Championship

[Vince Young]

First of all, I LOVE your Boise Bowl idea. If a playoff takes over, I hope somebody takes that plan and runs with it. If nothing else, public voting on bowl selection would've given Utah a more interesting opponent than Pittsburgh. (Man... I caught a few minutes of the Fiesta Bowl, and a few minutes of watching the spread-option had me diving for a quantum physics textbook because I was CERTAIN that quarks and mesons were involved somehow. Seeing THAT at Florida is gonna be FUN if Urban can make it work there.)

But the BCS also renders every other game pretty much useless... This year it would have been great to see how Utah & Lousiville stacked up against the "Big Boys" before bowing out.

Try telling Auburn and Virginia Tech that the Sugar Bowl was useless, or LSU that losing to Iowa in the Capital One Bowl was no biggie. Heck, try telling Oregon State that it was "just the Insight Bowl."

Yeah, seeing Utah invade the BCS only to be paired against Pittsburgh seemed like a waste, but again, tell that to Utah. Louisville did a nice job of shutting up Boise "We're Undefeated Too!" State in a "useless" bowl, and we already got to see Louisville stretch Miami to the limit in the regular season.

Heck, that was back when Miami was still in the title hunt and was desperate to win that one because a loss would end their title hopes. But with a 16-game playoff? Miami loses to Louisville, shrugs, and says "Meh... we'll still probably make the playoffs anyway. And THEN you'd better watch out."

In a way, we already have a playoff. It's called "the regular season."

 

[Vince Young]

See, the #9 team this year, realistically, would have no chance against any of the top 3.

Oh yeah, 'coz #3 Auburn would absolutely blow #9 Virginia Tech into the next galaxy if they were ever to play. And #9 Virginia Tech would NEVER do something like keep #1 USC really really close for the first 3 quarters. Absolutely unthinkable. And if Virginia Tech was leading USC at halftime, I think the world would blow up or something due to a violation of the laws of physics.

 

[NDLyght37]

First of all, I LOVE your Boise Bowl idea. If a playoff takes over, I hope somebody takes that plan and runs with it. If nothing else, public voting on bowl selection would've given Utah a more interesting opponent than Pittsburgh. (Man... I caught a few minutes of the Fiesta Bowl, and a few minutes of watching the spread-option had me diving for a quantum physics textbook because I was CERTAIN that quarks and mesons were involved somehow. Seeing THAT at Florida is gonna be FUN if Urban can make it work there.)

Yeah, Utah vs. Lousiville on the carpet would have been much better than Utah-Pittsburgh.

In a way, we already have a playoff. It's called "the regular season."

I agree that the regular season means much, much, more in college football than in college basketball, and I like that. But again...how come the playoffs go off seemingly without a hitch for I-AA, but the big boys can't seem to get it right?

 

[Vince Young]

...how come the playoffs go off seemingly without a hitch for I-AA, but the big boys can't seem to get it right?

Good question. And by way of an answer, all I can really point out is that there's a lot more at stake in 1-A than in 1-AA. If the selection committee screws up the 1-AA playoff seeding, who really cares? I went to a 1-AA college with a decent football team, and not even my fellow students cared when we got to the playoffs one year. Heck, I'm sad to say I don't even know who won the 1-AA title this year, or even how my own college did.

 

[NDLyght37]

Good question. And by way of an answer, all I can really point out is that there's a lot more at stake in 1-A than in 1-AA. If the selection committee screws up the 1-AA playoff seeding, who really cares? I went to a 1-AA college with a decent football team, and not even my fellow students cared when we got to the playoffs one year. Heck, I'm sad to say I don't even know who won the 1-AA title this year, or even how my own college did.

Yeah, there's definitely more at stake. But I think if it was done right, it would be great. I wouldn't want a playoff just for the sake of playoffs, or something just thrown together (like adding an extra game to the BCS).

BTW, the 2004 NCAA Division I-AA National Champions...The James Madison University Dukes.
(Hometown Bias)

 

[Aerosmith777]

Oh yeah, 'coz #3 Auburn would absolutely blow #9 Virginia Tech into the next galaxy if they were ever to play. And #9 Virginia Tech would NEVER do something like keep #1 USC really really close for the first 3 quarters. Absolutely unthinkable. And if Virginia Tech was leading USC at halftime, I think the world would blow up or something due to a violation of the laws of physics.

Oh come on! You know the Sugar Bowl was A LOT more lopsided than the score! Tech got lucky on a long bomb late when Auburn's secondary just went to sleep for some reason.

Seriously, in an 8 team playoff, Tech would not win against the 1-7 teams this year. I'm not saying they're a bad team, they're ranked #9 out of 117 for a reason. Obviously they can play them close, but somewhere along the way they'd lose. pure and simple. The outcomes of the Sugar Bowl & their USC game prove it. Now Auburn on the other hand, they really have a legitamite shot to beat anybody in college football this year. USC, Oklahoma obviously, anyone. They went undefeated in the SEC for heaven's sakes! I mean, Tech had 2 losses, so if there was a playoff and they didn't get in, that's their problem for losing twice. But Auburn did nothing wrong. Neither did Utah (other than be in a non-BCS conference). I'd like to see how they'd of all done in a playoff, and I think an 8 team playoff is large enough to not really have any legitamite gripes at the end of the year by whoever's left out, b/c you know whoever's left out is likely at least a 2 loss team, and probly not good enough to win 3 games in a row against the top 8 anyway. But, thanks to the big bad B cS , we'll never know

 

[BigIrish]

Now, isn't it possible that some of the bowl-insiders oppose a playoff for the same reasons I do? Amazing concept, I know, but not everybody is driven solely by money.

Here's a scenario... let's take this year's 8 BCS teams and seed them in a playoff. #1 USC, #2 Oklahoma, #3 Auburn, #4 Texas, #5 Utah, #6Virginia Tech, #7 Michigan, #8 Pittsburgh.

USC pairs up with an easy game against Pittsburgh. Oklahoma draws Michigan. Auburn draws Virginia Tech, and spends the entire two week build-up to the playoffs whining that because they got seeded #3, they'll have a tougher road to the title game than USC and Oklahoma, and it's not fair because Auburn should be #1 and get the easy Pittsburgh game instead. Lee Corso blows a capillary on live television complaining about what a mess the playoff system is, everyone is arguing back and forth, and the frickin' playoffs haven't even STARTED yet.

Ha, ha, ha...yeah...the "shadowy" bowl insiders are really more concerned with the integrity of the game rather than lining their pockets. That's rich.

No - it's not possible.

And the rest of your argument relies on "slippery slope" rationale. (i.e., if you do this, this will happen, etc, etc.) But I'll agree to disagree on this one, Vince.

 

[Aerosmith777]

Ha, ha, ha...yeah...the "shadowy" bowl insiders are really more concerned with the integrity of the game rather than lining their pockets. That's rich.

No - it's not possible.

And the rest of your argument relies on "slippery slope" rationale. (i.e., if you do this, this will happen, etc, etc.) But I'll agree to disagree on this one, Vince.

That's all true, plus don't forget, there's a big difference between complaing about what kind of shot you get and complaining about not getting a shot at all. Would there be some whining here and there about seeding? Of course, just like there is in the b-ball tourney each and every year. But its nothing compaired to the griping you get from a system that locks legitamite contenders out of having a shot at the title completely. That's b/c those schools that think they should be seeded higher at least know they're getting a chance, and if they have such a chip on their shoulder about it, they have a place to channel that emotion where they can go out and prove to everyone how good they really are.