OT: D1

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Freeman trying to win with the points? Very odd (missed) FG attempt.

[IUPNation]

Freeman trying to win with the points? Very odd (missed) FG attempt.

This game is a dud.

[IUP24]

This game is a dud.

I believe I read the average final score of national championship games since the start of the BCS era was 41-24. Most championship games have been non-competitive or lacked real drama.

[IUP24]

This is the least hyped title game I can ever remember.

All the talking heads were ranting about how nobody outside of either fanbase cares.

They sighted it's almost February and they are still playing college football.

Others said these two programs are love-hate. I'd agree on that theory. You're a Buckeye or you hate them. Same with ND.

Twitter will be fantastic either way. OSU fans will be unbearable with a win. Ryan Day will need canned with a loss.

It will be fun reading either way.

I got locked in at OSU -8.5 and OVER 45.5. Which, of course, is the only reason I'll turn it on.

Remember, this is what they and the masses wanted.

Under this format and with no clear guardrails in place, Ohio State will be in position to legitimately win the national championship every year. People hated Alabama. I promise everyone that the "OHIO AGAINST THE WORLD" people are far, far worse in terms of who is more insufferable as a fanbase.

[Chuck Norris]

This is the least hyped title game I can ever remember.

All the talking heads were ranting about how nobody outside of either fanbase cares.

They sighted it's almost February and they are still playing college football.

Others said these two programs are love-hate. I'd agree on that theory. You're a Buckeye or you hate them. Same with ND.

Twitter will be fantastic either way. OSU fans will be unbearable with a win. Ryan Day will need canned with a loss.

It will be fun reading either way.

I got locked in at OSU -8.5 and OVER 45.5. Which, of course, is the only reason I'll turn it on.

Outside of diehard college football junkies, and yes, fans of the two finalists, I think most people had college football fatigue. This is a sport that traditionally ended on New Year’s Day (and probably still should). With this format, I doubt there are many matchups that will excite the masses six weeks after the regular season ends. Maybe if you get two dominant, undefeated teams who actually make it through, but I don’t see that happening often, if ever.

Having said all that, I personally enjoyed the playoff. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something we never had before. It was something you could play on the old college football video games and only think about how cool it would be in real life.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Outside of diehard college football junkies, and yes, fans of the two finalists, I think most people had college football fatigue. This is a sport that traditionally ended on New Year’s Day (and probably still should). With this format, I doubt there are many matchups that will excite the masses six weeks after the regular season ends. Maybe if you get two dominant, undefeated teams who actually make it through, but I don’t see that happening often, if ever.

Having said all that, I personally enjoyed the playoff. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something we never had before. It was something you could play on the old college football video games and only think about how cool it would be in real life.

Word is they are expecting about a 20% dip in the TV ratings (which is gigantic).

It did turn out to be an entertaining game. It was sure looking like a dud at 31-7.

[IUP24]

Outside of diehard college football junkies, and yes, fans of the two finalists, I think most people had college football fatigue. This is a sport that traditionally ended on New Year’s Day (and probably still should). With this format, I doubt there are many matchups that will excite the masses six weeks after the regular season ends. Maybe if you get two dominant, undefeated teams who actually make it through, but I don’t see that happening often, if ever.

Having said all that, I personally enjoyed the playoff. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something we never had before. It was something you could play on the old college football video games and only think about how cool it would be in real life.

I'm a fan of football. So I'll watch the games, and I agree that I enjoyed the tournament structure, but I cannot get past what this actually does to the regular season. We spent weeks debating whether Indiana and SMU belonged, or if Alabama or South Carolina should have been there. We exhausted conversations about where Boise State should get seeded. All the while, the two teams who factually had the worse two losses in the entire field were playing in the national championship game.

- Notre Dame lost at home to Northern Illinois
- Michigan lost at home to a 6 win Michigan team who they were favored to beat by nearly 4 touchdowns.

Neither loss mattered or had any relevance. Both teams had home games and reached the National Championship. At a fundamental level, I cannot get past that.

Josh Pate made a great statement last night in a social media post... "The only college football Cinderella you will ever get is Goliath as a lower seed."

[IUP24]

Outside of diehard college football junkies, and yes, fans of the two finalists, I think most people had college football fatigue. This is a sport that traditionally ended on New Year’s Day (and probably still should). With this format, I doubt there are many matchups that will excite the masses six weeks after the regular season ends. Maybe if you get two dominant, undefeated teams who actually make it through, but I don’t see that happening often, if ever.

Having said all that, I personally enjoyed the playoff. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something we never had before. It was something you could play on the old college football video games and only think about how cool it would be in real life.

Most fans checked out 8 weeks ago when their regular season was over, or a few weeks before that when it was clear they were not going to reach the CFP. Because the bowl season has been rendered meaningless, caring about your team playing out the string in an effort to finish 8-4 or 9-3 to reach a higher tiered bowl game is worthless to fans anymore. A quarter of their roster is going to opt out. Their best players will likely be in the transfer portal by then. And the fans are left wondering why they should even care.

[Fightingscot82]

Most fans checked out 8 weeks ago when their regular season was over, or a few weeks before that when it was clear they were not going to reach the CFP. Because the bowl season has been rendered meaningless, caring about your team playing out the string in an effort to finish 8-4 or 9-3 to reach a higher tiered bowl game is worthless to fans anymore. A quarter of their roster is going to opt out. Their best players will likely be in the transfer portal by then. And the fans are left wondering why they should even care.

I'm okay with that. Most fans are disinterested in the second and third tier bowls, sometimes even when their team is playing in it. I'd argue that they should go back to an 11 game schedule but allow for week 0 games, so 12 weeks to schedule up to 11 games. The playoff was too drawn out, though. We know the national champion 3 weeks later than in the golden age. No reason it can't be on or around New Years Day.

[IUP24]

I'm okay with that. Most fans are disinterested in the second and third tier bowls, sometimes even when their team is playing in it. I'd argue that they should go back to an 11 game schedule but allow for week 0 games, so 12 weeks to schedule up to 11 games. The playoff was too drawn out, though. We know the national champion 3 weeks later than in the golden age. No reason it can't be on or around New Years Day.

I don't fully disagree. But I would argue that most fans are disinterested in the second and third tier bowls because they have become conditioned to feel that way. It wasn't always that way. The Music City Bowl isn't a top tier bowl. But it was a fun destination and somewhere people would be interested in. Playing in the old Gator Bowl or the Outback Bowl, etc., used to have some meaning to fans. If you are playing in the Gator Bowl now, it's not a consolation prize for not reaching the CFP.

You see my point. People only are disinterested because we are force fed that if you don't reach the CFP you do not matter. I don't disagree with the premise of what you're saying though.

[Chuck Norris]

I'm okay with that. Most fans are disinterested in the second and third tier bowls, sometimes even when their team is playing in it. I'd argue that they should go back to an 11 game schedule but allow for week 0 games, so 12 weeks to schedule up to 11 games. The playoff was too drawn out, though. We know the national champion 3 weeks later than in the golden age. No reason it can't be on or around New Years Day.

I would make the Saturday night the week before the NFL playoffs start synonymous with the CFP championship game. As massive as football is, kicking that game off at nearly 8 pm on a weeknight is dumb.

[Ram040506]

I would make the Saturday night the week before the NFL playoffs start synonymous with the CFP championship game. As massive as football is, kicking that game off at nearly 8 pm on a weeknight is dumb.

Didn't help that Inauguration was the same day and it was the finish of a holiday weekend for some traveling back.

[TheBigCat2192]

For those who haven’t seen the ACC is considering changing how they do conference championships; I can only assume this is to try and juice the SOS for their potential at large teams and to potentially protect the record of a regular season champ in the case of a paper tiger winning the league. From ESPN:

Phillips said the ACC could consider giving its regular-season champion a bye, and have the teams that finish second or third in the league standings play in the ACC championship game.

He said another possibility is having the top 4 teams play on the final weekend of the regular season: first place versus fourth place, and second place vs. third place, with the winners playing the following weekend in the ACC championship game.

[Fightingscot82]

For those who haven’t seen the ACC is considering changing how they do conference championships; I can only assume this is to try and juice the SOS for their potential at large teams and to potentially protect the record of a regular season champ in the case of a paper tiger winning the league. From ESPN:

The PSAC model is pretty good. Last regular season week is the conference championship. Regularly scheduled opponents left out play each other.

[IUP24]

For those who haven’t seen the ACC is considering changing how they do conference championships; I can only assume this is to try and juice the SOS for their potential at large teams and to potentially protect the record of a regular season champ in the case of a paper tiger winning the league. From ESPN:

When the proverbial line in the sand has been drawn, and the powers that be in the networks, B1G, and SEC are doing everything to separate their product, I give the ACC credit for attempting to aggressively help their brand (something they failed at during the original wave of this iteration of expansion) with this approach. Either conference championship model would be fine in my opinion.

For what it's worth, this is not the first time they have considered something like this. There was consideration prior to conference expansion (which eliminated the divisions) that they would create a "pod scheduling" model where teams would effectively be bunched into mini divisions of 4 teams. That structure would then be used to create an interconference playoff system amongst the pods. They discussed that a while back, but it never got any legs. Shortly after, the league had to expand.