OT: D1

[iupgroundhog]

Night game didn’t help Villanova draw….of course it didn’t help the Eagles are playing too.

The weather probably didn't help, either.

[Chuck Norris]

Ole Miss had a glorified walk-thru yesterday so the Rebs will be fresh.

Perfect spot for them. They had a free game yesterday to work out the kinks.

It's a long layoff for those with the byes. Many teams don't respond well to that much time off.

It’ll never happen because the big bowl games have to be used for something, but the quarterfinals should also be held at campus sites. It’s kind of nuts that seeds 5-8 get a home game but the top 4 seeds don’t.

[IUP24]

Tulane game looks entertaining

Said nobody. Good Lord.

As Nick Saban said, this is what you get for putting the AA champs into the MLB playoffs.

That was Ole Miss without half its staff.

You forgot this energy when Tennessee got boatraced by Ohio State last year. Or when Ohio State boatraced Oregon. Those are just two last year. I can find 1 or 2 laughers every year. Most of the games in the CFP haven’t been competitive and are decided by more than one possession.

JMU was the program catching strays, and they acquitted themselves better than many P4 programs who have been outclassed on that stage over the last 12 years.

Congrats to Tulane and JMU on good seasons.

[IUPNation]

You forgot this energy when Tennessee got boatraced by Ohio State last year. Or when Ohio State boatraced Oregon. Those are just two last year. I can find 1 or 2 laughers every year. Most of the games in the CFP haven’t been competitive and are decided by more than one possession.

JMU was the program catching strays, and they acquitted themselves better than many P4 programs who have been outclassed on that stage over the last 12 years.

Congrats to Tulane and JMU on good seasons.

I didn’t see much of the Tulane game cos I was watching Ferris boat race Harding.

[Ship69]

You forgot this energy when Tennessee got boatraced by Ohio State last year. Or when Ohio State boatraced Oregon. Those are just two last year. I can find 1 or 2 laughers every year. Most of the games in the CFP haven’t been competitive and are decided by more than one possession.

JMU was the program catching strays, and they acquitted themselves better than many P4 programs who have been outclassed on that stage over the last 12 years.

Congrats to Tulane and JMU on good seasons.

It wasn't a preliminary game, but Georgia putting a 65-7 pounding on TCU in the 2022-23 championship game was certainly right up there with all-time routs.

[IUP24]

It wasn't a preliminary game, but Georgia putting a 65-7 pounding on TCU in the 2022-23 championship game was certainly right up there with all-time routs.

Alabama over Michigan State. Clemson over Ohio State. Alabama over Notre Dame. LSU over Oklahoma. Those are just off the top of my head and were all 30+ point margin of victories. Lol… Clemson also routed ND 30-3. Bama beat OSU like 52-21 in a title game.

But hey, screw off Tulane!!!!

[EyeoftheHawk]

I didn’t want to wade into this one but have been following along. I guess I’m in the minority in that I like to see the little guys get in so when they pull a big upset once every 5-10 years it’s a lasting memory. I don’t care that most will get blown out in the first round. I’m also someone that watches the NCAA Tournament with most interest in the first couple rounds and then I pay less attention once it’s down to the blue bloods that everyone expects to be there.

It’s hard to say where this goes but it definitely has people talking and I think that’s what they want more than anything. If it weren’t for this playoff format, nobody would have cared about Duke vs Virginia, or who Tulane and JMU were playing in their conference championship games. I like that those games mattered.

[Fightingscot82]

A lot of people are saying that the "best 12 teams" should be in the playoff. But there's no full proof way to determine which teams those are. The polls tell us nothing. It's a popularity contest.

I'm fine with the 12 teams this year. Duke or Notre Dame or Texas could just as easily laid a turd as big as Tulane did and people would again be *****ing about who was left out. The NCAA must regain control and give equal access to all FBS. Otherwise independents should be excluded because they're not P4 either. Again, if you get one upset a year that's the drama needed. Plus look at basketball, you have mid majors routinely making deep runs and in the case of Gonzaga, winning the damn thing.

[IUP24]

A lot of people are saying that the "best 12 teams" should be in the playoff. But there's no full proof way to determine which teams those are. The polls tell us nothing. It's a popularity contest.

I'm fine with the 12 teams this year. Duke or Notre Dame or Texas could just as easily laid a turd as big as Tulane did and people would again be *****ing about who was left out. The NCAA must regain control and give equal access to all FBS. Otherwise independents should be excluded because they're not P4 either. Again, if you get one upset a year that's the drama needed. Plus look at basketball, you have mid majors routinely making deep runs and in the case of Gonzaga, winning the damn thing.

Agreed.

I think the difference between me and A LOT of other people is that I don’t watch college football for the four weeks at the end of the year. I watch college football for the 14 weeks before it. The CFP isn’t the end all.

College football is a regular season sport - and it always has been that. Every week games of significant magnitude are played, and since the advent of the playoff, more of those games matter. That’s a net positive. I was never out here suggesting JMU would beat Oregon, but people were watching Sun Belt football deep into November because of how it could impact the ACC championship situation, how ND would be impacted by it, etc.

The G5 having access to the postseason created more interest and excitement for dozens of teams, and their fans, that otherwise wouldn’t have existed.

[Chuck Norris]

A lot of people are saying that the "best 12 teams" should be in the playoff. But there's no full proof way to determine which teams those are. The polls tell us nothing. It's a popularity contest.

I'm fine with the 12 teams this year. Duke or Notre Dame or Texas could just as easily laid a turd as big as Tulane did and people would again be *****ing about who was left out. The NCAA must regain control and give equal access to all FBS. Otherwise independents should be excluded because they're not P4 either. Again, if you get one upset a year that's the drama needed. Plus look at basketball, you have mid majors routinely making deep runs and in the case of Gonzaga, winning the damn thing.

I just can’t look at this playoff as anything remotely similar to the basketball tournament. We’re talking about a G5 winning one game maybe once a decade. A run of 2 or more wins feels impossible.

I’m torn on this whole thing. I like underdog stories. I want the little guy to have a chance. But I also see that this is a playoff that is unique from any other that college sports puts on. It’s a tiny field. Less than 10% of the teams who play FBS football make it. I understand feeling like it should be reserved for the best of the best. And sure they might not get it totally right. And yeah, P4 vs P4 matchups can wind up lopsided too. But there’s a difference between being disappointed when Ohio State-Tennessee turns into a blowout and knowing that James Madison-Oregon is going to be one the minute the matchup is announced. And this isn’t March Madness. There aren’t 3 other games going on at the same time when one is a blowout. When two out of four games in a much anticipated weekend are mismatches, I understand the disappointment.

[IUPNation]

Should 5 SEC team make the field? I don’t think any conference should get more than 3.

Notre Dame should never get a bye if they don’t join a conference.

No school or conference is entitled,

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Should 5 SEC team make the field? I don’t think any conference should get more than 3.

Notre Dame should never get a bye if they don’t join a conference.

No school or conference is entitled,

The catch is two of the conferences have the majority of the best teams. Let Tulane play an SEC or BIG schedule lol. See what happens. Basically, they are just being rewarded for doing well in a second (or third) tier (crappy) D1 conference.

Tulane is a cute story and all but has no business being in those 12 teams. Same with James Madison.

You could combine Tulane and JMU - and Notre Dame would have still blown them out. It's just a different level.

They'll just keep adding teams and making the field bigger. This will eventually shut everybody up (somewhat). The season will get longer and longer.

This is just all opinion on here. There isn't much middle ground. You're pretty much on one side or the other. If they want to keep tossing these throw away games out, so be it. You don't have to watch them. The final game will work itself out (likely as predicted).

I'm very pro P4 championship. The next level can have its own playoff.

If anything, this topic keeps this board active in late December.

[TheBigCat2192]

A lot of people are saying that the "best 12 teams" should be in the playoff. But there's no full proof way to determine which teams those are. The polls tell us nothing. It's a popularity contest.

I'm fine with the 12 teams this year. Duke or Notre Dame or Texas could just as easily laid a turd as big as Tulane did and people would again be *****ing about who was left out. The NCAA must regain control and give equal access to all FBS. Otherwise independents should be excluded because they're not P4 either. Again, if you get one upset a year that's the drama needed. Plus look at basketball, you have mid majors routinely making deep runs and in the case of Gonzaga, winning the damn thing.

I’m fine with the field that we got this year as well and was opposed to the idea of Texas getting in with two bad losses (one bad opponent and one bad margin) but come on. Yeah, I suppose it’s not technically impossible that Notre Dame or Texas would get smoked by Ole Miss like a tuneup game but saying they could “could just as easily laid as big a turd as Tulane did” is a ridiculous statement. The probability is inherently lower given that they’re both qualitatively better than Tulane and closer to the quality of Ole Miss. Exaggerating the likelihood of an unlikely outcome because a different, likelier outcome already occurred is not an argument and doesn’t support the idea that we should give equal access to all FBS.

[TheBigCat2192]

I’m fine with the field that we got this year as well and was opposed to the idea of Texas getting in with two bad losses (one bad opponent and one bad margin) but come on. Yeah, I suppose it’s not technically impossible that Notre Dame or Texas would get smoked by Ole Miss like a tuneup game but saying they could “could just as easily laid as big a turd as Tulane did” is a ridiculous statement. The probability is inherently lower given that they’re both qualitatively better than Tulane and closer to the quality of Ole Miss. Exaggerating the likelihood of an unlikely outcome because a different, likelier outcome already occurred is not an argument and doesn’t support the idea that we should give equal access to all FBS.

I lied, I’m not entirely fine with the field we got but I was fine with taking both Tulane and JMU. I think the committee should have seeded to avoid rematches, Bama should have been booted for ND or Utah to punish them for having two multi-score losses, and Texas Tech should have been the two with OSU bumped three or four (rewarding Tech for being a conference champ but also rewarding OSU for having fewer losses than UGA in the same number of games). I was fine with taking both G5s though.

[Fightingscot82]

I just can’t look at this playoff as anything remotely similar to the basketball tournament. We’re talking about a G5 winning one game maybe once a decade. A run of 2 or more wins feels impossible.

I’m torn on this whole thing. I like underdog stories. I want the little guy to have a chance. But I also see that this is a playoff that is unique from any other that college sports puts on. It’s a tiny field. Less than 10% of the teams who play FBS football make it. I understand feeling like it should be reserved for the best of the best. And sure they might not get it totally right. And yeah, P4 vs P4 matchups can wind up lopsided too. But there’s a difference between being disappointed when Ohio State-Tennessee turns into a blowout and knowing that James Madison-Oregon is going to be one the minute the matchup is announced. And this isn’t March Madness. There aren’t 3 other games going on at the same time when one is a blowout. When two out of four games in a much anticipated weekend are mismatches, I understand the disappointment.

Just remember, every conference has equal access to every other level of NCAA football. There are many years when the PSAC champion probably would have been excluded. If there wasn't regionalization in D2, the PSAC would have very few if any deep playoff runs.

A lot of the people saying the G5 doesn't belong would throw themselves off a high rise if the AFC North was determined to be too weak to compete for a Super Bowl.