| FTBL Dodd thinks college football hates the Cinderellas.

[SoCalPatrick]

College football has never embraced Cinderella. You know, the gutty, little underdog that takes on giants -- that lifeforce that is, in basketball, the lifeblood of the NCAA Tournament.

Whatever you want to call it -- tradition, snobbery, whatever -- college football has been an exclusive gated community for a century and a half. Only the privileged have the password.

Why, though? This country loves its underdogs. This country was once an underdog. It just doesn't love them as much in college football.

"That's the $64 million question," AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said this week. "You have to earn that respect, of course. I think there is a feeling somehow that we don't play at a particular level. I've never bought that."

It's his No. 4 Cincinnati that will try to break through what has, to this point, been a cement ceiling when it plays in the AAC Championship Game against No. 21 Houston on Saturday. Beat the Cougars, and the undefeated Bearcats have an extremely good chance of getting into the College Football Playoff.

They may not know it, but they'll be carrying on their backs the hopes and dreams of scores of programs that were deemed -- through athletic discrimination or even TV ratings -- to not be good enough. What were once perceptions are now well-established labels: Power Five and Group of Five. Those labels are mostly media shortcuts, but the definitions are well known to those who follow the game.

The Power Five are the legacy conferences: ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. The Group of Five are the less-resourced leagues: American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt.

"There's a difference in funding," Houston coach Dana Holgorsen said of the Group of Five. "There's a difference in national coverage. There's a difference in what the CFP views as good football and not-good football. I don't know how to change that."

That might change this week. Cincinnati's inclusion would be a window into what an expanded playoff would look like. In a 12-team bracket, at least one Group of Five team would be guaranteed each year with room for more.

A TV consultant once said ratings would sag with such programs in the four-team field. That would beat getting sued by the Group of Five over monopolistic practices for exclusion. That's how high the barrier has been for the have-nots.

MORE...

Cincinnati aims to prove it's more than a Cinderella by breaking into exclusive College Football Playoff

The Group of Five's best chance to play for a national title -- ever -- wears black and red

www.cbssports.com

 

[bamascw]

So many things flood my brain when I hear stuff like this, as I’m sure it does the majority of you as well.

Number one, you cannot compare NCAA football to NCAA basketball, maybe if we played a 23 game regular season you could add a few more Cinderella‘s into the mix, but I won’t mention that the outcome will be most of those Cinderella‘s lose.

Number two, the country claims they love underdogs, that’s only the people that are the underdog, lets Cincinnati make it into the national championship against Oklahoma State and let’s see what the TV ratings are. Let us not forget NCAA football is about money, nobody wants to watch Cincinnati play Iowa.

Again trying to compare basketball to football is ridiculous, it’s not even apples to oranges it’s more like peanuts to filet mignon. In basketball you play with five people therefore one really good player can make an extreme difference, not that way in football, look at how many teams have three or four really good players but they can’t hang with a team that has eight NFL players.

Let’s not even get into the conference argument about how Cincinnati is much healthier than the average SEC team because they are playing high school teams all year round mixed in with one Notre Dame game, when you look at any team in the SEC who plays eight other SEC teams. I feel like a broken record but damn I get so tired of the media hyping up the little guy when in reality they don’t wanna see that shit either because without the money getting tossed around their salaries go down and nobody’s trying to tune in and watch ESPN anymore.

Sorry for the rant, but I just got off of my peloton and I guess I’m a little jazzed up lol

 

[mando]

So many things flood my brain when I hear stuff like this, as I’m sure it does the majority of you as well.

Number one, you cannot compare NCAA football to NCAA basketball, maybe if we played a 23 game regular season you could add a few more Cinderella‘s into the mix, but I won’t mention that the outcome will be most of those Cinderella‘s lose.

Number two, the country claims they love underdogs, that’s only the people that are the underdog, lets Cincinnati make it into the national championship against Oklahoma State and let’s see what the TV ratings are. Let us not forget NCAA football is about money, nobody wants to watch Cincinnati play Iowa.

Again trying to compare basketball to football is ridiculous, it’s not even apples to oranges it’s more like peanuts to filet mignon. In basketball you play with five people therefore one really good player can make an extreme difference, not that way in football, look at how many teams have three or four really good players but they can’t hang with a team that has eight NFL players.

Let’s not even get into the conference argument about how Cincinnati is much healthier than the average SEC team because they are playing high school teams all year round mixed in with one Notre Dame game, when you look at any team in the SEC who plays eight other SEC teams. I feel like a broken record but damn I get so tired of the media hyping up the little guy when in reality they don’t wanna see that shit either because without the money getting tossed around their salaries go down and nobody’s trying to tune in and watch ESPN anymore.

Sorry for the rant, but I just got off of my peloton and I guess I’m a little jazzed up lol

Well said. You beat me to it but I will leave you with my views on the article blah blah blah...