Like most message board posters I think Dodds is making something out of nothing. Who knows.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...ig-picture

ESPN take

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...-knell-acc

Jounalist sensationalism. DEATH sells. College football will be the same as always. ACC will maintain the Orange Bowl. It really doesn't matter if the ACC isn't really in the playoff picture none of our teams have any chance at really winning a NC anyway.

Let's really break it down to each conference and the number of teams that have a REAL chance to EVER win a NC.

SEC; 4 teams Sorry Aggie and G-C*ck fans, you aint part of that 4.
Big 12; 2 teams Sorry Cowboy fans... haha sorry EER fans as well.
PAC12; 1 team Sorry Duck fans
Big10; 0 teams Sorry Buckeye fans
ACC; 0 teams Sorry FSU fans
Bigeast; 0 teams Just plain sorry

How has this changed anything? Those other bowls still aren't going away... if Pitt has a really good season then maybe we will see them beat Boise st. or even a third ranked Big10 Penn State in the Orange Bowl? I'll take that!

(05-18-2012 05:48 PM)7fielder Wrote:  Jounalist sensationalism. DEATH sells. College football will be the same as always. ACC will maintain the Orange Bowl. It really doesn't matter if the ACC isn't really in the playoff picture none of our teams have any chance at really winning a NC anyway.

Let's really break it down to each conference and the number of teams that have a REAL chance to EVER win a NC.

SEC; 4 teams
Big 12; 2 teams
PAC12; 1 team
Big10; 0 teams
ACC; 0 teams
Bigeast; 0 teams

How has this changed anything? Those other bowls still aren't going away... if Pitt has a really good season then maybe we will see them beat Boise st. or even a third ranked Big10 Penn State in the Orange Bowl? I'll take that!

I disagree w/ the amount of teams that have a realistic chance of winning a NC. While playing for and actually winning an NC is totally different. But schools like FSU, Tennessee, PSU, and Oregon can win an NC at some point in the future. While Cincinnati got plastered by Florida a few years back, they did go undefeated and finished the regular season #4. I could also easily see a Boise State making the playoffs and pulling off back to back upsets. What holds true for the 2012 season as far as national contenders can(and more than likely will) change by the time 2015 and 16 comes along.

I do agree that this bowl alignment really hasn't changed anything. And that its spooking the hell out of people really for no reason at all.

My point is the SEC has won the NC the past six years. That isn't trending diiferent. The BEST players don't want to play in northern schools. The NC is reserved for a select few and I don't see a school like a BS beating teams like OK and Bama twice in a row.

Also being part of one of the "have" conferences hasn't helped Kentucky or Indiana...

4 playoff spots is too little. I've said it before and I'll say it again. 8 or bust, IMO.

Schools like Pitt, and PSU gotta work with the PIAA a little more in developing and keeping coach's in PA. There are tons of Coach's from the WPIAL that move on to North and South Carolina and points south. We also have to do a better job in developing players and keeping them in PA once they graduate HS. The WPIAL seems to average about 1-2 Blue Chip talent a year. We need to get that number around 4-5 players with another 10-20 high starts to low 4 stars. I'm not saying Chryst and O'Brien aren't doing a good job because they're new on the job still, and this is a 10-15 year type commitment.

(05-18-2012 06:23 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  4 playoff spots is too little. I've said it before and I'll say it again. 8 or bust, IMO.

Absolutely.

(05-18-2012 06:30 PM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Schools like Pitt, and PSU gotta work with the PIAA a little more in developing and keeping coach's in PA. There are tons of Coach's from the WPIAL that move on to North and South Carolina and points south. We also have to do a better job in developing players and keeping them in PA once they graduate HS. The WPIAL seems to average about 1-2 Blue Chip talent a year. We need to get that number around 4-5 players with another 10-20 high starts to low 4 stars. I'm not saying Chryst and O'Brien aren't doing a good job because they're new on the job still, and this is a 10-15 year type commitment.

Even if we did that, it will make us better, but not a REAL contender for the NC. O$U keeps ALL the best kids from Ohio and the midwest and most of the best from PA and Mich and they still get smoked by the SEC elite.

Kids from FLA, Texas and CA are the best in the country. The are staying out west and down south.

A few notes, here:

1. I actually think that the coaching tandem in PA is the best it's been in my lifetime. Point blank - I'm from northeastern PA. I grew up going to Penn State games. I chose to attend Pitt for law school and thus they became my college rooting interest (my undergrad is division III). Pitt has obviously been down for quite a while but I think that O'Brien is good for Penn State, too. I think Chryst is the right guy for us and quite frankly he may be just what the doctor ordered here.

2. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but four playoff spots is stupid. We need eight. We're in a situation, currently, where teams from the B1G, SEC, Big XII, ACC, and Big East can theoretically compete for a national title. Creating a system where we only have four teams competing for the national title only serves to slim the field. We're talking about the possibility of conference champions only - think about what that means! Boise of years past? No way.

What we really need is a tournament of eight or sixteen teams. If we can get to this point, we can figure out algorithms and what not for who places where and this can even potentially alleviate the conference realignment issues. If we can come up with good enough numbers as to who places where I think we'll be in good shape (I realize this is vague and I may come back to this later).

3. It could be ignorance, however, I just don't understand why going to a playoff system as it has been currently discussed sounds the death knoll for the ACC.

lutz,

As to your point 3. The answer is, we won't know about access until later this summer. A big open question will be how the playoff teams get selected. They need to vote on it.

The initial thinking is that the Big 4 would get the preseason ratings, they would dominate SOS, and for all intents the "outsiders" would be unrealistic long shots.

(05-19-2012 02:22 AM)rc79 Wrote:  lutz,

As to your point 3. The answer is, we won't know about access until later this summer. A big open question will be how the playoff teams get selected. They need to vote on it.

The initial thinking is that the Big 4 would get the preseason ratings, they would dominate SOS, and for all intents the "outsiders" would be unrealistic long shots.

From what I understand, there are two models being proposed:

1. Top 4 teams - I can't tell you how this is determined because the math is too complicated for me. At this point let us just say that whatever rankings are currently in place will somehow conclude that these are the top 4 teams in the country.

2. Conference Champions - from what I understand, the highest ranked conference champions will compete to determine who is the true national champion. I'm assuming (and this is truly an assumption) that this is not limited to BCS conferences.

Under either scenario, we wind up with a situation where the announcement that at worst a SEC #2 is going to face a Big XII #2 in a bowl game doesn't really matter that much.

The truth of the matter is this - the SEC and Big XII champions have good odds at being in the four team playoff to begin with. This makes the deal between the two a lot less devastating. What they've done doesn't make it any less likely that an ACC team is going to make it to the national title game so I am very confused as to why this is is the "death knell" to some conferences.

It makes some sense what you are saying. To be clear, I don't have a position yet. I'm just saying that is the impression out there.

The 4 leagues drive the votes, RPI, etc. for playoff selection. That's were everyone wants to end up to make sure their play on the field is validated. It's not the business model so much as the scoring system or committee that will choose the 4 team to fit the model they end up with.

They aren't going beyond 4 teams which adds additional stress to the process.

Anything less than eight teams is stupid.

All having a four team playoff will do is narrow the field of who can be crowned champion. Perhaps, though, that's exactly what the powers at be want to happen.

ndlutz, I agree that anything less than 8 kinda makes no sense. I think we'll see the field expanded at some point.

My comments on the ACCboard today was more tongue in cheek. I see yesterdays events more or less creating an Eastern Rose Bowl. But the 3 playoff games are obviously going to be far more important than Bowl Games. As the playoff field expands down the road, the Bowls will be cared about even less than they will be in the future. Neil made a great illustration of the post season tiers;

National Championship

2 Semis

Rose
New Big XII/SEC Bowl

Orange Bowl

Fiesta/Cotton

Best of the rest on Jan 1


Minor Bowls

The big question, at least for me - what happens to the BBVA Compass Bowl?

(05-19-2012 10:06 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  The big question, at least for me - what happens to the BBVA Compass Bowl?

God bless our home away from home.