Still a flawed system

[CobbTech]

The CFB playoff is great. It creates more excitement, more controversy. It's still an extremely flawed system. Think about this...

Alabama's lone loss was to Ole Miss, who just got crushed 42-3 against TCU. Alabama's best win just got crushed by Georgia Tech. Their 2nd best win got crushed by UGA. Their 3rd best win lost to Notre Dame.

Still, considering all of those FACTS, Alabama was a lock to get into the CFB playoff with 1 loss. No debate. No discussion. You were an idiot if you thought otherwise. FSU, with 0 losses, was on the cusp of getting left out and TCU and Baylor were miles away from Bama.

If you don't think this whole thing is ESPN/media driven, you're not paying attention.

Not saying that Bama isn't going to win this thing. They have a great shot. But other teams deserved a lot more credit.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

$$$$$$$$!!!!! If you go on resume, that was hammered down our throats, GT has one of the best in the land! The OhSt lost to VT, which we beat. Oregon lost to one of the Arizonas that got beat, and Bama has no quality wins.

 

[GTonTop88]

The rankings for the first of the season are terrible. If you rank everybody in one conference in the top 15 of course they are not gonna have any bad losses

 

[Boomergump]

I agree with the tenor of both your posts. However, I would characterise all of those wins you mentioned as quality wins, just as VT, CLEM, UGA, GSU, and MSU were for us. Alabama is good. Winning 12 out of 13 is never easy. The problem comes with deciding how good in the context of everything going on in CFB. You are right. It is flawed. We need to get out of voting ASAP. This is not diving, figure skating, or a poodle show. It is CFB, where wins and losses ON THE FIELD can adequately decide things. Give me conference champs ONLY advancing to a single elimination bracket.

 

[DvilleJacket]

They should do away with preseason polls in my opinion. Why not go by the final poll the previous season if you must have one?

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Hopefully Ohio State wins today. Then that really pushes for 8 teams since TCU and probably Baylor were worthy.

The problem is that CFB teams are all over the place in performance both beginning to the end of season as well as week to week. We are a perfect example given losses to Fluke and UNC but getting much better by season end. So who is the best? Maybe just Power 5 champions plus 3 others? There will always be an argument over the ones on the edge.

I'm going to post something soon about Study Hall redoing their prediction methodology. The methodology is one of the best out there for regular season (53% against the spread), but fall apart (44% against the line) for bowl games.

So in addition to it being hard to figure out who is best at the end of the season, the 3 week layoff affects teams a lot by the time they get to the "playoffs". A lot different than the pros.

 

[CobbTech]

I agree with the tenor of both your posts. However, I would characterise all of those wins you mentioned as quality wins, just as VT, CLEM, UGA, GSU, and MSU were for us. Alabama is good. Winning 12 out of 13 is never easy. The problem comes with deciding how good in the context of everything going on in CFB. You are right. It is flawed. We need to get out of voting ASAP. This is not diving, figure skating, or a poodle show. It is CFB, where wins and losses ON THE FIELD can adequately decide things. Give me conference champs ONLY advancing to a single elimination bracket.

No doubt Bama should be credited for those quality wins. Unfortunately, FSU didn't get that same treatment. Bama was getting credit for a 1 point win against Arkansas, OT win against LSU, and wins over Miss State and Auburn. FSU was getting punished for wins over Clemson, BC and Notre Dame. And then when they finally beat GT (who will end the season ranked in the top 10) they finally got moved up one spot. After all of the out of conference games, it looks like FSU's schedule was just as difficult as Bama's. Heck, I'd put our schedule up against theirs.

 

[CobbTech]

Hopefully Ohio State wins today. Then that really pushes for 8 teams since TCU and probably Baylor were worthy.

The problem is that CFB teams are all over the place in performance both beginning to the end of season as well as week to week. We are a perfect example given losses to Fluke and UNC but getting much better by season end. So who is the best? Maybe just Power 5 champions plus 3 others? There will always be an argument over the ones on the edge.

I'm going to post something soon about Study Hall redoing their prediction methodology. The methodology is one of the best out there for regular season (53% against the spread), but fall apart (44% against the line) for bowl games.

So in addition to it being hard to figure out who is best at the end of the season, the 3 week layoff affects teams a lot by the time they get to the "playoffs". A lot different than the pros.

Yes, conference champions plus 3. Not a perfect system either but you preserve the importance of the regular season and allow a team like TCU, who lost to Baylor earlier in the year and might be the best team in the country, another shot.

First round is in the middle of December to kick of bowl season, at the higher seeds home field, final four would be the same as it is now. Either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. It would be glorious.

 

[DC Bee]

Yesterday I was against expanding the playoffs to 8. But TCU's performance and Baylor playing today may be changing that. If the Big 12 had crowned an actual champion, one of the 5 teams would have been screwed.