The current playoff and how to make it better.

[CheeseHusker]

How about six teams?

1 and 2 get byes; the other four go at it. 3 v 6, 4 v 5.

1-5: Power 5 conference champions, period. Force the Big 12 to go back to 12 and play a title game, so that all the P5's have one. Maybe they can have SMU and Houston back since they're basically the SWC again anyway.

Slot #6: Wild Card - best at-large team, or maybe a rule that qualifies an undefeated school outside the P5 or an independent if one exists.... otherwise, your best at-large. Also creates the possibility of a second chance should a #1 ranked team gag in their conference title game.

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

Whatever the format this thing has, I wish the Championship Game was on January 1.

If your argument has anything to do with academics, or too many games, why would extending the season into second semester make sense? The gap between the conference championships and the meaningful bowl games is too large IMO. It fosters apathy from the fans, and loses momentum.

The bowl system is broken. Do 60+ teams really need a reward for having a non-losing record? Replace the lower-tier bowls with a separate tournament or two, like the NIT in basketball. It would still garner at least as much interest as the crappy bowls, and they wouldn't be meaningless games.

 

[huskerinacaveman]

All season long I kept hearing us fans (college football fans that is) that the AP, and Coaches Pole rankings are crap, and as we saw so very on a heavy dose of SEC in the top ten. This is the only way I can think of fixing it.

Play your conference 8 games. This should allow everyone to play their division and a couple more (8 games)

Play your Conference Championship, or in Big12 case their last game, and [SIZE=14.3999996185303px]the teams that don't get to one, they just dont play[/SIZE](9 games)

Winner of each conference is in no matter how small or big the conference is. (10 Slots..Independents just get seeded in if they qualify as an at large)

6 teams get picked as an at large bid, then seeded accordingly like basketball. Just because you got in as a conference winner doesn't mean you get a good seed.

Top 16 teams play a tournament style non conference schedule to determine the champion, with the losers playing a consolation bracket to where every team in the top 16 plays the same amount of games. (14 games) Championship game is done around new years.

17-32 has their own bracket

33-48 has their own bracket

and so on to ensure that all teams play almost the same amount of games.

Option 1 continue current bowl structure during january

Option 2 during the spring, have teams play their traditional spring game, and conduct bowl games over spring break as just exhibition games.

 

[irafreak]

Brotha man, you gotta make sure you're posting your threads in the right section.

I think 8 teams is the future, just gotta let some of the old farts who hated the playoffs fade away first.

Yes 8 teams...then we can start arguing about how the 2 loss teams beat an undefeated team. The regular season will mean less and less. NFL light.

 

[BigRedBuster]

You want to make it better? I'll go with something that is extremely simple. Sure, I would go with 8 teams. But...hey...we have a 4 team play off which is better than what we had before.

The simple improvement??? Why in the hell is the championship game on a Monday night? REALLY???? If you are wanting to get a group of people together to have a watch party...everyone is going to just LOVE to get together on a friggen MONDAY night.

The NCAA has a chance to dominate a Saturday night with this game and most people would have the day off plus the next day. They schedule it for a Monday night.

 

[minnHusker6]

If ya go to an 8 team playoff, teams 9 & 10 will be arguing on not getting in. Hoops went from 64 to 65, then to 68 and teams 69 70 71 72 complain about not getting in.

The bigXII was just too arrogant 3-4 years ago when conferences were grabbing schools to expand. They need 2 more schools BYU, & Colorado State or Boise State to get to 12.

Funny that they thought for years to come, the first Saturday in October would be their title game. Haha Bevo and Boomer.

 

[BigRedPowerWagon]

Theres also the lost revenue of getting rid of the out of conference games that might have some how thrilled about getting rid of them.

 

[Creed]

An easy solution that would have prevented some of the belly aching would have been to show "ties" in the earlier releases ie TCU, Baylor, FSU and OSU all at #3 and the next team MIch St (?) at #7. I think Jeff Long hinted at this that they were all very close but only OSU with a 13th game vs a quality opponent moved up. This would have made the TCU drop from #3 to #6 more palatable.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I dont think they got it quite right. Youll never convince me that Florida St is one of the top 4. Theyre not even top 5 in my opinion. If they dont guarantee conference champs based on "we want the best 4" and eye test, then theres no way Florida St deserves to be in there. Handful of plays from bein 7-5 against the worst schedule of all the top 6 teams. Their only argument is that theyre undefeated and the defending champs. Which is garbage. Oh, and the "well. When they bring their a game...." Well they havent brought their Agame all frickin year. Maybe this is just who they are.

They have wins over #12, #17, and #21.

OSU has wins over #8, #18 and #25. They have a huge blowout win over Wisconsin but they also have a really lousy loss. How are those not comparable?

An undefeated Power 5 team deserves to be in no matter what and it's hilarious that you think otherwise, especially because you would never stop bitching if we were the ones this season that got left out undefeated because our schedule sucked a$$.

Have you watched Florida St? Have you watched the other teams? I have. We've had these arguments before after Nebraska won games yippity do style over powerhouses Rutgers, northwestern, and Purdue. i was highly critical cuz I saw a lot of things that I knew were problems. You were one that was highly critical of my input. So I ask a simple question. Do you watch the teams play? or just go off scores and rankings and so on? Yeah, Florida St is unbeaten, but i stand by my response. They are not one of the top 4 teams. And the sentiment is felt among the committee as well. Why? Theyre undefeated defending national champs, yet theyre the 3rd seed. Baylor and TCU would boat race this erratice and inconsistent team with an average defense. Oregon is going to expose them bigtime.

If Nebraska went unbeaten, and we got left out, well yeah, obviously I would be pissed. Like everyone else on this board and in HuskerNation. That comment in regards to all of our blind bias towards Nebraska is ridiculous.

And I'm not sure Ohio St quite deserves it either. My main gripe is not what I want, but what it has appeared the committee is looking for. And a big issue has become, the committee got backed into a corner like a lot thought they would be having these rankings every week.

You can make a legit argument for all 6 of these top teams. Which is why i've always thought 8 would be the best number. In any given year you can make a pretty decent argument in this day and age for the top 8-10 teams. You get beyond that, and yeah, you can safely say the 11th ranked team is not a legit contender.

My bottom line is, I think Florida st is getting a pass simply cuz theyre undefeated and the defending National champs. I would bet if they were honest, every committee member would agree that in all honesty, Florida St is not a top 4 team right now. You can tell that by simply watching them play in comparison to the others.

 

[Landlord]

Have you watched Florida St? Have you watched the other teams?...So I ask a simple question. Do you watch the teams play?

My bottom line is, I think Florida st is getting a pass simply cuz theyre undefeated and the defending National champs. I would bet if they were honest, every committee member would agree that in all honesty, Florida St is not a top 4 team right now. You can tell that by simply watching them play in comparison to the others.

To the first part, yes.

To the second part, Florida State deserves a pass because of being undefeated. If you are the only team that has won every single one of your games against at least marginally comparable competition, you deserve a past no matter how ugly you did it.

 

[StPaulHusker]

Have you watched Florida St? Have you watched the other teams?...So I ask a simple question. Do you watch the teams play?

My bottom line is, I think Florida st is getting a pass simply cuz theyre undefeated and the defending National champs. I would bet if they were honest, every committee member would agree that in all honesty, Florida St is not a top 4 team right now. You can tell that by simply watching them play in comparison to the others.

To the first part, yes.

To the second part, Florida State deserves a pass because of being undefeated. If you are the only team that has won every single one of your games against at least marginally comparable competition, you deserve a past no matter how ugly you did it.

I agree. If you look at Sagarins SOS, FSU is #37, TCU is #42, and Baylor is #56. They are separated by 2.7 points. The difference is Florida State won all the games.

Also, if Nebraska was in the same position as FSU, TCU and Baylor, there would be a mushroom cloud over the state from the colossal meltdown of an undefeated Husker team not making the final 4.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Have you watched Florida St? Have you watched the other teams?...So I ask a simple question. Do you watch the teams play?

My bottom line is, I think Florida st is getting a pass simply cuz theyre undefeated and the defending National champs. I would bet if they were honest, every committee member would agree that in all honesty, Florida St is not a top 4 team right now. You can tell that by simply watching them play in comparison to the others.

In agreeing, yeah they do. Which leads me to my point though. They say they want the 4 best teams, and its pretty easy to argue that FSU is not top 4. We just seem to be without some clear parameters.

To the first part, yes.

To the second part, Florida State deserves a pass because of being undefeated. If you are the only team that has won every single one of your games against at least marginally comparable competition, you deserve a past no matter how ugly you did it.

 

[RotoRiot]

Here is my take on improving the Playoff,

There are 5 Power conferences and 5 Non. Make it a 10 team playoff with the conference winners getting in, everyone else is left out. Simple as that, if you win your conference then you are in, if not then better luck next year. Now since 2 teams would essentially need a bye, 1 power 5 and 1 non would get a bye every year (so once every 5 years each conference would end up with 1.)

To figure out who would get a bye, gather up the commissioners from each conference to roll a dice. (easiest way). Do this for seeding as well, make 1 Power 5 play a non power.

Independents would need to pick a conference or miss out on the playoffs

 

[Danimal]

16 would water things down too much, how deserving you have to be drops considerably when you go from 8 to 16. But we definitely need to go up to ,that was already proven in first freaking year of the 4-teamer.

 

[Creed]

With 4 there will always be 1-3 teams on the bubble that will be disappointed. I think some years the not having a CCG may help, while this year it certainly hurt TCU and Baylor.