College Football

[7,052,770]

Oregon has struggled with physical teams over the last few years, so I wouldn't be surprised if FSU beats them, despite their overall mediocrity.

I think Alabama is an overwhelming favorite to win it. Not a lock by any means, but a strong favorite.

Ohio State is garbage and it's a farce that they made it.

[7,052,770]

Harry's an SEC supremacist, and thus probably a B1G hater, that's what's at work there.  it's too bad Mississippi St lost to Ole Miss, Harry would have had a real beef if Ohio St beat them out with only the one loss.

I'm really not an SEC supremacist. Just because the SEC is easily the best conference in football doesn't mean I want it to be. I laughed hard when Georgia Georgiaed that game against Tech, and I'll laugh if Alabama somehow blows it to Ohio State. I don't hate the "B1G" or any other conference.

Calling Ohio State "garbage" is relative of course. They're probably a top 10-15-ish quality team, just definitely not a top 4 team, judging by a combination of the "eye test," their godawful home loss to a bad Virginia Tech team (seriously, no "good" team had a worse loss this year, except possibly Missouri to Indiana, if you count Missouri as "good"), and their lack of impressive wins. Yeah, Michigan State is a pretty good win, even though they didn't really beat anybody, and I guess it was good that they went on the road and beat Minnesota, but does anyone who looks at it objectively seriously think Minnesota is even as good as South Carolina and Florida? Just look at the talent, size, and skills position by position.

Ohio State is garbage and it's a farce that they made it.

Explain why it is a farce that Ohio State was ranked higher than Texas Christian and Baylor after posting the same record against a stronger schedule.

There are a lot of formulas out there for strength of schedule -- some say Ohio State's schedule is a little tougher, some say TCU is tougher (like Sagarin, for example). But it doesn't really matter. Averaging the strength of the 12/13 opponents is a pretty poor way to evaluate a strength of schedule, because it's very easily skewed by outliers. Baylor and TCU both played SMU, a team that was randomly horrible this year, and they both played an FCS team. Does it really matter that Kent State and Navy are better teams than SMU and Sanford? Any playoff team should throttle all 4 of those teams easily. Better to compare resumes as a whole.

That 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the conference championship wasn't convincing enough?

It was an impressive win, but one game doesn't override a whole season. Especially when I'm expected to just pretend the loss at home to an awful Virginia Tech team doesn't matter.

Remember everyone, I've long supported an 8-team playoff which would include autobids for the 5 major conference champions and the best from outside the P5 conferences, so in that format Ohio State would get the same shot as anyone else. But when you compare entire resumes side by side, I just don't see how anyone would pick Ohio State's over TCU's or Baylor's. It was a gut-wrenching disappointment to see the Committee cave to pre$tige and rating$, especially after I spent over a year insisting that they wouldn't.

[7,052,770]

Players shouldn't be forced to play College ball to qualify for the NFL. It's just a money making scheme and should be shamed as such.

An 18 year old straight out of high school should be sent onto what has become less of a metaphorical battlefield and more of a real one?

If they're good enough, why not? No NFL team would throw a player out there if he can't handle it, but there are lots of examples of second- and third-year college players who are already good enough to play. And unfortunately, a few of them (such as Marcus Lattimore) hurt themselves while being forced to play for free and never get to earn the big bucks they could have.

[7,052,770]

In any case, I support the only conscionable solution, which is no playoff at all and a return to college football the way it was before it was sullied by the Bowl Coalition. I have no interest in finding the best team. The best team is in the NFL. If I wanted one single winner I would watch the Super Bowl. I watch college football because of the traditional place it holds in my (our) culture, and I expect it to respect that tradition.

You'll have to go back to the 1920s to find a time when there wasn't a "national champion" declared every year. At least with a playoff the champion earns it, rather than just having it bestowed upon them by lazy, biased voters.

[7,052,770]

Well, this was one of the arguments against a playoff - wherever the cutoff is ( if it's 4, 6, or 8 ), what differentiates the 8th best team from the 9th best team or the 6th best team from the 7th best team? These rankings are literally the most subjective splitting of hairs that there can be. I remember when everyone used to scream, "The computer favors this program over that one." Who knows.

I think it should be at least 6 teams that get in, and give the 1 and 2 a bye. Or, as Harry suggests, go with 8. Beyond 8 I don't think you can make a case that you should be in a championship tournament. That's the answer, IMO.

I agree that there's going to be an argument no matter what, but with a lower cutoff, no one is going to feel sorry for whoever is left out. This year, the last spot would either go to Mississippi State or Michigan State. It would probably be Mississippi State, and Michigan State fans would be really upset. But no one outside of East Lansing would feel that bad for them, because they haven't beaten any ranked teams and lost to the only 2 good teams they played. There would be nowhere near the outrage that there is for Baylor and TCU right now.

There wasn't a national champion, there were many. I think every team that feels like it deserves it should claim a national championship, because I don't care and the fact that people do care is ruining football.

Yeah, sometimes, but it's not like there was a split championship every year or anything. And most years it was obvious to most people who was the "real" champion who was the pretender that just got one obscure poll to vote them in.

People have cared who the national champion is for nearly 100 years. Now everyone gets to agree instead of fight. Now the best team gets to prove it, instead of a cabal of morons picking the most pre$tigious team with a good record. It's progress.

Do you also wish the conferences didn't keep standings? Do people caring who the best SEC/Big 10/whatever team is also ruin football? Do you just enjoy the individual games from week to week and that's it?