Effed up playoff system

[smhawk]

With the current bowl system completely not mattering any longer, it only makes sense to increase at minimum to 16 but maybe even 18-22 teams and potentially utilize double byes for top teams.


If we want to have any connection with bowl games still, just reward the invited program with the bowl game to start the first game of the year, on the year following. Teams that don't get invited can just schedule a team for that week in January every year. Graduated players and transfers may lose out, but there name can be read of as honor at least.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I do agree that they became watered down to the point that probably led to the demise of the bowl system as we knew it.

But there are students, schools, coaches, athletes, and fans that must care about these games or they wouldn't find sponsors or TV deals to keep them running.

I think you have it the other way around. I think the cities and sponsors seek out the bowls and they search for the teams to play in them. That's why there have been so many bowl games added thru the years and teams with losing records have been playing in them the past couple years. It's not the schools asking for more bowl games, it's greedy corporations/individuals setting up bowl games to line their pockets with $$$$$.

It's just now all coming to a head.

 

[CP87]

My response to the, "Nobody is making you watch bowls," crowd is that everyone here will be watching the Hawkeyes play in a bowl and rooting like crazy. Watching Hawkeye FB is always better than not watching Hawkeye FB.

But the big issue is that many here (me included) feel that the non-Iowa bowls are not personally compelling and will spend no time watching them. And that should greatly concern those that are trying to sell the product that is CFB, There is an opportunity cost associated with trotting out this mangled system year after year, just because that is the way it has been. So the question you ask yourself should NOT be...

Do I want to watch football on New Year's Day or NOT watch football on New Year's Day?

The question you should be asking is...

Can the experience of watching partial teams compete in front of partially full stadiums with no real stakes on the line be improved upon? (I strawmanned that argument a bit for effect)

I say it is time for "no bad ideas in a brainstorm" with regard to figuring out how to make compelling FB games outside of the CFP. So, let's start hearing crazy ideas to make non-CFP post-season football more compelling!

 

[CP87]

Here is one such crazy idea...

First, here is the CFP plan...

Each P4 conference has a championship game that determines their entrant into the CFP.

The G6 conferences get 3 entrants (pair up conference champs during the same weekend that P4 conferences are having their championship games).

Notre Dame is SOL 'cause F' them. Join a conference, you big babies.

We now have 7 entrants into the CFP (highest ranked gets a bye) giving us 3 rounds of playoff FB. Let's plan for two weeks in-between semis and the championship game.

What do we do during that off-week between semis and championship? Clean the house? Hang out with our families? Hell no! We get to watch a massive inter-conference shootout!

Imagine this: the next 4 best teams in the B1G (excluding the 2 that were in the conference championship game) get matched up with the next 4 best teams in the SEC (I would be willing to extend to up to 8 teams, though then the cut of the prize money gets smaller).




(get rid of Georgia and Bama)


Put a game on Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday. Have a huge pot of money. If you win your game, all your players get $10,000. If your conference gets more wins, you get another $5,000 (match play). If your conference wins the overall point differential, you get another $5,000 (stroke play).

Do the same thing with Big 12 and ACC, and then break up the G6 to accomplish the same (MW, MAC, and Pac12 vs. CUSA, American, and Sunbelt). Maybe the G6 get smaller pools of money? It is a business, after all.


Do it on a rotating schedule year to year (B1G vs. SEC, B1G vs. ACC, B1G vs. Big 12, repeat). You could cluster the G6 schools differently from year to year.

Tell me you wouldn't pay attention to that?

 

[ssckelley]

I think you have it the other way around. I think the cities and sponsors seek out the bowls and they search for the teams to play in them. That's why there have been so many bowl games added thru the years and teams with losing records have been playing in them the past couple years. It's not the schools asking for more bowl games, it's greedy corporations/individuals setting up bowl games to line their pockets with $$$$$.

It's just now all coming to a head.

I don't have it wrong, you described how many of these bowl games came into existence and I won't dispute it. Bottom line it was money, money for their local economy. Bowl games fill up their hotels, which they collect taxes off of and keeps their local businesses busy. This is how they all got started even before sponsorships got involved.

Interesting enough the Rose Bowl was started to help fund the Rose Parade which existed well before the football game, the Peach Bowl started as a fund raiser.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I don't have it wrong, you described how many of these bowl games came into existence and I won't dispute it. Bottom line it was money, money for their local economy. Bowl games fill up their hotels, which they collect taxes off of and keeps their local businesses busy. This is how they all got started even before sponsorships got involved.

Interesting enough the Rose Bowl was started to help fund the Rose Parade which existed well before the football game, the Peach Bowl started as a fund raiser.

But you initially said the teams seeked out the bowl games, like they wanted more bowl games. I think we are saying same things though

 

[ssckelley]

But you initially said the teams seeked out the bowl games, like they wanted more bowl games. I think we are saying same things though

Maybe you have me confused with some of Fry's posts? He was the one saying cull the bowl games down to 12 and then let the rest of the teams form exhibition games on their own. I'm saying that isn't necessary since there are already 41 bowl games, just let them exist the way they are. Teams wouldn't go out and form their own games like that and I don't think there is anything stopping them from doing that now.

If I did say something to that effect it wasn't what I meant. I'm old and could be in the early stages of senile.

 

[HuckFinn]

If I can find the time, I am going to look at who these 41 bowls actually are.
My early guess is that it will be pretty easy to separate the wheat from the chaf.

 

[BigD]

Gotta settle on something. It’s not about being worthy, it’s about all P4 teams having a clear path to the playoffs, laid out from the start, equal for everyone. Then there’s no bitching or depending on a stupid committee to decide if ND or Alabama deserves to get in more.

It’s not arguable that there are 4 conferences that as a whole are better than the rest, and generate more money, yadda yadda, whatever metric you want to use to measure it

Think about the NFL. No one complains that team XYZ didn’t make it in because there are rules, and if you want to make the playoffs those are the rules. There are times that it’s not always the best teams that make it if you have a shitty division. How do you make the playoffs in the NFL? You win your division or you make a wildcard spot which is based solely on your record and tiebreakers that are already established. It is what it is, no ambiguity, no committee that says the Patriots (or whoever) make a wildcard spot because they’re better than the Steelers (or whoever) even though the Steelers potentially have a better record or an easier schedule.

Take the grey area out of it.

If you want to make the CFP then finish at least 2nd in your conference. Does a 2nd place AFC east team get to bitch about not making the playoffs because their division is harder than the AFC west? Hell no.

It’s the same in MLB, NBA, NHL, and so on.

Now that was one of your best post. Makes a lot of sense and cuts out all the bullshit. Under this type of system everyone knows who is in and who is out.

 

[BigD]

But you introduce new ideas as if it's something they should do. Having teams set up their own exhibitions is stilly when there are already 41(ish) bowl games that already exist with sponsors and TV deals. Allow them to continue, if people stop going or watching them then they will die. Let the market determine whether there should be 12 bowl games or 100 as that matters more than our opinions. At the end of the day the only post season games that really matter are the conference championships (because shiny hardware) and the CFP games.

BTW I'm not upset, I'm mildly entertained by the annual debate we keep having on here over bowl games. Some day when you and I are dead and gone our great grandkids will wonder why in the heck these bowl games ever existed or continue to exist and at that point maybe they get rid of them. Perhaps it won't even take that long.

"Some day when you and I are dead and gone our great grandkids will wonder why in the heck these bowl games ever existed or continue to exist and at that point maybe they get rid of them. Perhaps it won't even take that long."

This already happens. I have four brothers and two sisters. All raised in the same family. None of them give one shit about sports. I have friends who follow and cheer for their favorite team. Some cheer for the under dogs if their team isn't in it. I am kind of like that when Iowa is not in it. I cheer for the under dog in each game. I just can't bring myself to EVER cheer for Alabama. I don't care if they are playing SATAN.

Honestly when they made buying players legal I have gradually been losing interest. We all know that the SEC has been corrupt for decades and passing money under the table to students and/or their parents. One person recently told me that in a way they have leveled the playing field for the few programs that had any integrity. Now they can try to dig up a boat load of money and buy the best players without feeling they are compromising their personal values. The SEC never had any values. Oklahoma and Texas weren't far behind those scumbag programs either. No offense to Bobby, but lets get real here.

Wearing an attire from any professional team is meaningless. Many of the players never lived in the communities they wear the Uniform for. So they mostly don't represent your state or even region many times. That's what used to make college a little different............... a little. A lot of kids were local or regional back in the day. You often knew with of the power high schools they came from. Even in some of the neighboring states.

Say what you want about Indiana, but I think it's great that a school can come out of the ashes like this is awesome. I sure as hell am not going to cheer against them if they are playing an SEC school. I am happy for the few loyal fans that stuck with them for several decades. That's who I am cheering for. For those loyal fans who stuck with them for decades. It's hard on the other hand, because Iowa fans deserve their day in the sun also. That may never happen.

Can't help but wonder if that damn ball had just rolled off of our player and we kicked a field goal there, would that have been the difference maker in beating Michigan State, and got us into the four team playoff? Likely we would have got beat anyways in the playoffs, but for that day we would have been cheering our asses off hoping for a miracle. That's part of what makes it fun. Just the chance to dream once in a while. It is surreal what is going on at Indiana. I am happy for them.

By the way what's the mood out of Ames lately? I knew their coach would raise the program up from the dungeons of being a loser program. He made them fairly competitive, but now they have to be wondering if their plane is going to nosedive back to the dark ages. Then again there's Indiana, who's to say?

BYU has had great success with the QB's they have recruited over the years. They have a knack for QB's just like we do for tight ends. We will lose our QB after this season. I only bring this up because we all got a glimpse of what a difference real QB can do. Sure we lost four games and it was a pretty tough schedule, but would we have won six games this year without our QB? I see we out recruited BYU for a quarterback out of Utah. That's a pretty touch task to accomplish. I hope the kid lives up to BYU standard's at the QB position.