College football playoff selection process flaws.

I was under the impression that we had a college football playoff. By conference elimination, their should be one best team from each conference after conference championships are over.
This seemed to be in the mind of the Big 12 when they brought their championship game back.
Now, espn and other sports pundits who care less about the purity of the game and the process are using their bully pulpit to influence the CFP committee into selecting teams at random, based on the self-same sports pundits biases. This was played out shamelessly last year in giving Alabama an unwarranted and unprecedented chance to redeem themselves at the expense of conference champions. It is vile, it is evil, and it is corrupt. It is in fact high treason to the players who work hard to win their conference, and all the fans who's teams are not perennial powers and may only have the one year to vie for a national title. But no, Alabama/ The SEC - THE spoiled whiny brats that cry until the get their own way, has/have usurped the process!
Their arrogant attitude that their conference is best and by default each and every year they should have two teams in the CFP., is nothing more than high-smelling and low-down. If you are not the conference champion, how can you justify your inclusion, since you were eliminated at the conference level. If you were unable to play in your conference championship, you have already been eliminated as not being in the top two of your conference.
If the division brackets do not provide the two best teams from the conference, then a format such as the Big 12 should be adopted.
The time is now, for either the attorneys and presidents from the ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and Pay 12 to file a lawsuit against the CFP (and whoever they are in contract with to eliminate, defector selections based on selections other than conference champions. If Notre Dame refuses to join a conference, the should be able to find solace in going undefeated during the regular season.
No one school, Alabama nor Notre Dame should hold sway over thegame itself, and the game itself should not ignore and should realize priority of the interest of the fans, who ultimately pays the bills. In this no conferences fans are more worthy than another.
If the non-SEC conferences will not file a lawsuit to protect their interest over the interest of the SEC/espn coalition, then private lawyers should do so who can stand up for the fans and the game.

cornstock

Orange Blooded [2340]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 2597

Joined: 9/5/05

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

Sep 30, 2018, 3:19 PM

There's no denying that the CFP selection process isn't perfect. However, given the nature of FBS college football, I don't think your solution is ideal either.

First, consider the number of athletic conferences. They are uneven and not conducive to only allowing automatic qualifiers to earn playoff spots. It's easy to just say that the conferences should just be realigned in order to be better suited for a football playoff, but it's important to consider that the conferences involve much more than only football. Under the current alignment, given that there are five power conferences and five other conferences, the numbers don't work out for a playoff. You could technically solve this problem by giving bye weeks to the top teams, but that would still inevitably involve some sort of selection process to determine which teams deserve the byes.

If you only consider the P5 conferences then someone will always be left out given that there are 5 conferences. Once again the decision on which team to leave out would inevitably involve a selection process.

Secondly, I understand the arguments against the inclusion of Alabama in the playoff last year, but honestly what team was more deserving? The only reasonably options would have been an undefeated UCF team or a two loss Ohio State team. A one loss Alabama team was clearly better than the other two options, and they proved it by winning the championship. What if a scenario occurred where two conference champions had 3 losses and there were other conference runner ups with only 1 loss? Do you honestly think a 3 loss conference champ deserves a shot more than the 1 loss runner up? Of course given the number of conferences you would still be left with the problem of determining which 3 loss conference champ deserves the single spot in this scenario.

BTW, giving Alabama the 4 seed last year wasn't unprecedented. Ohio State was given a spot the previous year without a conference championship because they were a one loss team compared to Penn State and USC who each had 2 losses.

It certainly sounds good to say that ESPN and other pundits are somehow ruining the "purity of the game." But what golden age do you believe that the game was somehow "pure" and not influenced by the media? That is something that has never existed. In the past teams that were not considered blueblood programs had almost no chance of winning a title, with a few notable exceptions. At least under the current system there is a chance for the non-traditional teams to get a shot. Despite our 1981 national championship, we would have very little shot at winning a title if there were truly some agenda to only allow the historically premiere programs to have a decent shot at being selected.

There's no doubt that I'm not a fan of the SEC getting two teams in the playoff last year, but considering that those two teams both won their semifinal games and advanced to the title game, it's difficult to argue that they weren't deserving.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

look at the % of pro teams that win the playoffs that

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

Re: College football playoff selection process flaws.

TigerBoard POTD