No new playoff system

[TheCream]

What are your thoughts? The powers that be decided that an "and 1" 4-team playoff system was not what they wanted. I think that means we are stuck with the current format through 2014! I admit, I would not be in favor of a large-scale playoff with lots of teams, mainly because I think you should be penalized if you lose a few games in the regular season and not have a shot to win a title, but I would have liked an "and 1" format.

[Deehntr56]

This could be a lenghty answer:D ...let me get back to you...when I have a hour to sit at my computer....in the interim......there should be some good ones coming.....

[jeffmo]

personally i think they should leave things as they are.there's always going to be unhappy coaches and fans but there will be with any system.

[Francis]

I would like it to change.

[Deehntr56]

A playoff format similar to the NFL would be good...but there is too much Big Money in Bowl Games and sponsors....it will never happen.

[TheCream]

My rationale, as flawed as it might be, is that with a playoff system that would allow more than 4 teams would allow too many teams that had regular season lapses to have a shot at winning it all. That is my biggest complaint about playoffs in general that include a bunch of teams. Folks say "it gives us a true champion" and I don't think that is always true. I think in a lot of years, it just gives us the hottest team at the end of the year. Sure, sometimes it will give us the truly best team, but in some years it won't, and that is unacceptable to me. The current system, as much as folks want to complain about it, I think gives us a more accurate champion. When you start letting 8 or 16 or more teams in, you can have national title matchups like (purely for example) a 3 or 4-loss team from the Big Ten and a 3 or 4-loss team from the SEC. Yay. I don't think a team that has a ho-hum regular season deserves a chance to play for a title.

Another problem with a playoff system is what do you do about automatic berths? Do you have them? If so, who gets them? If each conference gets 1 automatic berth, how is that fair for teams that do not play a head-to-head with all of their conference teams due to unbalanced scheduling? Where are the games played?

There are a lot of questions that are tough, if not impossible, to answer when it comes to a "fix" for college football.

[jeffmo]

let's use the osu/michigan game as an example.going into it say osu is rated number 1 or 2. now,knowing that they've made the playoff should tressel play to win or,does he save his 1st team for the post season?
what would it do to the value of conference championships?
the system that's in place now does fine.

[Fish-n-Fool]

There has always been debate about who the "real" #1 team is following every season - been that way long before the BCS was around. I think the system is fine the way it is. Perfect - no, but it is closer than letting the media vote when half of them haven't seen 25% of the teams play. At least now that is only part of the equation. And not to sound like a ninny, but these guys are student athletes and they do need to attend class. I don't agree with any plan that would disrupt the academic schedule moreso than it already is.

I actually like the idea of the "master coaches" poll. Group 20 former coaches together and have them evaluate and rank the teams. You can't escape some bias regardless of how it is done, but I believe this is the best method. They all know what makes a good fb team - much more so than the media. They may sway a bit towards their old conference (many coach in several conferences during their career anyway), but with a good mix of coaches I feel you get a realistic acessment.

[TheCream]

let's use the osu/michigan game as an example.going into it say osu is rated number 1 or 2. now,knowing that they've made the playoff should tressel play to win or,does he save his 1st team for the post season?
what would it do to the value of conference championships?
the system that's in place now does fine.

Just to build on that, Jeffmo, let's say OSU and UM are both undefeated and #1 and #2 in the polls like a couple of years ago. If there is an automatic berth system in place for a playoff, the 1-loss loser of the OSU-UM game could miss out on a playoff while a team from another conference (let's say it's a down year in the PAC 10) like a 3-loss USC team gets in.

[Deehntr56]

Try this for a thought....... The 4 major conferences (Big 10, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-10) would each have a conference championship. The winner of each conference championship would face the reverse seeded winner of the 4 non-conference championship games (i.e. the best conference team would face the worst non-conference seed). The seeding would have the 4 major conferences as the top 8 seeds in order of the home team's record, so the best conference team would face the second team in their conference, then the top eight teams not all ready in the playoffs, determined by record, would play in a normal playoffs style of seeding. There WOULD be re seeding as such: After each round, all remaining Conference Champion teams would be reseeded as the top seeds, done by record, and then the non-conference seeds would be reseeded by record. The tiebreaker will be the AP poll rankings. :biggrin: