College Football Playoff Invitational by ESPN

thekid33 · Oct 15, 2026

All of the games should now be on campus until at least the semifinals.

Screw the bowls.

Some Irish Bloke · Oct 15, 2026

GTB said:
a team with ten straight wins vs a team that got wacked in its conference championship game
don't try that crap with me

I literally said I agree with you? Unfortunately the very biased espn/SEC Playoff committee didn't. It was corrupt. And I fear it will continue to be if we put ourselves in the same position. "leave no doubt." beat BYU. beat Miami.

SeekNDestroy · Oct 15, 2026

GTB said:
Great for us
all the bedwetters are going to cry
I hate if for making the playoffs a joke
more James Madisons and the sec sixth or seventh team in the playoffs
Hey
Harvard or someone in the Ivy league might have a shot now
just depressing

Is this supposed to be a poem?

Huntr · Oct 15, 2026

GTB said:
no one with a brain thinks we got left out because of SOS or resume
James Madison in and us not in says corrupt and back room deals and nothing else

The G6 teams were included so the CFP didn't get sued.

NDWarrior · Oct 15, 2026

Another article on the expansion (The Athletic)... It's happening.

This is gonna be fun!

Dale · Oct 15, 2026

So you gotta overhaul the ranking system right?

The flippant nature of how the 10 - 25 is handled can’t be the case anymore. And just get rid of 25 at that.

tko · Oct 15, 2026

They'll rank ND 25th.

402puck · Oct 15, 2026

Plankton · Oct 15, 2026

ShamrockOnHelmet said:
Wait, how do you know your dog is Jewish?

The dog was circumcised?

Dale · Oct 15, 2026

According to ChatGPT, the teams that net finished inside the top 24, but outside the top 12 the most since CFP was created:

LSU, Iowa, NC State, Louisville, Missouri, Oklahoma State (Gundy), Utah

These type of schools won today (lol LSU)

NDPhilly · Oct 15, 2026

So if this was 2027, we would already be a lock for the CFB considering we have 2 games left we won’t be a 20+ pt favorite in.

Pretty gross, but it is what it is.

Irish#1 · Oct 15, 2026

thekid33 said:
All of the games should now be on campus until at least the semifinals.

Screw the bowls.

This is essentially a death blow for the bowls. We may see the big ones still getting the playoff games at the end of the tournament, but the Pop Tart, Music City, etc., won’t survive this.

NDRock · Oct 15, 2026

Huntr said:
View attachment 3065288

That dude has way more to worry about than ND.

Huntr · Oct 15, 2026

Pate is so effing stupid.

PolishDomer · Oct 15, 2026

jerseyborn1971 said:
I named mine after member of the Rat Pack. My first was Frankie Sinatra because he had blue eyes. Then Sammy Davis Jr. Not because he was black, but because he was Jewish.

Had no idea dogs can be Jewish

US_Highway14 · Oct 15, 2026

Huntr said:
Pate is so effing stupid.

View attachment 3065319

No, Pate is 110% right about the CFP.

Huntr · Oct 15, 2026

US_Highway14 said:
No, Pate is 110% right about the CFP.

who does Pate work for?

mango4 · Oct 15, 2026

So they are just copying the FCS model?

NDdomer2 · Oct 15, 2026

US_Highway14 said:
No, Pate is 110% right about the CFP.

Both can be true

Bane · Oct 15, 2026

calvegas04 · Oct 15, 2026

SportsingHard · Oct 15, 2026

I don't understand the griping from CFB fans or ND fans. The most significant change is that teams like 2025 ND won't get fucked over anymore.

Though I'm not hearing coherent complaints from either party, as best I can tell, CFB fans consider the sport 'ruined' without conference championship games. They didn't exist when I was young, and the Big Ten didn't have their first until 2015. (EDIT: 2011.)

I guess we're just gonna keep doing this thing where we cry about how every little change equals the death of everything good in this world.

zelezo vlk · Oct 15, 2026

SportsingHard said:
I don't understand the griping from CFB fans or ND fans. The most significant change is that teams like 2025 ND won't get fucked over anymore.

Though I'm not hearing coherent complaints from either party, as best I can tell, CFB fans consider the sport 'ruined' without conference championship games. They didn't exist when I was young, and the Big Ten didn't have their first until 2015.

I guess we're just gonna keep doing this thing where we cry about how every little change equals the death of everything good in this world.

FYI the first Big Ten Championship game was 2011. But to your point, conference championship games are just barely younger than German Reunification

IrishTusker · Oct 15, 2026

SportsingHard said:
I don't understand the griping from CFB fans or ND fans. The most significant change is that teams like 2025 ND won't get fucked over anymore.

Though I'm not hearing coherent complaints from either party, as best I can tell, CFB fans consider the sport 'ruined' without conference championship games. They didn't exist when I was young, and the Big Ten didn't have their first until 2015.

I guess we're just gonna keep doing this thing where we cry about how every little change equals the death of everything good in this world.

This. The 2025 fiasco showed us that the committee cannot rank teams responsibly. ND was both (1) a top 5 team based on advanced stats and (2) ranked either the highest or second-highest 10-2 team in every poll/ranking other than the playoff ranking, where three other 10-2 teams got in. (Actually, Alabama was 10-3. In case anyone forgot.) A team like 2025 ND should never be left out of a 12 team playoff.

It would be best to change the selection method, e.g., adopt a BCS-style formula, so everyone knows what criteria matter, how much they matter, and that they matter equally for everyone. (So no more nonsensical "gutsy performance" justifications that only apply to certain teams.) But that sort of reform is not on offer. Expansion is the next-best option because it reduces the odds they screw ND again.

Dale · Oct 15, 2026

SportsingHard said:
I don't understand the griping from CFB fans or ND fans. The most significant change is that teams like 2025 ND won't get fucked over anymore.

Though I'm not hearing coherent complaints from either party, as best I can tell, CFB fans consider the sport 'ruined' without conference championship games. They didn't exist when I was young, and the Big Ten didn't have their first until 2015.

I guess we're just gonna keep doing this thing where we cry about how every little change equals the death of everything good in this world.

You have shifted the high stakes nature of CFB games from the good teams to the mediocre teams. Alabama - Georgia no longer matters for playoff contention. Florida - Tennessee does. To take it a step further, Tennessee - Florida actually always use to matter before the playoff was invented. It was only minimized in value, by you guessed it the playoff. So we had to make all the mediocre programs feel like they matter again so the money keeps flowing by tossing them a cookie that nobody asked for 20 years ago.

Why have we done all of this? For football reasons? No, well it’s because everyone (schools, television networks, coaches, players) needs more money.

You can believe 24 > 12 and still see how dumb the sport has become.

Dale · Oct 15, 2026

One of the dumber parts is in both a 12 and 24 team playoff you’ve draw a line right in the middle of where teams are generally basically the same as each other. Like the 11th and 14th best teams are basically the same quality. The drop off generally happens closer to 8. And now there REALLY is little difference between team 20 and 30 in the portal era, and we get to draw a line at 24. So they will do what we all see coming, it’ll be retroactively fitted to match the amount of conference berths the P2 each want. They get their CFP checks. Rinse, repeat.

SportsingHard · Oct 15, 2026

zelezo vlk said:
FYI the first Big Ten Championship game was 2011. But to your point, conference championship games are just barely younger than German Reunification

Thank you. I still have a bad habit of relying on AI for basic info.

pumpdog20 · Friday at 12:08 AM

We're gonna get an extra elite game at ND stadium. That's a yo in my book.

SportsingHard · Friday at 12:12 AM

Dale said:
You have shifted the high stakes nature of CFB games from the good teams to the mediocre teams. Alabama - Georgia no longer matters for playoff contention. Florida - Tennessee does. To take it a step further, Tennessee - Florida actually always use to matter before the playoff was invented. It was only minimized in value, by you guessed it the playoff. So we had to make all the mediocre programs feel like they matter again so the money keeps flowing by tossing them a cookie that nobody asked for 20 years ago.

Why have we done all of this? For football reasons? No, well it’s because everyone (schools, television networks, coaches, players) needs more money.

You can believe 24 > 12 and still see how dumb the sport has become.

They've prevented an Alabama team with a horrid resume, including a beat down at the hands of FSU in what wasn't their worst loss, from excluding a Top 3 ND team in terms of power rankings. And the committee had previously declared they were effectively going by power rakings, which is why undefeated FSU once got excluded.

I care about what exists far more than why. I don't give a shit about somebody trying to make money so long as I like the product. Athletic competition is driven by the insecurities of players, coaches, fans, and communities. That doesn't mean we need to stop playing sports.

GTB · Friday at 1:31 AM

SportsingHard said:
I don't understand the griping from CFB fans or ND fans. The most significant change is that teams like 2025 ND won't get fucked over anymore.

Though I'm not hearing coherent complaints from either party, as best I can tell, CFB fans consider the sport 'ruined' without conference championship games. They didn't exist when I was young, and the Big Ten didn't have their first until 2015. (EDIT: 2011.)

I guess we're just gonna keep doing this thing where we cry about how every little change equals the death of everything good in this world.

we are griping as fans of college football
this cheapens the season even more
the one big difference between college and the pros used to be that one game could make or break your season in college football
this diminishes that even more

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