So the new 4 team playoff didn't eliminate all controversy.
January 15th, 2015 at 9:16 AM ^
Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. The truth of the matter is TCU didn't really win their conference by any non Big 12 metric. So why should they have been rewarded for not even winning the Big 12?
If you expand the system, you have the same issues with teams 9 and 10 (who could also make a case to get in.)
January 15th, 2015 at 9:57 AM ^
You're never going to have a perfect system. A 4-team playoff has people clamoring for an 8-team playoff. 8 on to 16, and so on.
Even the NCAA tournament, which I think is about as close to perfect as you can get for a postseason setup, has its flaws. Bubble teams are always clamoring about how they're deserving.
In the end, the Big XII screwed itself. They chose not to have a conference title game, and look where it got them.
January 15th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
More teams.
January 15th, 2015 at 11:44 AM ^
The playoff can expand to 6, 8, 12, or 30 teams and so on, the last team left out is always going to complain about not getting in.
January 15th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^
Who cares if the first team out complains?
The point is making it so that the first team out is irrelevant.
The first team out of the NCAA basketball tournament always complains. But NO ONE CARES becasue they are irrelevant and had no title claim anyway.
Right now the first team out in the football playoff might be the #1 team in the country. That is unacceptable, or at least SHOULD be unacceptable to anyone with half a brain.
You need to make the playoff large enough to grab anyone who MIGHT be #1. Yeah you will obviously get SOME teams that aren't #1 in the field. So what? The goal is to make sure anyone who MIGHT be #1 is in there.
Any playoff that leaves a potential #1 like TCU or Baylor out of the field is bullshit. End of story Yeah, the Big 12 should declare a champion. But that would still have left us with 5 teams and only 4 slots. You need at least 5 slots, which leaves us needing at least an 8 team tournament.
January 15th, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^
January 15th, 2015 at 12:02 PM ^
TCU was damn good. 8 team playoff is what it should be.
January 15th, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
are needed. Pretty much each year there are maybe 4-6 legitimate NC contenders. The TCU - Baylor debate could have been clarified simply by the big 12 having a playoff. The score differential would have bolstered TCUs argument. Blame TCUs plight on the big 12, something tells me they will have a conference championship next year. To me the pressure of having to win your league in a championship game format is more telling than just accumulating wins then being declared THE champion. Also some team's-leagues were overly hyped this year (SEC-ACC-Pac12) skewing the top 10 standings. Or maybe it's that the big 10 was under hyped. Although I cannot disagree with the selection committees final 4 decision.
Another telling situation is the final standings following the NC playoff results. Sorry duck fans but bama was a better team. I would rate them osu 1, bama 2, ducks 3, FSU 4, TCU 5, sparty 6.
January 15th, 2015 at 12:59 PM ^
This playoff was better than nothing. I'm sure we'll see an 8-team playoff at some point, but then you'll have two teams playing 16 games and that's an NFL season being put on college kids. Feels kinda rough.
January 15th, 2015 at 1:17 PM ^
There are only 8 teams in the conference! You play all 7 other teams in your conference. This is the most legitimate way to determine a conference champion. The first tie breaker is always head to head in any conference. Baylor and TCU have the same conference record. Baylor beat TCU. End of story.
January 15th, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
The playoffs are useful--essential--because they pit teams against each other that otherwise don't play each other, or haven't played common opponents. The best way to determine which of two teams is better is (in order):
Have them play a 3+ game series on alternating home/away--never going to happen
Have them play home and away--never going to happen
Have them play one game on a neutral field--happens in the conference championship
Have them play against common opponents--happens in league play
Have them play a single game on a neutral field--the national championship game
I'm not against adding a few teams to a playoff but there is NO WAY here should ever be more than one team per conference.
January 16th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^
It is 10 teams and 9 games - but that might make your argument even more valid. That is a true round robin and produces a more pure champion in my mind than the other conferences with unbalanced divisions and schedules.
This "extra game" for the conference championship game is a bunch of hogwash because what it really means compared to the Big 12 is an extra non-conference game - which is generally a home game against a creampuff to make revenue and pad the win total.