18Champs
Member
Walsh wrote this before yesterday's games.
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Those who have been following me for a while may remember last year when I did a Just a Minute segment on "Eight reasons why the playoff shouldnāt be expanded."
Specifically, I wanted to look at one of the most popular ideas, of having each conference champion get an automatic bid plus three-at large teams. If there are no upsets this weekend, the quarterfinals would look like this:
Ohio State vs. Florida
LSU vs. Penn State
Clemson vs. Georgia
Utah vs. Oklahoma
With that in mind here are eight more reasons why the playoff should not be expanded.
1. More rematches.
It's bad enough the conference title games are full of them, in this scenario the committee would have to juggle things a little to make sure Florida and LSU wouldn't play again.
2. Speaking of the Gators, would they really deserve a shot at the playoff? The guess here is that they would get in over Baylor, but the way the committee has been this year who knows?
3. It opens the door for a three-loss team to make the playoff. That's in the best interest of nobody.
4. The focus on shift on who would be No. 8, not at the top. It's bad enough Clemson has sleep-walked through the season, but this would shift the focus even more away from the top of the rankings.
5. Logistics. This year the regular season was a longer with an extra bye week and December shrunk in terms of the calendar. This weekend features the championship games, and then there's awards week (when many schools have finals). The following weekend is right before Christmas. so when would the quarterfinals be played?
6. The players. Last year I noted that he big compromise to the conference championships was every team got to have a 12th game every season. Now theyāre playing up to 15 games. Let's add something else, more snaps. In 2011, Alabama's defense was on the field for just 720 plays for the whole season. This year they've already been on for 797. People need to stop and think about the players for once.
7. More bad football. The Football Championship Subdivision playoffs are down to the round of 16 this weekend, with James Madison favored by 28.5 points over Monmouth. Only one of the games had a point spread under nine points. Similarly, only four championship title games have point spreads under a touchdown.
8. This is to decide the national champion. It's not to make everyone feel good. If your team or conference isn't in the discussion enough for you, the problem is not with the playoff. As of now no one has a good argument about not being in the playoff other than Clemson, LSU and Ohio State and you know why. It's because they're all undefeated.
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Those who have been following me for a while may remember last year when I did a Just a Minute segment on "Eight reasons why the playoff shouldnāt be expanded."
- You can't assume every conference is equal
- The players
- You go to eight teams and people will immediately want 16.
- Scheduling
- Going to eight would pretty much be only adding teams that have no shot at winning the championship
- Expansion would be all but a death sentence for the bowls
- If people are sick of Alabama being in the playoff now, imagine what it would be like with eight teams
- It would diminish the importance of the regular season
Specifically, I wanted to look at one of the most popular ideas, of having each conference champion get an automatic bid plus three-at large teams. If there are no upsets this weekend, the quarterfinals would look like this:
Ohio State vs. Florida
LSU vs. Penn State
Clemson vs. Georgia
Utah vs. Oklahoma
With that in mind here are eight more reasons why the playoff should not be expanded.
1. More rematches.
It's bad enough the conference title games are full of them, in this scenario the committee would have to juggle things a little to make sure Florida and LSU wouldn't play again.
2. Speaking of the Gators, would they really deserve a shot at the playoff? The guess here is that they would get in over Baylor, but the way the committee has been this year who knows?
3. It opens the door for a three-loss team to make the playoff. That's in the best interest of nobody.
4. The focus on shift on who would be No. 8, not at the top. It's bad enough Clemson has sleep-walked through the season, but this would shift the focus even more away from the top of the rankings.
5. Logistics. This year the regular season was a longer with an extra bye week and December shrunk in terms of the calendar. This weekend features the championship games, and then there's awards week (when many schools have finals). The following weekend is right before Christmas. so when would the quarterfinals be played?
6. The players. Last year I noted that he big compromise to the conference championships was every team got to have a 12th game every season. Now theyāre playing up to 15 games. Let's add something else, more snaps. In 2011, Alabama's defense was on the field for just 720 plays for the whole season. This year they've already been on for 797. People need to stop and think about the players for once.
7. More bad football. The Football Championship Subdivision playoffs are down to the round of 16 this weekend, with James Madison favored by 28.5 points over Monmouth. Only one of the games had a point spread under nine points. Similarly, only four championship title games have point spreads under a touchdown.
8. This is to decide the national champion. It's not to make everyone feel good. If your team or conference isn't in the discussion enough for you, the problem is not with the playoff. As of now no one has a good argument about not being in the playoff other than Clemson, LSU and Ohio State and you know why. It's because they're all undefeated.
