🏈 How could the college football playoff change next year?

[BAMANEWSBOT]

The first College Football Playoff was a success on almost every level - except maybe for fans of TCU and Baylor.

Otherwise, there was not much to gripe about. And Ohio State walking away with the first championship by beating Oregon 42-20 on Monday night after getting the fourth spot ahead of TCU and Baylor certainly helped justify the selection committee's choice.

Now that it's over, let's look ahead and examine where the College Football Playoff goes from here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

If you thought New Year's Day was just perfect, spending your lazy day off watching football, with a semifinal doubleheader kicking off around 5 p.m. ET, we've got some bad news for you.

The semifinals next season will be played on New Year's Eve at the Orange Bowl in Miami and at the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium.

''We really do think we're going to change the paradigm of New Year's Eve,'' College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said.

The Rose Bowl goes back to being Big Ten vs. Pac-12 and the Sugar Bowl will now have a similar setup with the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 in a matchup. But those two bowls keep those premium time slots, back-to-back starting in the evening of New Year's Day.

''Traditions were existing when we started the playoff,'' Hancock said. ''And one of those is the Rose Bowl. And SEC and the Big 12 grabbed that night spot in New Year's Day. It'll be a great thing for them.''

Maybe not for fans, though.

THE COMMITTEE

The 13-member selection committee, which turned into a 12-member selection committee, needs to find at least one new member.

After Oliver Luck resigned as athletic director at West Virginia, the committee needs another representative from the Big 12 conference.

Baylor coach Art Briles, who complained about not having enough Texas representation on the panel, might not like it, but don't be surprised if Kansas State's John Currie or Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione ended up taking Luck's spot.

Former Mississippi quarterback Archie Manning had to withdraw from the committee during the season because of health issues and it's still very much up in the air if he will be back.

Hard to say who would replace Manning. It likely would be someone with ties to SEC country, but the conference commissioners who ultimately choose the committee members might want to look for someone who could lower the average age of the panel. None of the members were below 50.

There are a couple of things that will be up for discussion when the committee and commissioners start talking about whether changes need to be made to the rankings process:

- Do the committee members need to meet in person every week to do the rankings?

- Should the rankings continue to be weekly? If ESPN has a say (and it does) the answer will be yes.

- Could the rankings start later in the season?

CONFERENCE RESET

Ohio State's championship, along with some other Big Ten bowl wins and a handful of high-profile SEC losses, could reset a narrative that many outside the Deep South had grown tired of during the BCS era.

After seven straight BCS titles by the SEC, it has now been shut out of the last two national championships.

No need to panic, SEC fans. The league is still loaded, but offense rules the day in college football and a conference with sketchy quarterback play throughout can't call itself the undisputed No. 1 in the land.

Meanwhile, things are looking up for the Big Ten.

''It was a good bowl season,'' Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany. ''We had several chances to play great teams. Ohio State just got better and better. Michigan State had a good season.''

Ohio State is built to last under Urban Meyer. Michigan State isn't going anywhere under Mark Dantonio. Penn State is racking up in recruiting with coach James Franklin. And then there's this new guy Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He's kind of a big deal.

WHO WILL BE IN?

Pencil in Ohio State as preseason No. 1 in the AP poll. TCU has a load of players back, led by star quarterbackTrevone Boykin, so figure the Horned Frogs will be second. After that the preseason playoff hopefuls look like a lot of usual suspects.

- SEC: Auburn, Alabama and Georgia.

- Big Ten: Michigan State should push Ohio State again.

- Big 12: Baylor.

- Pac-12: Stanford, Southern California, Arizona and Arizona State.

- ACC: Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson.

OUR (WAY TOO EARLY) PLAYOFF PICKS:

Ohio State, TCU, Georgia and Clemson.

Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

No need to panic, SEC fans. The league is still loaded, but offense rules the day in college football and a conference with sketchy quarterback play throughout can't call itself the undisputed No. 1 in the land.

Yet, it was defense and the running game that won last night.

 

[planomateo]

Yet, it was defense and the running game that won last night.

It certainly wasn't flashy uniforms...old fashion football won last night.

Some interesting stats.

Oregon was +3 in turnovers and lost by 22.
Oregon didn't do much on 3rd and 4th down conversions, where Ohio State did.

• Oregon was 2 for 12 on 3rd, and 0 for 2 on 4th down conversions. 3 passes dropped on the 3rd down conversions.
• Ohio State was 8 for 15 on 3rd, and 3 for 3 in 4th down conversions.

Oregon had 10 penalties for 76 yds.

 

[CollegeFootballNews.com]

Here’s What I Saw In National Title Game- BAMAMAG.COM'S Kirk McNair


Like many who don’t live in the Far West, I rarely stay up after a long Saturday workday covering Alabama to watch games in the Pac-12. I had seen Oregon only a little, including a game against a woeful Washington State team in which it took help from the officials for the Ducks to pull it out.

Nevertheless, I had seen enough of this year’s Rose Bowl to think that Alabamamight have dodged a bullet by losing by a touchdown to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl. Oregon’s 39-point win over Florida State had my attention.

And then I watched Monday night’s championship game in the inaugural college football playoff and realized that Bama’s poor play in the Sugar Bowl almost certainly cost the Crimson Tide another national title.

First of all, my hat is off to Ohio State. After losing a home game by two touchdowns to a very poor Virginia Tech team, and playing with a quarterback who was third team at the start of the season, the Buckeyes mowed through a murderers’ row of Big Ten teams to the championship game. Okay, it wasn’t all that tough to trample the likes of Maryland and Rutgers and Illinois and Indiana and Michigan – the cupcakes that sprinkled every Big Ten schedule this season. But Ohio State did what it had to do.

And the Buckeyes were extraordinary in championship season with a 59-0 win overWisconsin for the Big Ten championship, a 42-35 win over Alabama to win the Sugar Bowl in the semifinal playoff game, and a 42-20 win over Oregon for No. 1.

Alabama, by the way, finished fourth in the final Associated Press poll. Oregon was the “don’t bother to think about this” second place team, TCU third.

I will admit to being blinded by the Oregon glitz, and I’m not talking about their uniforms which annually are voted both best and worst in college football. I’m talking about Oregon as a football team. It is a tricky team and it has very fine athletes, but if you did what I did and listened to a Pac-12 broadcaster about what a tough defense it has, you, too, were taken in.

Oregon doesn’t tackle.

They will probably have another Mariotta-type quarterback and run roughshod through the Pac-12 again, at least as long as USC is recovering from its probation, but we need to get a grip on giving so much respect to a team that can’t tackle.

I have one other thought on this day. Some have raised the question of whetherUrban Meyer is now the best coach in college football. Here’s the answer:

Nick Saban didn’t quit after the Sugar Bowl.

Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

Some interesting stats.

Oregon was +3 in turnovers

There's the one outlier that caught my eye.

I mentioned ball control earlier this morning in another conversation; almost 38 minutes in TOP for OSU.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

Generally, PAC12 DLs are built for hurry-up type of offenses. They are lean and a little quicker. When a big smash-mouth type of OL leans on them,
usually the OL wins. OSU did what it needed to do, lean on the Ducks, especially late in the game, and they won the battle of the trenches - for the most part.
Hopefully, our OC saw that too.... and learned a little more.

 

[musso]

There's the one outlier that caught my eye.

I mentioned ball control earlier this morning in another conversation; almost 38 minutes in TOP for OSU.

Terry, I've heard some make the case that in the age of the HUNH, total offensive plays now matter more than TOP. What say you?

 

[mrchase]

The HUNH has no effect if you can't get first downs...

 

[TerryP]

Terry, I've heard some make the case that in the age of the HUNH, total offensive plays now matter more than TOP. What say you?

Find me a game someone has lost, where the same team had 38 min...

Find me a game where a team runs 80 plays a game and the same team loses.

 

[musso]

Not sure if I follow you. Are you saying that statistically those are general barometers of success for each metric? Like, if you value TOP then 38 min should be your goal, and if you run the HUNH, then 80 plays usually translates into a win?