16 of the last 17 college football national champions have come from inside this red oval.

[GopherTheJugular]

Nothing wrong with that. He could go down in week 11 just as easily.

In week 11 the player is competing against legit competition. In an expanded playoff, he's not.

 

[Gophers_4life]

This will never change. The red oval is rock solid for decades which is why talking about winning a national championship here is senseless. It is not possible.

Maybe, maybe not.

TCU certain gave a flash of hope.

 

[GopherWeatherGuy]

It's not the correct comparison. When teams have over a month to rest, that levels the playing field. Take our 2019 Gophers, for example. Everyone was happy that they beat an SEC defense with 4 and 5* players, yatta yatta yatta. Well, we had over a month to rest.

Now, if leading up to the game against Auburn, how would the Gophers had faired if they played 'bama, Florida, and LSU the 3 weeks prior? Outside of Big Dan, I think our o-line would have been pushed around just due to exhaustion from playing a 4th SEC defense in 4 weeks.

That's the kind of grind I don't think B1G teams can handle. Week in, week out against SEC defenses. Fully rested, it's a different story.

Or a similar analogy would be what Chris Peterson was doing at Boise State. He'd schedule a decent P5 opponent, like Oregon, Virginia Tech, etc and beat them and then want to pad the resume with that. Well, the caveat was that he was always scheduling them for the first game of the season, when his players were fully healthy. Had his undersized BSU team tried playing a P5 team in November, they would have lost every time just due to lack of girth.

Outside of Georgia and Alabama, the SEC is no different than the B1G. Look at Nebraska and Missouri, who were pretty comparable programs when they left the Big 12. Although Nebraska has for more history and better resources, they have gotten their ass kicked in the B1G while Missouri has had far more success in the SEC.

 

[Ope3]

Maybe, maybe not.

TCU certain gave a flash of hope.

And if the Ohio St kicker wouldn't have missed wide left by 10 yds on the Game Winning FG against Georgia, there would have been another champion outside the oval.

I think the Horned Frogs would have played at least a semi-competitive game against the Buckeyes. Maybe hold them to under 50 at least.

 

[MNVCGUY]

As far as the other semifinal is concerned, what would be the outcome if Michigan and TCU played ten times at a neutral site? I'd pick Michigan to win 7 of 10.

I don't even think it would have to be a neutral site, Michigan allowed 2 pick 6s and played a horrible first half and still almost won the game. Michigan was the better team by a decent margin but made too many mistakes to overcome.

Reagardless of where the game was played I think Michigan wins 7-8 of the 10 matchups. TCU was good but they had a lot of flaws.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Outside of Georgia and Alabama, the SEC is no different than the B1G. Look at Nebraska and Missouri, who were pretty comparable programs when they left the Big 12. Although Nebraska has for more history and better resources, they have gotten their ass kicked in the B1G while Missouri has had far more success in the SEC.

Yeah, both the Big Ten and the SEC are very top heavy. Once you get beyond the elite teams there is a ton of parity across the rest of the conference.

 

[Some guy]

You are far afield of the actual question. Do you stand by the assertion that no Big Ten team aside from OSU could routinely win more than two or three SEC games a season? Not Michigan or Penn State? Not Iowa or Wisconsin? Never Minnesota?

The nice thing for Minnesota is that in the big ten 9-4 two in a row will have them unranked

Texas A&Ms 5-7 will have them preseason top 20

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

And G5 teams are just going to be happy with that? Cmon. Everyone likes to see upsets happen. They don't happen often, which is the point. But everyone should have the opportunity to play for a championship. Getting whooped isn't part of the equation. Doesn't matter.

G5 have been happy to take the shaft for a long time now.

I think they should have broken off and made their own tournament but they’re not gutsy or organized enough to do it.

 

[cjbfbp]

If you think a group of 5 champion has any path to the national championship as long as the SEC is around, you're fooling yourself.

All those "Rudy" teams are going to get plastered senseless. I mean, did anyone enjoy watching TCU get the sh*t beat out of them for 4 quarters????? Yet you guys want MORE of those kinda games???

Shake my head. This isn't basketball where some small school can light it up from beyond the arc and pull off an upset. The top 2 or 3 teams in college football will destroy the rest of the competition, whether it's a 6, 8, 12, 16, 64 team playoff, it doesn't matter.

Amen!

 

[GopherTheJugular]

I think they should have broken off and made their own tournament but they’re not gutsy or organized enough to do it.

This is about the only way they'll ever be competitive in a post-season: by playing other G5 teams. I'd actually watch, as the games would (much more likely to) be competitive.

And they could have as big of a playoff as they wanted. The "every saturday matters" slogan really only applies to P5 teams anyways, so if G5 wants to water down their regular season in exchange for a big playoff, I say go for it!

 

[Panthadad2]

G5 have been happy to take the shaft for a long time now.

I think they should have broken off and made their own tournament but they’re not gutsy or organized enough to do it.

It sure seems like there could be some opportunity to do a 4 or 8 team G5 playoff. A better version of basketball's NIT. For me, it would be multiple times better than all the no-name bowls G5 teams play in now. Maybe the TV networks don't think there's enough money in it to justify the cost.

 

[Dupreefor3]

If you think a group of 5 champion has any path to the national championship as long as the SEC is around, you're fooling yourself.

All those "Rudy" teams are going to get plastered senseless. I mean, did anyone enjoy watching TCU get the sh*t beat out of them for 4 quarters????? Yet you guys want MORE of those kinda games???

Shake my head. This isn't basketball where some small school can light it up from beyond the arc and pull off an upset. The top 2 or 3 teams in college football will destroy the rest of the competition, whether it's a 6, 8, 12, 16, 64 team playoff, it doesn't matter.

Ignores the semifinal.

 

[Goldmember]

Ignores the semifinal.

This is it. We’re doing it all for the occasional upset that the marginal fan enjoys.

 

[Goldmember]

Close, as I feel only tOSU could join the SEC and win half of their conference games. Every other team in the country would never win more than 1-2 SEC games, not michigan, not USC, etc. The grind of the SEC regular season would wear those teams' athletes down to the nubs come November.

Insane ignorance on display for all to see.

Just a decade ago I heard over and over again from SEC fans how Missouri was going to lose every game in the SEC. Then they won the East Division 2 of their first three years in the conference.

 

[cjbfbp]

That's why 12 is the number. 12 allows all earned conference championships and some at large teams to play it out on the field. All P5 conference get the champion in. That's really all people are asking for.

Basketball has 350+ teams. I agree it is different, but every conference gets their champion in.

I'd like to see 9% of Football teams in playoff. Basketball is 20%. Pro sports take 40-50% of teams into the playoff and teams with losing records.

I think you're asking "Why isn't FBS football more like other sports?"

And I'm asking "Why does it have to be? Why do away with a quality that makes it unique?" FBS football is the one sport where there is little or no discussion about the worthiness of teams for postseason. Win 6 games and you're in. It's the only sport where half of the teams end their postseason with a win. In other sports, every team except one losses its last game. The overwhelming majority of teams participate simply in a postseason encore performance where, hopefully, they are matched against a team of comparable quality (often that part of it isn't accomplished very well because of other concerns).

The postseason focus in FBS football is decentralized into a bunch of one-off games instead of concentrated into a national playoff. If very, very few teams have what it takes to win that national title why should the rest of the college football fans have to be convinced to care so much about that?

 

[Some guy]

Ignores the semifinal.

Correct.
We were about 3 plays away from an all big ten, no SEC championship game

But the SEC is so superior that no one else will ever be able to compete.

 

[hungan1]

They should rotate the National Championship games to other regions and neutral sites. Wouldn't it be nice if the US Bank Stadium hosted one of the games?

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

The quickest solution is that for the next 16 years nobody in the oval can win a championship.

 

[btowngopher]

Go back to the two team national title game. Regular season stays fun and interesting, you get better non conference matchups, teams won’t pad their schedules, and you avoid the stupid super conferences that suck for college football.

 

[Some guy]

Go back to the two team national title game. Regular season stays fun and interesting, you get better non conference matchups, teams won’t pad their schedules, and you avoid the stupid super conferences that suck for college football.

The other thing that avoids super conferences is auto bids to any conference champ.