College Football 2020

Notre Dame is fool’s gold once again, A&M already got bodied once by Alabama, Ohio State played half a schedule and squeaked past the two teams with a modicum of decency they played. Can we just have a BCS-style natty between Alabama and Clemson?
 
Northwestern battled to the end, just a few too many crucial turnovers when they had the game in their favor. Good showing for them nonetheless.

Trey Sermon is a dynamic big play running back, eclipsed Eddie George's single game rushing mark of 314 yards for Ohio State.
 
Turtle84 said:
Glad USC got exposed by Oregon last night to spare us the "undefeated" pac 12 committee talk, the first capable team they've played, they have a good offense but not near a top 4 team in the country. Can't even believe where that program is at now vs early 2000's.......
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As a lifelong USC honk, what’s happened to them is a farce.

Here’s a nice overview:

Musings from Arledge: Damage done, being elite, and the worst rushing team in the conference

wearesc.com wearesc.com
 
harkin said:
As a lifelong USC honk, what’s happened to them is a farce.

Here’s a nice overview:

Musings from Arledge: Damage done, being elite, and the worst rushing team in the conference

wearesc.com wearesc.com
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Yeah, agree with that one, they used to have the recruiting pieces where they could physically dominate on the ground.

Once Carroll left everything changed.

I keep waiting for them and other programs to get back.... it's A LOT of them, like what the heck has happened to Nebraska football? They used to be a powerhouse, they bring in Frost former-great and big success at UCF, and nothing no real boost to recruiting or improvement to program years later. Are Bama, Ohio State, and Clemson sucking up that much talent? or a widespread talent decline in not as many kids that are top-talent playing football anymore? FSU isn't that far off national champ, and now bottom barrel. Michigan Harbaugh. UCLA Chip Kelly. Texas Herman. ASU Edwards. Miami. Tennessee. Colorado. Where did they all go? Clemson didn't used to be that great.... how did they have some type of massive influx of year after year dominate the landscape? Dabo is that much better than all these other coaches at recruiting? Trying to understand it...
 
My aggressive idea for committee and college football playoff is to flex option 2-6 spots at their discretion. For example, this year they could option Bama/Clemson only, or they could option to 3 teams Bama/Clemson/OhioSt (Clemson plays OhioSt winner advances to play Bama, since Bama 11-0). Avoiding the Notre Dame selection problem they find themselves in.

Without doing this, they're locked into a box they don't want to be in. Give themselves the flexibility, and then when there are years when there are more than 4 great teams or the top isn't separated by much, they can option to 6 and give the top 2 a bye, or if it's only 5 they can option and hopefully the #1 team would be a clear #1 to bye. It still keeps regular season importance at the utmost, which is the most critical for CFB.

After saying that, I have zero confidence they would apply it properly, thus they deserve to be locked into a box. Greedy bastards would try to go 6 every year.
 
Ohio State shouldn't have gotten in. They completely cruised through the season with an unbelievably easy schedule. Every tough game they had got canceled due to COVID.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Ohio State shouldn't have gotten in. They completely cruised through the season with an unbelievably easy schedule. Every tough game they had got canceled due to COVID.
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Blame the Big 10 if anything. Their COVID protocols are absurd, in line with many of the Midwest states rules in general. 21 days for a positive test? No built in bye weeks? Dumb
 
Turtle84 said:
My aggressive idea for committee and college football playoff is to flex option 2-6 spots at their discretion. For example, this year they could option Bama/Clemson only, or they could option to 3 teams Bama/Clemson/OhioSt (Clemson plays OhioSt winner advances to play Bama, since Bama 11-0). Avoiding the Notre Dame selection problem they find themselves in.

Without doing this, they're locked into a box they don't want to be in. Give themselves the flexibility, and then when there are years when there are more than 4 great teams or the top isn't separated by much, they can option to 6 and give the top 2 a bye, or if it's only 5 they can option and hopefully the #1 team would be a clear #1 to bye. It still keeps regular season importance at the utmost, which is the most critical for CFB.

After saying that, I have zero confidence they would apply it properly, thus they deserve to be locked into a box. Greedy bastards would try to go 6 every year.
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College football has no pay off to change the system. Bowls are already agreed upon games with massive payout guaranteed to conferences. Why would you scrap that?

Also 8 teams would be a logistical nightmare. First round at home? Then neutral sites for Semifinals and Title? Bowls are part of many people’s annual vacations, the month in between allows people time to book flights, hotels, and make proper plans. Good luck doing that on a weeks notice for a flight from Alabama to Los Angeles. On top of that you have to hope the big dogs always make it, some school like Mississippi State makes a run you think ticket sales would be there?
 
FBS-level football need to figure out what they want to do for real, whether it’s a true playoff or preserving the heritage of the bowl system, because the half-measure we have right now doesn’t do well enough of a job at either. Power concentration among a select few schools seems heavier than at any point during the BCS era, somehow we expanded from two to four teams that can compete for a national title at the end of each season and the parity has gotten worse. I’m thinking a hyper focus on the national title is taking away a lot from the other idiosyncrasies of the sport that made it so unique in the first place.

The old proposed Plus-One format after the bowl games doesn’t sound too bad right now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
FBS-level football need to figure out what they want to do for real, whether it’s a true playoff or preserving the heritage of the bowl system, because the half-measure we have right now doesn’t do well enough of a job at either. Power concentration among a select few schools seems heavier than at any point during the BCS era, somehow we expanded from two to four teams that can compete for a national title at the end of each season and the parity has gotten worse. I’m thinking a hyper focus on the national title is taking away a lot from the other idiosyncrasies of the sport that made it so unique in the first place.
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They're always going to show favoritism to the SEC, ACC, and Big 10 - ESPECIALLY Alabama and Ohio State. That's never going to change.

But I do think I like the BCS more than this system. It gave other teams a chance to win meaningful bowl games for one.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
College football has no pay off to change the system. Bowls are already agreed upon games with massive payout guaranteed to conferences. Why would you scrap that?

Also 8 teams would be a logistical nightmare. First round at home? Then neutral sites for Semifinals and Title? Bowls are part of many people’s annual vacations, the month in between allows people time to book flights, hotels, and make proper plans. Good luck doing that on a weeks notice for a flight from Alabama to Los Angeles. On top of that you have to hope the big dogs always make it, some school like Mississippi State makes a run you think ticket sales would be there?
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All good points on the scheduling. It is nice to have that far in advance. Almost all bowls would remain untouched for that, and almost all games still get played, it's just removal of national championship implications. So for example, if they reduced to Bama/Clemson only this year, 3/4 and 5/6 get assigned to whichever bowl game they would have gone to in prior years.

It would be a 6 teams max system 4 games total, and in most years less than that. Right now there's already 3 playoff games with open slots to be decided based on play, so it doesn't seem that large a change to me.

Either way it was a pie-in the sky idea floated out there. You're right they have no incentive to change or take less money, I don't expect it.
 
FLRacingFan said:
FBS-level football need to figure out what they want to do for real, whether it’s a true playoff or preserving the heritage of the bowl system, because the half-measure we have right now doesn’t do well enough of a job at either. Power concentration among a select few schools seems heavier than at any point during the BCS era, somehow we expanded from two to four teams that can compete for a national title at the end of each season and the parity has gotten worse. I’m thinking a hyper focus on the national title is taking away a lot from the other idiosyncrasies of the sport that made it so unique in the first place.

The old proposed Plus-One format after the bowl games doesn’t sound too bad right now.
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The problem is the consolidation of the sport. We had for most of the BCS era 6 power leagues and great mid majors which led to parity.

Now though we’ve created 5 super conferences that have absorbed almost all the top talent. Truthfully the American and Sun Belt conferences have been a ray of light in pushing back on this
 
1364E650-94CF-494F-8D17-39EB101E50F8.jpeg

Time for Bama-Clemson part 4
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Ohio State shouldn't have gotten in. They completely cruised through the season with an unbelievably easy schedule. Every tough game they had got canceled due to COVID.
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Their COVID cancelled games were Maryland, Illinois, and Michigan, I don’t know if I’d call those tough games. But I don’t think OSU should have gotten in, and I’m an Ohio State fan. Not enough of a body of work IMO. Cincinnati or A&M should have gotten that spot.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
The problem is the consolidation of the sport. We had for most of the BCS era 6 power leagues and great mid majors which led to parity.

Now though we’ve created 5 super conferences that have absorbed almost all the top talent. Truthfully the American and Sun Belt conferences have been a ray of light in pushing back on this
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Doesn’t help that the committee that was implemented has no respect for anyone outside of the “P5”, nor is it in their own personal and professional interests. 10 years ago TCU and Boise State, out of the Mountain West and WAC, were #3 and #4 under the BCS formula going into Thanksgiving weekend. Now it’s a minor miracle if any G5 school cracks the top 8 at any point.

And ESPN stood to gain from the Big East collapsing and they did what they could to accelerate its demise. I think a lot of the time ESPN hate is a bit over the top, but there are quotes from athletic directors back then saying ESPN literally told them what to do as far as expansion and the like. They have so much influence in college football it’s obscene. You’re right, the Big East was a fun league that was pretty damn good for everything they went through.
 
Here's my shallow dive into this:

The last 10 champs over the last 10 years,
19' LSU
18' Clemson
17' Bama
16' Clemson
15' Bama
14' OhioSt
13' FSU
12' Bama
11' Bama
10' Auburn

Teams to make the 4-team playoff since it's creation,
14' OhioSt/Oregon/Bama/FSU
15' Bama/Clemson/MichiganSt/Oklahoma
16' Clemson/Bama/OhioSt/Washington
17' Bama/Clemson/Oklahoma/Georgia
18' Clemson/Bama/Oklahoma/Notre Dame
19' LSU/Clemson/OhioSt/Oklahoma
20' Bama/Clemson/OhioSt/Notre Dame

Not entirely terrible parity imo, but yeah Bama/Clemson/OhioSt have a stranglehold on college football, idk if that's a bad thing? As far as changing that, LSU proved they're all beatable last year, ultimately it's up to some of these programs to unseat them when they have the team to do it. Georgia, had Bama trailing into the 3rdQ this year, as an example. Florida with Trask could have easily done more this year too.

I don't mind dynasty programs that much, sports need villains. I could see how it's getting more than tiresome if you're not a fan of either one.

That said, re-gaging my takes on this, I can start to see CFB finding incentive to expand to an 8 team playoff for the reason of getting more schools recruiting and overall parity reasons, more money more games for them (7 games total 3 weeks of CFB playoff). This at least gives, the power 5 champs + 3 extra slots. Will they... start ousting undefeated schools from non-power5 conferences into the 9-12 range tho.... that would be even worse... they expand and we still don't get what we had hoped for.

Another thing is now the "student-athlete" future pro get's run into the ground that much more with not real compensation on injury risk (with 3 year rule). On the flip side it gives more kids the opportunity to play for a national championship, which especially if you were on a team like UCF/BoiseSt, would have been once in a lifetime goodness.

Going to 16, too many of the top programs can absorb 2 losses and make it in. No gracias.

For right now, I'm in favor of keeping it at 4 teams and waiting a couple years to see how things play out. If it continues with similar dominance, then maybe it force's their hand depending on how it looks. I would rather not see them expand coming off of a weird year though.
 
Turtle84 said:
Here's my shallow dive into this:

The last 10 champs over the last 10 years,
19' LSU
18' Clemson
17' Bama
16' Clemson
15' Bama
14' OhioSt
13' FSU
12' Bama
11' Bama
10' Auburn

Teams to make the 4-team playoff since it's creation,
14' OhioSt/Oregon/Bama/FSU
15' Bama/Clemson/MichiganSt/Oklahoma
16' Clemson/Bama/OhioSt/Washington
17' Bama/Clemson/Oklahoma/Georgia
18' Clemson/Bama/Oklahoma/Notre Dame
19' LSU/Clemson/OhioSt/Oklahoma
20' Bama/Clemson/OhioSt/Notre Dame

Not entirely terrible parity imo, but yeah Bama/Clemson/OhioSt have a stranglehold on college football, idk if that's a bad thing? As far as changing that, LSU proved they're all beatable last year, ultimately it's up to some of these programs to unseat them when they have the team to do it. Georgia, had Bama trailing into the 3rdQ this year, as an example. Florida with Trask could have easily done more this year too.

I don't mind dynasty programs that much, sports need villains. I could see how it's getting more than tiresome if you're not a fan of either one.

That said, re-gaging my takes on this, I can start to see CFB finding incentive to expand to an 8 team playoff for the reason of getting more schools recruiting and overall parity reasons, more money more games for them (7 games total 3 weeks of CFB playoff). This at least gives, the power 5 champs + 3 extra slots. Will they... start ousting undefeated schools from non-power5 conferences into the 9-12 range tho.... that would be even worse... they expand and we still don't get what we had hoped for.

Another thing is now the "student-athlete" future pro get's run into the ground that much more with not real compensation on injury risk (with 3 year rule). On the flip side it gives more kids the opportunity to play for a national championship, which especially if you were on a team like UCF/BoiseSt, would have been once in a lifetime goodness.

Going to 16, too many of the top programs can absorb 2 losses and make it in. No gracias.

For right now, I'm in favor of keeping it at 4 teams and waiting a couple years to see how things play out. If it continues with similar dominance, then maybe it force's their hand depending on how it looks. I would rather not see them expand coming off of a weird year though.
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I think 8 would make the most sense. Take all the Power 5 conference winners, the best Group of 5 conference winner, and two at-larges. That would have added Oregon, Cincinnati, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma to this year’s mix.

Use the 6 major bowls as the playoff games, 4 of them as the quarter-finals and the other two as the semi-finals, then have the National Championship Game.
 
ToyYoda said:
I think 8 would make the most sense. Take all the Power 5 conference winners, the best Group of 5 conference winner, and two at-larges. That would have added Oregon, Cincinnati, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma to this year’s mix.

Use the 6 major bowls as the playoff games, 4 of them as the quarter-finals and the other two as the semi-finals, then have the National Championship Game.
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This... but add one more rule: The two at-large teams must have played in a conference championship game. The scenario that a team can benefit from not even qualifying for their conference championship game is No Bueno.

IMO, the two at large teams should come from (a) Power-5 conference runner ups, or (b) a second representative from the Group of 5 conference champions. And independents need not apply. The heart and soul of college football is the conferences. I have no mercy for schools that try to subvert that due to greed (looking at you, Notre Dame).
 
Turtle84 said:
Here's my shallow dive into this:

The last 10 champs over the last 10 years,
19' LSU
18' Clemson
17' Bama
16' Clemson
15' Bama
14' OhioSt
13' FSU
12' Bama
11' Bama
10' Auburn

Teams to make the 4-team playoff since it's creation,
14' OhioSt/Oregon/Bama/FSU
15' Bama/Clemson/MichiganSt/Oklahoma
16' Clemson/Bama/OhioSt/Washington
17' Bama/Clemson/Oklahoma/Georgia
18' Clemson/Bama/Oklahoma/Notre Dame
19' LSU/Clemson/OhioSt/Oklahoma
20' Bama/Clemson/OhioSt/Notre Dame

Not entirely terrible parity imo, but yeah Bama/Clemson/OhioSt have a stranglehold on college football, idk if that's a bad thing? As far as changing that, LSU proved they're all beatable last year, ultimately it's up to some of these programs to unseat them when they have the team to do it. Georgia, had Bama trailing into the 3rdQ this year, as an example. Florida with Trask could have easily done more this year too.

I don't mind dynasty programs that much, sports need villains. I could see how it's getting more than tiresome if you're not a fan of either one.

That said, re-gaging my takes on this, I can start to see CFB finding incentive to expand to an 8 team playoff for the reason of getting more schools recruiting and overall parity reasons, more money more games for them (7 games total 3 weeks of CFB playoff). This at least gives, the power 5 champs + 3 extra slots. Will they... start ousting undefeated schools from non-power5 conferences into the 9-12 range tho.... that would be even worse... they expand and we still don't get what we had hoped for.

Another thing is now the "student-athlete" future pro get's run into the ground that much more with not real compensation on injury risk (with 3 year rule). On the flip side it gives more kids the opportunity to play for a national championship, which especially if you were on a team like UCF/BoiseSt, would have been once in a lifetime goodness.

Going to 16, too many of the top programs can absorb 2 losses and make it in. No gracias.

For right now, I'm in favor of keeping it at 4 teams and waiting a couple years to see how things play out. If it continues with similar dominance, then maybe it force's their hand depending on how it looks. I would rather not see them expand coming off of a weird year though.
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This level of dominance is pretty unprecedented within college football, especially simultaneously. Alabama and Clemson are tied for the third-longest streak of Top 10 poll appearances currently, going back 92 weeks to 2015. Clemson has the second-longest streak of Top 5 poll appearances ever at 55 weeks and running, only behind Alabama's streak of 68 weeks that ended when they lost to Auburn last year. I agree dynasties aren't inherently bad, but when they're succeeding at unheard of levels for sustained periods of time that's when it gets stale, IMO - unlike something like mid-2000's USC. I think media rights and media coverage is a huge part of it and why they get such ridiculous recruiting classes each year; ESPN has a huge exclusive agreement with the ACC and their deal with the SEC is going to be exclusive come 2024. The money and the favorability they get from the network is likewise unprecedented.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying though, I waffle a lot on it myself. Sometimes I feel no more than two deserve a shot, some years it seems like you could reason for eight, sometimes four is the sweet spot. I don't like the idea of auto bids though, especially with P5/G5 designations. Last year the AAC was rated on par with the ACC in some advanced metrics, this year it's on par or better than the PAC-12. The Sun Belt went 3-0 against the Big 12, including co-champ Louisiana whipping runner-up Iowa State in Ames. And sometimes a mediocre team just wins their division and catches lightning in a bottle in the championship game. I know it's a weird year and they got lucky with some COVID stuff but Oregon is a fringe Top 25 team and has no business playing for a national title.

If they said we're gonna do the top eight teams with the qualifier that you have to at least win your division I don't think I'd mind that. I do think it's important to keep the regular season as meaningful as possible, and there's a delicate balance to be had between opening up access for lower conferences while not giving power conference teams mulligans for two or even three losses.
 
FLRacingFan said:
This level of dominance is pretty unprecedented within college football, especially simultaneously. Alabama and Clemson are tied for the third-longest streak of Top 10 poll appearances currently, going back 92 weeks to 2015. Clemson has the second-longest streak of Top 5 poll appearances ever at 55 weeks and running, only behind Alabama's streak of 68 weeks that ended when they lost to Auburn last year. I agree dynasties aren't inherently bad, but when they're succeeding at unheard of levels for sustained periods of time that's when it gets stale, IMO - unlike something like mid-2000's USC. I think media rights and media coverage is a huge part of it and why they get such ridiculous recruiting classes each year; ESPN has a huge exclusive agreement with the ACC and their deal with the SEC is going to be exclusive come 2024. The money and the favorability they get from the network is likewise unprecedented.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying though, I waffle a lot on it myself. Sometimes I feel no more than two deserve a shot, some years it seems like you could reason for eight, sometimes four is the sweet spot. I don't like the idea of auto bids though, especially with P5/G5 designations. Last year the AAC was rated on par with the ACC in some advanced metrics, this year it's on par or better than the PAC-12. The Sun Belt went 3-0 against the Big 12, including co-champ Louisiana whipping runner-up Iowa State in Ames. And sometimes a mediocre team just wins their division and catches lightning in a bottle in the championship game. I know it's a weird year and they got lucky with some COVID stuff but Oregon is a fringe Top 25 team and has no business playing for a national title.

If they said we're gonna do the top eight teams with the qualifier that you have to at least win your division I don't think I'd mind that. I do think it's important to keep the regular season as meaningful as possible, and there's a delicate balance to be had between opening up access for lower conferences while not giving power conference teams mulligans for two or even three losses.
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The bolded is what made me flirt with the idea of some type of flex system at their discretion... but I'm not sure if that's actually feasible with the logistics of putting it on. Either way tho...there will always be complaints no matter what they do.

I'll run this scenario on expansion to 8 in 2019, clearly the 2 best teams in the country undefeated LSU/Clemson square off for the championship deservingly so, now.... Bama missed that year ranked as #5 because they lost to LSU in Tuscaloosa, expand to 8 and now they get a 2nd chance at beating LSU for the title if they win thru the playoff? I'm definitely not in favor of something like that happening... it dilutes the regular season importance too much imo, in that scenario. Other years, it might be fantastic to have 8, of course there's just no way to predict it.
 
Chants lose an unbeaten season on a blocked FG in OT, but if we’re honest Liberty should’ve won in regulation if they had just continued to kneel and kicked a FG as time expired.



 
Looks like we’re headed for Alabama-Clemson V.

I’ll be rooting for Ohio State tonight but I’m not optimistic about their chances.
 
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