Question: So, how do you feel about a 4 team playoff now?

AgentAntiOrange said:

Personally, I have loved the playoff this year. It kept about 8 teams relevant to the NC discussion deep into November, they got the playoff teams correct (IMHO anyways), and the 3 best teams this year (Bama, FSU, and Oregon) all have a shot to settle things on the field.

I cannot imagine how the inaugural season could have gone better. I have loved every week of it.

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I do not disagree with th result - only folks in the state of Texas think that they got it wrong. But we have already seen a change in the game resultant from the use of this committee - teams that are in the hunt now find it necessary to run up the score in games against over-matched opponents. Sportsmanship is being sacrificed - in a sport.

B1GTide said:

I do not disagree with th result - only folks in the state of Texas think that they got it wrong. But we have already seen a change in the game resultant from the use of this committee - teams that are in the hunt now find it necessary to run up the score in games against over-matched opponents. Sportsmanship is being sacrificed - in a sport.

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This was happening under the BCS system as well. It's been going on for decades. Can't lay that on the committee or playoff format. IMHO, the "style points" thinking was created by, and is continued by, primarily the media. AP voters and sports media personalities have penalized teams for close wins for years. That's what created the idea that blowing inferior teams out is safer than being classy.

AgentAntiOrange said:

This was happening under the BCS system as well. It's been going on for decades. Can't lay that on the committee or playoff format. IMHO, the "style points" thinking was created by, and is continued by, primarily the media. AP voters and sports media personalities have penalized teams for close wins for years. That's what created the idea that blowing inferior teams out is safer than being classy.

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Not nearly as much as they removed point differential from all of the computer formulas. It only applied with respect the human polls used.

bamaltc said:

I would be fine with the four team playoff if they would simply use the old BCS formula for selecting the top 4 teams. Looking back over the BCS years, the top four would have right almost every time. I guess that was too simple.

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JeffAtlanta said:

As others have mentioned, the lack of a championship game really wasn't what kept them out of the playoffs as there are 5 power conferences and only 4 slots. The lack of a championship game didn't help, but it's going to be very hard for a TCU or Baylor to get in over an Ohio State.

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For the most part, I disagree with this. Although it was not the only factor, I think that with most other things fairly equal, them NOT playing an extra game in a conf championship kept them out, and will continue to. I feel if Baylor had to play that extra game for a championship, and had won convincingly, they would have ended ahead of Ohio State.

As for the 4 team playoff, I love it. I think it added a lot more excitement in the regular season, especially late. But I highly dislike choosing by committee. The BCS formula would work much better.

It should stay at 4 teams to preserve the exceptional regular season of college football. We do not want to become like the NFL. I cannot even watch a regular season NFL game--they have so little importance.

I like it. I like that the committee was willing to depart with the norm and match up the PAC 12 and ACC in the Rose Bowl instead of the PAC 12 and the BIG 10, good change of pace, keeps things way more interesting.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Would you still like it if your team was #5 and out of it? Would you still support it then? What if your team was 11-1 and on the outside looking in?

Its easy to support right now being Tide, Duck, Nole and Buckeye fans......

With it being only 4 teams, there will always be snubs involved like with Baylor and TCU.

I still fully 100% believe that it needs to go to 8 teams. All 5 Conference Champions get an auto-bid and then you can pick three wild card teams. This would 100% without a doubt make it to where nobody is screwed over or snubbed. Lets face it, once you start reaching around that #10 ranked area, none of those teams belong in any good bowls much less the playoffs. However, #8 - #1 is damn near splitting hairs on a yearly basis outside of those years that one team rises up and just dominates everyone and runs the table (which is not that common)

Loam said:

Its easy to support right now being Tide, Duck, Nole and Buckeye fans......

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Really? I don't like it one bit.

It should be FSU vs. Alabama, the two teams that had the best regular season. Not the team that lost to Arizona and has an unimpressive SoS, not the team that lost to Virginia Tech and had a horrible SoS...

When we talk about going to an eight team playoff, don't forget (as we roll out the Tide with all the minor injuries we have) that if we win it all this year, our guys will have played 15 games.

Loam said:

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Would you still like it if your team was #5 and out of it? Would you still support it then? What if your team was 11-1 and on the outside looking in?

Its easy to support right now being Tide, Duck, Nole and Buckeye fans......

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I like it no more or less because Alabama and OSU made the cut. I had no expectation that OSU would make the cut and was pleasantly surprised when we did. I could not have blamed the committee for holding the VT loss against us, since I did. And Alabama makes the cut this year under every system that college football has ever used.

4 teams is better than 2 simply because you are more likely to get the best two into a field of 4 than a field of 2. IMO, it should be all about getting the best two teams into the big game, not about giving more teams a shot at the big game.

I admit to liking a 6 team playoff with the top 2 teams getting a bye in week 1 of the playoff, but I hate the idea that all 5 power conferences should automatically get their champion into the playoff field. This season was an anomoly. All 5 power conferences placed a team in the top 5. That will not happen again in our lifetimes.

Bamaro said:

Yes, if that's the best that you can do you shouldn't complain about not being in the playoffs. No matter how many teams are in a playoff, you will still have a "#5" that will complain.

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I agree with this statement. Under the BCS number 5 wouldn't have even had a remote wisp of a chance. At least now teams like Baylor and TCU have a shot every year. The BCS system cut down on complainers by not even giving them a chance to complain. I guess that solves the problem in some sense, but I bet if you asked Baylor or TCU at the beginning of the year, if they'd like to have the opportunity to play in a championship by being the #4 team in the country they would say yes.

Now, with that being said, I'm not happy at all with this committee nonsense. I wish they would have stuck to the BCS formula for picking the teams. At least then there was some pretense to objectivity. And I think that the BCS did a pretty fair job of ranking the teams even if I didn't always agree with the top two. However, all told, I don't think things ended up too badly this year, and I'm looking forward to pretty much all of the New Year's Day bowls, which is something that I haven't been able to say under most of the BCS.

I agree that the BCS should have picked the top 4. Everybody complained in 2011 (LSU fans anyway) when they were paired, but they were the 2 best teams. Alabama and Notre Dame--not so much--but in a 4-team playoff scenario, Notre Dame would have been eliminated if they really were that bad against strong competition. Ohio State's performance was very good against Wisconsin, but the committee dropped an impressive TCU team in favor of Ohio State with a 3rd string QB. I somehow feel if Texas or Oklahoma had TCU's resume, they would be in without a doubt. Urban vs. Saban might have been too exciting to pass up, who knows.

I've accepted the change by now. I don't believe it's the best system, by any metric. But, there is little I can do about it. I enjoyed the old ways of traditional bowl games and didn't have much of an issue with split championships. Whatever we do, avoiding becoming more like the NFL is most important, IMO. I don't believe it should ever expand beyond 6 teams. And never ever give conference champions automatic bids.

If we don't keep the 4 team play off...

I'm a big fan of a 64 team playoff. Even the real stinkers will make it.
Besides I'm no Basketball fan, so February playoffs would work.

Seriously, after watching some 6-6 teams in Bowl Games, I'd be in favor of requiring 7 wins to qualify for a bowl.
The old 6 win, was put into place when teams played less games.
Kind of hard to 'REWARD' a team for breaking even...
What are we up to now, something approaching 50 bowls?

Always room for one more... How about the 'REEL TOWN BOWL'?
(So close to 'The Barn', you have to hold your nose...)
(No offense intended toward any wayward Alabama Fans stuck in Lee Co.)

I am on record as being in favor of a +1. I hope it does not ever go beyond this, but the talking heads are already squealing. I still don't like the committee, especially when they are putting out weekly "where we are now" lists.

What is great is that Alabama has a chance to be on top in yet another era of choosing champions.

B1GTide said:

I like it no more or less because Alabama and OSU made the cut. I had no expectation that OSU would make the cut and was pleasantly surprised when we did. I could not have blamed the committee for holding the VT loss against us, since I did. And Alabama makes the cut this year under every system that college football has ever used.

4 teams is better than 2 simply because you are more likely to get the best two into a field of 4 than a field of 2. IMO, it should be all about getting the best two teams into the big game, not about giving more teams a shot at the big game.

I admit to liking a 6 team playoff with the top 2 teams getting a bye in week 1 of the playoff, but I hate the idea that all 5 power conferences should automatically get their champion into the playoff field. This season was an anomoly. All 5 power conferences placed a team in the top 5. That will not happen again in our lifetimes.

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I think was by design. It was evident that the committee were not ranking teams blindly according to "best" teams in order -- it was a set up (not necessarily a bad one though) so they could get the conference champions in and keep the non-champs out. Oh by the way, B1GTide -- congrats on the win!!!

Hated then hate it now!


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