The Big 12 is the playoff's bitch. Two years ago one loss Big 12 champ Baylor got shutout for not playing anyone in the non conference. See Washington 2016. Two years ago one loss TCU was pushed from 3rd to 6th and got shutout for not winning the conference. See Ohio St 2016.
Big 12 punked again
- Thread starter anon_5z68cgtvj4ggn
- Start date
I think this playoff system is a joke. In my opinion it's a bigger joke than the old BCS. With the parody that we have in college football today, we need to have more than a 4 team playoff. I'd like to see the NCAA go to the same playoff system that FCS and division 2 teams use. It's funny that a playoff system works for these other levels and in other sports, but Division I football.
The playoff appears to be a joke since it's impossible to pick 4 teams from all this mess in the Top 10.
I don't think the Big XII has been punked. In 2014, TCU/Baylor was a mess of a situation, partly of the conference's own doing (co-champ system). This year, the Big XII was really bad out of conference and followed that up with a Champ that had 2 losses.
I prefer the 4-team playoff to the 2-team single game. Committee has done a solid job over 3 years.
What I take from the 3 years worth of selections is:
- If you're not a conference champ, you better have one hell of a resume/SOS.
- So far, only 1 non-conf champion has been selected & they beat a Top 10 OU team on the road and a 9-win Tulsa team, then in conference beat a Top 10 Wisconsin on the road, Top 6 Michigan, and a ranked Nebraska. Only loss was on the road against a Top 5 Penn St.
- 2 loss teams need not apply.
I prefer the 4-team playoff to the 2-team single game. Committee has done a solid job over 3 years.
What I take from the 3 years worth of selections is:
- If you're not a conference champ, you better have one hell of a resume/SOS.
- So far, only 1 non-conf champion has been selected & they beat a Top 10 OU team on the road and a 9-win Tulsa team, then in conference beat a Top 10 Wisconsin on the road, Top 6 Michigan, and a ranked Nebraska. Only loss was on the road against a Top 5 Penn St.
- 2 loss teams need not apply.
When you have 4 spots w/ 5 Conferences is going to be a mess. The ground is being set for playoff expansion. Add two more teams into the mix. #1 & #2 get a bye. #'s 3,4,5 & 6, duke it out.
I think the commitee as done a pretty good job so far. If tOSU gets in w/o Penn St, then they will have a major problem. Doing this means the Championship week is worthless.
I think the commitee as done a pretty good job so far. If tOSU gets in w/o Penn St, then they will have a major problem. Doing this means the Championship week is worthless.
They put a team in that played the 127th ranked non conference schedule out of 128 teams and a team that didn't win it's conference championship. Those same criteria were used as reasons or excuses to exclude Baylor and TCU two years ago.
Welp, that's what has happened. And I'm basically fine with it. Penn State is penalized for losing 2 games. Ohio State lost a squeaker to Penn State, and tOSU had a more impressive overall resume.
Not me. Championship Games are now officially a joke and have no meaning whatsoever. It's CFB in 2016. OU was allowed to play in a Natty game under the BCS rules. But w/ the change of adding the 'human' element, this was supposed to be relieved.
Losing by a squeaker is still a loss.
OOC schedule is one criteria that gets weighed, and so is conference championships. So is overall strength of schedule, Top 10 wins, circumstances of losses (where was it, was it close, how good was the other team, how long ago was it, etc.), how many losses, and probably a dozen more.
It's very hard to compare teams across years as they are only being evaluated against teams in the same year. They've got to pick 4 teams and I think they've done that about as fair as they could have.
And 2 losses is still more than 1.
And the biggest problem with the BCS was the human element. Humans tried to mess with the formula every year or 2 to "fix" it. Now at least there is logical debate.
Really no difference between the CFP process and that of the NCAA Basketball tournament.
Question, anyone know how they decide playoff teams in FCS & lower divisions?
Exactly, Alabama would have gotten in with a loss in the sec Championship game no doubt about it. You can throw Championship week out the window according to the playoff committee. You know they were hoping for a Penn State loss to Wisconsin but it didn't happen. They knew all along that they would put tOSU in and leave out Penn St regardless of a Penn St victory and Conference Title. Time to go to an 8 team playoff which should have been done to begin with.
The current committee has evolved into the same "eye test" that was there with the polls and BCS. The committee picks the four best teams and then comes up with rationalizations to justify what they did. The problem is there's no consistency from year to year when they make up the criteria as they go along.
If I were king, I'd have an eight team playoff with the first round on/around Dec 15th, at the home field of the four highest seeds. Two weeks later around New Year's would be the Final Four and two weeks later would be the championship. I'd take the five conference winners and three at large. If a non P5 team was in the top 15 of the coaches poll, they'd be assured one of the berths.
Under that scenario, this year's slate would be the current top four plus Penn State, Oklahoma, W. Michigan and Michigan, with the first round games at Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Clemson, and Seattle.
If I were king, I'd have an eight team playoff with the first round on/around Dec 15th, at the home field of the four highest seeds. Two weeks later around New Year's would be the Final Four and two weeks later would be the championship. I'd take the five conference winners and three at large. If a non P5 team was in the top 15 of the coaches poll, they'd be assured one of the berths.
Under that scenario, this year's slate would be the current top four plus Penn State, Oklahoma, W. Michigan and Michigan, with the first round games at Tuscaloosa, Columbus, Clemson, and Seattle.
Anyone think the Sandusky scandal at Penn St had anything to do with the Playoff Committee leaving out Penn St? I think its all about the money and no doubt tOSU is a brand name over PSU. I just think its a joke when a team beats you head to head, wins what most pundits are saying is the toughest conference this year and they are left out and the team you beat that did not win the conference gets in. The committee says they look at a teams body of work really close. Obviously winning your conference is not considered part of your Body Of Work.
It's really a shame - if OU beats Ohio State this year, the Sooners are in the playoff instead of the Buckeyes. It turns out the game back in September was actually a playoff quarterfinal this year.
Even if OU still loses to Ohio State, it's possible OU could have still been included in the playoff had they simply beaten Houston. Though it's something we will never know for certain. But starting out 1-2 in your non-conference schedule will doom you.
But it does say a lot that in the 3 years of the playoff era...the Big XII has been left out twice....
OU could have lost to tOSU and beat UH & they're in.
Ya I think in that scenario it would have been VERY close between OU and Washington.
OU made its own bed losing 2 of its first 3 games and playing in a conference that doesn't get as much respect as at least 3 other conferences hasn't helped.
That was the easiest year for the CFP Committee: There were exactly 4 teams that won their P5 conference and had 1 or fewer losses. Iowa lost the B1G Championship game against Michigan State, so the Spartans got the nod as a P5 champ with only 1 loss.
IF iowa would have lost that game to Sparty last year But have played any kind of non-con schedule at all, they could have edged us out last year; discuss
I disagree. I suppose it depends on exactly who they would have played out of conference. I think Iowa's real problem last year was that they didn't play anyone good in or out of conference until the MSU game and they lost. If they had played someone good OOC, they may have lost well before they even gotten into conference, thus making it a moot point.
Last edited:
Penn State is not deserving. If you want to make the playoffs, don't follow up your loss to an unranked ACC team with a 49-10 curb-stomping for your second loss. No team has ever played for the national championship with a loss like the one PSU had to Michigan.
Yes, championship games should mean something (and they do), but not enough to move a two-loss team with that body of work ahead of a team that lost the head-to-head contest by three points on the road but won all of its other games. If we were talking about two one-loss teams, then it would be a different story.
I don't think this year says much of anything. We had no undefeated or one-loss teams.
Not with a loss to just Ohio State, the non-conference strength would've trumped Washington without a doubt...
If you ask me Oklahoma has as much of a legitimate gripe as Penn State if you factor in the Conference Championsip scenario. Oklahoma was undefeated in Conference play Penn State was not, both have 2 losses though and that is a deal breaker I guess to the CF Playoff Committee. Last year the Playoff Chairman Jeff Long said the BIG 12 not having a Conference Championship Game hurts the Big 12 and they would favor a team that played one and won one vs one that did not. Since Penn State won theirs by playing a Conf Championship Game they are punished for having 2 losses and are left out but a team they beat that did not play in the Conference Championship Game or even win its Division gets in? Seems to me they are making and changing the criteria to get in as they go along. Do you think an SEC team with 2 losses but only one of those a conference loss and a Conference Championship gets left out? I don't.
A bye is too much of an edge. Take 8, 5 power 5 league champs auto and 3 at larges. Give top 4 seeds home field advantage and have first round this week, one week after league title games. Then play the final 4 like they have now.
That'll work if time is extended. My suggestion was based strictly on the current timeline.
Yes, it is very fluid. Like I said, last year Iowa was undefeated going into the BIG Champ game. They lost and was left out. No one thought nothing about it. But this year, tOSU doesn't even play in the game and is in. A precedent has been set & IMO, it isn't good!
Anyone watch the interview with the CFP Chairman Reece Davis where he mentioned about why OU was not considered?? Guys on the pay board saying Davis specifically said OUs defense was singled out as something they simply could not get past and why OU was not even considered.
If you talk to the coaches who've been at that level, it doesn't work nearly as well as you've portrayed it. Home field in those playoff games, isn't based on who is the highest ranked team. It's based on which school gives the most money to the NCAA to host it. And that can be hard to overcome.
You can have the best team, but this deep into the year, one key injury changes everything. You can play a team that's not very good, and you beat them, but if they're really physical, it wrecks you for next week. By this time of the season, the hurts are major.
If OU was playing next week, they'd be moving forward without Westbrook or the latest starting corner. Even worse if we'd have had to play without a break in the last month, which is pretty common. The point of having a national champion is deciding the best team on the field. But add another week, and it becomes as much a battle of luck and attrition. It''s going to be four for a while. I'm glad for that.
I think most would agree which teams are in the top 6 or 7. Just based on which 4 teams are best in the country without considering conference championships or season records, I think only the Washington team is suspect over Penn State. Alabama. Clemson and Ohio State are clearly the top 3 teams in my opinion. Washington, Penn State and Michigan are toss ups based solely on talent, but when that's the case and there's only one spot, the committee had to use records and conference championships so eliminating Michigan was easy. I bet there were some compelling cases made for the other two but Washington won out. I can't argue much about the committee's decision.
I would also, but OU is not sponge worthy due to its porous defense. Nowhere near a top four, IMO. Don't want to sound like an Aggie, but depending upon how many, or actually how few, players leave early, the Sooners should have a better chance next year if the defense improves.
