and have tried to create a system where more teams and fanbases are engaged past October.
And I'm saying that the middle ground that the current CFP strikes is ok given the state of college football today. It's neither totally exclusive or inclusive.
They also don't, as far as we know, disqualify teams that will not be good for TV viewership. By its size it is very inclusive, while the CFP is quite exclusive (except for two particular conferences). That is the basis for my statement that it is still unfair and bad for long-term competitiveness, and thus, broken. Bigger, but broken.
I'd be fine with this, too, but there is the agreement (hard not to type "collusion" here) that the CFP winner is crowned the national champion. Here's a separate but related issue: If the CFP ostensibly covers all of the FBS, then why are all the G5 conferences not represented? It's their champion but they don't even get an entry into the field. The solution: Have a P4 playoff and a G5 playoff that run simultaneously (more money). Make the P4 a 4-team playoff as it was and if you're an independent and want to be included then get in a darn conference (looking at you, Notre Dame). The G5 can do what they want - top 4 ranked champs, 5 teams and the bottom two seeded team have a play-in game, etc. Just make the regular season and the conferences matter. If you lose a flukey game, too bad, so sad. UGAg did that and didn't get in last year. Stunk for them, but the world survived. Bama was the champ and was the SECheat representative. They lost. Ha!
Another solution would be to make two 64(ish)-team super-conferences divided into 8 regions apiece. We could call them the “American” conference and the “National” conference.
When we win the CFP, I'm going to proudly say that GT is the National Champion. I don't care what anyone else thinks about the CFP.
Well, I spent about 15 seconds thinking through my proposal so it may have some holes.
We already have one pro league. We really don’t need a bush league pro league. That does seem to be what is happening.
The current setup can go to 17 games is the winner doesn't get a bye in the first round.Well, I spent about 15 seconds thinking through my proposal so it may have some holes.
One thing it would accomplish is limiting the maximum number of games played by any team to 16, the same as the current setup.
You're right! So my proposal would help to mitigate the "too many games for college teams" problem! Thanks for the correction.