| FTBL College Football Playoff Rankings Discussions & Updates

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

I would too and not like the sugar bowl against Utah.

I would go and take little Miss Van de Graaff to Disney (we went to the Capital One Bowl in 2010... me, the wife, and @doemasters) and had a great time... that was before little Miss Van de Graaff was born. But, we already have plans this year. That was a fun trip in 2010 though... and that game was an absolute skull dragging.

 

[rick4bama]

I would too and not like the sugar bowl against Utah.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[PurlJam]

I'd like to see them go to Orlando and do to Illinois what the team did to Michigan State in 2010.

Going to be interesting to see. Will we "FSU" it like they did once they were out last year or will they 2010 it with a point to prove. Mindsets have changed since 2010. It's not all about "team" anymore. Good or bad, I believe we have evolved past those days.

 

[Slickmullet]

Cancel Wisconsin and FSU immediately.

I'm not playing anyone above Middle Tennesse, LA Tech, etc.

 

[Kamikazi18627]

Kinda knew when Clemson made that field goal last night. Whatever. Go get that 10th win. Pretty good first season DeBoer.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

Just for fun, and working with the teams in place, this is how I'd match the postseason teams up (obviously, I;d have Bama in the playoffs, but I'll go with their decision and just rearrange teams)...

AGAIN, THESE ARE NOT REAL... Just what I would do given the opportunity....

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Ohio State
4. Texas

12. SMU @ 5. Boise State (winner gets Texas)
11. Clemson @ 6. Arizona State (winner gets Ohio State)
10. Indiana @ 7. Notre Dame (winner gets Georgia)
9. Tennessee @ 8. Penn State (winner gets Oregon)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Citrus- Alabama vs. Colorado
Gator- South Carolina vs. BYU
Duke's Mayo- Ole Miss vs. Illinois
Pop Tarts- Missouri vs. Iowa St
Liberty- Miami vs. Army
Independence- Texas A&M vs. Memphis
Music City- LSU vs. Louisville
ReliaQuest- Kansas State vs. Iowa
Birmingham- Oklahoma vs. Baylor
Alamo- Florida vs. Michigan
Texas Bowl- Duke vs. UNLV
Sun- Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt
Military- Navy vs. Pitt
Holiday- Tulane vs. TCU


Don't really care about the rest, just draw them out of a hat.

 

[mando]

A lot of comments on here about how we should respond to having a tough schedule and not making the playoffs. My two cents is Bama does what Bama does because our program has a higher standard than others. Bama football tradition and culture demands excellence. Does not mean we will always get it but the expectation is there. We should not be ok just going through the motions or taking the easy way out. This current generation thrown in with NIL and the transfer portal will strain those expectations but the expectations should not change. Not demanding excellence would remove what makes Bama who we are and have been for decades. You do not become the special brand Bama is w/o being different.

 

[bamafan9201]

A lot of comments on here about how we should respond to having a tough schedule and not making the playoffs. My two cents is Bama does what Bama does because our program has a higher standard than others. Bama football tradition and culture demands excellence. Does not mean we will always get it but the expectation is there. We should not be ok just going through the motions or taking the easy way out. This current generation thrown in with NIL and the transfer portal will strain those expectations but the expectations should not change. Not demanding excellence would remove what makes Bama who we are and have been for decades. You do not become the special brand Bama is w/o being different.

I'd counter this argument with. We shouldn't Dabo Swinney ourselves, Alabama is Alabama because it's capable of winning at a high level and participating int he playoff consistently. That being said, if the difference of playing in the playoff 3 out of 4 years is scheduling East Texas instead of Ohio State. I would suspect the BoT, Coaches, and Administration to be backing out of all those games.

I also don't believe the teams on the other side will want to continue these games either, as it also hurts their own resumes more than just winning an easy game.

That being said, I think this whole system is about to be destroyed by the SEC and Big 10. They will not be happy with Clemson and SMU sneaking in the back door or a team like Boise State hosting a game with a bye. We will likely be moving towards a 12 team playoff with no automatic bids for non power 2 teams and eventually the other teams may not even be invited to the table at all. People wanted this, they called for it, they clamored for it. Now they're about to see the ugly side of college football, it's all about the money.

 

[No Huddle]

Clearly the big 10 is the best conference in college football, not the SEC. I’ll leave that there

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

The whole "I'm taking my ball & going home" reaction to playing better competition just isn't passing the test of reality in this case. 'Bama has been beating non-conference teams for almost 2 decades.

This is about 'Bama MUST have to play the better teams in the SEC & that will not change. Period. The ACC has always been playing shit teams for decades too. That is NOT going to change either.

This football program needs to get back to focusing on what's inside the football program. Get back to this mad as hell, beat the shit out of EVERYBODY mindset.

 

[bamafan9201]

The whole "I'm taking my ball & going home" reaction to playing better competition just isn't passing the test of reality in this case. 'Bama has been beating non-conference teams for almost 2 decades.

This is about 'Bama MUST have to play the better teams in the SEC & that will not change. Period. The ACC has always been playing shit teams for decades too. That is NOT going to change either.

This football program needs to get back to focusing on what's inside the football program. Get back to this mad as hell, beat the shit out of EVERYBODY mindset.

This mentality is ultimately flawed. Similar to what others have said I will counter with.

You're acting like Dabo Swinney and refusing to use the portal to fix your team. There's a perfectly good solution to your problems but you just wanna act like you're a tough guy. Well, let me be clear, nobody is going to care if the losses start racking up. People care about results much more than they care about "looking tough".

 

[bamafan9201]

Alright here's the issues I've had with this whole system the last two years and why I think the committee tried to toe the line too much.

Last Year:

Rankings pre-final release were really bad. Committee similarly to this year, placed an emphasis on the overall Wins vs Losses debate instead of the SoS and Ranked Wins debates. They ultimately were able to fix their own mistakes because Jordan Travis went down and they were given an easy out to leave FSU out of the dance.

This Year:

Similarly, we started in a terrible position where they could've sent a message to teams like SMU, Indiana, and others early by saying "We don't care if you're 10-0 if you've played 0 people inside the top-50" but instead they tried to toe the line and it put us in the situation we're in now. There was a time to set your foot down and make a precedent and this room was incapable of doing that. Seemingly beating to a different drum week after week with their rankings.

Overall Issues:

This will kill the system entirely. As funny as the "take my ball and go home" jokes are aside, people don't need to be an investigator to figure out that the Big 10 and SEC will be running CFB soon. With the advent of FSU and others trying to leave the ACC the majority of power will be within the SEC and Big 10 within the next 3 years. We have been moving this direction for a while, the SEC and Big 10 were fine with the format up until this year because even though it's been a little rough the majority of the time the outcome at the end works itself out. This time, it did not work itself out. Last year it was similarly heading to another disaster. The game revolves around money now and ultimately that is where things will move towards, the big money people will want to set their own standards and rules given the amount of money and time they put into the equation. Eventually I see this whole thing turning into an SEC vs Big 10 invitational. The consolidation of power started in the last few years and it's only going to grow stronger and stronger with teams like FSU, Clemson, Miami, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Arizona State and others wanting into the bigger conferences to grow their own brands...

 

[im4uainva]

Just for fun, and working with the teams in place, this is how I'd match the postseason teams up (obviously, I;d have Bama in the playoffs, but I'll go with their decision and just rearrange teams)...

AGAIN, THESE ARE NOT REAL... Just what I would do given the opportunity....

1. Oregon
2. Georgia
3. Ohio State
4. Texas

12. SMU @ 5. Boise State (winner gets Texas)
11. Clemson @ 6. Arizona State (winner gets Ohio State)
10. Indiana @ 7. Notre Dame (winner gets Georgia)
9. Tennessee @ 8. Penn State (winner gets Oregon)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Citrus- Alabama vs. Colorado
Gator- South Carolina vs. BYU
Duke's Mayo- Ole Miss vs. Illinois
Pop Tarts- Missouri vs. Iowa St
Liberty- Miami vs. Army
Independence- Texas A&M vs. Memphis
Music City- LSU vs. Louisville
ReliaQuest- Kansas State vs. Iowa
Birmingham- Oklahoma vs. Baylor
Alamo- Florida vs. Michigan
Texas Bowl- Duke vs. UNLV
Sun- Georgia Tech vs. Vanderbilt
Military- Navy vs. Pitt
Holiday- Tulane vs. TCU


Don't really care about the rest, just draw them out of a hat.

Please...no. Not Colorado. Just...no. I can eat hot dogs, but they're hard for me to stomach in sports. And especially not against Bama.
So, please, no. And I can't stress that enough.
PS I do realize they're not real. I just had to say.

ROLL TIDE!

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

FWIW, one step to fixing all this, or at least making it better, is... Only the SEC and B1G get guarantees that their league championship participating teams (the winners and losers) are secured of a spot in the playoffs. The ACC and Big 12 get no such guarantees for the loser. This will be a scenario strongly when in play when it expands to (most likely) 14 teams after next season.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

Please...no. Not Colorado. Just...no. I can eat hot dogs, but they're hard for me to stomach in sports. And especially not against Bama.
So, please, no. And I can't stress that enough.

Ha, the TV folks would love it. But feel free to swap 'em out with whoever... I almost did Miami instead.

 

[bamascw]

Of course the system is flawed and of course our strength of schedule is head and shoulders better than Clemson and SMU and of course the ACC is a shell of a conference as is the Big 12. All of that is out of the window if you don’t look like a bucket of dirty ass at Oklahoma. There will probably never be a system that is “fair” and honestly, had we gotten in, we are not a national championship contender this season. Maybe the system gets tweaked next year and we don’t have to watch automatic bids with conference championship game winners. Al of that aside, just win baby

 

[BamaFan334]

Ha, the TV folks would love it. But feel free to swap 'em out with whoever... I almost did Miami instead.

I would have assumed Miami was 100% the opponent to let people see that matchup.

 

[im4uainva]

Ha, the TV folks would love it. But feel free to swap 'em out with whoever... I almost did Miami instead.

Oh yes, the TV folks would devour that one. I would imagine CNS would smile about that somewhat. He could do sideline interviews with CDS.
It could possibly outdraw most of the PO games as far as viewership goes. I just don't think I could watch it.

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

This mentality is ultimately flawed. Similar to what others have said I will counter with.

You're acting like Dabo Swinney and refusing to use the portal to fix your team. There's a perfectly good solution to your problems but you just wanna act like you're a tough guy. Well, let me be clear, nobody is going to care if the losses start racking up. People care about results much more than they care about "looking tough".

The "tough guy" moniker that you are placing on me is just a cry baby deflection. Championship calibre teams don't give a shit who they have on the schedule. They focus on themselves & get better. There are clear teams that clearly did that this year. USCe for example, made HUGE strides.

And facts don't support your statement at all when there are teams that have played as tough or tougher schedules this year & they are playing in the playoffs because they improved & didn't lose to shit teams. Jawja for example. Texas too.

Besides the other issue here (as stated previously, of which you seemingly ignored) is that conferences like the ACC are always going to have their soft schedules. How does being more like them help us?

The reality here is this: IF this team practices & plays to the 'Bama "tough guy" standard, you wouldn't be here considering the advantages of weaker competition because we would have beat the likes of the mighty Vanderbilts & Oklahoma's of the world (sarcasm) & all of this would be moot.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

honestly, had we gotten in, we are not a national championship contender this season.

I don’t disagree with the rest, and while it may have been somewhat unlikely for Bama to string 3 strong performances together based on their body of work this season, they had the pieces to do it.

Not sure how close you follow Bama basketball, and I know it’s not an equal comparison, but… I can find some posts on here from late last season where people declared the team DEAD. And honestly, it didn’t look great heading into the post season. But when they got there, they turned it on. This football team could have been the same way. You’re 100% correct though that they should have showed up in Norman and handled their business. My hope is, lessons are learned from that, at every level in the complex.