Finally, every game does count.
Details are still trickling out, but here's what we know after a meeting of university presidents in Washington DC:
- Four team playoff with a 12-year deal
- Six bowls will rotate the two annual semifinal games
- A yet-to-be-determined selection committee will choose playoff teams based on W-L record, strength of schedule, head-to-head (if applicable) and whether or not a team was its conference champion
- The championship game will be held the first Monday of January that is six or more days after the first semifinal
- The first title game will be held January 12, 2015
It's time to celebrate a little, college football fans. Today is a great day for the sport.
Comments
This will be the causing of much argument and consternation.
Taquitos.
agree...I'm not 100% sold on a playoff, especially 4 team just yet...I just can't get past the fact of team #5 being screwed...to me team #5 has that much of a better chance to beat team #1 than team #9 does...just my opinion
True, but #5 getting screwed is infinitely more palatable than #3 (or #4) getting screwed.
No, it's not! Getting screwed is getting screwed - doesn't matter the position!
The best thing about Pastafarianism? It is not only acceptable, but advisable, to be heavily sauced
I think you missed my point, which was that four teams getting a crack is fairer than two teams getting a crack. That's all.
Also, I see your stealth edit and since you changed your comment, it's still not a valid point.
Are you saying that if the NCAA went to a two-team college basketball tournament, that the 3rd team (the first one out) would be getting screwed to the same degree that the 69th team (the first one out today) would be getting screwed? That does not compute.
Absolutely more palatable, I agree. 2/3 vs 4/5 will still be splitting hairs, but there's always going to be someone who doesn't make the cut.
Taquitos.
I just think 9 vs 8 not making the cut is infinitely better than 5 vs 4...I think 8 should be the max as 16 is just silly...the #11-16 is likely not going to win the tournament....the chance of a team in the top 10 (8 for tounrament's sake) doing it is more realistic and allows conference champions (especially once we have 4 super power conferences) and at larges to get a shot at it...I think after the first 12 years it will expand to 8, but for now I do agree 4 is better than 2...just think if they were going to expand to 4 it should have been a "trial period" of 5 years or so, not 12
True. But you know they weren't going to make the jump from no playoff to eight teams. It remains to be seen how large this will grow, but it was always going to take baby steps.
I absolutely agree Alex! I would've preferred a 6 team playoff w/the 4 conference champions and two wild cards. The top 2 teams get the bye.
But I'll settle for four... atleast it's a start in the right direction.
has this been discussed?
"Winter is coming" - Urban Meyer
That dude needs to get himself a new barber, or get a wig.
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
What are the criteria to be selected and what are the 6 bowls? Any idea yet?
Fan of bacon since 1981
I'm guessing Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange + Cotton Bowl? What would the 6th be?
Ugh. January 12. College football should end on January 1st.
Yeah, yeah, I know the Rose Bowl is on the first. Figure something out.
Games after the 1st lose their luster even when they're good games, and games that have an NFL weekend between the 1st and when they occur get almost completely lost in the the NFL media waves.
No -it's time to start the bitching about how this will not solve anything!!! It's already started on MSNBC. Awesome!
The best thing about Pastafarianism? It is not only acceptable, but advisable, to be heavily sauced
ESPN selects four SEC teams to play in the new tournament....because they've got SPEEEED; and it will boost ad revenues for ESPN!
Who and by what means teams are selected are the only issue that matters. If it's not on the field, it's not on the field. Conference champions must represent. No second place teams can be allowed in the field, or it's just another made-for-TV scam, no better than the old systems.
Just updated the story following a tweet from Nicole Auerbach stating the committee will rank the four playoff teams based on: W-L record, strength of schedule, head-to-head and whether a team won its conference championship.
Devil is in the details, I suppose, but we have a framework.
Agreed. Must be conference champions.
Maybe John Cooper and Earle Bruce can volunteer to be on the selection committee.
I also wonder why they didn't shorten the season by a game or two. C'mon man! When the hell are these poor kids going to study? A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
Which is why a 4-team playoff is booty. How can one determine which conference champ is more deserving of another conference champ? It should be an 8 team playoff...
"We have a quarterback, obviously, that's kind of ridiculous running the ball." - Urban Meyer
Nope, should be a four team playoff from 4 conferences with 14 teams each (SEC, B1G, B12, P12). Move others as needed. Too many teams in D-1. Most those teams never will have a snowballs chance in heck
8 team playoff: The conference champs of the Big 6, plus 2 at-large teams.
Honestly, I would prefer that over this clusterfork. And I hate the idea of an 8-teamer.
It's so simple: seed the traditional bowls (8 teams with conference champs garnishing most of the spots, and a couple at-large spots filling in) and then the 4 winnners of the bowls playoff in a semi final and final rounds.
Genius.
Three more college football games are played and gozillions of $$ are made. Fans are happy. TV networks are happy. College presidents figure out a way to make themselves happy with all the extra cash. How is this so hard to put in place?
Or we could just make it simple. Just have it be the SEC Champ, SEC #2, SEC #3, and SEC #4. Cause we all know those will ALWAYS be the best 4 teams in the country each season. :rolleyes:
"We have a quarterback, obviously, that's kind of ridiculous running the ball." - Urban Meyer
Verne Lundquist approves
"You win with people." - Woody Hayes
actually, I hate the idea of a playoff absent the NCAA going back to a ten game season.
The Old King is dead.
Long live the King!
To err is human. Really sucking requires having yellow stripes on your helmet.
Pardon my 6 PM cocktails talking, but man I am so glad that "11W Staff" can declare that "this is a great day for the sport". Keep pandering to the 19 year old crowd. Woody would be pissed about this arrangement and you know it.
Someone has had a bad day.....
Actually, it was a great day until this news came out.
This system will suck. There will be severe bitching and moaning from day one.
Glad to see your starting it!
"I'll fire when I'm god damn good and ready! You got that?" - Pete "Maverick" Mitchel
Poll after poll has shown that you are in the vocal minority, hovering around 8-10%. Woody would also be pissed about interracial marriages. Doesn't make him right.
As I have stated repeatedly, those polls are extremely flawed. There's a serious difference between the casual college football fan and the bowl-traveling contingency (that would include myself). Obviously I have no proof besides anecdotal evidence in my own travels, but the hardcore RV owning bowl-game traveling contingency is probably against this. I speak as one who was pro-playoff a few years ago until I started to become part of that culture. The people I met in my travels made me understand why a playoff - and especially why destroying the classic bowls - would be a terrible idea.
I hear what you're saying, but the last time we polled the question here -- a site visited by those I would not consider casual football fans -- only 7% were against a playoff.
I married a fantastic Asian woman who happened to attend tsun...Woody may have slugged me in the neck...
(still love you Woody - no hard feelings brother).
The world is full of kings & queens who'll blind your eyes & steal your dreams - it's heaven & hell - Ronnie James Dio.
The minute the semi-final is in the Sugar Bowl and the "committee" selects a 12-1 LSU over a 12-1 Ohio State, you all are going to be so freaking pissed.
But they way they have constructed this, that's exactly what they'll have to do. They absolutely cannot risk NOT selling out any of these games. So goodbye to very deserving teams such as Boise and Oregon as well (especially if the semis are in the Orange Bowl or New Orleans). They won't risk having a stadium at 80% capacity.
You have a point dude. But no other conference spends $ like the fans from the B1G. They need us for the $. It's all about the money. But the potential to f#^k us over is there.
"Here officer, hold my beer while I find my license."
Spot on. I hate that the semi-finals or whatever they will be called don't give a home field advantage. There will be a few teams like Humble mentioned as well as a few more that will always be subjected to away games while some SEC/Pac 12 team gets damn near a home game half the time. Ohio State not only gets to play on someone else's turf once, but now twice if they want to win it all. The best we can hope for is a neutral site.
And of course, nobody ever thinks about these aspects of a wholesale change like this. If it's not the BCS, it must be better. I think reality will settle in after a few years.
Agree with Alex - I'm calling bullshite. It's the same thing. We bitch all season about (take your pick) : computers, the human factor, strength of schedule, etc... So now the powers that be think we should welcome a 4 team playoff decided by a committee of who/what? If the season doesn't count for and towards something (i.e. a conference championship - decided on THE FIELD - and an automatic berth) then once again it will be open to the same arguments & flaws as the current system. Look me up and tell me what you think the 1st time OSU is ranked #5, and the SEC gets #1 & #4 (or even #3 & #4).
The only way this is even remotely palatable is if it's the 1st baby step towards getting a real playoff of conference champs.
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
New Year's Day will be crowded again! The championship game is set to be the first Jan Monday that is six days after the earliest semifinal. This will pretty much force the bowls to play on the 1st to make sure the winning team has enough time to prepare for the final. Don't know how the rest of you feel, but I at least like that! The non semifinal bowls will still be able to fudge a little and play after the first, but any team playing in a semifinal will want the earlier date.
a contradiction already:
the title game will be the first Monday of January, and the first title game is January 12. No way the 12th of any month can be the first Monday.
WTF
The first Monday that year is Jan 5. It is not 6 days after the earliest semifinal (Jan 1). Hence, the game moves to the next Monday, which is the first Monday that is at least 6 days after Jan 1. The earliest day in Jan that this game could occur is Jan 7, the latest is Jan 13. 2015 just happens to be one of those years where the game will be a little later because of the 6 days after formula.
My main concern is the quick turn-around between semifinals and NCG, as mentioned by Urbz a few months ago.
Six days would be absurd. Typically, it will be more like 7 - 10 days (it can't be eight days if the NCG is Monday because that mean Jan. 1, the semifinals, on Sunday), but that's still too quick. Are the kids in the NCG not to go to class the first week of January?
This is another reason why I favored home semis (in addition to every once in a while getting Bama, Fla, LSU to play in frigid temps): the scheduling would have been much better. Mid-December semis, Jan. 1 bowls, Jan 1/2/3/4 NCG. No more anticlimatic end to the season.
Oh, well, beggars can't be choosers.
I'm excited for this. For several reasons:
Looking back on the BCS era, there have been numerous times when a #3 got shutout of the title game, and never got a chance to decide the championship on the field. No matter how big you expand the field to, there's always going to be the first team left out.
As a parallel, I look at the NCAA basketball tournament, where people call foul after their team is one of the "first four out" of a field of 68. At the end of the day, the point is to crown a champion - not hand out participation ribbons. Based on the nature and tradition of college football, I just can't see it as logistically possible to arrange an 8 team playoff. And honestly I think that a final four should be fine.
One last point - I can't ever imagine a scenario where 5 teams go through the season undefeated and one gets left out. If you want to play for the title, take care of your business and win each week.
"You win with people "
I get what you're saying . . . . but as far as 8 being logistically impossible, the FCS has done a much larger tourney successfully for years. It is most certainly possible. It just sucks that they locked this in for 12 years.
"Because the rules won't let you go for three." - Woody Hayes
THE Ohio State University
Yeah, celebrate BCS plus 1, and call it a playoff. How is the Kool-Aid?
Four teams play with the two winners advancing to play each other. How is that not a playoff?
I didn't like the Playoff in the first place because I was fine with the BCS system. However I think I am kind of in favor of this 4 team playoff, but I DO NOT want any more then a 4 team playoff 8 is to many, I would have to say that no one outside the top 5-6 teams each year could be the best team in college football and most years it is clear that 1-3 teams are that much better then the rest. So i am fine with 4, but how are they picking these teams is what I want to know.
So...help me understand how people are supposed to logistically travel to a semifinal game, and then possibly to a national championship, within a week no less. If Ohio State is ranked 1-4 and the semi is the Rose Bowl (or whatever bowl), how do the powers that be expect me to go to the Rose Bowl and then somehow make adequate arrangements for the National Championship?
I've been one that's traveled to every OSU bowl since I could afford it. I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. This whole thing made some sense when they were calling for on-campus semis, but now we have to decide whether to make the trip to the semis or hold out hope for the championship game?
Oh wait, I get it. They've gone all NFL on our asses. We're not supposed to go to the Championship Game, which will now be reserved for corporate faux fans and the like.
I'm calling bullshit on this. Not good for the fans at all. Oh, and don't forget the B1G championship game. Luckily I live in Indy, but how the hell are most fans expected to hit the conference championship, semifinal bowl, and championship game?
Am I missing something?
The Ohio State University Class of 2001
BS Aero & Astronautical Engineering
Yeah, that's the crappy part. In a perfect world, we'd start with a four-teamer with the top seeds playing the semifinals in their home stadiums.
When you factor in a conference championship game, this could really mean three weeks of travel for some fans.
So let's paint this scenario: Ohio State is ranked #1 after we win the conference championship.
Who has the dinero to travel for 3 weeks following the team? Most people will shell out for one game. If I'm going to sink my money into watching the Buckeyes play, am I really going to choose the semi-final game? If it's me, I want to see the championship game.
Through no fault of the fan base, I can see Ohio State not selling its ticket allotment for a semi-final game.
This is going to be an interesting dynamic to watch.
I think this is why there has been so much resistance by the University presidents in the past. This will be a logistic and financial nightmare for the fans. Gene Smith touched on this in his 11W interview. How the heck can you expect your fan base to travel to a league championship, a semifinal, and then a final within the span of a month? OSU has enough of a fan base that it will probably draw enough support for a schedule like that. But what happens for a TCU, Boise State, Washington State, or any other number of teams without a good road following? Heck, even Miami would have a devil of a time filling seats in that scenario.
It will force the bowls to rely on corporate sales to fill the seats. And TV dollars will dominate the income. Most ordinary fans like you and me will watch all this unfold on TV.
I think that this will also elimnate week long vacations. In the new scenario I see fans traveling for a weekend to watch the semis and possibly championship games. No longer will fans go to Scottsdale or Pasedena for the whole week leading up to the game. Which in turn will be interesting to see how much econimic increase areas like Scottsdale will lose by having fans stay shorter periods. Not that I personally care about the bowl cities making money. I just think it will be interesting to monitor.
"I'll fire when I'm god damn good and ready! You got that?" - Pete "Maverick" Mitchel
+ Everything. Been saying this since this shite started.
Good in the sense that these 3 or 4 team controversies that seem to happen most years can be settled on the field. Honestly, if you're sitting in 5th or 6th place, you are in a position where you have a loss or two, and could've done more to get yourself into the playoff, thus you have less to bitch about.
I don't know about the whole conference champion thing. I'd be completely in favor if the BCS conferences were of equal or relatively equal strength. That's just not the case. For a 4 team playoff it may be fine, but in an 8 team playoff, which we may change to some day - won't work.
Class of 2010.
The real question will be, will the selection committee be know to the public, or will it be shrouded in mystery/bias, a la the film ratings board.
Few years after this starts there will be plenty of people calling for more change...right after the first qualified team finishes ranked 5th and left out of the playoff
Are you kidding me?!?! They're already carping about it now!!! You don't have to look any further than the NCAA BBall Tourney to see how this all plays out.... it will never end and this playoff system solves nothing over the current system - it just adds a couple more games.
The best thing about Pastafarianism? It is not only acceptable, but advisable, to be heavily sauced
As shady as the back room deals and $100 handshakes may be, I (at least at the moment) will take a selection committee over the concept of computers (!!) selecting who plays for the opportunity to win a NC.
I want a fall Saturday in Ohio Stadium..
In most years, the computers have it right. The computers had Oklahoma State ahead of Alabama. It's the humans that put Alabama in the title game, as they did Florida in 2006 despite using entirely different logic (2006: Michigan didn't win its conference and nobody wants a rematch!... 2011: Alabama is the 2nd best team and it should be the two best teams! Everyone wants a rematch!). About 80% of the controversy surrounding the BCS could have been avoided by simply codifying that you must win your conference to be eligible for the BCS championship game.
Well at least everyone is happy with the new system^^^^. It's good to see us all in agreement.
The world is full of kings & queens who'll blind your eyes & steal your dreams - it's heaven & hell - Ronnie James Dio.
We should just make is super easy for everyone and just make the SEC Championship game the National Championship game. All the other teams and conferences are garbage! SEC SEC SEC!!! SEC SEC SEC!!!
"We have a quarterback, obviously, that's kind of ridiculous running the ball." - Urban Meyer
This is going to be great. The last 14 years of information indicate that roughly 3/4 of the teams in the top-4 in the BCS standings won their conference. The committee is going to be heavily leaned on to pick conference championship winners. It might not always happen, but this notion that the SEC is going to continually get 2 teams in every year is nonsense. It is going to give more teams a chance to say they can knock off the best in the nation, and it makes the best teams in the nation prove they're the best. I don't see how this is anything but a good thing.