1641

This year at least the championship game makes perfect sense. Alabama lost to LSU by three points. Of the other one loss teams, Oklahoma State lost to Iowa State of all teams, Stanford lost to Oregon (who lost to LSU) by more than three touchdowns, and everyone else’s schedule was a joke.

1642

As of this morning the talking heads seemed to think Oklahoma State might have a chance to leapfrog somebody (most likely LSU if they lost) if they beat Oklahoma by 10 or more. And right now they are up 34 to 3. So there is still a chance. if a slim one, that they get in over Alabama.

1643

So we can watch LSU mash an undersized/undeserving OSU team that lost to IOWA STATE???, or watch them play a rematch against the only team capable of beating them in the BCS title game.

Mr. “I’m a Man! I’m 40!! I screwed my QB for life by throwing him under the bus and lying about it!!!” made an eloquent case for his team being more deserving than Bama by pointing out the 9-6 score of their first game. He then stated the nation would rather see an OSU-LSU 39-36 game, which would be great except OSU is Oregon Lite, and couldn’t possibly score more than ten points against LSU on their best day.

I wish Oregon was a one loss team, I could get behind that argument, but OSU lost to Iowa State and that is unforgivable.

1644

Sure, but a lot of people are clearly uncomfortable with the idea that a team (Alabama) that didn’t win their division and didn’t win their conference gets a title game rematch when there are other one loss teams out there. You can certainly make the argument that Alabama is the second best team this year, but at the same time a lot of sports end up with teams in similar situations getting screwed.

I personally don’t think it will happen, but as noted in the thread last week, its possible that Oklahoma State’s win over Oklahoma will tip it in front of Alabama in the computer polls (where they are very close) and then all it takes is enough human voters in those polls to decide that they don’t want a rematch and don’t want a team that didn’t win their conference in the national championship.

1645

No playoff in the best sport out there, deciding who gets to play for the title off the field, is simply goddamn ridiculous, no two ways about it. Its enough to make a fan of the sport go insane. It just defies all common sense and disproves immediately any fantasies of karma or cosmic justice. The system is corrupt and broken.

1646

You know, the most watched sports league in the world per wikipedia is the English Premier. They do not have a playoff. What they do have makes a lot more sense than a playoff: everybody plays everybody twice, once home and once away.

Playoffs really serve two purposes. The first is to quickly reduce the number of teams in contention. A single game elimination bracket spits out a champion from 64 teams in just 63 games. To do a round robin would require 2,016 games, and thats only playing each team once. The second reason is to make money. Do you know why the NBA and the MLB use 7 game series? Because it turns out that is the right number maximizing fan interest, both in terms of attendance and TV. More and they become bored and uninterested.

I can never stop doing that hand to forehead thing when people think the BCS is about money (and it partially is), because otherwise they’d have a playoff (which is always about the money).

I like the current system. It gives me a lot of great bowl games to watch throughout the holiday season. I’ll admit there is room for improvement and tweaks, but the bowl system is what makes college football unique and that is not a bad thing. Sure, I’d change somethings, I think only conference champions should be able to play for the national champion. This rule would make the regular season even more important. We can have an exciting 12 weeks of football before December, or an exciting 4 or 5 weeks in December with diminishing fan interest every week. I’ll take for the former every time.

PS) If we switched to a 4 team or 8 team playoff, the debate would be even worse, since there are a lot more teams that can claim to be at that level than at number 1 or 2. And frankly, the college season is so short that its hard to get a handle on who exactly is the best, and I suspect smaller playoff would quickly reveal any team could run the table. Its also worth pointing out that OSU had more difficult schedule than Alabama (played against more ranked team and team with wining records).

1647

What’s your point? That couldn’t work in a league with a hundred teams. Playoff is the next best option

1648

An eight team playoff would not be worse; the issue that pops up about every other year is there is typically one undefeated team and three to five other one-loss teams out there that are in the consensus debate. The only folks complaining that it’s not fair the number nine team would get left out of a playoff are the same folks who complain that the 65th team in the basketball tourney missed out - that is, only the fans of that one team. With eight you will get every premier team that year plus two or three other really good teams that get to take a shot. And the thought that creating a playoff diminishes the regular season is a red herring - it creates a bit more cushion, but still only 8 of 120 teams get in; your team still needs to win 10 to 11 games to even have a chance, which means every game is still important.

As for the bowls, do many people really enjoy them? To me, all of them except for the title game are like exhibition games - I might watch them if there is nothing else going on, but I certainly won’t remember a damn thing about them a week on. And from the few former players I know, the non-title bowls (even the other BCS bowls) are treated as vacation first, game second. Besides, all of the meaningless bowls could and should still exist with a playoff, so the folks that actually like watching the San Diego Credit Union Bowl could still do so.

1649

Did the remaining Big XII members ever formally agree to forfeit their TV revenues if another school goes?

1650
1651

Cry? What can lsu do if Alabama beats then after already winning in Alabama? Sometimes you get one shot and Alabama missed theirs. Nobody said college football was fair.

1652

I think Alabama is better but I’d prefer to see LSU/OSU. Since it’s a system that’s corrupt and illogical, I’ve got a shot to see what I want!

1653

It should be OSU vs LSU, Alabama already had their chance to beat LSU and couldn’t do it, and weren’t even their own conference champs.

If Alabama fans or the team thinks that isnt fair? So what, fight for a real playoff system then.

1654

Sports By Brooks–who among independent internet sports gossips is about the most accurate and trustworthy–saying that Mack Brown will be “forced out” at Texas.

We’ll see.

Also, Houston’s coach (Sumlin) reportedly about to take the A&M job.

1655

That would be a great get for the Aggies. Sumlin’s definitely going to recruit Houston well, which is a crucial area for A&M.

1656

SI says:

BCS lineup: Title: LSU-Bama. Rose: Wis-Ore. Fiesta: Ok St-Stanford. Sugar: Va Tech-Michigan. Orange: Clemson-WVU

1657

Thanks for reminding me trig, the BCS Selection show comes on at 8:15 EST tonight on ESPN.

1658

VaTech gets in. Michigan gets in. ACC, SEC, Big 10, Pac 12 all got 2 teams in. Big XII gets snubbed in the championship game, and K-State gets left out of a BCS game.

The Big XII sucks and good riddance.

1659

LSU-Bama is official. Let the whining begin!

1660

LSU-Bama is official. Let the whining begin!