The evidence is overwhelming...

[meanrob]

However, I doubt the movers and shakers of college football care.

Louisville crushed Florida tonight. Yeah, that Louisville that was a 15+ point underdog and wasn't given a chance by anybody.

Look, you can't decide the best teams by polls, computers, comparing schedules or even the eye test. The big bad SEC got beat by Clemson, Louisville, Northwestern, and Georgia struggled with a Nebraska team that lost it's last game by 40+ points. South Carolina barely beat Michigan and Michigan is ordinary. The SEC is still the best conference top to bottom but champions shouldn't be determined by reputation. Or certainly not by one game.

Until there is an eight team playoff, the system is still a joke. It gets proven every year when a team that no one thinks can win a BCS game, wins one. The list is so long it would take too long to type.

Instead we get the "experts" wrong......again.

[trussbussdad]

Mean rob.....AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!

[jdennis82]

Moderators, please move to "The Eagles Nest" forum...

I don't see how anything short of an 80-team bracket will impact "Mean Green Football"

Thanks in advance.

[Coffee and TV]

I would contend the Big 12 is better top to bottom, but 6 SEC CHAMPSHIPS MAKE DA HOLE CONFRENSE BE GUD

[glick1980]

However, I doubt the movers and shakers of college football care.

Louisville crushed Florida tonight. Yeah, that Louisville that was a 15+ point underdog and wasn't given a chance by anybody.

Look, you can't decide the best teams by polls, computers, comparing schedules or even the eye test. The big bad SEC got beat by Clemson, Louisville, Northwestern, and Georgia struggled with a Nebraska team that lost it's last game by 40+ points. South Carolina barely beat Michigan and Michigan is ordinary. The SEC is still the best conference top to bottom but champions shouldn't be determined by reputation. Or certainly not by one game.

Until there is an eight team playoff, the system is still a joke. It gets proven every year when a team that no one thinks can win a BCS game, wins one. The list is so long it would take too long to type.

Instead we get the "experts" wrong......again.

I think there needs to be a 16 team playoff. If you want to give the Big 5 conferences an advantage let them have 2 teams each in, the other conference champions all get in, and the 16th team is the highest ranked team still on the board.

[Wag Tag]

Bowls payout is in the millions. ( most schools loose money) College football playoffs would be in the Billions! The oid boy bowl system is a joke! i have not watched one bowl game.

Will watch Johnny Football.

[trussbussdad]

I love the bowl games....yes, i would prefer a playoff system, but it is college football and a better alternative to watching pro. until we get that perfect playoff system...give me bowls...lots of them

[Quoner]

I would contend the Big 12 is better top to bottom, but 6 SEC CHAMPSHIPS MAKE DA HOLE CONFRENSE BE GUD

You can spin any conference's results if you do it right. For example:

Texas barely beat Oregon State.

Iowa State lost to Tulsa.

Tech had to come back to beat a terrible Minnesota team.

TCU lost to an MSU team with 3 conference wins.

Syracuse hammered WVU.

OSU beat arguably the worst team in a bowl this year (sorry Georgia Tech)

One game random samples where there is no guarantee both teams care will never prove anything. The best you can do is either look at 3-5 year blocks for trends or wait until we get the real playoff system we all want.

[mockcode911]

However, I doubt the movers and shakers of college football care.

Louisville crushed Florida tonight. Yeah, that Louisville that was a 15+ point underdog and wasn't given a chance by anybody.

Look, you can't decide the best teams by polls, computers, comparing schedules or even the eye test. The big bad SEC got beat by Clemson, Louisville, Northwestern, and Georgia struggled with a Nebraska team that lost it's last game by 40+ points. South Carolina barely beat Michigan and Michigan is ordinary. The SEC is still the best conference top to bottom but champions shouldn't be determined by reputation. Or certainly not by one game.

Until there is an eight team playoff, the system is still a joke. It gets proven every year when a team that no one thinks can win a BCS game, wins one. The list is so long it would take too long to type.

Instead we get the "experts" wrong......again.

+1 great post

[Coffee and TV]

One game random samples where there is no guarantee both teams care will never prove anything. The best you can do is either look at 3-5 year blocks for trends or wait until we get the real playoff system we all want.

Its also trendy that SEC always seems to get the benefit of a doubt for past circumstances. So what if Auburn won in 2010, they're garbage now. That doesn't have any effect on whether Bama should or shouldn't be playing in the national title game. But it does. All we hear about is awesome the conference is based on the results of the last half decade. After last night Louisville has more wins against SEC teams than UK, Tennessee, and Auburn combined.

My only contention for the Big 12 being the best is that you never get a week off. 90% of their teams qualified for a bowl. I think that says the most this year, anyways.

[NM Green]

I spent New Years in New Orleans and I actually saw this coming. The Louisville fanbase was out in force and there were so few Florida fans until New Years Day when I was leaving.

Louisville reminded me of UNT's first trip to the Big Easy on steroids. We had a good chunk of fans that traveled to MSY but I don't know who was left in the Ville this week! They took over Pat O'Bryans, there were more Louisville flags hanging from the balconies and just a lot more fans. I have never liked Louisville but I was rooting for them because their fanbase was sooooo excited to be there. Their team showed it too.

Friday night tailgate on the deck, Johnny football will be throwing - I'm not ready for football to end!

Go TAMU

GMG

[Quoner]

Its also trendy that SEC always seems to get the benefit of a doubt for past circumstances. So what if Auburn won in 2010, they're garbage now. That doesn't have any effect on whether Bama should or shouldn't be playing in the national title game. But it does. All we hear about is awesome the conference is based on the results of the last half decade. After last night Louisville has more wins against SEC teams than UK, Tennessee, and Auburn combined.

My only contention for the Big 12 being the best is that you never get a week off. 90% of their teams qualified for a bowl. I think that says the most this year, anyways.

They get the benefit of the doubt because they kept winning when it mattered. If OU and Texas had done the same when they had their chances, it would be a Big 12 world right now - and rightfully so.

The SEC, thankfully, will not be in this position forever because it is all cyclical anyway. In the last 20 years, Miami, Nebraska, USC and a few others also looked like they would dominate forever.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

You can spin any conference's results if you do it right. For example:

Texas barely beat Oregon State.

Iowa State lost to Tulsa.

Tech had to come back to beat a terrible Minnesota team.

TCU lost to an MSU team with 3 conference wins.

Syracuse hammered WVU.

OSU beat arguably the worst team in a bowl this year (sorry Georgia Tech)

One game random samples where there is no guarantee both teams care will never prove anything. The best you can do is either look at 3-5 year blocks for trends or wait until we get the real playoff system we all want.

What he said. And...until someone can break the SEC's national championship streak, the point is moot.

[LongJim]

Its also trendy that SEC always seems to get the benefit of a doubt for past circumstances. So what if Auburn won in 2010, they're garbage now. That doesn't have any effect on whether Bama should or shouldn't be playing in the national title game. But it does. All we hear about is awesome the conference is based on the results of the last half decade. After last night Louisville has more wins against SEC teams than UK, Tennessee, and Auburn combined.

My only contention for the Big 12 being the best is that you never get a week off. 90% of their teams qualified for a bowl. I think that says the most this year, anyways.

Interesting analysis from the interwebz:

"This down year in the SEC was masked all season by the SEC's unique conference scheduling advantage. The top 6 teams in the SEC had a combined record of 39-9 in conference games. It is mathematically impossible for the top 6 teams in the Big 12 to have had a record that good. The best combined record that the top 6 teams in the Big 12 could have mustered would have included 15 conference losses.

The reasons for this are (1) the SEC plays only 8 conference games each year (unlike others such as the Big 12 and the PAC 12 who play 9), and (2) the SEC has a uniquely large BCS conference (14 teams). Thus, each SEC team faces only 61.5% (8/13) teams in the conference (unlike, e.g., the Big 12 teams who play everyone else in the conference (9/9)).

This is a huge structural advantage that the SEC has over every other conference. The best SEC teams don't meet each other as often, don't inflict as many guaranteed conference losses on one another, and thus create a false impression that the SEC is superior to all other conferences. Especially when there are a few weak-sister teams -- like this year's Auburn (0-8), Kentucky (0-8), and Tennessee (1-7) -- the SEC's size and scheduling quirks give the better SEC teams a huge advantage that is completely ignored by the media.

This year Alabama met Georgia in the conference championship. This is not surprising because Alabama was the only West Div. team that did not have to face the top three teams from the East Div. and, similarly, Georgia was the only East Div. team that did not have to face a singlce top 3 team from the West Div.

Here is my reasoning:

The best possible combined record for the top 6 teams in the SEC would occur if the top team in each division had zero losses, the second place team 1 loss and the third place team 2. (There are other permutations, but all would lead to three losses for the top 3 teams in a division. For example, the top three teams could all be tied with one loss each -- that would still lead to a combined three losses for the top three teams.) Since there are two divisions, when the SEC finishes the regular season, the best possible conference record would include six losses, seven after the championship game.

The best possible record the top 6 teams in the Big 12 would occur if the top team had zero losses, the second place 1 loss, the third place 2 losses, the fourth place 3, and so on. (Again, there are other permutations of won-loss distributions, but the minimum number of losses is never less than this example.) Since there are no divisions in the Big 12, the fewest number of losses would be 0+1+2+3+4+5 = 15.

Thus, it was mathematically impossible for the top 6 Big 12 teams to have had as few losses as the top 6 SEC teams, but no one accounts for this when ranking the teams."

[Quoner]

I hate the scheduling of the SEC and hope they will address the rotations and playoff partners moving forward. I also hope most of the fanbases within the southeast are fired out of a cannon into the sun, but we don't always get what we want.

Meanwhile, only two Big 12 teams finished with fewer than 4 losses and they both get chances to show what they can do against top teams. OU/UT fans I know are fascinated and bitching endlessly, yet K State fans seem to realize, "welp, we lost to Baylor. It sucks, but we get it."

If anyone has a gripe out there right now, it's Oregon. Should be a fun game tonight.

[meanrob]

I hate the scheduling of the SEC and hope they will address the rotations and playoff partners moving forward. I also hope most of the fanbases within the southeast are fired out of a cannon into the sun, but we don't always get what we want.

Meanwhile, only two Big 12 teams finished with fewer than 4 losses and they both get chances to show what they can do against top teams. OU/UT fans I know are fascinated and bitching endlessly, yet K State fans seem to realize, "welp, we lost to Baylor. It sucks, but we get it."

If anyone has a gripe out there right now, it's Oregon. Should be a semi-final tonight.

Corrected.

[golfingomez]

I hate the scheduling of the SEC and hope they will address the rotations and playoff partners moving forward. I also hope most of the fanbases within the southeast are fired out of a cannon into the sun, but we don't always get what we want.

Meanwhile, only two Big 12 teams finished with fewer than 4 losses and they both get chances to show what they can do against top teams. OU/UT fans I know are fascinated and bitching endlessly, yet K State fans seem to realize, "welp, we lost to Baylor. It sucks, but we get it."

If anyone has a gripe out there right now, it's Oregon. Should be a fun game tonight.

Oregon? I would go Stanford... if not for the touchdown they 'didn't score' against Notre Dame... they would have been #3 in the country right now...

[golfingomez]

I think there needs to be a 16 team playoff. If you want to give the Big 5 conferences an advantage let them have 2 teams each in, the other conference champions all get in, and the 16th team is the highest ranked team still on the board.

no thank you... if this were the case... UNT would have had nothing to play for after Oct. 27th

i likes the bowl system and the opportunity it gives me to hope that UNT might actually play in the postseason

[Mean Green 93-98]

no thank you... if this were the case... UNT would have had nothing to play for after Oct. 27th

i likes the bowl system and the opportunity it gives me to hope that UNT might actually play in the postseason

I don't believe a playoff; whether 4-team, 8-team, 16-team, or 32-team; would kill the bowl system altogether. There's too much money in it, and there would still be interest in it.

[golfingomez]

I don't believe a playoff; whether 4-team, 8-team, 16-team, or 32-team; would kill the bowl system altogether. There's too much money in it, and there would still be interest in it.

i think at 16 teams, the bowl system is dead...

[Mean Green 93-98]

i think at 16 teams, the bowl system is dead...

Why? The N.O. Bowl just had close to 50k in attendance. Neither of the teams would have been excluded from playing in the N.O. Bowl had there been a 16-team playoff. If bowls and TV networks will still make money, if teams will still be interested in playing, if fans will still be interested in watching and attending bowl games--and the answer to all those questions is yes--why would everyone quit having bowl games?

Don't forget, the bowls for many years were played after the final rankings were settled.

[Arkstfan]

I hate the scheduling of the SEC and hope they will address the rotations and playoff partners moving forward. I also hope most of the fanbases within the southeast are fired out of a cannon into the sun, but we don't always get what we want.

Meanwhile, only two Big 12 teams finished with fewer than 4 losses and they both get chances to show what they can do against top teams. OU/UT fans I know are fascinated and bitching endlessly, yet K State fans seem to realize, "welp, we lost to Baylor. It sucks, but we get it."

If anyone has a gripe out there right now, it's Oregon. Should be a fun game tonight.

Problem #1. The SEC's richest schools will not give in and go to a 9 game schedule because it will cost them an average 0.5 home games per year and a loss of gate receipts of roughly $1.5 million per year and more importantly result in a decrease in winning percentage

Problem #2. It reduces winning.

Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, LSU, TAMU, Tennessee, Miss St went 4-0 in regular season non-conference. 32-0

Auburn, Vandy, Mizzou, and Ole Miss went 3-1 in regular season 12-4

Arkansas and Kentucky went 2-2 so that's 4-4

The non-conference winning percentage was 0.857

If they went to 9 non-conference games there would only 42 non-conference games instead of 56.

So the games converted from non-conference to conference the SEC went roughly 12-2 and would become 7-7 in. Going to 9 conference games means 5 more losses on SEC records and most likely, Ole Miss misses a bowl game this year.

Problem #3. It removes 5 to 7 telecasts from SEC TV inventory.

Edited January 3, 2013 by Arkstfan

[North Texas Shep]

i think at 16 teams, the bowl system is dead...

16 teams would be too many. Even if the bowls still existed you would only get to play spares because all the good teams would go to the playoffs.

[GrayEagle]

16 teams would be too many. Even if the bowls still existed you would only get to play spares because all the good teams would go to the playoffs.

How is that different than you are doing now? You have to have a good record to go to a bowl and even better to a playoff.

[Mean Green 93-98]

16 teams would be too many. Even if the bowls still existed you would only get to play spares because all the good teams would go to the playoffs.

A 16-team playoff would still leave opportunities for good bowl matchups. Consider some teams not in the BCS top 16:

Michigan

UCLA

Boise State

Northwestern

Louisville

Texas

Kent State

Okie State

Vanderbilt

USC

LaTech

That's just a small sampling, but you have teams there that travel well, that have great history, along with some surprise teams that had great seasons who people would love to see matched up in a bowl game against one of the historical powerhouses.

When you have 124 Div. 1A teams, taking only 16 of them leaves more than "spares."