College Football Playoff going to new straight seeding model - ESPN
This is the way it should have always been. No more #9 and #11 teams jumping to #3 and #4 just because they won their weak conference championships.
So many people on r/CFB are mad at this decision. Folks on Reddit have always held conference championships too high. Just because you win in a weak conference doesn't mean you are better than other non-conference champs.
What's so hilarious is how that "a conference championship means something" went right by the wayside. This means every single one of them that says this needs to be hunted down with their comments from 2011, 2016 (Ohio St), and 2017 and forced to explain the inconsistency.
I don't even know Tim Brando's take, but I'll guarantee you it's inconsistent. I watched his old TV on the CBS Sports Network religiously (one religious view I abandoned, ha ha), and over and over he would rant about the need for his "Blue Ribbon Panel," as if they were going to drink Pabst's nasty tasting beer and rank football teams. But the moment we got one, he whined like a little baby about "Bama playoff privilege." Wait - YOU wanted the panel, but then when the panel gave a result you didn't like, you blamed the panel for not giving you what you wanted!!!
I have zero reason - ZERO - to even watch a college football game ever again. Ever. I tune in games and have no idea which two teams are playing because of this constant uniform change nonsense (a few years back I tuned in an Iowa State game and they were wearing IIRC charcoal gray and pink......I thought we had some Hiroshima survivors on the field.
Move to the Bowl Alliance? Good
Move to the Bowl Coalition? Good
Neither was great, but they were immense improvements over "well, Washington HAS to play in the Rose Bowl and CANNOT play Miami." Except, of course, the Rose Bowl conferences were excluded.
Then we got the BCS, another improvement.
I would even consider the CFP four-team an improvement, although I disagreed with the process of human gatekeepers flying into Grapevine, TX to pad their expense accounts and talk about sports some of them never played.
And for the record ONCE UPON A TIME I advocated:
a) conference championship requirement
b) 16-team playoff
c) relegation out of FBS like in soccer
For the record, I sat down and considered the ramifications of the consequences is why I abandoned those. That 2011 Alabama vs LSU game that transfixed a country would have meant NOTHING if we could all say, "Look, the "real" game is coming in the rematch in six weeks in the second round of the playoffs." I know critics said, "That game didn't matter," but just the opposite happened: after that game was over, all of a sudden, Oregon vs USC, Boise vs TCU, Oklahoma vs Baylor, Okie St vs Iowa St, Bedlam, and LSU vs Arky
ALL MATTERED MORE. I watched ALL of those games when I rarely watched any non-SEC football...with my nerves jangling even. (The fall of 2011 - with the final day of the baseball season, the World Series my Rangers lost in a heartbreak, and the emotion and fervor of Alabama football post-tornado combined with the 'we need help' anxiety - brought me a rush like nothing since the 1991 Atlanta Braves).
I quit watching the NFL fifteen years ago except for an occasional playoff game. Two years ago, the Super Bowl was the ONLY NFL game I watched the ENTIRE SEASON - and I barely paid attention, I just couldn't find another show on I wanted to see.
It's big for gamblers. I don't gamble.
It's big for these 18-year-old mature kids who need a safe space with their million dollar paychecks and ten cent intellects. I'm not that, either.
But to give you some idea........I'm so out of touch with CFB that I didn't even know we started with Florida State this year until just last week. I'm in Chicago and talked to my Oregon bud (who grew up a Notre Dame fan) about coming to USC-Notre Dame in South Bend. We both laughed and thought, "You know, 15-20 years ago this would have been a way to check the bucket list. Who even cares?"
I'm not telling anyone that is how THEY should feel - but once upon a time I used to eat at Applebee's about once a week. Had 4-5 things on their menu that I really loved. Gradually, they took them all away one after the other even though I kept finding new things I'd like. Then in 2002, they switched to Pepsi from Coke. And lost a customer.
