1 Hour to go. Who's in the CFB Playoff?

Who you got? Put your four in the comments to secure Interwebs bragging rights.

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Why is Brutus Deron Washingtoning us? We won.

Let's Go...

He's wearing us around his neck like an albatross.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

Ah, see it looked like he was just sporting some suspenders and tea bagging us.

Let's Go...

IN no particular order, Oregon, Bama, FSU and OSU.
VT vs, Cincy in the Military Bowl.

SCHokie

For my money, give me Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, TCU.

No disrespect to Ohio State (would be neat to be the only team to have beaten the national champion), but I don't see how the committee backtracks and leaves TCU out.

what I'm saying

I disagree with this. Baylor just got a win over a top 10 (soon to be top 15-20) team. This could be the bump that 'evens out' their bad loss.

Florida State ACC record: (9-0)
Ohio State ACC record: (0-1)

I dunno if the rankings will agree with me, but if it's me voting:

1. Oregon
2. FSU
3. Bama
4. OSU

"Exit light..."

Woooo, right teams, wrong seeds.

"Exit light..."

Me too. I don't understand why they didn't just give us the matchups that made traditional and geographic sense. As long as all four teams are the right ones, just match them up the best way

I think I'm going to go with FSU beating Oregon and Alabama beating OSU, then Alabama beating FSU for the MNC. Wait, it isn't MNC anymore, I guess it's just NC now.

The Oregon-FSU game will be intriguing. In Pasadena, it depends on how well the FSU supporters travel, otherwise it becomes a pseudo-home game for the Ducks. On the field, if FSU limits its mistakes, the game will be tight. But I think Oregon's offense can gas the FSU defense and the Oregon defense could be good enough to limit FSU's opportunities. Great matchup and I can't wait to see it.

"Exit light..."

Just don't show the actual trophy without a NSFW tag.

A picture is worth a thousand words. A gif is worth a million.

I hate OSU and really hope they don't get in. I'd rather have Tcu and Baylor play.

Pour some Beer on it

I am conflicted part of me wants them not to get in so all the tOSU fans bitch about not being in and the other part of me wants them to get in then to get destroyed like the '06 NCG

A new season...new hope

TCU getting in over Baylor would be criminal.

Every second counts

Not really. The last comparison I saw showed TCU had a 7 point greater MOV vs similar opponents. Who's to say TCU wouldn't beat them on a neutral field?

I don't think anyone is saying they wouldn't, but why play the game if head-to-head victories don't matter.

It's not that they don't matter, for instance - should VT fans be complaining because we beat OSU but they got in and not us?? It's one component, but in the end it is only 1 game out of 12 or 13, if TCU is clearly the better team 11 games out of 12 then TCU is the better team

The argument here is that holding everything else equal, the head to head match-up should be the deciding factor. Nobody is trying to make the argument that we are better than OSU because we are 6-6 and OSU is 12-1.

"I thought the kid right there you're talking to right there played his nuts off."

holding everything else equal, the head to head match-up should be the deciding factor.

I agree, but I don't think everything else was equal, TCU had a better OOC schedule and played better vs common opponents., so it's left up to personal opinion as to what you value more (or what the selection committee values more)

In the playoffs themselves, the only thing that matters is head-to-head. When Team A beats Team B, they continue on to play Team C.

Therefore, it stands to reason that head-to-head should play a large role in determining who gets to said playoff.

Head-to-head is the first tiebreaker used by every conference to determine their championship contenders. Last year, Alabama and Auburn both finished 7-1 in conference. Did the SEC start looking at strength of schedule? No, the first thing they looked at was who won the head-to-head, and that was Auburn. Auburn went to the SEC title game, end of story.

It should have been the same for Baylor over TCU, since both were 11-1, 8-1. And the committee did in fact put Baylor above TCU in the rankings.

Except for that in the playoffs, the games are played on a neutral field so that everything can be as equal as possible. Head to head arguments can be used to validate one team over another, but it's not always the end all be all, because home field does provide teams with minor advantages.

Logan 3:16

good point, but if the B12 doesn't think that head-to-head matters, why should anyone else, including the selection committee?

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

The Big 12 did think head to head matters. They even used it as their primary sales point when they kept saying "One true Champion" on their marketing materials and pitched that every team played every other team in conference to determine their champion.

They of course trumpeted this right up until the moment they got greedy and thought they had a shot at 2 teams in the playoff, and weaseled out of their own established tiebreaker rule when it comes to naming a conference champion. And the committee let them know how they felt about that.

I don't think they thought they could get two teams in the playoff, FWIW. I think they saw that TCU was the stronger playoff candidate, but since they weren't conference champ, they weren't going to get in, so the Big 12 had to make them a conference champ to give them a chance of getting a single team in. I'm glad the committee didn't fall for it.

1) BAMA sEcSpn yall also as 1st team gets to pick site of first round game Sugar
2) Oregon
3) FSU
4) OSU

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

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I take Amazon gift cards as payment.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

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IMO should be (in no order) Bama, Oregon, FSU, Baylor.

Baylor's bad loss on the road is more forgivable than OSU's bad loss at home - thus OSU has the worst loss of the three teams, and they are eliminated. Now it's down to Baylor and TCU. Baylor beat TCU straight up. TCU is eliminated.

I took points away from TCU/Baylor because the Big 12 went from "one true champion" to we will name everyone champion if it helps us get a team in the playoffs.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

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I think that quality wins should be placed over bad losses. Ohio State just shutout the team with the best runningback in college football, and put almost 60 points on the number 2 defense in the country. That puts them above Baylor to me.

"I thought the kid right there you're talking to right there played his nuts off."

It's a lot harder to beat 12 teams than it is to get hot one night. Not saying OSU just got hot last night, but in general I think not losing a trap game is a lot harder than beating the big boy once.

1. FSU
2. Ole Miss
3. Arizona
4. VT

I'm not seeing the sarcasm.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

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He put up FSU and then the teams Bama, Oregon, and Ohio St lost to.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

That transitive property there. It'll get after Ya.

What's Important Now
The Lunchpail.
The Hammer.
BeamerBall.

It all comes down to that fourth spot and to me it's Baylor or tOSU. I really don't see how TCU has a case when compared with Baylor. But tOSU has looked extremely impressive so I'd put them in over both of them anyways.

"I thought the kid right there you're talking to right there played his nuts off."

What it should be:

1) Oregon
2) Alabama
3) FSU
4) Baylor

That's my opinion as the top 4 teams. Different from what it probably will be:

1) Alabama
2) Oregon
3) FSU
4) TCU

I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

FSU, Oregon, Bama, TCU

If we had been even semi-good this year I'd give it to OSU. You want teams to have good OOC schedules and I don't put Baylor in because theirs was so easy. Head-to-head vs. TCU? Oregon lost to Zona the first time then beat them in the Pac12 Championship Game. Play a championship game Big 12 and winner gets in.

Outside it's night time, but inside it's LeDay

The Big 12 would declare the championship match a draw regardless of final score to avoid the higher ranked team being eliminated from the playoffs if they lost.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

FSU
Alabama
Oregon
maybe Baylor or maybe TCU or maybe Ohio State

I think the committee should release their rankings at the end of the season like the CBB selection committee does. Creates less prolonged controversy.

Be cool, be cool, ice cold

Ah, but that's the point. Controversy means people talking about it and writing about it and more attention being paid to it and more money from it.

1. Ducks
2. Bama
3. F$U
4. anOSU

In that order. It's a ballsy move but I expect these four teams to get in, and I think they'll want the teams to matchup this way.

My personal top four goes as follows
1. F$U, Undefeated
2. Ducks, avenged their 1 loss
3. OSU, has improved since an early season hiccup
4.Bama, I think they're a better team than TCU or Baylor, but probably should be at least a 2 loss team.

Also, I think no one wants to touch TCU or Baylor without knowing who is the actual conference champ. This includes me, I think TCU is the slightly better team, but that Baylor should be the Conference champ based on the head to head matchup.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

OSU, has improved since an early season hiccup

I don't understand why an early season loss carries less weight than a loss yesterday.

Exactly. They play games starting week 1, every game counts. You can't get rid of a game because that team wasn't ready, that's their problem.

Rip his freaking head off!

Because teams can improve as the season goes on. OSU is an example of that. A loss yesterday shows that a team is more likely to lose in the playoffs than a team that lost week 2 because it's how they are playing football now. OSU looks like they've improved on all 3 sides of the ball so that they're a much better team now, and therefore more likely to succeed in the playoffs.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

Ohio State improved so much they needed OT to beat a pathetic Penn St team in October and beat a mediocre Minnesota team (who TCU slaughtered) by 7 points in November. Riiight.

Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne, the Hound, Jeff Jagodzinski, Paul Johnson, Pat Narduzzi.

In a series of games between OSU, and TCU or Baylor I truely believe OSU wins either series. This is the same method the selection committee has to use right now. It sucks. I hope they announce an 8 team playoff for next year until forever, because TCU and Baylor got screwed in the current system.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

A loss yesterday shows that a team is more likely to lose in the playoffs than a team that lost week 2 because it's how they are playing football now.

But that's the whole point! Teams should not be selected based on speculation or predictions or of how well the team could/will do in the future, teams should be selected based on how the actually PERFORMED on the field over the past 13 weeks.

IMO there are two things that determine the value of a win/loss:

  • Quality of Opponent
  • Location (Home, Neutral, Away)

.Time is not on the list above. Improvement throughout a season is great for building/improving a program, but it shouldn't be used to determine playoff worthiness.

But you can't have selection based on how a team performed on the field until an 8 team playoff exists. A four team playoff is based on speculation and predictions, because you can't include the p5 conference winners. I don't like it, but it's simply how the system exists right now.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

I don't get this... you pick the 4 teams that have performed the best over the past 13 weeks. I get that it's difficult to compare strength of schedule and thus quality of win, but you don't project. The four teams who get in should be the four teams who did the best, not the four who will do the best.

Side rant - this is exactly why we should have computers make the picks/rankings, and not humans. A computer will count all losses as equal (given equal competition) and not consciously or subconsciously rank a hot team higher.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but rather why things are the way they are. Personally, I really like an 8 team playoff, because if you win your conference you're in, while still keeping 3 spots for teams that have a freak loss, or only loss is to the team that won the conference.

"Hokie religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo

1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. FSU
4. OSU

"Take care of the little things and the big things will come."

Tide
Ducks
Buckeyes
Seminoles

As long as Ducks-Buckeyes-Rose and Tide-Seminoles-Sugar holds, the order doesn't matter

1) bama
2)Oregon
3)Fsu
4)osu

although considering tcu is 3rd idk how much they would drop. osu just beating the crap out of Wisconsin should have them jump the big12teams imo.

tyrod did it mikey! tyrod did it!

Bama
FSU
Oregon
TCU

OSU loses to yet another ACC team, last year Clemson, this year earlier VT, and then Ga Tech now? Thus proving the ACC is NOT the weakest football conference!

FIRST DOWN, HOKIES!

If OSU gets in they should lose to FSU if FSU gets back to being ranked 1 because OSU would be 4. So still ACC dominance over OSU continues!

FIRST DOWN, HOKIES!

I'll stick by my mid-season prediction:
- Bama
- Oregon
- FSU
- Baylor

There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city.

Let the AP and Coaches poll continue throughout the year and let the committee rankings come out at the end of the season!

Rankings are silly.

"Take care of the little things and the big things will come."

We beat a playoff team, y'all.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

Time to root for anarchy. Go Buckeyes lol

There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city.

I'm an OSU fan from here until the rest of the season. I'd love the craziness that would be accompanied by saying "we beat the eventual National Champion during one of our worst seasons in the last 20 years."

"Exit light..."

This to the power of infinity....

30 years after starting grad school at Virginia Tech, I finally defended my dissertation and earned my PhD.
Don't give up on your dreams.

Looks like deciding against having One True Champion may have come back to bite the Big 12 in the ass.

The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

I want OSU and FSU in the Ship, OSU to win it (how am I saying this?!) so they can come into our house on Labor Day next year as defending champs and we'll beat them again.

Let's Go...

So. Much. This.

"I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you you were terrible." -Justin Fuente

Just goes to show had our team had more experience and consistency we would have been a top team, we have all the talent to be a championship caliber team, this next recruiting class and the experience our guys got will only further prove this point.
Next year Blacksburg will be very dangerous to play, the whole D is back except Bonner and Jarrett and between Clark, Fisher, and Reavis I think they are equally as good if not better, and the O will be a lot better at skill positions, qb will have experience, the line will be better and able to build more experience for the future with 3 seniors gone and Teller, Conte, McLaughlin all returning, and possibly Clark and Gallo being new starters (none of the O-line are seniors out of them 5, but Hansen is a good 6 man off the bench who will be a senior) and special teams will be solid and return Hughes and Slye (though Santamaria seems like the real deal from reading about him).
Looking very much to winning our bowl game and building off that momentum and opening at home against OSU and then getting revenge on those who beat us by the skin of their teeth this year!

FIRST DOWN, HOKIES!

I share your Maroon and Orange optimism.
But, a quick look at tOSU's depth chart shows that they only lose 5 off of the 2-deep depth chart on Offense, and the same on Defense.
This will be quite the game.

1 or more will A) not be on team B) only one can throw ball at a time.

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Exactly, Braxton going back slows Barretts growth, and now Jones will want to play more I'm sure too, and who wants a senior with 1 year left who has been injury prone. I think Barrett and Jones stay because Barrett could get injured again, Braxton will be an interesting situation. I am sure some teams would take him I just hope not the Hokies, now Chad Kelly on the other hand...

FIRST DOWN, HOKIES!

When do all the other bowl games get announced?

1730 officially.

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if non conference scheduling is so important I suggest we only play SEC schools because they never have down years...sarcasm intended!!!!

"Take care of the little things and the big things will come."

The elephant in the room is that with a four team playoff there will always be a conference champion left out of the mix for a national title. If Ole Miss hadn't beat Miss St., there would have been two conference champions left out. Needs to be 8 team playoff with 5 automatic bids for Power 5 Conference champs and three wild cards.

Rasslin Hokie

Or maybe just realign down to four conferences...

I'm not sure I follow your logic with the Miss schools.

Since Alabama won the Iron Bowl, the outcome of the Egg Bowl didn't matter. Both Miss St and Alabama would have been 7-1 in conference, and Alabama got the head to head, so they were going to the SEC title game with a win last week anyway.

He's saying a 1-loss Mississippi State (only loss being a close game @ Alabama) would have had a good chance at getting the nod over Ohio State, thus leaving out Big 10 and Big 12 champions. And he's right to have said it.

Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne, the Hound, Jeff Jagodzinski, Paul Johnson, Pat Narduzzi.

I don't think so with their weak OOC schedule.

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but SEC

This is going to be great for the ACC.

Serves the Big 12 right for letting in wvu!

VT '10--US Citizen; (804) Virginian By Birth; (979) Texan By the Grace of God.

Rick Monday... You Made a Great Play...

I also root for: The Keydets, Army, TexAggies, NY Giants, NY Rangers, ATL Braves, and SA Brahmas

I wonder if we will now be seeing conference expansion raise it's ugly head again. I wonder if the Big 12 will be looking for at least two more schools in order to have a championship game.

Expansion never left. We're still in the middle of the realignment that started in 2010 when Nebraska switched Bigs from 12 to 10. It should finally end when Navy joins the American next year.

http://cfarena.blogspot.com/p/the-mega-conference-realignment-of-2010.html
(And I know I'm missing a few FCS to FBS transitions in there, and possibly some other Power of 5 switches.)

I think Conference Realignment is here to stay. It might slow down, but I project around 2-3 FBS teams switching conferences each offseason for the next 10ish years. Unless the NCAA finds a way to step in/drastically changes (unlikely), college sports are going to continue to be a booming business. In order to stay alive, businesses must be progressive and ever-changing. You can't blame a business for giving up tradition to stay alive, but it can suck for the fans.

Well you will see it this year UAB is leaving their conference. Plus all these FCS teams moving up/trying to move up.

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I think shutting a program down is different than leaving a conference.

And since C-USA had 13 teams, they probably won't be seeking a replacement. Now, if they get raided by the big boys again, then maybe.

Cincy and BYU/Memphis/ someone else.

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Which schools does/should/can the Big 12 pull? BYU is obvious but who else? Or does the NCAA change their regulations on championship games and divisions (fingers crossed)?

Outside it's night time, but inside it's LeDay

Since they have West Virginia, the Big 12 isn't as concerned about geography. Although the travel budget could be an issue with pulling someone from a lower tier conference. Unless they want to get someone closer to help WVU out.

Just looking at this year's records, attractive teams could include Boise State (11-2, MW), Colorado State (10-2, MW), Marshall (12-1, CUSA), Memphis (9-3, American), or Cincy (9-3, American).

Maybe they just look at geography and decide they need some more bottom feeders in Texas now that Baylor has stepped up. That opens up Rice, North Texas, UTEP, and UTSA from C-USA, Texas State from the Sun Belt, and Houston and SMU from the American.

Or maybe ECU will want to make the jump to Power 5 no matter what, and travel budget be damned.

I remember when everything was hot and heavy Cincy was lobbying hard to get some where. Honestly I though they deserved to be somewhere as well. I would imagine the Big 12 would go after Cincy.

As a second choice I don't know. I sincerely doubt another Texas school. There are already 3 in the conference and especially with the success that TCU is having no way Texas, TTU, or even the Oklahomas let another upstart Texas team in.

Colorado St I don't really see, no history there. But Memphis, Boise St, BYU, Marshall could be interesting. Marshall might depend more on how WVU feels about them. Would they rather have a team closer to defray travel costs or not want to recruit against an in state team? If Cincy jumps too, I think WVU would lean towards the latter and block Marshall. From an all around stand point Memphis and BYU offer more than Boise St. Their football teams can be good and basketball teams can be pretty damn good.

I wonder if they might do something crazy though and just completely throw the map out by adding UConn. Good to great basketball team. The football team is a mess right now but a few years back went to a BCS bowl (and got trounced in Tebow's last game). Either way it would open up the Northeast to the Big 12 and since all the other conferences seem to be doing that, well why the hell not.

You forgot Baylor.

And the Big12 will try to add BYU and Houston. I understand not wanting too many Texas teams but there really isn't anyone outside of Texas worthy of being added. Everyone keeps mentioning Boise but do people understand how far away Boise actually is from the rest of the Big12? It's farther away than Morgantown and they don't have the money WVU has.

Rip his freaking head off!

BYU is a definite target. They're independent so there's no need to have to deal with another conference. Memphis offers a big city, good basketball, and good recruiting. They could go after Las Vegas by bringing in UNLV or Nevada. UNLV has basketball tradition in an untapped city and Nevada has football tradition. Unlikely but better than some of the lower tier Texas options.

Outside it's night time, but inside it's LeDay

My guess for order of preference would be BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Boise State, ECU, Memphis, Marshall. I think they get rejected by BYU and end up with Cincinnati and Houston or Boise State.

Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne, the Hound, Jeff Jagodzinski, Paul Johnson, Pat Narduzzi.

This would be too bad. I'm on record as saying that I think Texas should go independent, both OK schools as well as TCU should go to the SEC, Kansases and Mizzou should join the Big Ten, NC State to the SEC, Vandy and PSU to the ACC. Instead of adding mediocre programs to solidify the big 12, the big 12 should disband.

Baylor? Iowa State? KSU? TT? WVU?

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KSU counts as a Kansas - > Big Ten
Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech, WVU - > Sorry! You just got relegated or went independent.

That would actually make a lot of sense. You then can your 4 big super conferences. West Coast, Midwest, Atlantic, and South East. You'd then have 4 power conferences instead of 5 which would make a playoff less clunky.

This, I think, would be a good realignment goal. But as we saw this year, it is difficult to gauge the power of the conferences against each other. With ND, Texas, WVU, maybe BYU, Baylor, plus another school or two as independents (as well as probably the academies) competing against all of the conferences every year, we'd have a better gauge of relative strength.

Currently, there are 64 Power 5 teams. (14 ACC + 14 SEC + 14 B1G + 12 Pac-12 + 10 Big 12) Ideal for 4 conferences of 16.

The problem I always run into when coming up with hypotheticals is figuring out 4 teams that would go to the Pac-12.

I was thinking ECU, the rise in revenue would probably offset any increases in travel costs.
Then Big12 would be playing an additional ACC team or 2 yearly on a regular basis too as part of the OOC schedule.

This is going to be great for the ACC.