http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/24456534/fwa...
Unless the CFP Committee specifically requested a new poll to use in their discussions, why in the world would we have a new poll created in today's environment? is anyone really going to care about a National Champ being named by someone outside the CFP?
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
This is probably those two polls anticipating that the College Football Playoff format will eventually change from its current setting of 4 to be almost similar to the way FCS, and Div III is run at 16.
I personally think that 16 is too many for a FBS playoff, but I would like to see an eight team playoff. Have some rules set up that you have each of the power 5 conference champions with an auto entry unless they don't have 10 wins (no FSU over VT in 2005 or UConn with 7 wins). Then the best teams the committee picks to round out the remaining 3 (or more spots). They would also need to include a clause for the power conferences of no more than 2 teams from the conference in the playoff. Theoretically they should have played during the season or during their conference championship.
I tend to lean towards taking the 5 highest rated conference champions from any conference and eliminating the "power conference" concept. I posted something more in depth a while ago and I'll see if I can go back and find it, but you would pretty much take the top 5 rated conference champions, if the MWC champion is one of the 5 highest rated conference champions, then they get one of the 5 auto bids. I think I had it set up so that any other undefeated teams would also get auto bids, and then I had a procedure for determining which additional schools get into a pool for at large selection by a committee.
I'll see if I can find my original post
Edit:
I found my post here:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2013/december/9/my-case-16-team-playof...
I ended up accidentally bumping that topic to the top when I was getting the direct link to the post.
Oh are we doing this again? Well shoot, it's the offseason, so what the heck?
I'd have a pretty big issue with giving preferential treatment to undefeated teams, since that would discourage teams from scheduling tough (and entertaining) non-conference opponents and we'd be treated to more outstanding games like Alabama vs. Chattanooga. No thanks.
I personally LOVE the 4-game playoff, with the large bowl pool backing it up. I think it's a great way to preserve (and enhance) the regular season. I absolutely love that every single week is a "playoff" in that it matters. I feel like if it went to a 16-team thing, the regular season would be all about just making it into the top 16, and a loss or two along the way wouldn't be all that damaging. That'd significantly take away from the regular season experience for me as a fan. I think right now they've gotten it right. No more than 4-5 teams every year legitimately can make a claim that they're national-champion material. They've got the talent, coaching and on-field production to justify it. I want to see THOSE teams play without watering it down to include a few more teams that could any-given-Saturday one of the big boys.
I hadn't posted the link back to my original post when you replied, but I had put in a caveat that undefeated teams had to also be ranked in the top ten to make it into the playoffs. That would keep out an independent team that scheduled a bunch of cupcake teams. In general though I don't think it would be that common of an occurrence that an undefeated team wouldn't be deserving of a spot in the playoffs. Since 2000 there have been 25 teams that finished the regular season undefeated and ranked inside the top 10. 16 of them were ranked either #1 or #2 in the BCS poll and played for the MNC. The other 9 teams were:
2004 Auburn (#3) (3rd highest rated champ)
2006 Boise State (#8) (5th highest rated champ)
2007 Hawaii (#10) (7th highest rated champ)
2008 Utah (#6) (4th highest rated champ)
2008 Boise State (#9) (6th highest rated champ)
2009 Cincinnati (#3) (3rd highest rated champ)
2009 TCU (#4) (4th highest rated champ)
2009 Boise State (#6) (5th highest rated champ)
2010 TCU (#3) (3rdh highest rated champ)
I noted there final BCS rankings and how they ranked compared to other conference champions. As you can see most of the time if a team finishes undefeated they are also one of the 5 highest rated conference champions/Notre Dame. Even in 2009 when 5 teams finished undefeated, they were the 5 highest rated conference champions. The only two times that a team finished undefeated and wasn't one of the 5 highest rated conference champions were 2007 Hawaii and 2008 Boise State. Its certainly not a perfect system, and I may have made some mistakes in my list, but generally if a team finishes undefeated they're one of the 10 best teams in the country and would deserve a spot in an 8 team playoff.
That's a great point and, if it does expand, I'd much rather it be an 8-team playoff than anything bigger, for the reasons I stated above. Your system is definitely not a bad system at all. However, I still get the feeling that the larger the playoff, the more cupcake poundings we're gonna see. So long as teams are competing for 4 spots, with strength of schedule weighed so heavily (according to #sources, of course), I think we'll see more big-time OOC matchups as well as great high-level bowl games. That seems like some fun football to watch. The last thing I'd want to see as a fan is having a system where teams just have to get through the regular season as unscathed as possible, because I think that would pretty quickly lead to bad OOC matchups and boring football. So long as whatever system in place rewards tough scheduling practices and maintains the importance of the regular season, I'll be happy.
Page hits. Polls drive page hits, that's really all it is.
I think 16 is where it ends up honestly. I do think it may be a little big but that will be all 12 conference champs and 4 at large teams. Gives the possibility for a Cinderella that the bball tourney has
If the FWAA is on par with the Baseball writers voting then I cant wait for the catastrophe that comes out of this. We definitely need more terrible voting, polling, and made up news stories. Bring it on.
"My pole works better than your pole and is much bigger and everything."
--FWAA + NFF