A better national championship game...

[Pilgrim]

After seeing the A&M/OU game last night, the game I'd LIKE to see for the mythical national championship (it's all made up, you know) is Oregon-Texas A&M.

THAT would be a game! Two extremely dynamic offenses turned loose against two very efficient defenses...man, what a great game to watch that would be!

I'd be a lot more interested in that game than Bama/Notre Dame. That one is kinda ho-hum...the only interesting part is how ND will do.

[Eublet]

I'd love to see them play also cause it would be an offensive shootout, but neither deserve to be playing for the title. Bama and ND will be a good game hopefully.

[GregC]

It would be a higher-scoring game, no doubt. But they didn't earn the right to play for the title. as Jason said. It would be interesting to see how A&M fared in a playoff considering how well they're playing now, but with 2 losses, they wouldn't make the cut in a four-team scenario.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

mythical national championship (it's all made up, you know)

Same as it ever was...

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Passinwind

Same as it ever was...

Ain't it the truth? I'm glad we're moving toward an actual playoff. I'd really like to see Oregon and A&M in such a playoff. (And I'm not an Oregon fan...if you get the drift of my avatar.)

[Eublet]

But neither of those teams would have been in the playoff either.

[mjac28]

Oregon is one of those teams like Oklahoma it seems the big games they just come up short I would rather see your game than the snooze fest coming Monday though.

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Eublet

But neither of those teams would have been in the playoff either.

I'm not sure that's true under the new setup...although I don't think the formula by which the playoff teams will be chosen has been determined yet.

But if they would not be included, that shows one reason the entire BCS concept is a snoozer. I'd rather see my alma mater play in the Belk Bowl than watch the upcoming BCS game.

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

I'm not sure that's true under the new setup...although I don't think the formula by which the playoff teams will be chosen has been determined yet.

But if they would not be included, that shows one reason the entire BCS concept is a snoozer. I'd rather see my alma mater play in the Belk Bowl than watch the upcoming BCS game.

Respectfully, crowning a national champion isn't about what you want to watch though. Fact of the matter is that with 120 FBS teams, no system will ever be fair. Just look at NCAA basketball.

If your team was in the game this Monday, you'd want to watch. So your team isn't in it, and so you don't want to see it. Understandable. Nothing unique there. There have been many MNC games I really cared less about over the years. That's why I love NCAA football.

[Pilgrim]

True enough...you care about your team, not others.

As far as I'm concerned, at present all we are doing is using computer programs (written by someone with unknown biases..so what those programs achieve reflects those biases) and some old boy votes to choose two teams to play for a made-up title.

Once we get something resembling a playoff in place, I'll have a bit more respect for the title "National Champion".

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

True enough...you care about your team, not others.

As far as I'm concerned, at present all we are doing is using computer programs (written by someone with unknown biases..so what those programs achieve reflects those biases) and some old boy votes to choose two teams to play for a made-up title.

Once we get something resembling a playoff in place, I'll have a bit more respect for the title "National Champion".

Agree100%. I just don't want a large bracket in a playoff. 8 teams at the most.

[FilterFunk]

Originally Posted by Eublet

Agree100%. I just don't want a large bracket in a playoff. 8 teams at the most.

^This. No other major sport has the week-to-week drama and excitement of Div. 1A (I refuse to call it Football Bowl Subdivision) football. 8 teams or less would keep that intensity intact.

[basstotheface]

I can't wait for a playoff. 8 teams would be ideal.

6 AQ conference winners, 2 wildcards?

Or just top 8 teams?

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by basstotheface

I can't wait for a playoff. 8 teams would be ideal.

6 AQ conference winners, 2 wildcards?

Or just top 8 teams?

Top 8 teams. Think about how screwed up it would be this year to take any team from the ACC or Big10 in the playoff. I'd be okay however if they capped it at only 2 teams per conference though.

[Pilgrim]

Eight team sounds good to me as well. Not sure about a cap on teams from one conference - I can see arguments both ways. Maybe someone will educate and convince me.

[jrthebassguy]

Eight teams is perfect, IMO. Let's be real - any team ranked 9 or higher does not belong in the national championship conversation.

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Eight team sounds good to me as well. Not sure about a cap on teams from one conference - I can see arguments both ways. Maybe someone will educate and convince me.

Take the top 8 teams this year for examnple:

1) Notre Dame
2) Alabama
3) Florida
4) Oregon
5) K State
6) Stanford
7) Georgia
8) LSU

Forget that Florida and LSU lost in a bowl game for a moment. That top 8 is rather SEC lopsided, though I think it was very accurate at the time. Taking 4 SEC teams in a playoff though seems pretty aggressive to me, even for an SEC guy. So capping it at 2 might make sense some years. The problem is that #9 and #10 were also SEC teams, with Texas A&M and South Carolina. So if you capped it, you'd then have to skip 4 SEC teams to get to #11 and #12, Oklahoma and Florida St. I'm not so sure those 2 teams deserved to play in an 8-team playoff either, especially if you have to skip 4 other higher ranked teams to put them in it. So the cap might not make much sense. Or maybe the answer is to cap it at 3.

Taking the AQ Conference champs is even more ridiculous than the above scenario though IMHO, especially when Notre Dame is too lame to join a conference. In that scenario, you'd have the following teams to start with:

Notre Dame
Alabama
Oregon
Stanford
Oklahoma
Florida State
Nebraska (At #17, ridiculous)


That leaves room for 1 more. So who do you pick? Boise State @19, or Louisville @21? Or do you go back to the top of the list and pick the next highest rank team that isn't already in, Florida, even though they didn't win their division over Georgia who beat them? Also not ideal. It's laughable that Nebraska gets to play for anything at all, along with Florida State, at least in terms of national championship.

This isn't like the NFL where these teams get to play each other a few times where you want a strong finisher more than you do a team with a strong season. It's certainly not like NCAA Basketball, or NBA/MLF playoffs where you have a series in order to prove your belong.

I think an 8-team playoff would be chaotic every year, and it's not going to solve anything over what we have been doing for the last 10 years. In my mind the only thing that really makes sense is to take the top 8 teams, regardless of what conference they're from, and let them play. Cap it at 2 or 3 if you must, but conference champ, at least right now, is silly. If we go to four 16-team super conferences down the road, then I'll be for it. That'll mean that a lot of teams get thrown out of Div 1A, but honestly that's probably better anyway as they can form their own Division with their own championship also. Sooner or later we just have to separate the have's from the have nots.

[Eublet]

Thinking about this some more, I think the 4 team playoff we are going to is probably best, and would be better than an 8 team playoff. Even this year, it would make great sense, and give Oregon and Florida a chance to win it all. Both of those teams I think earned it with their regular season schedule, but from #5 on down, all those teams have losses to teams that really shouldn't allow them to be playing for a title.

[Lonesomedave]

Originally Posted by Eublet

Thinking about this some more, I think the 4 team playoff we are going to is probably best, and would be better than an 8 team playoff. Even this year, it would make great sense, and give Oregon and Florida a chance to win it all. Both of those teams I think earned it with their regular season schedule, but from #5 on down, all those teams have losses to teams that really shouldn't allow them to be playing for a title.

i hear what you are saying, but....

if we had an 8 team playoff, and one of those "lesser" teams won, that would mean they had won 3 games against the best of the best.

i mean, in pro football it happens all the time....team A, with a great record, loses to team B, with a lousy record, and then team A goes on to win the super bowl.

look at the Giants of last year.

[Eublet]

Originally Posted by Lonesomedave

i hear what you are saying, but....

if we had an 8 team playoff, and one of those "lesser" teams won, that would mean they had won 3 games against the best of the best.

i mean, in pro football it happens all the time....team A, with a great record, loses to team B, with a lousy record, and then team A goes on to win the super bowl.

look at the Giants of last year.

I agree it could always happen, but the side effect of that is that it cheapens the regular season which is what I don't want more than anything else. I'm happy with the controversy. If a team can't work themselves into the #4 slot by the end of the season then I'm fine with them not getting into the playoff. I really don't want NCAA to be come a "strong-finisher" sport like everything else is. I like that there are 12 short weeks to establish what kind of team you are, and the whole season counts. Texas A&M and Oregon might very well be the two best teams in the country right now, but they weren't earlier in the season. I don't like the thought of rewarding that.