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I think Ohio State and Texas Tech got the easiest paths to semis.
Indiana definitely got punished for winning.
Lol Alabama is still in. What a joke.
My biggest frustration is the talking heads with this whole thing. They keep talking about how we are keeping deserving teams out, and we need to rethink why we are letting bad G5 teams in. I’m sorry, but you are wrong here.
The G5 has fewer resources, but they work just as hard as the big programs do. In order to win their spot, they have to win their conference. These are not loser teams that get put in out of pity. They had a tougher road, one with essentially no margin for error. Let them have a their swing at the blue bloods. So what if it is a blow out? Give them their chance, let their fanbase get excited and hopeful for once… I would rather see that 100 times out of 100 over watching Alabama and Georgia play their 20th “VeRy ImPoRtAnT” game of the last decade.
Not all that many years ago, those schools would have had zero chance to win a national championship. I’m not saying this system is perfect by any means, but it’s way better than a bunch of people picking two teams to play against each other, then maybe picking one of those as the champion.
Yes, our current system is much better than those other ones. The concern is that now the discourse has shifted, and people want to cut spots for the G5 to benefit the P4 even more.
I don’t have a problem with a single G5 team getting in. Especially if one goes undefeated, they deserve the opportunity. More than one is a farce though. The playoffs should be for teams that have a legitimate chance of winning.
Hard disagree with you on all counts. The playoff should not be limited to the top 12 teams with the best odds at winning it. If that is what we wanted, the games wouldn’t matter. We would just use the Las Vegas odds to find the best teams. If the games matter, we need to value winning, and punish losing. The hard part is, although James Madison objectively has done more winning this year than every team other than Indiana, Texas Tech, Ohio State, and Georgia. The conflict comes from the fact that winning with James Madison’s schedule is objectively easier than those other 4 schools. So how do we tell which team is better? Our current system allows us to see. Put James Madison up against Oregon, and let’s see. That is what I’m excited to see.
We have a system. It’s called strength of schedule. It’s arguably not used enough. Notre Dame didn’t deserve to be in because they lost the only games they played against good teams. Same with Tulane, they don’t really deserve a spot either.
Personally I care more about quality wins than losses. I’d rather see a 3 loss Texas over a 2 loss Miami.
I don’t have a problem with letting a single G5 team in, like I said above, but 2 is absurd. It’s a playoff, it’s meant to have the best teams.
Looks pretty good to me. Notre Dame wanted in they should have beat Miami. Or stop being cowards and just join a conference.
I’m honestly impressed with the committee for putting two G5 teams in there. Hope they keep it up.
I agree with you. I have no issue with ND being left out. The other two have better quality wins.
I’ll just have to disagree. I would have zero issue with the Irish being out if there were teams more deserving and they didn’t pump us up for ratings then pull the rug.
But IMHO Alabama notably and perhaps even OK should be behind ND. No issue with Miami going above us but it is a farce how they did it. Alabama not dropping at all while BYU was bounced is all you need to know about how corrupt it is and how it’s simply an invitational.
Alabama never should’ve been above the Irish and especially after squeaking by a poor Auburn team with an interim head coach. Then they definitely shouldn’t have stayed idle in the rankings after getting pummeled by GA. If BYU was playing to play in then why the hell was Alabama not?
All a farce.
Now of course we could’ve made things easier for ourselves by winning one of two but we still only lost by 4 points total to those two teams. Certainly didn’t get rocked by 14 by the likes of FSU.
It’s the quality of wins and schedule. ND played mostly cupcakes and won against vastly inferior opponents. OU has 6 wins against ranked opponents. Many higher than the best quality win of ND which is #22 USC. And again, ND doesn’t have to contend with a conference championship. IMO conference championship losers shouldn’t be penalized. BYU didn’t qualify not because they got blown out but because their wins are against crap opponents. cupcakes. Play a weak schedule pay the price. ND isn’t deserving this year. If ND can fix their schedule next year it would be good. They have a good freshman QB who will grow in the next 2 years before he jumps to NFL. Get things right in that time.
Can only play who is in front of you and the schedules are set years in advance. That and there is clear and obvious SEC bias in the rankings which distorts everything anyway.
Alabama had what, Mizzou? How is that better than Navy who finished 9-2 and ahead in the rankings. LSU wasn’t ranked at all. TN not ranked at all and somehow were ranked still near the end even with a terrible schedule. Nearly lost to many of those too- Auburn, LSU, South Carolina…
ND- stronger strength of record- https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi
I give them Vandy and GA of course.
But in any case the point remains- what did they do in the final weeks to justify jumping ahead of ND? ND was ranked higher and demolished Stanford so much that they had starters resting in the 2nd half (like most of their last games) and Alabama needed every bit of luck to squeak by Auburn with an interim head coach but…that was a “great win” that “totally justified jumping the Irish”?
That’s baloney, pure and simple.
I guess I just disagree wholeheartedly. We did ourselves no favors so I’d be fine with a more deserving team but Alabama is simply not that and is coasting on name alone.
At this point let computers do the playoffs because the “eye test” clearly favored the Irish going into the final rankings if they had at all watched Alabama play.
Edit- a snippet from reddit from someone with a GA flair. I think it says it well though the “infantile” is not what I see- FSU should’ve opted out a few years ago as well from a clear BS process.
If I had the final say in it all, I’d leave the playoff exactly the way it is, except swap Alabama for ND
The end and long of it is Bama lost 3 games and ND lost 2. Notre Dame’s 2 losses came by a combined 4 points, and both to teams who made the playoffs. 2 of Alabama’s 3 losses were to a 5-7 team, and a blowout to close out the year. Alabama also struggled and had to find ways to beat Mizzou, South Carolina, and Auburn, 2 of which aren’t going bowling either. You can make fun of ND’s schedule all you want, but they absolutely took care of business against inferior competition.
Do I feel a little sorry for ND for getting hosed by the playoff committee, when they clearly deserved the spot over Alabama? A little. What we’re all making fun of them for is their near infantile reaction to it all.
The schedules are set only a few years in advance, and ND could very well have scheduled tougher opponents but chose not to. You are excusing them for having no say in their schedule when they do. They still held their own destiny in their hands - by beating all the cupcakes. It’s really simple. You’re scrutinizing the quality of ND’s losses. The rest of the world scrutinizes the quality of wins. It’s the wins that matter, not the losses. I’m a neutral and I watch college ball across all conferences. SEC has better teams across the board than any conference including B1G. ND played against cupcake ACC and should’ve beaten them all if they were so deserving. They didn’t and they can sulk all they want. Beating cupcakes deserve no respect. And rightfully so.
I mean, they are beholden to the ACC schedule given aligning during covid. No one would’ve known that most of those teams are quite poor nowadays.
And it is what it is. We’ll agree to disagree. I think Alabama is not at all a playoff team and ND is but it’s water under the bridge now. The snub was just the cherry on top and Alabama did NOTHING to jump ND as their wins were all factored in and they were behind the Irish up til Auburn.
And also big disagree on the SEC being top and bottom above the rest. They get a lot of favoritism in their rankings and it shows. Teams that are ranked high in the SEC had trouble with Arkansas and such who the Irish utterly dismantled for example. And if we talk cupcakes, ND is one of the few programs that doesn’t schedule FCS. Talk about cupcakes. But I guess we can’t all play “the mighty Citadel” or powerhouse Mercer.
