(08-14-2019 07:19 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-13-2019 07:46 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(08-13-2019 10:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-12-2019 11:03 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(08-12-2019 10:40 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  Only if we decide to ignore the results of OOC games played on the field. Which to me makes very little sense - playoffs are predominantly a national competition between members of difference conferences, so if anything OOC games tell us more about who deserves a playoff spot than a conference game does.

And no pro sports league does it this way. E.g., in the NFC South, if New Orleans is 7-1 in divisional games and Carolina is 5-3, but Carolina is 12-4 overall and New Orleans is 11-5, Carolina not New Orleans is the division champ and gets the automatic bid to the playoffs. All the games count, not just divisional/conference games.

College conferences are too ramshackle to use winning a conference as the standard for *automatic* entry into a playoff. We need a human judgment, or computer, element to adjust for these flaws.

The conference championship game pits the winner of each division against one another. Their divisional body of work got them there and the CCG victory seals them as the hotter of the two teams.

If you want to complain about unbalanced divisions, well that's up to the conference, now isn't it?

That's a big aspect of my problem with auto-bids for playoffs: Yes, a conference should be able to decide its champion any way it wants. If it wants to just randomly draw a name out of a hat at the end of the year, that should be its prerogative. That's the conference's business.

But, it should become everyone else's business if that same conference claims that its champ should be automatically included in a national playoff. Because then you are making a claim over teams from other conferences. You're saying "our 8-5 Big 12 champ should have a spot over your runner-up 11-2 PAC team, or your 11-2 runner-up ACC team", etc.

That's why I don't like auto-bids for any conferences, P5 or G5. The way college football is structured, winning a conference just doesn't prove you are one of the 8 best teams worthy of a playoff spot.

It gives teams a concrete path. Win your division and then win your CCG. Don’t do that? Better make sure you won all your OOC games. Otherwise, we’re giving a group of pundits the decision.

It's a 'concrete' path, but for the reasons I've given, IMO it's a nonsensical path. It's like if the NFL decided that only the even-numbered games count towards a division title and making the playoffs. Everyone would know what their path was - win the even numbered games - but it would be absurd.

I'm not willing to trade-off absurdity for concreteness.

And FWIW, the pundits have done a pretty good job. IIRC, if we looked at who the CFP ranked as the top 8 teams each of the past 5 years, they agreed with the Massey computer composite 38/40 times, and similarly with the AP poll.

Hhhwhat? NFL? Even numbered games? No ma’am, we’re talking college division games. This isn’t the NFL, so take that comparison out to the curb. It’s the NCAA, which allows the conferences a championship game.

What’s to stop the clear #1 team from forfeiting or playing a bunch of backups in a CCG if humans are picking the playoffs? The humans know the situation, they knew the best team chose not to play their starters or play the game because they are already considered the best in the country.

IMO, there needs to be MORE emphasis on winning a division and a conference because that is a control group. BTW, I used to be a straight 8 proponent, but I have seen the light! Follow me down the path of enlightenment!