ESPN NCAAF Conversation

DudeItsNotRocketScience

I don't trust a small committee of college football movers-and-shakers anymore than I trust the polls. Both are subjective and both will have inherent biases that will suffer from credibility concerns. At least with the polls the batch of voters is large enough to even the various biases out somewhat. Plus college football and the poll rankings have a long tradition. Just keep the polls to determine the playoff seedings, ... and live with the complaining.
330 Days ago

77UGAmark77

Totally agree. Depending on who has what agenda, someone's getting screwed.
315 Days ago

yellowhammer1956

I agree, I don't think it could be said any better.
330 Days ago

Drbone641

64 teams!!! I mean it works for Basketball AND that way the SEC could be THE final 4 ;-)
333 Days ago

batemak

Conference champions yes; however, they should be undefeated champs or have only 1 loss. I disagree with the current BCS formula for only 1 reason; the way a win against an inferior foe, (pay-day games) is counted/or not counted very high, is based solely on winning. Use the point spread; that's the only non-biased way to assess the quality of the win. Why you ask? The odds makers want to make $ on the game regardless of the score. They will try to establish a spread where there is an equitable amount of $ bet on both teams; i.e. 50/50 or close to it..... Establish the rules for the selections first, take out as much human element as possible, (USAToday/AP/Coaches polls), and an NCAA playoff committee will find it easier to identify those deserving to be in the playoffs; 4 or 8, or somewhere in between when those years warrant.
333 Days ago

FlyinWVfan

Didn't Bobby Bowden recently make comments about how he'd be interested in serving on some sort of selection committee??? Selection committee = "another bad idea brought to you by the BCS". Win your conference, or try again next year.
334 Days ago

dodgedart66

1-8 is the only way. USAToday/AP/Coaches/BCS poll, whatever. 1-8, two weeks of games there will be two left. If a Conf. Champ doesn't make it, too bad. Schedule tougher Non-Conf. Games next year.
334 Days ago

dodgedart66

A few years ago the NFC was better than the AFC. The AFC Jets were 8-8 and made the playoffs, the NFC Niners were 10-6 and didn't make the playoffs. With 120+ teams and many conferences, how will this not happen in CFB playoffs with conference champs as the milestone? Last year the best team would have been at home for the NC game.
334 Days ago

dodgedart66

I have to work today, I have to work tomorrow, I have to work the day after the NC game. What is a playoff and a NC game at the end going to do to change anyone's life. NOTHING, unless you play for one of those teams. MOVE ON, LOSERS, GET A JOB What would you all do if there were a real champ?
334 Days ago

Charles Darwin Holt

The Conference Champions only format is d.o.g.s.h.i.t. It will reward d.o.g.s.h.i.t. teams with a trip to the playoff that don't deserve to be there. Period. End of story. The selection committee only would have a tendency to be more biased than the one folks are complaining about currently. We should use the same BCS formula for selecting the teams. It's been brilliantly accurate so far and I'll argue with anyone who says it hasn't been. Using 3 different gauges to find the best team reduces the possibility of homerism and corruption.
335 Days ago

Chad9972

The difference between a champs only format and top four is one team per year with the fourth champ rarely ranked below sixth in the BCS standings. And the BCS standings have not been brilliantly accurate because there is no such thing as a standard of accuracy. Different rules will inevitably produce different results. No outcome is more right or wrong than the next. The problem with the BCS is not that its standings are far removed from anything a fair objective method would produce. The problem is that the BCS method used to determine its standings is arbitrary, biased, flawed and unfair with one team ranked ahead of the next for no reason in particular. There is also the lack of transparency. If you want to eliminate homerism and corruption, the BCS must agree to rules that define best to worst season using facts rather than opinions, make those rules known to the teams, and allow the teams to beat each other based on those rules in order to detremine a WINNER.........not the best team.
334 Days ago

cfplayoffsnow

NO, NO, NO.....a thousand times NO!!!!! There is only one reason not to have a 16 team playoff and that reason is that the good ole boys have to relinquish the throttle hold they have on the throat of College Football. It MUST be a single elimination tournament of all conference Champs (there are 13 D1 conferences), plus 3 at large teams.....absolutely NO BYES! This is the way every other sport in the world chooses its champions......PERIOD! There should be no selection and no team that didn't win their conference to get to the dance! And, if the SEC thinks it's good enough to have two teams in the tourney.......split the conference in two and make a new conference! Anything less than this format is pure unadulterated Bulls..t!!!!!
335 Days ago

77UGAmark77

I dont want a selection committee either. But, I think the highest ranked teams should be in the playoff in order to be a fair playoff. Taking the conference champs would inevitably mean that a weak team sneaks in and takes a spot away from a much better team. Forget the 16 team deal. I like the 8 team concept but I know that will never happen. It will be four if anything and we should take it and build on it. Baby steps.
335 Days ago

Jedler8

It seems to me that when people complain about the BCS system, they always point to the Championship Game and how one or both teams didn't deserve to be there. However, their choice for who should have played is invariably in the top 10, if not the top 8. So why not use the BCS algorithm to pick the top 8 teams? Maybe even tweak it so that a committee replaces the human polls that we all seem to hate, or maybe even add a little boost to a team for winning their conference. Maybe I'm being naive, but it just feels like the powers that be are making this way too hard.
335 Days ago

77UGAmark77

THANK YOU! This is the only way to make it fair. The best two teams played in the big game for several years now so it goes without saying that taking the best 4 or 8 would guarantee a true champ.
335 Days ago

Chad9972

Again, all it takes is having teams compete based on rules that define best to worst season using facts rather than opinions.
336 Days ago

Martian1959

Here's a novel idea...Why don't you so-called sports writers stay out of it and allow the actual participants and people who have a lot to gain or lose decide how they want to do it? You are there because of them, not the other way around...got it?
337 Days ago

alsace_man

Wojo; Yeah, how is important. But there is a much more important question than how. The big question is WHO? If you leave this to the people who gave us the BCS, we're screwed. There are not very many things that the NCAA does well. But I challenge you to find another organization that so excels at putting together a selection committee and organizing a playoff as the NCAA. It's a task that could end up saving them from extinction.
338 Days ago

77UGAmark77

The BCS has many flaws but it usually does a good job with the top ten. If there is a four, or better yet an 8 team playoff that consists of the 1 through 8 ranked teams at season's end, then the playoff will be a resounding success. This way strength of schedule isn't negated by a weak conference champ being thrown in. And no one can politic an undeserving team into a playoff because he sits on a selection committee. That whole concept is nuts.
337 Days ago

danny_joe

Is this column pure sarcasm? If it is serious, it is ridiculous. Has the writer paid any attention to college basketball and its selection committee? The BCS is completely transparent in comparison. We see the BCS rankings every week, we know what contributes to them and how each factor is weighted. The selection committee announces a bunch of subjective guidelines, goes behind closed doors, and then emerges with its selections. Every year there are complaints about those selections, and the committee responds by vaguely repeating their subjective guidelines. They almost never give a direct answer that explains any controversial decision.
338 Days ago

77UGAmark77

Gene is really onto something with his opinions. I must admit, I tend to skim his articles just to see what kind of "cry me a river", "my team's conference cant win so we must socialize football (or at least redistribute the wealth)" nonsense he is trying to pass off as objective journalism. What a classic clown.
338 Days ago