2021 Miscellaneous College Football Thread

[DuWayne Steurer]

Two semis blowouts and an SEC Championship between Alabama and one out of the other four teams that had any chance to be in it, while the rest of the NCAA gets to feel good about things like a Paul Bunyan axe. I can hardly contain my excitement for this wonderful product.

I think the playoff has proven that the old way probably wasn't all that broken. Yeah it lead to some seasons where there was some controversy, but this isn't all that better (if at all)

 

This is dumb and unnecessary.

It will be hard for anyone to convince me that the playoff games have generated a better product than the non-playoff bowl games the last few days.

 

Every year in the middle of the season people chirp about expanding the playoffs, and every year by the time we get to the championship game it has been proven that no more than four schools belong in the playoffs, if that.

 

This is where I'm at. I realize I'm in a tiny minority, but I wouldn't care at all if we went back to the old way. I disagree that "the other games don't matter" Watching the Rose Bowl was fun. It mattered to the players, the fans, and ostensibly, to the people watching. The Tennessee/Purdue game was fun. *Maybe* the defenses weren't trying, ha, but those guys were out there giving it all they had to get to 9 wins. I know there's people that think that doesn't matter, but those games were fun to watch. Even the Iowa/Kentucky game was a good, defensive battle right to the end yesterday.

 

Most of these schools know that "4th 10 win season in school history" or something like that or "Sugar Bowl Champs" is the goal that they can realistically shoot for. The Natty is for Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, and maybe 3 to 5 other schools to scrap over. That's 100% the reality of college football. It is. If you're a fan of college football, you have to accept that or just not be a fan. If you're a fan of Wisconsin, you accept that going to the Rose Bowl once a decade (or the Orange Bowl, or whatever) is in reality, the goal of the program. Natty's aren't in our DNA. Unless/Until there's a massive, fundamental way the NCAA changes the business side of the sport, this is how it is.

[OldHeidelberg]

8 CFP's now and at least one 3 or 4 seed has advanced to final in 5 of them, I don't see how going back to 2 makes things better. I said it a couple of days ago, more games means more chances of upsets and going to 8 really means going to 12 or 13 as championships of major conferences become playins. I get Alabama is a problem but maybe they only win 2 of 5 instead of the 3 of 5 or whatever it is now. I am not conceding that the Badgers can't win one either and I am pretty sure they have averaged more than one Rose/Orange/Cotton or whatever bowl every 10 years. More playoff teams please.

[nodakfan17]

4 teams still feels about right to me. I can’t recall any obvious snubs the past 8 years, aside from maybe the UCF team that went 13-0 in 2017 and upset #7 Auburn in the Peach Bowl.

 

If the Big XII is ever absorbed by the four remaining major conferences, it’d be so easy to have the 4 conference champs face off. Notre Dame can join a major conference or pound sand.

[homer]

Expanding the NCAA tournament from 48 to 64 hasn't really changed who regularly makes the Final Four but it has created some amazing moments in the round of 64 and 32.

 

I still say a 6 team playoff with week 1 bye for seeds 1 and 2 makes a lot of sense and would be fun as hell.

[PeaveyFury]

I think that each P5 conference champ hypothetically has a 'right' to compete for a title. If they don't belong, they get bounced. But I think getting more into the playoff at 8 (5 champs and 3 at-large) helps even the recruiting gap that the playoff has undeniably widened in its current form.

[nodakfan17]

Heck, you could probably disband the current CFP and just play a ‘+1’ game. This would preserve all of the original conference bowl tie-ins. By the time contending teams play their conference championship and bowl games, they’ll have already effectively played two playoff games. It should be pretty clear who the best team is by that point.

[SomewhereInTime]

On one hand, the CFP has sucked with most games being blowouts, however on the other hand it's not like the better seeded team always wins. Using the old method we would have ended up with a Alabama Michigan Championship so at least we got saved from that

 

This is a good point. Sure the blowouts in the Semifinal games have been disappointing but it's not like the #1 and #2 teams are blowing out the #3 and #4 teams every year. In the seven years we've already had two #4 teams win national championships.

[LouisEly]

I still say a 6 team playoff with week 1 bye for seeds 1 and 2 makes a lot of sense and would be fun as hell.

I think what you're really saying is that 3-6/4-5 matchups will be more competitive than watching Alabama or Georgia play 3/4 seeds.

[homer]

I still say a 6 team playoff with week 1 bye for seeds 1 and 2 makes a lot of sense and would be fun as hell.

I think what you're really saying is that 3-6/4-5 matchups will be more competitive than watching Alabama or Georgia play 3/4 seeds.

 

I know that's what I'm saying.

 

Michigan v Cincy would have been a great game. Not sure who the other two would have been but Ohio St and Utah was an all timer.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I still say a 6 team playoff with week 1 bye for seeds 1 and 2 makes a lot of sense and would be fun as hell.

I think what you're really saying is that 3-6/4-5 matchups will be more competitive than watching Alabama or Georgia play 3/4 seeds.

 

Well, Georgia was the 3 seed...and its been discussed that the 4 seed has won it all a couple times in blowout fashion against higher seeded opponents.

 

For me, expanding the playoffs also makes teams like Alabama actually have to face quality opponents on consecutive weeks to win a national title - something they do everything possible in their schedule to avoid to cement their stranglehold on a top 3 ranking all season long. Alabama may indeed be the best team every year and blow everyone out - but at least give a couple other quality programs a shot at them on consecutive weeks where they don't have a month to prepare between tough games.

[nodakfan17]

Graham Harrell is now the new OC / QB coach at West Virginia after 3 years in that same role at USC.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Well. Alabama didn't win?

[Fear The Chorizo]

Well. Alabama didn't win?

 

Already saw an article stating Bama opens next season as the title favorite - poor editing, that article should just state Bama opens the next 10 seasons as the title favorite.

 

Yawn

[patrickgpe]

college football has the least parity of any major sport (professional or college). We have been doing this 8 years and 4 programs have played in half of the playoffs at minimum.

[SomewhereInTime]

college football has the least parity of any major sport (professional or college). We have been doing this 8 years and 4 programs have played in half of the playoffs at minimum.

 

Yeah that's pretty much how football goes at every level except in the NFL where the league manipulates rosters to promote parity (i.e. salary cap, reverse draft order).

[yourout]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

[nodakfan17]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

It’s the 85 scholarships. That’s a lot. Even FCS schools can offer 65 scholarships. If parity were their objective (it’s not), drop the scholarship limit to 50 and teams like Alabama and Ohio State couldn’t stash 4 and 5-star recruits on the bottom of their rosters.

[patrickgpe]

its why I will watch the badger game that week if I can, and that's about it.

[Jimbo]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

It’s the 85 scholarships. That’s a lot. Even FCS schools can offer 65 scholarships. If parity were their objective (it’s not), drop the scholarship limit to 50 and teams like Alabama and Ohio State couldn’t stash 4 and 5-star recruits on the bottom of their rosters.

 

Ahhh, wasn't it up until 40 years ago it was 99 scholarships? The reason Michigan and Ohio State dominated the 70's. Lower the limit and Wisconsin, Iowa so on come into play.

[LouisEly]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

It’s the 85 scholarships. That’s a lot. Even FCS schools can offer 65 scholarships. If parity were their objective (it’s not), drop the scholarship limit to 50 and teams like Alabama and Ohio State couldn’t stash 4 and 5-star recruits on the bottom of their rosters.

Yep. I don't know about dropping it to 50, but 70-75 with max of 20 scholarships per class would be a good start. Football has a lot of injuries, so 50 I think would be too small and impact overall quality of play.

[SomewhereInTime]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

It’s the 85 scholarships. That’s a lot. Even FCS schools can offer 65 scholarships. If parity were their objective (it’s not), drop the scholarship limit to 50 and teams like Alabama and Ohio State couldn’t stash 4 and 5-star recruits on the bottom of their rosters.

 

I think it's more the nature of the sport. How are you going to stop a team when they have bigger and stronger lineman? When they have faster perimeter players? Not impossible if a team catches enough breaks, but a lot more unlikely than a single basketball game where a team hits a million threes.

[Oxy]

college football is by far the most uneven playing field due to the large rosters. In basketball even a small school can occasionally hit two or three unexpected recruits and carry it along ways.

It’s the 85 scholarships. That’s a lot. Even FCS schools can offer 65 scholarships. If parity were their objective (it’s not), drop the scholarship limit to 50 and teams like Alabama and Ohio State couldn’t stash 4 and 5-star recruits on the bottom of their rosters.

 

Ahhh, wasn't it up until 40 years ago it was 99 scholarships? The reason Michigan and Ohio State dominated the 70's. Lower the limit and Wisconsin, Iowa so on come into play.

 

Instead, NIL went in the opposite direction. Scholarships are superfluous. The transfer rules will recycle A LOT of talent toward "lesser" schools but...well...we'll see what happens. ALSO, if there are more and more underclassmen who are ready for the professional realms, then there will be pressure to let them go before their "3rd year out of high school." At that point, parity will reign supreme a la college basketball.

[Underachiever]

Drop it to 50, and that's 130 teams x 35 recruits, or 4,550 fewer players on scholarship over a rolling four year period. Those people don't dry up and go away. They will perhaps walk on, and at that point, NIL takes over, as Oxy brought up. It really doesn't change the advantages that certain programs already enjoy. In fact, it bakes them in (Texas A&M). Since these players have no realistic other option if they want to play football during the first three years out of high school, all the scholarship limit does is discourage college attendance for those who could use the scholarship for, well, scholarly purposes. And at least before, those 4,550 players were getting some value out of playing football and representing a school. Now they will have to walk on to put themselves on the line to maintain any dream of playing as a pro. And as walk-ons, I don't think they have access to the same training tables, academic support and perhaps medical care that a scholarship player receives.