OT: Group of 5 officials considering playoff for non-Power 5 teams

Submitted by GoBlueinEugene on

LINK to article

To take it one step further, it would be cool if the winner of the CFP played the winner of the G5 playoff as the opening game of the following season. Similar to the UEFA Super Cup where the winner of the Champions League plays the winner of the Europa League (yes, I made a soccer analogy)

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canzior

December 29th, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^

People would watch...imagine a Houston v WMU matchup?  Not every year would have a great matchup, but I would watch that game.  Why should they be ok with never having a chance to win a title?

Plus there would be plenty of cash for those schools as they already have interested TV partners.

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Indonacious

December 29th, 2016 at 3:59 PM ^

My point was that I don't see why a P5 team would give up a non conference spot to do that if they were looking to schedule a "good" team. I feel like they would just prefer to schedule other bluebloods. Think USC vs bama, osu vs Oklahoma.



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UPMichigan

December 29th, 2016 at 3:34 PM ^

Expand the playoff so the group of 5 team has a chance to be in the playoff. Right now a power 5 conference is guaranteed to be left out every year. No way a group of 5 team would leap frog them.

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olm_go_blue

December 29th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^

I don't think it has to do with the cartel - Baylor was left out of the CFP for having that weak schedule, and I'd wager it was much tougher than WMU (keep in mind that even with a bad OOC schedule, playing in the Big 12 is much harder than the MAC). 

No offense to WMU, but G5 schools don't need an auto-bearth. Teams like Boise and TCU (pre-Big 12) entered bow season in the top 4, and would have been included.

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UPMichigan

December 29th, 2016 at 4:04 PM ^

I didn't say that. But narrowing 128 teams down to 4 is stupid. Also, watching all these awful bowl games is a waste. Pretty sad when I look at how irrelevant the rose bowl is this year when it doesn't have to be. Pretty stupid seeing a committee decide who's in the playoff. Should be some cut and dry metrics, not a popular vote or the talking heads on ESPN telling the committee every week that someone else should be in the top 4, not the people they picked. The football postseason is a circus.

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Toasted Yosties

December 29th, 2016 at 4:26 PM ^

I like that we haven't had a two-loss team in the playoff so far. If we expanded to six this year, two two-loss teams are in, and if we expand to eight contenders, three two-loss teams and a three-loss team. Their inclusion to me diminishes the regular season. While you can make a case for a two-loss team, and one will likely make it in the playoff eventually, a three-loss Wisconsin has no business being involved. The day we expand to eight, or worse, 16 teams in the playoff is the day conference games just won't mean as much. Must-win games will only exist for those teams with two or three losses. If that were the rule, I'd have shrugged off that Iowa loss. As a fan of college football and Michigan, I'm glad that loss and the MSU loss from last year hurt as bad as they did. So much was riding on them. With an expanded playoff, losses will have less an impact. Hell, we might see some teams bench players for late games in the season to rest them for the playoff that will probably be starting in mid-December. That's NFL. We already have one of those.

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bluepow

December 29th, 2016 at 4:17 PM ^

Even with our pain so fresh, I still don't like the idea of playoff exapansion.  College football's win every game importance is special and unique to all sport.

I could be swayed if quarterfinal games were played on campus, because damn that would be so fun and it makes the seeding (winning) important.

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drzoidburg

December 29th, 2016 at 6:06 PM ^

The way this has gone, the cartel always ensures the outsiders have no chance. I suspect with 8 team playoff you'd just see unbeaten teams like Western outside the top 8...wait they already are!

What i mean is if it went to 32 teams Western would not be allowed higher than #33

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kb

December 29th, 2016 at 3:35 PM ^

They have no shot with the current system. Seems like this is more of a posturing move to get them to expand the playoffs so they can get in.

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Toasted Yosties

December 29th, 2016 at 3:36 PM ^

I like the idea because they will never when a national title due to scheduling, and this is much more interesting than second- and third-tier bowl games. That said, I worry it'll be a catalyst in bringing more teams to our existing four-team playoff if it is popular.

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UM Fan from Sydney

December 29th, 2016 at 3:38 PM ^

This is an awful thing. They might as well just create another league. No one (except the teams involved) would ever recognize this other playoff title.

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ijohnb

December 29th, 2016 at 3:45 PM ^

think it would be a great thing. It would at least alter the current Bowl model to make even less sense than it currently does, and turn popular opinion toward playoff expansion. I actually think this entire idea may be just to angle toward playoff expansion so that the GO5 has a better shot at getting a team in.

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Avon Barksdale

December 29th, 2016 at 3:40 PM ^

If you want a chance to get into the playoff, simply schedule all P5 games OOC. Houston is a good example — if they could ever run the table beating something like Oklahoma, Arizona, Maryland, and Tennessee — they would have gotten in over Washington this year.

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thatguycharlie

December 29th, 2016 at 3:41 PM ^

It seems to me that the old Division 1-A is just too bloated for football. Would it be considered regression if the "Power 5" and "Group of 5" schools had a split of this degree? 

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BursleyHall82

December 29th, 2016 at 3:47 PM ^

He was the last coach from a Group of 5 team to win a national championship - BYU in 1984 (although they didn't call it the Group of 5 back then, of course).

When Edwards' BYU team beat a bad 6-5 Michigan team to win the NC, the feeling back then was that we can never let this happen again - we can never let a non-Power 5 team win a national title. They began stacking the deck against the BYUs of the world after that, and the deck remains stacked.

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lhglrkwg

December 29th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^

That would be a bloodbath year in and year out. Imagine Alabama playing Western Michigan every opener...

I do not feel sympathy for the G5 teams. Most don't schedule top P5 teams and when they do they get crushed more often than not. If they want to play in a playoff, all of the G5 teams should drop down to FCS as the top FCS teams are just as good as anyone in the Group of 5. 

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funkywolve

December 29th, 2016 at 4:34 PM ^

I think this works both ways for a lot of programs.  I'm guessing not a ton of P5 schools are calling the Boise St AD to try and schedule games.  

When you say they get crushed do you mean like Houston beating Oklahoma and Louisville? or Boise St beating Washington St?  Georgia St losing 23-17 to Wisconsin?  Temple losing 34-27 to Penn St? Troy losing in OT 30-24 to Clemson?

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TruBluMich

December 29th, 2016 at 3:52 PM ^

As soon as they intrpoduced the CFP, I have been waiting for bowls to team up into groups of 4 and have several llittle tournaments.  I haven't watched all the bowl games this year, but the ones I have watched could have been played at a high school field and still had empty seats.  So the idea of having one more game for the fans to not go to sounds like a great idea. /s

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evenyoubrutus

December 29th, 2016 at 3:55 PM ^

That is one massive step closer to the ultimate scenario, in which the two groups split up entirely. I'd love to see CFB be at a point where games against EMU or Akron cannot count towards your post season bid.

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FrankMurphy

December 29th, 2016 at 3:59 PM ^

I don't see any reason why a non-Power 5 team can't make the CFP. Houston would have made it this year if Tom Herman had stayed focused enough to win the games he should have won instead of dreaming about the Texas job. Winning the CFP is another matter of course, but a Group of 5 team being in the conversation is certainly conceivable. 

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wildbackdunesman

December 29th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^

Computer Polls also have Auburn ranked ahead of WMU and by bigger margin's than the CFB Playoff committe, which only has them 1 spot ahead.

 

Is WMU's 0-0 record against top 40 teams that much better than Auburn's 2-3 record against top 40 teams?

 

If Auburn and WMU played on a neutral field and you had to bet your entire 401K, who would you pick?

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Mr. Yost

December 29th, 2016 at 4:08 PM ^

So...I've got...

 

  1. (8) 10-team conferences.
  2. 8-team playoff.
  3. Automatically qualify for playoff IF you win your conference AND finish the regular season ranked in the top 12 by the selection committee that already exists.
  4. If a champion is ranked 13 or below, that conferences automatic bid becomes an at-large bid. This way a #4 Stanford who only lost to #2 USC in OT would make the playoff over conference champion #17 Pitt. So it doesn't really matter if you're in a weak conference.
  5. Bowls are decided AFTER the quarterfinal round of the playoff - quarterfinal losers, plus the other bowl eligible teams (winning records or above) go to regular bowls.
  6. Teams are seeded #1 - #8 by committee based on final rankings.
  7. Quarterfinals are played at home site of higher seed (making the end of the season valuable for teams who may have their conference locked up...you want to be #4 rather than #5). You can't sit guys at the end of the year and take a loss because you may lose the home field advantage for the quaterfinals.
  8. No conference championship games! Army/Navy moved up one week to what is currently Championship Weekend. Quarterfinals are played first week of Decemeber what is currently Army/Navy weekend. Bowl selection show is the Sunday after the quarterfinals.
  9. Semifinals and finals are played at neutral bowls like they are now.
  10. Sucks I had to split Kansas/KSU and Ole Miss/Miss St. All 3 service academies are in.

Here are my conferences...

 

Northeast

East

Southeast

South

North

Midwest

Plains-Rockies

West

Army

Clemson

Alabama

Arkansas

Cincinnati

Illinois

Air Force

California

Boston College

Duke

Auburn

Baylor

Indiana

Iowa

Arizona

Fresno St.

Maryland

Kentucky

Florida

Houston

Michigan

Iowa State

Arizona St.

Oregon

Navy

North Carolina

Florida St.

LSU

Michigan St.

Kansas

Boise St.

Oregon St.

Penn St.

North Carolina St.

Georgia

Mississippi

Minnesota

Louisville

BYU

SDSU

Pittsburgh

South Carolina

Georgia Tech

SMU

Ohio St.

Memphis

Colorado

Stanford

Rutgers

Tennessee

Miami

TCU

Northwestern

Missouri

Colorado St.

UCLA

Syracuse

Virginia

Mississippi St.

Texas

Notre Dame

Oklahoma

Kansas St.

USC

UConn

Virginia Tech

UCF

Texas A&M

Purdue

Oklahoma St.

Nebraska

Washington

West Virginia

Wake Forest

USF

Texas Tech

Wisconsin

Vanderbilt

Utah

Washington St.

 

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Mr. Yost

December 29th, 2016 at 4:23 PM ^

This year could've looked something like this

#8 Penn St. (Northeast champ) @ #1 Alabama (Southeast champ)

#7 Colorado (Plains-Rockies champ) @ #2 OSU (North champ)

#6 Oklahoma (Midwest champ) (@ #3 Clemson (East champ)

#5 Michigan (at-large) @ #4 Washington (West champ)

Theoretically. OSU doesn't have the loss to PSU, Clemson doesn't have the loss to Pitt, Michigan doesn't have a loss to Iowa. The South division is out, but LSU, Texas A&M and/or Houston likely has a better record and ends up in the top 12...thus knocking Michigan out for not winning the North division.

HOWEVER, PSU's strength of schedule would be terrible and they loss to Pitt who's in their division. It's more likely that PSU would be out...the south division winner would be in and Michigan would still be in as an at-large.

#8 Colorado (Plains-Rockies champ)  @ #1 Alabama (Southeast champ)

#7 LSU/TAMU/Houston (South champ) @ #2 OSU (North champ)

#6 Oklahoma (Midwest champ) (@ #3 Clemson (East champ)

#5 Michigan (at-large) @ #4 Washington (West champ)

 

Those would be AWESOME quarterfinal matchups for schools to host before teams left for the warm weather states and the big bowls as they do now.

 

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FrankMurphy

December 29th, 2016 at 6:07 PM ^

This is more of an alternate reality than a realistic proposal. The Power 5 conferences (and their most influential schools) basically run college athletics, and they're not going to dissolve and re-align under a single banner just for the sake of streamlining the manner in which a college football national champion is selected.

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