quo vadis
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RE: Is the G5 Access slot a "ghetto"?
(01-01-2016 12:27 PM)bullet Wrote: (01-01-2016 10:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote: The G5 Access spot in an NY6 bowl is billed as an improvement over the old BCS access for non-AQ because it is guaranteed rather than based on meeting criteria. But, it also has some significant drawbacks as well:
1) Less Exposure. In the CFP era, the great bulk of the New Year's spotlight is on the Playoff games. The other NY6 bowls get some shine but not like during the BCS era.
2) Lesser Bowls: The G5 champ is limited to three of the six bowls, and these are the lesser ones. The G5 team never gets to play in the higher-status Contract bowls, the Orange, Sugar, and Rose Bowls. Those three bowls have always been "major" and have the highest brand value. But the G5 rep gets stuck in the lesser-status Access bowls, with the Peach being particularly low-status as it has never been a major bowl.
In the BCS era, a non-AQ could play in any bowl. Hawaii and Utah played in the Sugar Bowl, NIU played in the Orange Bowl, TCU even played in the mighty Rose Bowl. But now, these bowls are off-limits to the G5 champ.
3) Opponent quality: Thanks to the CFP, the G5 champ will NEVER get to play a P5 Champ. The P5 Champs ALL play in either the playoff games or in a Contract bowl. This means that the G5 representative will always play some kind of P5 runner-up, which isn't as prestigious and doesn't allow the G5 a chance to prove itself.
In the BCS era, the non-AQ team that busted the BCS often got to play a P5 champ. TCU played B1G champ Wisconsin, UCF played Big 12 champ Baylor, Boise played Big 12 champ Oklahoma. NIU played ACC champ FSU. Those were real chances to prove your worth.
In contrast, Houston played the 3rd place ACC team yesterday. Not nearly as good an opportunity.
Lesser-status bowls, lesser exposure, lesser opponents = Ghetto "access".
I disagree with your analysis, but not your conclusion. The autonomy enshrines a different status in the governing structure. The BE and CUSA and WAC (pre-split) actually had the same number of votes as the P5 in the old structure. The media emphasizes the P5 even more than they did BCS. The non-BCS wanted to get rid of the label, but it has become even more pronounced.
As for the bowl, they were always shut out of the championship game. Now they are guaranteed 1 out of 6 and they get a top 12 team. And the Cotton once was a premier bowl. The Fiesta at times was viewed as the premier bowl since they had more flexibility in who they scheduled. They got Miami and FSU and Notre Dame in the late 80s when they were the dominant programs. They may not have had the viewership and prestige of the Rose, but they had better matchups. The Sugar was the weakest of the Big 4 in the 90s. They were the one that had to migrate to New Year's Eve to get ratings. The Orange was diminished in prestige after the Big 8 joined the Big 12 and the Fiesta got their champ.
Now it is true they won't get a champ that often. But Houston got the champ from two years ago and a playoff team from last year. In the BCS era, when they did get in, they often got the weakest champ and didn't always get a champ:
Boise-OU Only the ACC champ WF was lower ranked than OU
Hawaii-UGA UGA was highly ranked, but was a conference runnerup
Utah-Alabama Alabama was highly ranked but was a conference runnerup
Boise-TCU They had to take two so they paired them against each other
TCU-Wisconsin TCU got the #3 champ but they didn't have a choice. TCU was the #3 team and would have made a playoff using BCS rankings
NIU-FSU FSU was a champ, but they were only #12. Only Big 10 champ Wisconsin, who got in with an upset, was lower ranked
As for UCF, they got an automatic bid, not the non-BCS. And they still played the #5 BCS champ.
So yes, there is a bigger perception gap, but not for the reasons you stated.
You nit-pick my points but can't refute them. Yes, the Cotton was once a Major bowl and the Fiesta became one in the 1990s. But overall, the Cotton/Fiesta/Peach group clearly is not as prestigious as the Rose/Sugar/Orange group.
Heck, I was talking to my 79-year old mother in law yesterday, who I am visiting and who has never had any interest in college football whatsoever, and she asked me about all these games i was watching. When I mentioned the Peach and even Fiesta Bowls, she had never heard of them. But she knew the Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls.
The Contract Bowls are just more prestigious, that's why the P5 signed Contracts with them.
Also, while it is true that in the BCS era not every non-AQ who made a BCS bowl got to play an AQ champ (and i never said they did), several did, and the odds of that happening were surely a LOT higher than the odds that a G5 Access team will ever get to play a P5 champ, so again the point stands.
So while I agree with you about the media pushing the P5 label and about the governance structure now favoring the P5 as well, the reasons I gave for the G5 Access spot being marginalized are still valid, too.
(This post was last modified: 01-01-2016 03:02 PM by quo vadis.)
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