RE mythical, let me offer my perspective.
So why can’t winning the conference be determined like it was for over a century before the CCG began?
To each his own. Clemson was a conference champ this year, big whoop-dee-do.
It's not subjective if there are established rules set up ahead of time to determine who qualifies.
The long layoff for the top 4 seeds seems to fall under the law of unintended consequences. All 4 top seeds lost their first game.
Oregon won the Big Ten before the title game. Just like Texas, SMU and Boise State won their conference. You don't need a title game for a conference winner.
I can buy that. Either way, they need to eliminate the long layoff for teams.
Winning games is great but you can win a ton of games without playing anyone--is that really impressive?
If I intentionally tried to do so, I could come up with a multi-team 'tie' which would expose the established rules and make the B1G champion to be just as mythical as the CFP champion.
At this point, the folks supplying the cash are in charge, and the goal for all involved is making money. For the networks, they're in business and a major goal of any business is making money. The schools have become slaves of their own appetites for revenue and can't say "no" to the folks providing it. That, from the schools' perspective, the system is becoming or has become a self-licking ice cream where more money must be spent so more money can be earned so more money can be spent has not registered with the folks who make the decisions at the schools. Until that happens, you are spot on - the CCGs will continue, and the playoffs are more likely to expand than anything else.
TV ad revenue must not be all that it was cracked up to be. I mention this because I believe that these playoff games would draw the largest TV audiences if they were broadcast by one of the free major over the air broadcast companies.
Good points. The playoffs in most sports have expanded over the years. One reason: $$$. Given your approach, Oregon would have been the nat'l champion.
I think a lot of assumptions are being made about future popularity that may or may not be true. CFB has a passionate core of fans and the assumption is that either they will remain passionate through fundamental changes to the nature of the game and those that lose interest will be replaced by other fans who like the new version more than the previous. We will find out if those assumptions are correct.
You can take it a little deeper. Should the NC be the team that was best over the course of a season or should it be who is the best at the end. There are arguments both ways. Season? Oregon Now? Not Oregon. One problem with the whole season is strength of schedule.
Demographics of the CF fan base is going to play a role as well. The older fan base that lived through and remember our national championship years are grandfathered in.
They want to give them rest and then I guess finals are about that time for those that are still student athletes.
You have a good point, however eliminating playoffs to determine a champion has several problems. The first is the possibility of being in the playoffs keeps many fan bases engaged. Without playoffs, many fan bases would check out on the season by the midpoint. Cleveland Brown fans do this most seasons even with playoffs existing. Another problem is $$, which is the real reason for the existence of elite-level sports to begin with. Playoffs mean money. The sport that takes this to a ridiculous extreme is the NBA. They almost make the regular season meaningless. The players know this and obviously take some nights off. Finally, a team that improves during the season should be potentially rewarded at the end of the season.
If you think about this it has been this way forever even with no playoff. Lose early then work your way back benefitting from others losing and then you are right there again. Remember 1982 for us? Lose a terrible game to Alabama I think in early Oct but claw back into it and get into the NC game and win it as the #2 team.
Why not put the general broadcast of the playoff game on ABC and a special broadcast on espn with helmet cams and other special vr or 3d features to justify the subscription.
With the amount of households who stream and the popularity of smart TVs, is ABC vs ESPN even an issue anymore.
The FCS, D2 and D3 playoffs were fun to watch. Great games. Some heated rivalry games.
Yep. College will never get the ratings the NFL does nationally. The NFL could put a game on at 10 am on a Wednesday and it will get good ratings.
You are essentially correct and I agree with you. What exists now is really nothing more than an entertaining end of season tournament.
Ordinarily, I would agree with you. But in CFB, we have a situation where teams play wildly different schedules. As a result, it is difficult to determine if a team that is undefeated in the ACC, Big 12, or MWC is better than a 1-loss or 2-loss Big Ten or SEC team. Given that we now have large, unwieldy conferences, it can also be difficult to determine if a 1-loss team with an easy schedule is better than a 2-loss team from the same conference who had a more difficult schedule. Because of the wide variance between the schedules of different teams, it makes sense to have some sort of system that puts teams who have a legitimate argument for being the best team in the country into a playoff so that they can settle things on the field. As we saw in 1994, the old bowl system didn't work.
Because they have shit ratings. See the NBA being angry at the NFL for stealing Xmas. March Madness talks about ratings. Anyone doing well does.
