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2017 College Football Season/Playoff Thread

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I beat the "get rid of divisions" drum really hard last year. It's the only way to get this system working. Somehow the Big 12, of all conferences, is the only one to get it right. Obviously, I like Klatt's solution. I wouldn't say you HAVE to win your conference championship game, though, to make it. But I'd say you'd have to at least make it to the conference championship game to make the playoff. No way you can be the 3rd (or worst) best team in your conference and make the playoff.

I've been debating it with friends lately too....I think its absurd the Big 10 is so Top heavy in the "East". It's absurd the SEC is so top heavy in the "West". It's an unfair advantage to teams like Wisconsin, Georgia, etc., to benefit from such scheduling discrepancies. Wisconsin doesn't get Penn State and Michigan every year....

I do agree with Klatt the winning the conference championship game should be a barrier of entry. It essentially makes it a 10 team playoff. After the conference championship games, you evaluate who the best 4 out of 5 teams is.

CFB divisions are stupid. Do away with it. Go to at least a 9 team conference schedule that includes 1 major rival on the calendar every year. You rotate the rest. Two highest ranked teams in conference get invited to conference championship. Winner gets a look at going to "Final 4".

He was 100% correct when he talked about how the committee was "borderline corrupt". It's not even borderline actually.....not when ESPN has an SEC Network, 15 year contract with the SEC, and $2B invested in them. And they paid $5.6B for rights to the playoff. The "conflict of interest" is astounding. And it benefitted us twice (once when ESPN didn't want TCU or Baylor because they wouldn't bring viewership) and once when our resume was so solid it allowed them to take us over Penn State.

Putting Alabama in this year was just confirmation of the money grab they view it as. Protect their investment (Bama/SEC) while damaging Fox Sports minimally. I promise there were a lot of high-fives among executives a ESPN when Bama was formally announced. Big win for their network and investment. And borderline "F-you" to Delaney and Big 10 for making Fox our #1 partner.
 
Willie Taggart to FSU is official.....Will e interesting to see where Oregon looks now (my first guess is Brohm).

I like the hire for FSU. Willie was at USF and did a great job recruting talent to the Bulls even against FSU/UF/ and Miami.

I don't think he's as dialed in at X's and O's as Jimbo, but it's prob not a wide margin. Willie has done play-calling duties at all of his previous jobs. Word is he will bring Jim Leavitt with him as DC who is a major upgrade from Charles Kelly.
 
Willie Taggart to FSU is official.....Will e interesting to see where Oregon looks now (my first guess is Brohm).

I like the hire for FSU. Willie was at USF and did a great job recruting talent to the Bulls even against FSU/UF/ and Miami.

I don't think he's as dialed in at X's and O's as Jimbo, but it's prob not a wide margin. Willie has done play-calling duties at all of his previous jobs. Word is he will bring Jim Leavitt with him as DC who is a major upgrade from Charles Kelly.
I saw Bruce Feldman said Mario Cristobal could be a candidate to take over the head coaching job at Oregon, but if he could join Taggart at FSU, that'd be a home run as well.
 
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Putting Alabama in this year was just confirmation of the money grab they view it as. Protect their investment (Bama/SEC) while damaging Fox Sports minimally. I promise there were a lot of high-fives among executives a ESPN when Bama was formally announced. Big win for their network and investment. And borderline "F-you" to Delaney and Big 10 for making Fox our #1 partner.

I'm not sure I'm going to call this a big conspiracy to keep OSU out. The reality is that a case can be made against them. They were blown out by Iowa and lost by 2 touchdowns to Oklahoma at home. No team that has made the playoff has lost by more than 14 points. No team that has ever made the playoffs has lost twice.

I will grant you that the committee did themselves no favor after saying their was "little separation" during the penultimate rankings and then saying Bama was "unequivocally better" after OSU won the BIG Championship. That said, I can't claim OSU was screwed by the committee. It was a decision that was going to cause them criticism either way.
 
I'm not sure I'm going to call this a big conspiracy to keep OSU out. The reality is that a case can be made against them. They were blown out by Iowa and lost by 2 touchdowns to Oklahoma at home. No team that has made the playoff has lost by more than 14 points. No team that has ever made the playoffs has lost twice.

I will grant you that the committee did themselves no favor after saying their was "little separation" during the penultimate rankings and then saying Bama was "unequivocally better" after OSU won the BIG Championship. That said, I can't claim OSU was screwed by the committee. It was a decision that was going to cause them criticism either way.

Georgia lost by 23 this year to Auburn, and is in. Granted they won the SEC, but OSU won the Big 10 as well.

And I'm also not saying there was a conspiracy against OSU. There was a conspiracy for Alabama. There was a conspiracy for ESPN's financial interests.

If the other team we were being compared against was anyone but Alabama, OSU would've gotten the nod. Because it would've come with OSU's fanbase and viewership which is a huge moneymaker. But when you've got two fanbases (Alabama/OSU) that are very comparable in terms of fan passion, viewership, travel......the difference is negligible to ESPN's bottom line. But when you add in the fact that ESPN is in bed with the SEC, carries their network, and ESPN is the bridesmaid to the Big 10 and their Fox Deal, the outcome was predictable.

But put it this way...if Fox Sports had rights to the CFP, there's no doubt OSU would've been in. It's sports politics and you can't tell me $5.6B doesn't carry a lot of weight.
 
Why would the committee care, though? Are they ESPN employees?

The system is broken, yes, but I'm not willing to say it's a conspiracy...
 
Why would the committee care, though? Are they ESPN employees?

The system is broken, yes, but I'm not willing to say it's a conspiracy...

If you paid $5.6B for something, you'd expect some level of influence over the product.

OSU's brand undeniably helped in 2014 and 2016 when going against the likes of TCU, Baylor, and Penn State. When going against Bama, with what'd I'd consider a better resume, I was quite certain they'd go with Bama, simply because I felt ESPN would exert that influence in some shape or form.

The executives at ESPN obviously have great access to the committee members including Kirby Hocutt. And we're talking about Football here, not a truly regulated process bound by law. Without a single doubt, ESPN would make their wishes known. Just like I'm sure they made their wishes known in 2014 and 2016. We were just up against Bama which carries similar weight to OSU but happens to be in the SEC. The SEC relationship was the deal-breaker IMO. Again, ESPN is in the midst of a 15 year contract with the SEC, including the SEC Network, and ESPN lost the BIG 10 bid to Fox. That is a huge conflict of interest when they've paid $5.6B for rights to the playoffs and have personalities openly shilling for Bama (Rece Davis, Booger McFarland, Paul Finebaum, even Herbstreit, Jesse Palmer, etc.). And all the networks do it, because it protects their interests. There's a reason on Fox, Matt Leinhart, Robert Smith, Joel Klatt, and Dave Wanstedt were all pushing the Buckeyes after beating Wisconsin. And there's a reason during the Auburn/Georgia game Gary Danielson was making an ass of himself dropping his pants for Bama....obviously they have a contract with the SEC as well.

It's sports politics and everyone is protecting "theirs". It's my opinion after buying rights for $5.6B, they'd (ESPN) expect to have some voice at the table. I think it's a bit naive to think with that much money shelled out, that the committee would be that altruistic.
 
If you paid $5.6B for something, you'd expect some level of influence over the product.

OSU's brand undeniably helped in 2014 and 2016 when going against the likes of TCU, Baylor, and Penn State. When going against Bama, with what'd I'd consider a better resume, I was quite certain they'd go with Bama, simply because I felt ESPN would exert that influence in some shape or form.

The executives at ESPN obviously have great access to the committee members including Kirby Hocutt. And we're talking about Football here, not a truly regulated process bound by law. Without a single doubt, ESPN would make their wishes known. Just like I'm sure they made their wishes known in 2014 and 2016. We were just up against Bama which carries similar weight to OSU but happens to be in the SEC. The SEC relationship was the deal-breaker IMO. Again, ESPN is in the midst of a 15 year contract with the SEC, including the SEC Network, and ESPN lost the BIG 10 bid to Fox. That is a huge conflict of interest when they've paid $5.6B for rights to the playoffs and have personalities openly shilling for Bama (Rece Davis, Booger McFarland, Paul Finebaum, even Herbstreit, Jesse Palmer, etc.). And all the networks do it, because it protects their interests. There's a reason on Fox, Matt Leinhart, Robert Smith, Joel Klatt, and Dave Wanstedt were all pushing the Buckeyes after beating Wisconsin. And there's a reason during the Auburn/Georgia game Gary Danielson was making an ass of himself dropping his pants for Bama....obviously they have a contract with the SEC as well.

It's sports politics and everyone is protecting "theirs". It's my opinion after buying rights for $5.6B, they'd (ESPN) expect to have some voice at the table. I think it's a bit naive to think with that much money shelled out, that the committee would be that altruistic.
Nah. Networks obviously have agendas and they were all shamelessly pushing them hard but I'm not gonna jump to the conclusion that ESPN picks the playoff teams.
 
Nah. Networks obviously have agendas and they were all shamelessly pushing them hard but I'm not gonna jump to the conclusion that ESPN picks the playoff teams.

That's fair....I just strongly disagree. $5.6B is a lotta loot.....
 
Just putting a little extra salt in wound, Army finished season 9-3 with good win over Navy. Had they played game last weekend, there's a chance OSU woulda had (4) top 25 wins.

So we played 11 Power 5 teams, and one non power 5 team who finished around top 25.

Bama played (9) Power 5 teams, and played in what was rated as the 3rd hardest conference behind the ACC and Big 10. Seems fair......
 
https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/...&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_facebook_si

Really good article on college football viewership...

Basically the piece boils down to Fox is gaining on ESPN and where ESPN declined, Fox viewership is up.

Which leads to my next question....what motivation would ESPN have to prop up the SEC and knock down the Big 10?

It's not hard to connect the dots....and it's why Klatt called the decision to put Bama in "borderline corrupt".
 
Army wins bowl game....could legit end up being better than any win Alabama had this year.
 
10-3 is a nice season, no way it’s better than LSU

I dunno man....a 9-3 LSU that lost to Troy, and would be 9-4 if it loses to Notre Dame is negligible to a 10-3 Army.

LSU lost by 30 to an average Miss St team, got beat by Troy (ouch) and lost to a good Bama squad.

LSU’s resume sucks too, because the SEC wasn’t very good this year. If ND beats LSU by multiple scores, Army could jump them in final polls.....
 

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