Badger Football 2020 (Latest- Headed to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (seriously)

[SomewhereInTime]

I don't understand this at all. It's pretty obvious that the 4-team playoff is very effective at getting the best 2 teams into the championship game. I mean, look at the gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson. The sub-division teams do not belong in the top 4, ever. This isn't basketball.

 

If we want entertainment value, then yes, we should ditch the NY6 and make it all a playoff. The pathway gets a little harder for the top teams since there will occasionally be upsets. But generally an 8-team playoff would just further expose growing inequities in the sport and I can't imagine anyone in power would want that.

 

By "sub-division" do you mean group of 5? The group of 5 teams are part of the FBS sub-division and the mythical playoff is supposedly representative of the whole sub-division.

 

There's such a large gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson that the two teams went 1-1 against each other this season.

[MrTPlush]

Food for thought, would you rather:

 

1) Wisconsin make the playoff as the bottom seed and having a ridiculously high chance of getting demolished by Clemson or Alabama (pretty much assured).

 

2) Go to the Rose Bowl and have a legit match up and likely a close/exciting game?

 

Honestly, will you really feel like Wisconsin has a chance if they make it as a #6 seed and go face the #1 team? No, so does it really make it better to expand playoffs? It won’t increase the chances of winning a championship or how much you feel like they could.

 

I’m all for expanding the playoff...but I’m not sure how much more exciting it would make a Badgers football season in reality.

[PinaMadness]

There is no need for the super-conference thing. Just expand the playoffs to 6 or 8 teams. The 5 P5 champions and then either 1 or 3 at-larges. Either the top 2 teams get a bye or nobody gets a bye. There is no reason the season can't start a week earlier in August or a week later in January, nobody is in school at either time anyway. With an 8 team field you could even guarantee a spot for a G5 team (Cinci, UCF, BYU, etc.)

Why? So we can have one more round of even bigger blowouts that we get in the semi finals? No thanks.

[AKCheesehead]

Food for thought, would you rather:

 

1) Wisconsin make the playoff as the bottom seed and having a ridiculously high chance of getting demolished by Clemson or Alabama (pretty much assured).

 

2) Go to the Rose Bowl and have a legit match up and likely a close/exciting game?

 

Honestly, will you really feel like Wisconsin has a chance if they make it as a #6 seed and go face the #1 team? No, so does it really make it better to expand playoffs? It won’t increase the chances of winning a championship or how much you feel like they could.

 

I’m all for expanding the playoff...but I’m not sure how much more exciting it would make a Badgers football season in reality.

 

Generally I would tend to agree but I can think of a few Badger teams I would like to have seen what they could have done.

[HiAndTight]

I don't understand this at all. It's pretty obvious that the 4-team playoff is very effective at getting the best 2 teams into the championship game. I mean, look at the gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson. The sub-division teams do not belong in the top 4, ever. This isn't basketball.

 

If we want entertainment value, then yes, we should ditch the NY6 and make it all a playoff. The pathway gets a little harder for the top teams since there will occasionally be upsets. But generally an 8-team playoff would just further expose growing inequities in the sport and I can't imagine anyone in power would want that.

 

By "sub-division" do you mean group of 5? The group of 5 teams are part of the FBS sub-division and the mythical playoff is supposedly representative of the whole sub-division.

 

There's such a large gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson that the two teams went 1-1 against each other this season.

 

 

They just got trounced and we all know they won a close game earlier in the season when they were without the consensus top pick and once in a decade type QB prospect.

 

I don't disagree about the playoff, but if you really want it to be more competitive, the best chance would just be adding more SEC teams. ND opens as an almost 3 TD dog to Alabama and I expect Alabama to cover.

 

As others have been saying, the only real way to fix the playoffs is to find a way to distribute the talent more evenly. The problem is, I can't imagine any way you can do that in CFB. Limit where kids can go to College? It just doesn't seem feasible.

[HiAndTight]

Food for thought, would you rather:

 

1) Wisconsin make the playoff as the bottom seed and having a ridiculously high chance of getting demolished by Clemson or Alabama (pretty much assured).

 

2) Go to the Rose Bowl and have a legit match up and likely a close/exciting game?

 

Honestly, will you really feel like Wisconsin has a chance if they make it as a #6 seed and go face the #1 team? No, so does it really make it better to expand playoffs? It won’t increase the chances of winning a championship or how much you feel like they could.

 

I’m all for expanding the playoff...but I’m not sure how much more exciting it would make a Badgers football season in reality.

 

Generally I would tend to agree but I can think of a few Badger teams I would like to have seen what they could have done.

 

The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

[tmwiese55]

I won't disagree with any of the points regarding recruiting/hoarding of talent, etc., but I will note that there IS more turnover amongst these teams than we acknowledge. Remember unstoppable powerhouses like Florida State/Florida/Nebraska/USC from just a decade or two ago? Clemson was an also-ran in the ACC until Dabo, etc. Georgia is a newcomer to the big stage.

 

These programs DO come and go, but it usually corresponds to a serious coaching change, both positively and negatively. Whether this will hold true in the playoff era or not remains to be seen, I guess.

 

I think that one of the better ways to chip into the 'powerhouses' notion is to give more people a chance to knock them off. It simply can't hurt recruiting at a place like Cincinnati if they A)get into the playoff, and B)actually find a way to knock off one of the big boys. Add in the fact that it will undoubtedly on some occasion eventually yield a 7-seed type actually winning the thing, and it can't possibly be bad for the sport, IMO.

 

Went back and tried to find a tweet I saw on this but I can't find it. Surprisingly, of the 5ish years of 4 team playoffs the turnover of teams is smaller than in the 2 team BCS system for the same timeframe of the 5 years before (something like that). And it was significantly different. I guess it makes sense when you think about the times Bama, OSU, Clemson have gotten in as 3 or 4 seeds.

 

In this search I did find another though, 48 of the top 100 recruits are going to 5 schools.

[AKCheesehead]

 

Generally I would tend to agree but I can think of a few Badger teams I would like to have seen what they could have done.

 

The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

 

Yah that's one.

 

It's easy to play the "what if" game regarding injuries, but in 2017 if they hadn't lost Cichy, Baun and Stokke for the year and had Cephus injured for the end of the season, I would have loved to have seen what that team could have done as well.

[PeaveyFury]

The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

 

I think that team lost three games that year, all by a TD or less, with two of them happening literally on the last play of the game. Insanity. That team was indeed good enough to win the whole thing in a playoff.

[tmwiese55]

Yes the three 3 losses were MSU hail mary, OSU kinda hail mary with 20ish seconds left the next week. Also, both games had block punt TDs by the opponent, which was Bielema's area. Then the Oregon Rose Bowl shootout loss by 7 (or one score if not 7 exact) where UW got to striking distance for last play but refs didn't them spike. It also had the flukiest fumble by Abbrederis where the ball just sat on the sideline without going out of bounds. Somehow BB lost 3 games with that offense. I mentioned this around quarantine when replays were going on but the amount of NFL talent on that team was nuts. Every player on that offense made the NFL, plus several of the backup lineman too. Possible exception being Oglesbee due to injuries, he might not have got out of camp or just didn't bother. Of course the D wasn't great though, if we could pair our current D play with what those offenses did in 2009-11ish UW could win a title.

 

Other things to note on that team. That was the year of the LSU/Bama rematch title game that was like 22-0. So, if UW had just not lost those hail mary games they'd have been playing a very beatable LSU team that had a very weak offense (good for our blah D). Of course LSU D was great but I don't think anyone was holding our offense with Wilson (in a dome) under 25 pts. They would've had a real shot there, heck, I think I'd have picked them to win.

 

Also, that would've been JJ Watt's senior year if he didn't go pro. I'm skeptical if those hail mary's happen with him on the team. He was so good he likely turns a very mediocre D into at least OK/good by himself. Instead they had a bigger slower white D End I think last name Kelly who was fine and could get some pressures but could never quite get to the qb in time. In short, this team was the football equivalent of 2015 UW basketball. Probably as close as we're going to get in our lives.

 

ETA: oh on the losses by one score or less. UW got mentioned last night on this as UCF just had a really long streak of that snapped in their loss yesterday. UW had one of the longest streaks this century too. Teams like USC, Bama were also on it. I used to bring this up quite a bit as a cool tidbit, I didn't really know it was as 'historic' (can't think of a better word) as it was before I saw it last night. It was broke in the South Car bowl game (which was a close game they led) or it would've lasted til the 59-0 OSU bloobath.

[homer]

The Wilson team also completed a 4th and 6th prayer to help beat MSU in the B1G championship.

[GAME05]

Expand the playoffs and maybe once every 40 years you'll have a Cincinnati upsetting Alabama. But in that span of time you'll also have 80 games of the underdog losing by 28 in games nobody wants to watch.

[SomewhereInTime]

I don't understand this at all. It's pretty obvious that the 4-team playoff is very effective at getting the best 2 teams into the championship game. I mean, look at the gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson. The sub-division teams do not belong in the top 4, ever. This isn't basketball.

 

If we want entertainment value, then yes, we should ditch the NY6 and make it all a playoff. The pathway gets a little harder for the top teams since there will occasionally be upsets. But generally an 8-team playoff would just further expose growing inequities in the sport and I can't imagine anyone in power would want that.

 

By "sub-division" do you mean group of 5? The group of 5 teams are part of the FBS sub-division and the mythical playoff is supposedly representative of the whole sub-division.

 

There's such a large gap in talent between Notre Dame and Clemson that the two teams went 1-1 against each other this season.

 

 

They just got trounced and we all know they won a close game earlier in the season when they were without the consensus top pick and once in a decade type QB prospect.

 

I don't disagree about the playoff, but if you really want it to be more competitive, the best chance would just be adding more SEC teams. ND opens as an almost 3 TD dog to Alabama and I expect Alabama to cover.

 

As others have been saying, the only real way to fix the playoffs is to find a way to distribute the talent more evenly. The problem is, I can't imagine any way you can do that in CFB. Limit where kids can go to College? It just doesn't seem feasible.

 

Yeah this isn't the NFL. A backup QB doesn't mean it's some scrub, it's next year's starter. How many more yards in that game would Lawrence have even thrown for? How many snaps in the second game did Lawrence play on defense?

[SomewhereInTime]

Expand the playoffs and maybe once every 40 years you'll have a Cincinnati upsetting Alabama. But in that span of time you'll also have 80 games of the underdog losing by 28 in games nobody wants to watch.

 

Ah the old hypothetical blowout argument about games that aren't allowed to happen, based on the old eye test. I get it, FBS has 130 teams, when #1 plays #50, it's going to be a blowout a lot of times. If it's #1 vs #8 of course #1 will win most of the time but it's not going to be an average margin of 30.

 

For reference, last week #1 played #7 in a conference championship game and the margin was 6 points.

[young guns]

Expand the playoffs and maybe once every 40 years you'll have a Cincinnati upsetting Alabama. But in that span of time you'll also have 80 games of the underdog losing by 28 in games nobody wants to watch.

 

Ah the old hypothetical blowout argument about games that aren't allowed to happen, based on the old eye test. I get it, FBS has 130 teams, when #1 plays #50, it's going to be a blowout a lot of times. If it's #1 vs #8 of course #1 will win most of the time but it's not going to be an average margin of 30.

 

For reference, last week #1 played #7 in a conference championship game and the margin was 6 points.

Also, I want to watch those games. Personally I think they are afraid of putting them in because it would show they are more deserving of being included. Like in 2010 when they made Boise st play TCU instead of giving them both a shot against AQ teams.

[MrTPlush]

The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

 

I think that team lost three games that year, all by a TD or less, with two of them happening literally on the last play of the game. Insanity. That team was indeed good enough to win the whole thing in a playoff.

 

Yah...of course it would have never made a 6 team playoff and quite possibly not even an 8 team playoff. They lost to MSU, OSU, and Oregon. Michigan State wasn’t anything special, OSU was terrible that year (losing record), and Oregon was #6.

 

Maybe the best Wisconsin team in who knows how long...but still don’t think it would have any chance winning 3 games against elite opponents.

 

On another note: Not sure comparing ranked conference opponents in championship games is fully accurate. Teams usually play conference foes closer despite talent level (in many cases).

[PeaveyFury]

Yah...of course it would have never made a 6 team playoff and quite possibly not even an 8 team playoff. They lost to MSU, OSU, and Oregon. Michigan State wasn’t anything special, OSU was terrible that year (losing record), and Oregon was #6.

 

Maybe the best Wisconsin team in who knows how long...but still don’t think it would have any chance winning 3 games against elite opponents.

 

We'll never know, will we? That's part of the issue, I guess.

[SomewhereInTime]

I also find it pretty funny to be afraid of blowouts when the SEC regularly schedules FCS opponents every year.

[owbc]

I also find it pretty funny to be afraid of blowouts when the SEC regularly schedules FCS opponents every year.

 

Yes, if there's any lesson to be learned from the SEC (and the committee in general) it is to not schedule any game that you might lose, and to give yourself a bye week or an FCS team ahead of a tough opponent if possible.

 

Scheduling FCS teams benefits everyone involved, except the fans who have to watch those games. But if COVID showed us anything it's that the whole machine doesn't really need fans in the stands. So who cares if nobody shows up to your FCS game.

[SomewhereInTime]

I also find it pretty funny to be afraid of blowouts when the SEC regularly schedules FCS opponents every year.

 

Yes, if there's any lesson to be learned from the SEC (and the committee in general) it is to not schedule any game that you might lose, and to give yourself a bye week or an FCS team ahead of a tough opponent if possible.

 

Scheduling FCS teams benefits everyone involved, except the fans who have to watch those games. But if COVID showed us anything it's that the whole machine doesn't really need fans in the stands. So who cares if nobody shows up to your FCS game.

 

I mean I don't know about that, there's been a lot of money lost by no fan attendance, across all levels of sports. I think what we've learned is they can survive a year without it.

[Mr Southpaw]

Yah...of course it would have never made a 6 team playoff and quite possibly not even an 8 team playoff. They lost to MSU, OSU, and Oregon. Michigan State wasn’t anything special, OSU was terrible that year (losing record), and Oregon was #6.

 

Maybe the best Wisconsin team in who knows how long...but still don’t think it would have any chance winning 3 games against elite opponents.

 

We'll never know, will we? That's part of the issue, I guess.

 

I just don't get the lack of teams in the CFP. High school goes through a process where almost every team with a winning record gets in to the playoffs. All of the other levels of college football do about the same, four or five rounds of games.

 

16 teams the weekend before Christmas. 8 teams (four big bowl games) the week of New Years. 4 teams the week after. 2 team championship game about January 14. Done

[Fear The Chorizo]

But if COVID showed us anything it's that the whole machine doesn't really need fans in the stands.

 

It sure as hell does if you don't want the machine to blow up - if stadiums are empty again this coming fall season, there will be no more FCS football programs left to schedule...that might be the only way the SEC doesn't bake that into their midseason schedule.

 

Truth is most all D1 schools need the gameday revenue college football provides to support the rest of their athletic programs - if that revenue doesn't come back in a big way, football programs will suffer but many other college athletic programs will suffer even worse. If it gets to the point where schools have to shut down their football programs, likely the rest of their athletic department is getting shut down with it. Similar point can be made for schools that have dominant basketball programs if they can't get arenas filled in the near future.

[homer]

I'd be willing to be the TV revenue is way more important than the gameday revenue.

[MrTPlush]

Kinda shocked they didn’t do what MLB did and do a trial run for the COVID year. It made so much sense for NCAA to do it when one loss can derail a playoff chance.

[HiAndTight]

The Wilson led team that lost on two Hail Marry's to MSU and OSU(I think) comes to mind.

 

I think that team lost three games that year, all by a TD or less, with two of them happening literally on the last play of the game. Insanity. That team was indeed good enough to win the whole thing in a playoff.

 

I didn't remember the 3rd loss at the time, but it was that game vs Oregon where D'Anthony Thomas had those two back-breaking runs and we lost in a shootout to them.

 

How about the year before when they were a top 5 team and lost to TCU because Tolzien had that three-quarters delivery like he was a loogy and their LB'er was able to bat down a ball that was headed to a wide-open Badger(I'm thinking it was Fumagalli, but can't recall for certain) on the 2 point in the last seconds of the game. That year they blew out a couple of ranked teams and beat OSU, the #1 team in the country.

 

If only they could have put Wilson together with that dominant Defense led by JJ Watt...the two missed each other by just one year.

 

 

 

Who knows, if Mertz turns out to be as good as we all think and hope he can be and we add some WR'er talent...a couple of Corners, we could be competitive at any point in the near future. Our OL should be elite, our LB'ers are seemingly always elite and especially the group they've got now. they're young, they're versatile and there are more on the way.

 

I never thought I'd see Wisconsin BB in the NCAA finals and they nearly won one. As long as the FB team keeps putting itself in a position to be a top 10 team, never know when you might get that breakthrough year. They're on their way...stacking the best recruiting class I can recall in terms of rankings on top of the best QB prospect we've seen at UW in our lifetimes.[sarcasm]If only Taylor wasn't so selfish in taking the guaranteed millions in the NFL, he could be getting ready to come back next year![/sarcasm]