Welcome to the New Era of College Football (Peaking in the Playoffs)

Bamabuzzard said:

I guess it's my personal preference. But I don't like seeing teams with two losses eligible for the playoff. Something just doesn't seem right about that.

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Not like we haven't had a 2 loss team win a championship before.

Bamabuzzard said:

I guess it's my personal preference. But I don't like seeing teams with two losses eligible for the playoff. Something just doesn't seem right about that.

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This!

College football has always had the best regular season because every game counts. A 2-3 loss championship destroys all that. It already happened this year. No real champion should lose to the 2014 version of VaTech

BamaMoon said:

It's concerned me that over the past few years we've rarely played our best football as the season wore on. We often started fast (literally every year unders CNS), often peaked about 8 games in (LSU), struggled the last few games (mainly against the Barn -- even years when we won -- except for a couple blow out games) and then after a month of practice we would play great in the BCS game.

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It's the SEC -- we are indeed a victim of our own fellow conference teams' toughness. If Ohio State this year had played through the SEC (East or West), they lose two games minimum and if somehow they did make it in, they would have been beaten up a bit like we were. There are times when I am more proud we won the SEC than anything else. Even The Visor said it's easier to win a National Championship than it is to win the SEC conference. He weren't wrong.

BamaMoon said:

The playoff changes things, but it's simply not true that it makes the regular season meaningless.

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So far. But, it's just a matter of time.

It has always been important to peak at the right time. Early season losses have always been easier to overcome than late season losses. A 4 team playoff didn't really change any of that. But, as many of you have pointed out, as more teams are added to the playoff pool, less value will be placed on individual regular season games. Remember, a 2 loss LSU team won the BCS title a few years back, so even that has always been possible under the right circumstances.

I don't see teams with more than 2 losses making into an 8 team pool, so I don't have a problem with that number. My preference would be a field of 6, with the top two seeds getting a bye in week one. It forces teams to try to land one of those two top spots to avoid a third playoff game - placing real value on all regular season games again.

But, no matter what method we use to crown a champion, late season performance will always be more important than early season performance.

I'm not so sure an 8 team playoff is coming. The TV money would not necessarily be better (yes, I'm guessing). The drama this year was off the charts. A lot of the talking heads are intrigued by the 4 team playoff. The 4 team playoff sets college apart from the pros.

I don't see peaking as important as just plain old getting better from game to game. I went back and watched the tOSU/Va Tech game late in the season and Va Tech should have won that game. tOSU just got a LOT better as the season went on. The Buckeyes 3rd team QB, Cardale Jones, was a major problem for Whisky, Bama, and Oregon. I'm not sure tOSU wins those last t 3 game with either of their other two QB's. IMO, tOSU won the playoff because they were the best team, not so much because they were peaking. In fact, I thought the best team won all three playoff games.

BamaMoon said:

I think your Buckeyes are the perfect example of a team playing their best at the end of a regular season. Do you think a week off might have hurt their momentum?

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You already get time off before the first playoff game, so I don't see a huge difference.

crimsonaudio said:

And the regular season will become less and less important as the playoffs continue to expand (and they will). just a matter of time before we see a farce like Super Bowl XLVI...

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Yup...

I can't take anything away from Ohio State. Somehow losing their QB (again) lit a fire under them. Their last three games were impressive by any standard. I was not at all afraid of Ohio State, until their conference championship game and then I was.

But, clearly this is a new era. It's not about how well you did in the regular season, Ohio State's regular season was very unimpressive (compared to the other top teams, including FSU). It's now about the post season, and that's how most people like it unfortunately.

crimsonaudio said:

And the regular season will become less and less important as the playoffs continue to expand (and they will). just a matter of time before we see a farce like Super Bowl XLVI...

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Yep.In this "made for tv" era, the NCG will wind up being like the Superbowl...10 hours of pre-game, 3 hours of football, and 1 hour of post-game. That's 14 hours of tv time. They could stuff at least 3 hours worth of commercials in there. hahahaha

bamadp said:

Yep.In this "made for tv" era, the NCG will wind up being like the Superbowl...10 hours of pre-game, 3 hours of football, and 1 hour of post-game. That's 14 hours of tv time. They could stuff at least 3 hours worth of commercials in there. hahahaha

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& all of that will work great on a Monday night.....

You're right...it's coming...

This is my first post since the pre-game thread of the Sugar Bowl. I'm still extremely dissapointed in our coaching staff but I'm not going to take anything away from OSU as a whole.

They didn't just 'Get Hot' and pull off a magic trick to win the NC. I said before the playoffs that whoever won out would be the true deserving National Champion. I think we all misjudged the collective strength of the SEC and the perceived weaknesses of the BIG10 or any other major conference. I know I was very wrong.

The parity is real now across the country. Maybe it's the HUNH maybe it's not but the SEC stranglehold is over.

Anyway getting back on point OSU did play at a very high level at the end but they did it mostly due to execution, game planning, and game day coaching. They went 14-1 and absolutely woodshedded a Whisky team who barely beat AU. They beat us pretty good no matter the 1 TD difference. They kind of spotted us the lead and then just rattled off like 4-5 straight TD's. Then they absolutely clobbered Oregon by 3 TD even though they turned it over 4 times.

I'm still super ticked at our staff but it's not like OSU was one of those NY Giant teams that won a Super Bowl after going 9-7. OSU was a world beater and just nobody knew it.

Lastly the seedings probably should have been exactly how the final rankings are now.

1)OSU
2)ORE
3)TCU
4)ALA

I'm proud of the SEC Title and I have LOVED this 2014 team but our staff has some major adjustments to make. Specifically with game day adjustments and substitutions.

I can't stand Urban but he just took the Nation to school in Head Coaching.

Oh and congrats to B1GTide....your team really deserved it sir. I was extremely over confident pregame so I apologize now if I was being semi cocky. I really really thought we would win it all but you guys truly were the best. Onto next year/this year...2015.

It would be nice to be able to peak at just the right time but in the SEC you're not going to have an easy enough schedule to win without your A game most of the time.
You have to play games at your peak in Sep and Oct. You can't afford to wait until Nov to peak.

OSU in 2015 will be much like FSU in 2014. They will be picked to go undefeated by 99.9% of all media because they have a favorable schedule.
Even if they lose to VT in week one, they are on cruise control for 9 games till the end of Nov. when they play MSU and MI the last two games.
They have lots of time to improve and still win games without peaking before the end of the year.

The Big12 still has a built in advantage of not having a CCG and playing one less game.

It will be interesting to see what happens next year.

KrAzY3 said:

Yup...
But, clearly this is a new era. It's not about how well you did in the regular season, Ohio State's regular season was very unimpressive (compared to the other top teams, including FSU). It's now about the post season, and that's how most people like it unfortunately.

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FSU's regular season record was clearly fraudulent.

crimsonaudio said:

And the regular season will become less and less important as the playoffs continue to expand (and they will). just a matter of time before we see a farce like Super Bowl XLVI...

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Not really you just have win your conference championship. I don't see how it becomes "less important". You still have to win.

I don't have any problem with a one loss team, peaking or getting hot and taking it all. It is going to be hard to suck all season and be in the top four. I do fear like everyone else that expansion is coming. I also think that the 4 team playoff will produce at least one two loss champion.

crimsonaudio said:

For now. The extreme example is NCAA basketball where you could lose every regular season game, win your conference, and you're in.

When (not if) we have a 16 team playoff the regular season won't be nearly as important.

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Like I've said before, I think we are going to move to 8 - 10 teams, and the large conferences will be divided into 4 sub-divisions which will give you a chance to play your conference rivals and have a tougher OOC schedule. Doesn't bother me at all.