November 24, 2010
Gainesville, Fla. (AP)—Urban Meyer and Nick Saban both announced that their scrimmage players would be starting this Saturday in their teams' biggest rivalry games against Florida State and Auburn.
"We've already clinched a playoff spot," said Urban Meyer. "Even if we lose the SEC Championship game next week, we've locked up a wild card. My guys are beat up. They need a week off to rest."
Nick Saban is also benching his entire starting lineup for this year's Iron Bowl against Auburn.
"It's funny," said Saban. "Two years ago we were in this exact same position, ranked number one and going to the SEC Championship game. But in 2008 we had to win the Auburn game—otherwise we couldn't have played in the National Championship game. Now that we have playoffs, it doesn't matter whether or not we beat Auburn."
Traditionalist fans of both teams are up in arms over the coaching decisions.
"I don't understand what they're complaining about," said Meyer. "They were the ones all screaming for a playoff. Now that they have one, they have to deal with the consequences. My job as a coach is to do whatever it takes to win the championship."
- B/R Ticket Guide
Ticket sales are slow for the SEC Championship game in Atlanta next week.
"I'm not going this year," said Florida fan Steve Williams. "It doesn't have the same juice. In 2008, Florida and Alabama were playing to get into the old BCS National Championship game. This year the winner just gets a higher seed in the playoffs. So what? Besides, I can't afford it. I already sold my Wrangler to get the money to travel to the playoff games."
The playoffs, which kick off for the first time two weeks from Saturday, will feature a 20-team format. They were originally set to begin last year as an eight-team poll-based playoff, but they were blocked by a lawsuit from the five non-BCS conferences. They insisted on automatic berths for their conference champions.
After intense negotiations handled personally by President Obama, the current format of 20 teams, with 11 conference champions and nine wild cards, was agreed to.
"This takes most of the voting out of it." said President Obama. "That's what people didn't like about the old BCS system anyway—that voters decided who qualified. It's more fair to allow all the conference champions in, and we need the extra wild cards to make sure the competition is level."
Some lower tier teams are struggling financially this year, since they had to drop a game from their regular season schedule to make room for an extra playoff week and no longer have access to a bowl game.
With the complete demise of the bowl system and lower revenues from the regular season, more and more teams are demanding access to the playoffs, which are already scheduled to expand to a 24-team format in 2011.
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about 1 month ago
Thank you. I thought I was the only one who didn't want a college football playoff.
from about 1 month ago
Welcome to the brotherhood, J!!!!
from about 1 month ago
I'm not 100% sure if this satire is meant to support the current system or not, but my reading is it's a comment on the nonsense that a playoff would dilute the intensity of the regular season. As I (Gator Alum) began writing this response I actually received a phone call from an old friend (Bama Fan) just to tell me that he and most Bama fans would rather beat Auburn than beat Florida i.e. win the SEC Championship. (I just hung up the phone). Now thats true fanaticism. We might both agree that this sounds too nonsensical to believe, but nobody is going to tell me that I'm going to stop following my beloved Gators with the exact same passion should this imaginary playoff materialize. For college football fans like myself, more games will translate to more passion not less. A playoff will simply mean LESS talk about which potential match-ups we are being cheated out of and MORE excitement surrounding all the possible match-ups we will be treated to. I get light headed thinking about it. Remember: Playoffs = increased passion not less!
from about 1 month ago
Thomas: you are correct. I am against a playoff. I'm a Gator fan too. I get excited about the Spring Scrimmage game. But if you can't feel the difference in intensity between an Ole Miss game where your whole season is on the line and an Ole Miss game where a 3 loss season gets you into the playoffs, you should have your head examined. You might have serious emotional problems.
about 1 month ago
Thomas, this is a great article. It makes a great point without going around the world to do it. I love the satiric approach!
from about 1 month ago
Thanks, Franklin. I'm glad you appreciated it!
about 1 month ago
Sorry, I meant Lou of course!
about 1 month ago
Um ... wouldn't the playoff seed still be important and therefore the teams play just as hard as ever?
In 2008-09, would you rather face Utah or say ... Texas Tech?
from about 1 month ago
Hi Nathan:
Teams always play hard, but be honest. Playoff games are more exciting than regular season games because there's no tomorrow. Every game is win or go home. Every regular season college football game for contending teams is almost the same. I say almost because a single loss does not mean final elimination, but in 90 per cent of the cases, it does.
If you start a playoff in college, the playoffs will be great of course, but it will take away from the current excitement of the regular season games. 3 loss playoff teams will be commonplace, so losing a regular season game won't have anywhere near the impact it does now.
Also, you're really stretching it to claim playing for a seed placement generates any excitement in the fan base.
about 1 month ago
As Lou writes, "But if you can't feel the difference in intensity between an Ole Miss game where your whole season is on the line and an Ole Miss game where a 3 loss season gets you into the playoffs, you should have your head examined. You might have serious emotional problems." 3 loss season gets you into the playoff? Really? Not even a 16 team playoff would include a three loss team. Your ad hominen attack speaks for itself. Lets keep our responses to what is written. Or am I too emotional disturbed to get your point?
from about 1 month ago
Thomas, if you spend a little time reading my arguments in back posts, you will understand that a mini-playoff is impossible in a 119 team league. The playoff will have to be 24 teams in order to keep the peace in college football.
about 1 month ago
Lou, I'm shocked! You say you're a Gator fan, but in your article Bama won the SEC Championship in 2008! How do you see that happening! I know it'll be a closer game then everyone says, but seeing the balanced Gator team versus the Sam Bradford show, I think we're going to pull it off. I think your future history needs to be rewritten. LoL
from about 1 month ago
Haha, sorry about that Kat. Maybe I should go back and edit it.
from about 1 month ago
Seriously, what were you thinking! LoL!
about 1 month ago
A quick way to get fired as the head coach of Alabama is saying, "it doesn't matter whether or not we beat Auburn."
I'm kinda in the middle on a playoff. You are right that it would dimish the regular season some and that would take away from what is great about college football.
On the other hand, I'm tired of seeind deserving and especially undefeated teams not given an opportunity to prove they are the best. Auburn not getting a chance is 2004 was a joke. Utah back in 2004 I think was in the same boat. All these non BCS schools that go undefeated should be given a chance. Some will turn out like Hawaii but other will turn out like Boise State and Utah. You don't know unless you play the games.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for the comment, Michael. You may not believe this, but I support a plus one in the case where there are more than 2 undefeated teams with credible SOS. Letting the Bosie States and Hawaii's play for the title is wrong though. You are only encouraging teams to play weak schedules.
The only solution for the non BCS conferences is to split off and form their own division, like 1-AA. It's ridiculous for every team in a 119 team league to demand a shot at the title.
about 1 month ago
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from about 1 month ago
So it wasn't just me! All the comments had disappeared!
about 1 month ago
Thank You. This needed to be written. We already have the NFL, why would we want another one?
from about 1 month ago
Welcome to the brotherhood, David!!!!!
about 1 month ago
Lou-
I'm one of those who wants a playoff, but doesn't believe in autobids. You take the top 16 from the BCS standings, period. If you took the standings starting this week, the ACC 'champ' wouldn't get in! (Assuming FSU loses to Florida this weeekend, the ACC champ wouldn't be in at the end anyway this season) That way, you show you've played a hard enough schedule and won enough games to be in the top 16, regardless of conference, and you keep bad teams like that horridly undeserving Pitt team from '04 out.
from about 1 month ago
Brandon, thanks for the comments. I agree that this is the most reasonable mini-playoff proposal, but you have two major problems that will force it to expand:
1) the 5 non-BCS conferences will file an anti-trust lawsuit against the BCS conferences and demand that all 11 conferences receive automatic bids. It was their threat of a lawsuit that forced the BCS to add the fifth at large BCS bowl a few years ago.
This is why the BCS confs do not want a playoff. They know they will have to let the non-BCS conf champs in. What they don't like about that is they will no longer be able to hog all the bowl money. When a playoff is created, then all the conferences will have to split the playoff money equitably. Even if the pie is bigger, the BCS confs will get less proportionally.
2) Voters are still deciding who gets in and who get left out. This is system that is wide open to reasonable objections from left outs. This is why basketball ended up with 64 teams and than 1-AA football's playoff expanded from 4 teams to 20 teams. If you have 119 teams in a league, you have to let in as many people as possible, even if they don't have a reasonable.
I know right now it seems like teams 17 through 24 have no argument to play for the national championship, but remember, once a playoff is created, everyone will forget about the current system and its issues. Everyone on the outside will agitate for a playoff, no matter how many teams are in it.
Also, it will be easy to shut them up. Just add another week of playoffs. That's why the other systems got so big.
from about 1 month ago
See, this is why the reality of things doesn't mesh with common sense and why reasonable playoff ideas, such as mine, will never happen. (Why call it common sense when it's so rare?) I don't see an argument for anti-trust when there are NO autobids. In the current scenario, 25% of the teams right now in the BCS standings are non-BCS teams, including a TCU team that has TWO losses. That's because those two losses were to #3 Oklahoma and #6 Utah. Have a good schedule, win the games you're supposed to win (No bad losses like to Arkansas this season, or to Toledo, or Notre Dame), have at least ONE quality win (#18 BYU for TCU) and if you do lose, lose only to a really good team and don't lose too many. Or you're out. (This would also explain why Oregon State would knock Ball State out if they won and no one else lost to drop out. BSU hasn't scheduled a quality team)
Secondly, a supposedly 'superior' BCS conference champion would be left out in the cold because they didn't do enough in the regular season. Note: IF FSU managed to somehow beat Florida this weekend, that would change, but then I wouldn't say FSU was undeserving, since it proved it was worthy enough by beating a very good Gator team to get in. That makes this argument a wash. Right now, as it stands, only FSU has an argument about getting in from the ACC, and it relies on this weekend for their argument.
Thirdly, while it relies on voters, it also relies on computer rankings. Again, I go back to the fact that four non-BCS teams are in if the playoffs were decided today with my system. It's a matter of taking care of business. With this system, playing in a tougher conference, like the SEC, gives you a little lee-way. You don't have to go undefeated to win out, because the teams you lose to are usually right up there as well.
It's stupid that it will never happen because of asinine people, but this type of playoff would eliminate some of the major problems faced with the BCS right now. The best conferences are obviously the Big XII and the SEC right now, and look, they'd have half the field because of it. The non-BCS teams would have their representation because they've had four teams that have done what they needed to to get in so far, and the other four are USC, Penn State, Ohio State and Cincinnati, all four good to really good teams. And this is with a week to go.
from about 1 month ago
Brandon, the BCS is vulnerable to an anti-trust lawsuit because it is in fact an illegal cartel within Div 1-A football. It doesn't matter if there are auto-bids or not. Once a 16 team, or even 8 team, playoff is started the non-BCSers will argue in their lawsuit that it should be organized differently, with 11 conference auto bids.
The polling system is inherently unfair to their conferences because they never receive high pre season rankings and they rarely play enough ranked teams in order to move up in the rankings. 2 loss BCS teams regularly receive BCS bowl bids (or playoff spots in your system), while non-BCS teams have to go undefeated and even then aren't assured of a spot because of voters and computers. This may seem fair to you, but I assure you, they don't think its fair.
These issues are all easily resolved by reorganizing your playoff to include 11 conf champs plus 5 wild cards. Of course, this isn't nearly enough wild cards, which is why I say there will be no peace in college football until there is a 24 team playoff with 11 conf champs and 13 wild cards.
from about 1 month ago
That's why I say there's a difference between common sense and reality. You say that you would have to go undefeated to get into a playoff in my system as a non-BCS conference and yet TCU is in the top sixteen with two losses. So it can happen. Secondly, in my opinion, if a team from a non-BCS conference wants to prove they do deserve to play against the better teams, and conferences like the SEC and Big XII are better on average, then yes they should have to go undefeated, or one loss with that loss being to a high end team. I'm sorry these teams from the Sun Belt think they deserve to be in a playoff at 7-4, but the competition isn't there and, if they truly wanted to prove they belonged in the national championship hunt, they need to be that much better than their competition in a given year. Tulsa wants to be in the talks for a playoff? Next time don't lose to a 4-7 Arkansas team. And as I said before, my statement would go for a BCS conference like the ACC this year too. You want to be considered, don't lose to low end teams like Virginia at 5-6.
All this is moot, because it would never happen in reality. There's too much ego-stroking to allow any kind of decent playoff because some teams have delusions of grandeur about their teams 'greatness' and things that make the most sense don't seem to work because of greed and pride. So I watch them get it wrong every year and have all these meaningless bowls until they finally break and throw together some mutant form of the NCAA tournament. Neither choice really makes me happy. And it just proves how truly awful college sports postseason is.
from about 1 month ago
There actually isn't supposed to be a post season in college football. The bowl games are traditionally exhibition games. Until 1963 the old mythical national championship was voted on before the bowl games. The results of the bowl games were considered unreliable because of the long lay off. I agree with this. They should move the NC game to the second week of December so these teams don't lose their timing and game speed. Then the other bowls could go back to what they were meant to be. Fun matches between teams that don't normally play each other often.
I agree, basketball's tournament is a joke. Football's way of determining a champion is also a joke, but at least we have a unique regular season, where every game has a playoff atmosphere for 13 straight weeks. That's what I like about the game.
I blog about this because I don't think people realize that the basketball model is the only type you can have in a 119 league. A mini playoff always sound nice on paper, but it will be forced to expand by the basic structure of the sport. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
about 1 month ago
I appreciate the satire but I am sorry: if this is the best anti-playoff argument out there then a playoff should be implemented immediately if not sooner.
The fans and boosters at Florida demand that the Gators beat Georgia, Tennessee and FSU every year. It is the same way at all of the major programs. Rivalry games are priority #1 for a coaching staff and the advent of a playoff system will not change that.
Every year I watch fewer and fewer bowl games and I am guessing I am not the only college football fan who is losing interest in the BCS BS. Either give me a playoff, bring back the old bowl system (where winning your conference actually meant something) or just do away with the bowl season all together.
I've lost interest in the continual BCS turd polishing and the endless debates about something that should be settled between the chalk lines.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for the comment. I have plenty of anti-playoff arguments. Check back on my last few blog posts.
I am for bringing back the old bowl system. The BCS is a 2 team playoff, so it's already a playoff. Pressure will remain on the current playoff system to expand until it reaches at least 24, probably 32.
The problem with a 24 or 32 team - which I have proved is inevitable - is not that the conference championship, the bowls, the regular season games,the rivalries won't mean anything. It's just that they won't mean as much.
For me, I like the 13 straight weeks of playoff atmosphere football, where a single loss virtually eliminates your team. I don't want to exchange that for 3 weeks of real playoffs, even if that does a better job of crowning an undisputed champion.
about 1 month ago
Lou, I have seen some of your other posts and I appreciate what you are bringing to the debate.
Despite the challenges, I feel an 8-team playoff would be a fine compromise and solve 90% of the complaints I have about the current situation.
Yes, it could be viewed as inadequate or unfair due to the number of FBS teams and conferences but it would be light-years ahead of the current BCS system which is just terrible in my opinion (and I am a Gator / SEC fan, mind you).
from about 1 month ago
Sorry, but 8 team playoff advocates are delusional.
The BCS system solved 90 per cent of the 1998 problem, which was the split championship. Nobody's cares about that anymore.
Once a playoff is established, nobody's going to care about today's problems either
There will only be one problem. Why isn't my team in the playoffs? Why is Utah in the playoffs and not Georgia, Missouri and Ohio State, all of whom would be favored by more than a touchdown over Utah in a head to head game?
Every year there will be similar absurdities. The conference champion that didn't make the playoffs, while the team they defeated for the conference championship makes the playoffs and so on.
Every playoff in history that has ever been established has expanded.
Of course an 8 team would be a better way of determining an undisputed national champion. That's not my point. You can't have your cake and eat it to. In a 119 team league you have to let everybody in to the playoff, otherwise there is no peace. That's why basketball has to invite 65.
1-A Football has the exact same structure and will be subject to the same pressures, except they will be more intense because of the greater popularity of the sport. 1-AA, a sport nobody in world cares about and few even know exists, had to expand their playoff from 4 teams to 20 teams already.
about 1 month ago
Lou, I said it would solve 90% of the complaints that I personally have as a fan of the Gators, the SEC and BCS conference football. I am not sure how that makes me "delusional" as I don't claim to speak for Utah or all 119 FBS teams.
Your points are valid in the context you are describing, but I don't really care if the #9 team is whining about be left out and I would be willing to live with Florida being left out if we could move towards a system that had the top teams from the BCS conferences playing one another in a playoff format at the end of the season.
To me that is better than what we currently have, but no it is not a perfect solution and doesn't address the concerns of all FBS schools.
from about 1 month ago
GatorJohn. Thanks for the comment. I would support an 8 team playoff also, because the regular season games would still be critical. The reason I don't support an 8 team is because it will expand to a 24 team. That's what I'm trying to explain to people. An 8 team will just be getting you out of the frying pan and into the fire. It doesn't resolve the basic fairness issues that arise in a 119 team league with no balance of power.
Just like when they created the current 2 team playoff. It resolved the problem everyone was complaining about at the time - the split championshiop - but opened up a Pandora's box of new problems.
I'm in favor of getting rid of the BCS and going back to the old polling/bowl system. I don't argue for it, because it is pointless. Once you start a playoff, you can never get rid of it and it just keeps growing and growing and growing - in our case until the regular season games aren't what they are now.
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