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Dan Wetzel's article on playoff reform for College Football

Sigh. I agree with some of it including eliminating the conference championship games. Still isn't inclusive
 
One thing I was discussing with a friend of mine with respect to the playoffs - like Wetzel said in his column, the bowls were integral to the selection of playoff locations and integrating the bowl system into the playoffs.

*Start rant*

The most powerful bowls are the ones that have been around the longest - Rose, Orange, Sugar...and Cotton (although less that it used to be). Fiesta became more powerful in the 1980s (with help from PSU)....and Peach is....well its there.

Where are the most powerful bowls and the ones that have been around the longest, located? The South and West - areas where there is good weather (part of the concept of the bowls, to let the kids and their fans have some fun in warm weather).

So, the teams from the SEC, more than half the ACC, most of the Big 12 and half the PAC 12 have a decided geographical advantage with respect to travel to these locations - both the teams and their fan bases. Which Power 5 conference does not? Well, since there is only one power 5 conference not listed.....it's easy to figure out.

Based on this alone, I would support college football playoffs being played in the home stadium of the higher ranked team - and if that means that a team from Florida or Southern California has to travel to Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin in December - so be it.

*End rant*
 
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psuro said:
This actually parallels some ideas I discussed with a member of the media a while back....
.
Click to expand...
I went on my own rant in a diff thread. It's somewhat similar but different than Wetzel.
  • I agree with 8 teams.
  • All P5 conference championship games are automatically invited.
  • The G5 conferences will also get an auto-invite if they win their conference. [Detail to work out is to consolidate 5 to 3 somehow]
  • Rewards Regular Season and Conference winners.
  • Rewards results on the field
  • Allows conferences to then compete against each other to see who is better and most deserving.
  • Eliminates all subjectivity about resumes, eye test, body of work and all the horse crap about a "selection committee".
 
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Max two teams from one conference. The sec is weak. Only 3 good teams. Yet he had those 3 teams in the playoff. That doesn’t make sense.
 
razpsu said:
Max two teams from one conference. The sec is weak. Only 3 good teams. Yet he had those 3 teams in the playoff. That doesn’t make sense.
Click to expand...

I say just take the top 8 teams regardless of conference affiliation - just the top 8. Historically, if a team is in the top 8, they are conference winners.

If the SEC is good enough to have 4 of the top 8 - good for them.

In order to do this, you will need to create some semblance of a mathematical formula to determine who is at the top, and who is not - I guess something along the lines of the BCS formula.

The playoffs are not about which conference is stronger or weaker - it's about which team is stronger or weaker. So limiting the number of conference teams is simply unnecessary.
 
I hate the playoffs. but this system is SOOOO much better than what we had before, no?

Penn State would have played Nebraska in 1994

#justsayin
 
I like the idea. I would change the semi-finals to be played immediately after the first round games with higher seed having home field advantage.

And, I'd take things one step farther: loser of 8 versus 1 would play loser of 7 versus 2 in a bowl. Loser of 6 versus 3 would play loser of 5 versus 4 in another bowl. And, likewise, the two semi-final losers would meet in another bowl at a neutral site.

The bowls still remain relevant and may get some pretty good match-ups.
 
AvgUser said:
I went on my own rant in a diff thread. It's somewhat similar but different than Wetzel.
  • I agree with 8 teams.
  • All P5 conference championship games are automatically invited.
  • The G5 conferences will also get an auto-invite if they win their conference. [Detail to work out is to consolidate 5 to 3 somehow]
  • Rewards Regular Season and Conference winners.
  • Rewards results on the field
  • Allows conferences to then compete against each other to see who is better and most deserving.
  • Eliminates all subjectivity about resumes, eye test, body of work and all the horse crap about a "selection committee".
Click to expand...
This has always been my view. If winning your conference doesn't get you in, then you might as well say its irrelevant and just another game. At that point, I'd just as soon get rid of those games and have one big pool of teams and each play one more game. Wisconsin playing no one all year sucks too.

The way the system is now, if you are a one loss team from a P5, you have a good shot even if you don't make the Conference Championship. So why bother playing anyone decent? If Ohio State had played Akron- they are in. Its a total garbage system that still shouldn't be called a playoff.
 
I like some elements of Wetzel's proposal, notably the ideas of giving automatic entree to conference champions and playing early round games on the home field of higher seeds, but from there it goes downhill.

The major problem is that it maintains the use of rankings done by people, which i the major objection most have to the current system. In fact, it's worse in that regard. In the four-team format, I think that most would agree that the committee pretty much gets two or three right (though opinions make differ on the ordinal rank). The controversy is usually on the last team in. Wetzel increases that to as many as three.

Wetzel's economics are also suspect.. Will networks pay more for games in the first round of an eight- team playoff v conference championship? Impossible to say, but the track record of the the current system doesn't offer encouragement, And if he believes the bowls will resist his suggestions, what about the conferences themselves? As things stand, a conference keeps the proceeds (gate and sundries TV) for itself themselves for its championship game. Revenue from round one of his structure gets divvied among everyone. Damn well better have a guarantee of a shitload more before trying to convince the ravenous swine that run the conferences to abandon their sinecures.
 
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stormingnorm said:
Of course, that is simply a logical and mathematical impossibility.
Not a "difficulty"....an IMPOSSIBILITY.

And as long as that faulty paradigm is embraced and discussed and debated by the masses (and, thus far, all signs point to that idiocy standing tall), nothing will change.

So? Next
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Thanks for the empty internet calories Barry.
 
Diego Badman said:
I like the idea. I would change the semi-finals to be played immediately after the first round games with higher seed having home field advantage.

And, I'd take things one step farther: loser of 8 versus 1 would play loser of 7 versus 2 in a bowl. Loser of 6 versus 3 would play loser of 5 versus 4 in another bowl. And, likewise, the two semi-final losers would meet in another bowl at a neutral site.

The bowls still remain relevant and may get some pretty good match-ups.
Click to expand...
In my discussion with someone about this that was part of the plan: have the losers play each other in bowl games.
 
If you make it 8, #9 is going to moan. This year, #9 would be us. If you make it 16, #17 is going to moan. This year, that would be OK State/Sparty. And, being football, no way you can take more than 16 (with that being suspect, adding four more games to a finalists schedules).

Take the power five champions. Then add in three at large bids.

everything+should+be+made+as+simple+as+possible%2C+but+not+simpler.jpg
 
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Here's my suggestion to improve things - Don't have the Sugar Bowl start at 9pm EST on Monday night of New Years Day!
Have Bama and Clemson ever played a game that didn't last at least 4 hours? You've got all day to play this game! Start it earlier! Now I'm going to be up until 1am watching this and have to get up early to go back to work the next day. #cranky #GettingOld
 
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Ohio_Pirate said:
Here's my suggestion to improve things - Don't have the Sugar Bowl start at 9pm EST on Monday night of New Years Day!
Have Bama and Clemson ever played a game that didn't last at least 4 hours? You've got all day to play this game! Start it earlier! Now I'm going to be up until 1am watching this and have to get up early to go back to work the next day. #cranky #GettingOld
Click to expand...

Its a great point but they are trying to get the west coast in. The second game begins at 9est, but 5 pacific time. that means the first game starts at 1pm pacific. Same problem with big games like the world series or monday night football. major league sports has a lot of problems capturing kids as many 9 year olds are in bed about the time most of these major sporting events start (or, for sure, end).
 
Not sure what the solution is, but seems like there winds up being a pretty big difference between teams 1-3 and then 4-8, so practically speaking you'd be expanding to 8 teams just to make sure that there aren't any other teams besides the 4 seed that are deserving.
 
stormingnorm said:
You think there is a "big difference" between Clemson and Penn State? Or USC?

FWIW, just one opinion, but I think the smart money would be on PSU in a neutral field match up w Clemson.
And that would be a #1 vs #9 according to the "experts"
Click to expand...
I do....I think the spread on a clemson/PSU matchup would be 8-10 pts, which i think would be indicative of the final score. As an aside, since the playoffs only one game out of the 6 semifinals was close, the rest were blowouts.
 
razpsu said:
Max two teams from one conference. The sec is weak. Only 3 good teams. Yet he had those 3 teams in the playoff. That doesn’t make sense.
Click to expand...

Agreed, 3 from the SEC is just too much. Especially if some of those teams have played already.
 
The perfect solution is to take the 65 P5 teams, kick out Pitt, and create four 16 team conferences. You win your division, you play for your conference championship, you win your conference championship, you are in the 4 team playoff (played during traditional NYD bowls). If you win your playoff game, you are in the final.

-Adds no extra games, yet makes an 8 team playoff
-Preserves traditional bowls,
-More exciting by eliminating no-chance Cinderella teams,
-Makes the regular season important,
-Allows for equal representation from each league,
-Allows for exciting OOC games, since only winning your conference matters,
-Forces ND to join a conference or be excluded,
-Screws Pitt (or gives them a merciful death, depending on you POV)

The only real downside is that conferences must realign.
 
Ohio_Pirate said:
Here's my suggestion to improve things - Don't have the Sugar Bowl start at 9pm EST on Monday night of New Years Day!
Have Bama and Clemson ever played a game that didn't last at least 4 hours? You've got all day to play this game! Start it earlier! Now I'm going to be up until 1am watching this and have to get up early to go back to work the next day. #cranky #GettingOld
Click to expand...

Why do you even care? One of those teams has absolutely no business even being there.

For once in my life on New Years day, I'll be able to get to bed early. Maybe there will be some good hockey games or college Basketball games on that day.
 
acg116 said:
I do....I think the spread on a clemson/PSU matchup would be 8-10 pts, which i think would be indicative of the final score. As an aside, since the playoffs only one game out of the 6 semifinals was close, the rest were blowouts.
Click to expand...

Don't give teams a month to prepare and that won't happen
 
pandaczar12 said:
The perfect solution is to take the 65 P5 teams, kick out Pitt, and create four 16 team conferences. You win your division, you play for your conference championship, you win your conference championship, you are in the 4 team playoff (played during traditional NYD bowls). If you win your playoff game, you are in the final.

-Adds no extra games, yet makes an 8 team playoff
-Preserves traditional bowls,
-More exciting by eliminating no-chance Cinderella teams,
-Makes the regular season important,
-Allows for equal representation from each league,
-Allows for exciting OOC games, since only winning your conference matters,
-Forces ND to join a conference or be excluded,
-Screws Pitt (or gives them a merciful death, depending on you POV)

The only real downside is that conferences must realign.
Click to expand...

Close (aside from the Pitt thing--teams would be kicked out before them)
If you go to 4 conferences of 16 then you have the top 4 from each make the playoff to eliminate the difference between unbalanced division. For example, this year it would have been Penn State @ Wisconsin & Northwestern @ Ohio State then the winner meet
I have no idea why anyone cares about the bowls
 
stormingnorm said:
Were they serious? Drunk? Stoned? Stoned AND Drunk? :confused:

FWIW: The NCAA Basketball Tourney used to have a game between the two "playoff losers".

All that was required to hold that game was for the two teams, and their fans (who were both already on site at the venue) to stick around for another day and play a 40 minute game - - - - and that game was "deep-six"ed due to complete lack of interest.......

But a "Loser's" football game, that would entail:

Having two 100 person squads, and the associated coaching staffs and support personnel, spend another week or two on the practice fields, fly halfway across the country, incur millions of dollars of expenses, and expect fans to shell out thousands of dollars apiece to attend a game played by their team - who had just lost a chance to play for the "Championship"

Uh..... :)
Click to expand...


Remember the Playoff Bowl, the game between the two divisional second place teams that the NFL ran during the '60s, ususally the week after the championship?
 
psuro said:
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/heres-make-college-football-playoff-even-better-032144320.html

This actually parallels some ideas I discussed with a member of the media a while back....

Have at it, although I am sure 78SweetRevenge has already determined this is stupid and we should have been able to figure that out...
Click to expand...

Two things:

1.) About the only thing I agree with that idiot Wetzel on is that I would pay BIG money to watch that overhyped, Dr Pepper promoted Alabama come to Camp Randall on January 1st. Now THAT is a game I would stay up till the wee hours of the morning to watch!!!! :)

2.) This thing will all work itself out no later than 2025. The Big 12 will dissolve by then, or maybe even beforehand based on the B1G/Pac 12 snub, and the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl will act as the National Semi-Finals. P-5 will pull away from the NCAA, at least in football.
 
Art said:
Remember the Playoff Bowl, the game between the two divisional second place teams that the NFL ran during the '60s, ususally the week after the championship?
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure Vince called that a hinky dinky bowl for hinky dinky teams.
 
Art said:
Remember the Playoff Bowl, the game between the two divisional second place teams that the NFL ran during the '60s, ususally the week after the championship?
Click to expand...

HAAA!!!! Ya, I remember that! Talk about bringing back memories from the past. :)

I actually remember being excited about that game one year because the Steelers were in it. We always stunk up the joint back then, but somehow, ended up second in the Division. I think I was around 10 years old, and I think we watched the game at my Grandmother's house. I also think we lost. :)
 
78SweetRevenge said:
Close (aside from the Pitt thing--teams would be kicked out before them)
If you go to 4 conferences of 16 then you have the top 4 from each make the playoff to eliminate the difference between unbalanced division. For example, this year it would have been Penn State @ Wisconsin & Northwestern @ Ohio State then the winner meet
I have no idea why anyone cares about the bowls
Click to expand...

Which P5 school has a worse athletic program than Pitt?
 
psuro said:
I say just take the top 8 teams regardless of conference affiliation - just the top 8. Historically, if a team is in the top 8, they are conference winners.

If the SEC is good enough to have 4 of the top 8 - good for them.

In order to do this, you will need to create some semblance of a mathematical formula to determine who is at the top, and who is not - I guess something along the lines of the BCS formula.

The playoffs are not about which conference is stronger or weaker - it's about which team is stronger or weaker. So limiting the number of conference teams is simply unnecessary.
Click to expand...

FWIW, using the BCS formula we would still get the same top four teams this year....Clemson, Georgia, OU, and Bama.
 
BUFFALO LION said:
Ahhhhh, I give up. Who?
Click to expand...

I'm not aware of any schools worse than Pitt.

Midnighter said:
Rutgers?
Click to expand...

Rutgers has won NCAA national titles before, Pitt never has. Rutgers has more varsity sports than Pitt. Rutgers has it's own football stadium. Rutgers is in the best conference in P5 football, Pitt is in the worst. Rutgers average more fans than Pitt at football games.

I don't now what a "rutger" is, or why their school is named after it, I just know it's better than Pitt.
 
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