Perfect Playoff Bracket

[IUPNation]

Load up the bracket with Big Sky and Missouri Valley schools and call it a day.

This whole thread is basically a circle jerk to say that load up the playoffs each year with the same 10 teams with the whiniest most entitled fan bases in D2 and call it a day.

:-)

[UNALions]

The NCAA needs to stop worrying about expenses and pay for the flights if needed in the first round. They are just tight wads. Cough up the money NCAA! You got it to let loose the purse strings!

The NCAA treats the D2 playoffs like a financial burden instead of actually thinking outside the box to promote the brand and upgrade the playoffs to actually make some money for the teams/conferences!

Who plays all of their playoff games at the same time (basically)? These games, especially the semis and title game, should be broadcast in ways that would capitalize on the good level of football in many of these matchups. Maybe different days of the week or something to get them on ESPN/2 or even ESPN+ like the FCS playoffs. FCS has a couple of matchups each playoff week on ESPN or ESPN2 but they may be on a Friday afternoon/night and the rest are on ESPN+.

Instead, the NCAA is allowing D2 to fall backward in coverage and promotion. I recall when the title game was always on ESPN or ESPN2. This year it was relegated to ESPNU.

I know you were talking flights and such, which I completely agree with, too. The NCAA has to find better ways to fund, operate, and promote the D2 Playoffs.

[Predatory Primates]

I dislike the use of polls unless we change how they are done. I mean, even the D2 poll doesn't appear to be based on who would beat whom some of the time.

[Packfootball]

The NCAA needs to stop worrying about expenses and pay for the flights if needed in the first round. They are just tight wads. Cough up the money NCAA! You got it to let loose the purse strings!

[Matt Witwicki]

I was messing around and had done something very similar to Inkblot..with the spirit of how the FCS was doing theirs..as I think we'd all prefer that. Ink and I haven't talked about any of this together..we just both just did a test bracket independent of each other. This was just a Witt sketch of my own version of the deal. Keep in mind, everything is through the eyes of what the teams resume looked like through 11 weeks....not with the understanding of how teams faired in the postseason this year. While drumming up a bracket, I looked to adhere to these thoughts..

-I didn't look at anything through the lens of regions..I looked at this as a national field of teams.

-I took every conference champ (15 of them) and gave them an auto-bid, which I believe FCS does (while I didn't have their exact criteria). Inclusion would create more buy-in for such a process if each conference knows their conference champ will make it in..period. This makes for 15 conference champs and 13 at-large spots. This doesn't grant you a home game..simply a seat at the table..that's all.

-I then took the top 4 teams and put them each in a different quad of the bracket..just like the FCS does.

-Per a national committee taking a hard look at the entire field..with our typical criteria and then their own judgement..and using previous experience to come into play (giving the benefit of playoff success to the MIAA, GLIAC, GSC, and such). For example, an unbeaten Ouachita is not in the top 4 (heading into the playoffs), but I ranked them 6 here. Ferris higher. Seed 5 is in the same quad with the 4 seed..the 1 seed overall is with the 8 seed overall..and such. That's the end of the seeding there.

-I also did the same as FCS in that I had no repeat games from the regular season in R1..but tried to put teams in matchups in R1 that would avoid flights. (using 600 miles like we currently do) In future rounds if I could lesson flights great, but with the field being cut almost in half the ability to not have flights is....hit and miss. Truly, if the NCAA is looking to better this tournament they'll need to adopt something closer to the FCS model and stop going with a numbers-only selection process and start having people truly assess the teams (with historical reference in their back pocket) and the ability for the best 4 teams to be split up....not in the same SR(3) like they are now with GV and Ferris..or NW like past years.

-I then drew up a sketch that combined the AFCA poll, the D2football.com poll, and Massey....and assessed what other teams were seemingly deserving of a playoff game..and the remainder of the teams were on the road. The yellow indicates the needed flights in R1. Uncertain of outcomes, I didn't do that in future rounds. By no means is this perfect..but I would take it over the current system.

[NWFanatic]

Regardless of the number of teams qualifying Regionality must be scrapped. Just look at this year’s FCS title game…SDSU vs NDSU(both from the Missouri Valley Conference). It reminds me of the earlier years of D2 before Regionality when 2 NCC teams would play for the title

[Redwing]

It’s better overall but there are issues. Very subjective and lacks transparency. The bidding process to host was also called into question this season.

The basics from the article:

The 24-team playoff field is selected and places in a bracket are assigned by a selection committee. The only must for the committee is to include teams who earned automatic bids by winning their conference championships. The rest are at-large selections based on subjective evaluation by the committee.

The top eight teams are seeded one through eight and awarded a first-round bye, according to a subjective process from the committee. The other 16 teams play in the first round; who hosts the eight games at home in the first round is, again, decided by the committee.

I get the subjective process concern. But I think most that don't like the current criteria in D2 get frustrated (me) when most agree the selection/order doesn't show a best to worse order. And usually we hear something along the lines that the numbers said so. So using metrics doesn't work either. I suspect the FCS folks get numbers, use them, then eye test the order. And they don't fall back on "well the criteria says." So that's were the less transparency comes in. I bet some of that goes on now in D2, but more emphasis is given to the numbers.

[UNALions]

What's the criteria for FCS playoffs?

It’s better overall but there are issues. Very subjective and lacks transparency. The bidding process to host was also called into question this season.

The basics from the article:

The 24-team playoff field is selected and places in a bracket are assigned by a selection committee. The only must for the committee is to include teams who earned automatic bids by winning their conference championships. The rest are at-large selections based on subjective evaluation by the committee.

The top eight teams are seeded one through eight and awarded a first-round bye, according to a subjective process from the committee. The other 16 teams play in the first round; who hosts the eight games at home in the first round is, again, decided by the committee.

[UFOILERFAN]

Just let the Wookiee win.

[Ram040506]

Expand to 32, give auto bids to the 16 conferences. Give 2 more at large bids to each of the 4 regions. That leaves 8 spots, that should go to a committee to be chosen nationally regardless of region affiliation.

This gives the elitist schools basically an opportunity at 26 of the 32 playoff spots and only 6 teams from SR1 in some cases. Seed it all nationally how March Madness does it and see how it goes.

[Predatory Primates]

And it says a lot about you that two teams from that crappy conference have made the natty but when GV had the chance well... that backup QB was just too good.

We're they good enough to be there, or were they gifted the easy path.

Let's take this year for example. If NW or GV had traded places with Mines and had soft opponents to build confidence and get healthy against, do they make the natty, and maybe even beat Ferris? Does Mines still make the natty if they're in SR3?

Or look at Pueblo's run. Would they have had the depth to make the run if they played in a power conference and are starting 2nd-4th string guys at 4 or 5 of 11 spots on each side of the ball by PO time?

Idk the answers, but it's at least worth considering, and kind of fun to talk about.

Fwiw, the miaa as a conference has no leg to stand on until they dump the silo garbage.

[Predatory Primates]

An unfortunate side effect to the perfect playoff system is that the team that would win it all is left out? Honestly seems like that's a bit more than an unfortunate side effect.

Maybe read my whole post first, then come back and read ......Et tu

[KleShreen]

This is the same attitude that team had going to Shepherd. They and their fans expected an easy win over an inferior SR1 program, then the starting QB goes down? Should be a blow out...right?

Really though there is no perfect bracket, someone will always have a decently valid complaint. March Madness used to have the 65th team complaining they should be in, now it's the 69th (nice) team doing the same. The. NCAA does not care about D2 football, and never will. Regions are here to stay for better or worse.

Correct. That was also the #12 team in the country, having just beat the #3, #2, and #4 teams in the country, falling to the #5 team in the country. They weren't expected to win. It was by far the worst GV team to ever reach the semifinals. That's why they had to travel to Shepherd. They weren't expected to win. So I guess it's good that the top team in SR1 was able to defeat the #6 seed bubble team in an actual good SR by 2 points lol.

[Turbonium]

That loss is viewed as one of the worst losses in school history. That same season in the RMAC is historic success.

This is the same attitude that team had going to Shepherd. They and their fans expected an easy win over an inferior SR1 program, then the starting QB goes down? Should be a blow out...right?

Really though there is no perfect bracket, someone will always have a decently valid complaint. March Madness used to have the 65th team complaining they should be in, now it's the 69th (nice) team doing the same. The. NCAA does not care about D2 football, and never will. Regions are here to stay for better or worse.

[KleShreen]

And it says a lot about you that two teams from that crappy conference have made the natty but when GV had the chance well... that backup QB was just too good.

That loss is viewed as one of the worst losses in school history. That same season in the RMAC is historic success.