Conference Championship Games HAVE TO GO!

No, I do not want the games to go away. It is a little different for the SEC because ours is the longest running. Maybe the Big Ten, Pac 12, and ACC doesn't have the attachment to it that we do. Maybe the Big 12 basically hates it because it has hurt them in the past, and now they've brought it back under the guise of needing the 13th game to help them in the rankings. But it's a guaranteed rematch. But for us, it now has history and nostalgia. I hate it that it makes our road much more difficult, but I still would not want to lose it.

Mic Drop for Selma!!

Interesting though that if there were no conference championship games, it is likely that Georgia would have been included in the top 4 along with Bama but those are the breaks.

Bamabuzzard said:

I'm not in favor of eliminating conference championships. But what I do think is crappy is a 12-0 Clemson playing a 7-5 team in the ACC title game. Then 11-1 Ohio St playing an 8-4 team in theirs. Granted, even though it's just one game difference. I have a much bigger issue with the 7-5 than the 8-4. Yet the SEC has two powerhouse teams going head to head playing real tackle football and the outcome has real national title consequences. Whereas the others are nothing more than scrimmage games.

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They talked about that on SEC Now. They said, simply, if GA and Alabama had to play those teams, both would have won and been in the playoff. It is a solid point, but GA still could have lost and been in if not for the LSU loss.

GA was not eliminated because of the SECCG loss. They were eliminated because of their LSU loss.

Does anyone really want to see UCF/Bama? I’d rather see Georgia/Bama.

Bamabuzzard said:

I'm not in favor of eliminating conference championships. But what I do think is crappy is a 12-0 Clemson playing a 7-5 team in the ACC title game. Then 11-1 Ohio St playing an 8-4 team in theirs. Granted, even though it's just one game difference. I have a much bigger issue with the 7-5 than the 8-4. Yet the SEC has two powerhouse teams going head to head playing real tackle football and the outcome has real national title consequences. Whereas the others are nothing more than scrimmage games.

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I guess the only real way to eliminate those mismatches would be to drop divisions and go with the two best records in the conference championship like the Big 12 does. The Big 12 only has 10 teams though so I don't know if something like that would work in other conferences.

You can't get rid of conference championship games in conferences that have 14 teams. It just doesn't work.

PA Tide Fan said:

I guess the only real way to eliminate those mismatches would be to drop divisions and go with the two best records in the conference championship like the Big 12 does. The Big 12 only has 10 teams though so I don't know if something like that would work in other conferences.

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The Big 12 still had a 3 loss team in their CCG. The PAC had both teams with 3 losses. That is just as bad, IMO.

Bamabuzzard said:

I'm not in favor of eliminating conference championships. But what I do think is crappy is a 12-0 Clemson playing a 7-5 team in the ACC title game. Then 11-1 Ohio St playing an 8-4 team in theirs. Granted, even though it's just one game difference. I have a much bigger issue with the 7-5 than the 8-4. Yet the SEC has two powerhouse teams going head to head playing real tackle football and the outcome has real national title consequences. Whereas the others are nothing more than scrimmage games.

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It's funny, I've been wondering if the unbalanced B1G divisions were done on purpose.

Originally they had the "Legends" and "Leaders" two made up divisions that were fairly even (Mich, Mich State, Nebraska on one side, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin on the other.) Then in 2013 Michigan State upset an undefeated Ohio State team and knocked them out of the BCS title game.

The following year they switched to the East and West when Rutgers and Maryland joined and put arguably their four top programs (Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Michigan State) in one division with Wisconsin left in the west to fend of the occasional challenge from Iowa and Northwestern while Nebraksa attempted to rebuild.

It sets up well for the conference -- whoever wins the East is the heavy favorite and faces only a modest challenge against the West team most years. Gives them the money and optics of a big championship game without much chance of an upset (East is now 4-0 against the West since they switched to this alignment.)

UntouchableCrew said:

It's funny, I've been wondering if the unbalanced B1G divisions were done on purpose.

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They were, but not for this purpose. Think about it - because all of the best teams are in one division, those teams beat each other up every single season. Much like the SECW, it is almost impossible to come out of that side of the bracket undefeated.

Go Bama said:

Does anyone really want to see UCF/Bama? I’d rather see Georgia/Bama.

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Yes, I do!!! I want them to be at full strength and to have their best player back, plus I'd spot them 21 points before the kickoff!!! I want Bama to utterly crush and humiliate UCF once and for all, forever ending any hopes they might have of playing in a championship with the big boys!!

(Don't judge me)

B1GTide said:

They were, but not for this purpose. Think about it - because all of the best teams are in one division, those teams beat each other up every single season. Much like the SECW, it is almost impossible to come out of that side of the bracket undefeated.

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Since 2014 the Big Ten East winner (and then conference champ) has never had more than one conference loss. I think it's worked well for them. The biggest thing that's kept them out of the playoff the last two years are tOSUs lopsided losses to mediocre teams.

Why do you think they were made unbalanced?

UntouchableCrew said:

Why do you think they were made unbalanced?

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It is well known and widely published - to protect long standing rivalries.

The problem with the SECCG now, in my eyes, is this. We play in that game against a very highly ranked team also contending for a spot in the playoffs, and one of us knocks the other out. In the meantime, other schools in contention get to play Pitt, Northwestern, Texas, and other teams just over .500 to secure their spot. Now, I fully understand that there have been years when our opponent was not as tough in the opposing division while some team from another conference may have had the tough road in. I get it. But why is there that inequality there to begin with? Seems the current plan will always serve to knock someone out from a strong conference, except in cases where one of the best teams manages to not play in the CCG.

RedWave said:

The problem with the SECCG now, in my eyes, is this. We play in that game against a very highly ranked team also contending for a spot in the playoffs, and one of us knocks the other out. In the meantime, other schools in contention get to play Pitt, Northwestern, Texas, and other teams just over .500 to secure their spot. Now, I fully understand that there have been years when our opponent was not as tough in the opposing division while some team from another conference may have had the tough road in. I get it. But why is there that inequality there to begin with? Seems the current plan will always serve to knock someone out from a strong conference, except in cases where one of the best teams manages to not play in the CCG.

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Maybe you forget that most of the last 10 years had an SECe team that was a joke.

FF4bama said:

Yes, I do!!! I want them to be at full strength and to have their best player back, plus I'd spot them 21 points before the kickoff!!! I want Bama to utterly crush and humiliate UCF once and for all, forever ending any hopes they might have of playing in a championship with the big boys!!

(Don't judge me)

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Gotta judge you a little bit.

Let some peon team, say LSU, do the grunt work. UCF is not living in my head.

There’s absolutely zero positive that could come from a victory over UCF.

Nah, they need to stay. Win and you are in. I hate having the regular season not mean anything.

Nope