All Things 2025 Playoffs and Bowl Thread

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MaxyJR1 said:
13-7 Virginia.

Missouri nearly ranked all year and finished 8-5 with zero wins over a bowl team and 0-5 against ranked teams.
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Absolutely crazy.
And Tennessee essentially had the same resume

Meanwhile 5th place bama and 4th place Oklahoma both get in while BYU, Notre Dame are left out

Bama who lost to 5-7 Florida state and whose best win dog walked them in a rematch the last week of the season.




Meanwhile, I think bama Indiana is a toss up game.
A ton of teams are close. Should go by resume not by who you think is better.
RememberMurray said:
Tracking the B1G and the SEC in the postseason (bowls + playoff games). The current totals:

B1G: 5-0

SEC: 2-4
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i think sometimes get upset about ^this line of thinking because i think the SEC is deeper than the big ten this year. But the point of the above stats isn’t that the big ten is better than the SEC….its that the SEC is not really that different than any other league.

They have good teams and medium teams and bad teams.


Virginia beating Missouri and Miami beating A&M doesn’t mean Michigan will beat Texas.
Conferences don’t play games, teams do.
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
The B1G is the only conference with a winning record, and it's a perfect 5-0.

View attachment 41128

B1G Games:
SEC Games:
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The American, ACC and B12 join the B1G in having winning records, with the B1G at the top. The SEC at 2-4 is now fighting with the MW and SunBelt for having the worst record.
1766934361500.png
 

Some guy said:
i think sometimes get upset about ^this line of thinking because i think the SEC is deeper than the big ten this year. But the point of the above stats isn’t that the big ten is better than the SEC….its that the SEC is not really that different than any other league.

They have good teams and medium teams and bad teams.


Virginia beating Missouri and Miami beating A&M doesn’t mean Michigan will beat Texas.
Conferences don’t play games, teams do.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think the B1G is in fact better than the SEC. More importantly, the ESPN-driven narrative that the SEC is clearly superior is self-serving and dead wrong.

The good news is we will have at least four head-to-head SEC vs. B1G games coming up:

Alabama-Indiana
Tennessee-Illinois
Iowa-Vanderbilt
Michigan-Texas

I'll be watching all of those and cheering hard for the B1G. I'm beyond sick of the SEC bias. And these games will definitely test your theory that the SEC is 'deeper'.

We shall see!
 
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RememberMurray said:
I disagree. I think the B1G is in fact better than the SEC. More importantly, the ESPN-driven narrative that the SEC is clearly superior is self-serving and dead wrong.

The good news is we will have at least four head-to-head SEC vs. B1G games coming up:

Alabama-Indiana
Tennessee-Illinois
Iowa-Vanderbilt
Michigan-Texas

I'll be watching all of those and cheering hard for the B1G. I'm beyond sick of the SEC bias. And these games will definitely test your theory that the SEC is 'deeper'.

We shall see!
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I firmly believe that one must consider the entire conference when evaluating a conference, not just the best teams. The SEC has a bit of an advantage when it comes to team records because they play only 8 conference games. It's not just an "ESPN driven narrative" that rates the SEC the highest. For the most part, the quantitative indexes do as well. The Big's problem this season is a large and pretty weak bottom of the conference. Purdue, Michigan State, Maryland, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and UCLA provided a lot of wins for teams above them, like us for example.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Pop Tarts Bowl is all offense so far, it's great.
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That was a great game. Was pulling for GT and boy is The GT Swarm fuming over that last possession. Haynes King's reputation is as a running QB and he forgot that at the end of the game. High probability for that INT to end it. Both BYU and GT much more fun to watch than our game.
 

RememberMurray said:
I disagree. I think the B1G is in fact better than the SEC. More importantly, the ESPN-driven narrative that the SEC is clearly superior is self-serving and dead wrong.

The good news is we will have at least four head-to-head SEC vs. B1G games coming up:

Alabama-Indiana
Tennessee-Illinois
Iowa-Vanderbilt
Michigan-Texas

I'll be watching all of those and cheering hard for the B1G. I'm beyond sick of the SEC bias. And these games will definitely test your theory that the SEC is 'deeper'.

We shall see!
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I think those are 4 pretty even games

The one I am most sure of in my brain is Texas beating Michigan but that’s because Michigan is in shambles not because of talent.

If the big ten goes 4-0 or 0-4 or anything in between….it doesn’t make Minnesota better or worse than Missouri or LSU. Conferences don’t play games. Teams do. Part of college football is speculating…and I don’t mind people speculating LsU would beat or lose to the gophers. But it isn’t because they’re SEC…it’s because they are a team with talent and flaws.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
I firmly believe that one must consider the entire conference when evaluating a conference, not just the best teams. The SEC has a bit of an advantage when it comes to team records because they play only 8 conference games. It's not just an "ESPN driven narrative" that rates the SEC the highest. For the most part, the quantitative indexes do as well. The Big's problem this season is a large and pretty weak bottom of the conference. Purdue, Michigan State, Maryland, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and UCLA provided a lot of wins for teams above them, like us for example.
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Kentucky 5-7
Florida 4-8
Auburn 5-7
Mississippi State 5-7
South Carolina 4-8
Arkansas 2-10

The SEC teams listed above represent a "pretty weak bottom" as well. All the endless "It Just Means More" blather can't really be based on the superiority of Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, etc. over Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, can it? Come on.

If that's your argument — that the SEC is better than the B1G because the bottom tier SEC teams I listed are better than the lower-rung B1G teams — well, no offense but I'm not convinced. And I'm certainly not impressed with the bottom feeders of the SEC.
 



Some guy said:
Absolutely crazy.
And Tennessee essentially had the same resume

Meanwhile 5th place bama and 4th place Oklahoma both get in while BYU, Notre Dame are left out

Bama who lost to 5-7 Florida state and whose best win dog walked them in a rematch the last week of the season.




Meanwhile, I think bama Indiana is a toss up game.
A ton of teams are close. Should go by resume not by who you think is better.

i think sometimes get upset about ^this line of thinking because i think the SEC is deeper than the big ten this year. But the point of the above stats isn’t that the big ten is better than the SEC….its that the SEC is not really that different than any other league.

They have good teams and medium teams and bad teams.


Virginia beating Missouri and Miami beating A&M doesn’t mean Michigan will beat Texas.
Conferences don’t play games, teams do.
Click to expand...
Agree. I look at the national perception of Illinois and Missouri/Tennessee. Illinois crushed the ACC champion and beat a ranked USC. Washington beat Illinois and both lost to Wisconsin. Maybe B1G was the deepest.

Arkansas was the worst team branch-mark for SEC. They competed in nearly every SEC game and got absolutely destroyed by Notre Dame.

Purdue competed better against Notre Dame putting up 30 to Arkansas’s 13.

I’d be curious to know SEC roster retention rate compared to B1G and if B1G becomes the place for development and SEC becomes chasing wins to not get fired.
 

Some guy said:
I think those are 4 pretty even games

The one I am most sure of in my brain is Texas beating Michigan but that’s because Michigan is in shambles not because of talent.

If the big ten goes 4-0 or 0-4 or anything in between….it doesn’t make Minnesota better or worse than Missouri or LSU. Conferences don’t play games. Teams do. Part of college football is speculating…and I don’t mind people speculating LsU would beat or lose to the gophers. But it isn’t because they’re SEC…it’s because they are a team with talent and flaws.
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It Just Means More, though. Right?
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Agree. I look at the national perception of Illinois and Missouri/Tennessee. Illinois crushed the ACC champion and beat a ranked USC. Washington beat Illinois and both lost to Wisconsin. Maybe B1G was the deepest.

Arkansas was the worst team branch-mark for SEC. They competed in nearly every SEC game and got absolutely destroyed by Notre Dame.

Purdue competed better against Notre Dame putting up 30 to Arkansas’s 13.

I’d be curious to know SEC roster retention rate compared to B1G and if B1G becomes the place for development and SEC becomes chasing wins to not get fired.
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Recruiting rankings feed media bias as does espn affiliations


Sometimes people forget that there is more to football than talent.
A dumb team with a lot of talent loses to a smart team with above average talent more often than not


You can’t fix stupid
 

MaxyJR1 said:
Agree. I look at the national perception of Illinois and Missouri/Tennessee. Illinois crushed the ACC champion and beat a ranked USC. Washington beat Illinois and both lost to Wisconsin. Maybe B1G was the deepest.

Arkansas was the worst team branch-mark for SEC. They competed in nearly every SEC game and got absolutely destroyed by Notre Dame.

Purdue competed better against Notre Dame putting up 30 to Arkansas’s 13.

I’d be curious to know SEC roster retention rate compared to B1G and if B1G becomes the place for development and SEC becomes chasing wins to not get fired.
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USC 9-3
Losses to number 5, Notre dame, and an Illinois team that should be ranked

Wins over Michigan and Iowa who should be ranked

Not even in a single discussion about playoff. 2-3 vs ranked and 8-0 vs unranked


Texas 9-3

Lost to Ohio state, Georgia
Beat A&M, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma

3-2 vs ranked
Plus a loss to 4-8 Florida



It’s just odd to me. SEC teams get ranked because their losses get forgiven. And because they’re ranked teams that beat them get more credit than they should.


Texas should be lower than USC.
If Texas would’ve beaten Florida a&M should’ve been lower than Texas.


All confirmation bias in the rankings.
The big ten shouldn’t sign up long term for anything controlled entirely by espn.
 



RememberMurray said:
Kentucky 5-7
Florida 4-8
Auburn 5-7
Mississippi State 5-7
South Carolina 4-8
Arkansas 2-10

The SEC teams listed above represent a "pretty weak bottom" as well. All the endless "It Just Means More" blather can't really be based on the superiority of Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, etc. over Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, can it? Come on.

If that's your argument — that the SEC is better than the B1G because the bottom tier SEC teams I listed are better than the lower-rung B1G teams — well, no offense but I'm not convinced. And I'm certainly not impressed with the bottom feeders of the SEC.
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Losses to Florida and Florida state get forgiven because they have high recruiting rankings

Close wins vs Michigan state means you suck
 

Some guy said:
Losses to Florida and Florida state get forgiven because they have high recruiting rankings

Close wins vs Michigan state means you suck
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Well said.

That's why I have come to despise the rankings — especially early in the season.
 

RememberMurray said:
Kentucky 5-7
Florida 4-8
Auburn 5-7
Mississippi State 5-7
South Carolina 4-8
Arkansas 2-10

The SEC teams listed above represent a "pretty weak bottom" as well. All the endless "It Just Means More" blather can't really be based on the superiority of Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, etc. over Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, can it? Come on.

If that's your argument — that the SEC is better than the B1G because the bottom tier SEC teams I listed are better than the lower-rung B1G teams — well, no offense but I'm not convinced. And I'm certainly not impressed with the bottom feeders of the SEC.
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That wasn't my only argument. I also pointed out that most of the indexes rate the SEC higher too and I consider that better evidence than anyone's subjective feelings about the subject.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
That wasn't my only argument. I also pointed out that most of the indexes rate the SEC higher too and I consider that better evidence than anyone's general feelings about the subject.
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Agree

But the SEC having a better average team in a rating doesn’t mean Texas A&M is better than USC


So if Mississippi state is better than Kansas in a computer rankings we should just automatically just rank Oklahoma and Alabama ahead of BYU?



I think the SEC is the best conference this year by a small margin when you look 1-bottom in a conference.

But I don’t think that means SEC 6 > big 12 3
 

Some guy said:
Absolutely crazy.
And Tennessee essentially had the same resume

Meanwhile 5th place bama and 4th place Oklahoma both get in while BYU, Notre Dame are left out

Bama who lost to 5-7 Florida state and whose best win dog walked them in a rematch the last week of the season.




Meanwhile, I think bama Indiana is a toss up game.
A ton of teams are close. Should go by resume not by who you think is better.

i think sometimes get upset about ^this line of thinking because i think the SEC is deeper than the big ten this year. But the point of the above stats isn’t that the big ten is better than the SEC….its that the SEC is not really that different than any other league.

They have good teams and medium teams and bad teams.


Virginia beating Missouri and Miami beating A&M doesn’t mean Michigan will beat Texas.
Conferences don’t play games, teams do.
Click to expand...
You're correct teams play games, but it's becoming my clear based on the performances that the depth of the SEC was overrated all year while the depth of the big ten was underrated
 

The Deliberate Stranger said:
You're correct teams play games, but it's becoming my clear based on the performances that the depth of the SEC was overrated all year while the depth of the big ten was underrated
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For sure agree with that:

let’s ignore the middle 2 of the big ten (Minnesota and Washington)

Indiana vs Georgia
Alabama vs Ohio state
Ole Miss vs Oregon
Texas A&M vs Michigan
Oklahoma vs USC
Texas vs Iowa
Vanderbilt vs Illinois
tennesee vs Nebraska
Missouri vs northwestern
LSU vs Penn state
Kentucky vs UCLA
Florida vs Rutgers
Auburn vs Wisconsin
Miss state vs Maryland
South Carolina vs Michigan state
Arkansas vs Purdue

I probably pick
Georgia
Ohio state
Oregon
Michigan
USC
Texas
Vanderbilt
Tennessee
Northwestern
Penn state
UCLA
Rutgers
Wisconsin
Miss State
Michigan state
Arkansas

But there aren’t a a lot of easy games to pick. The leagues are really close to me….to me the biggest SEC advantage is 5-8
But to get those matchups you actually ignore the real big ten 8-9.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
That wasn't my only argument. I also pointed out that most of the indexes rate the SEC higher too and I consider that better evidence than anyone's subjective feelings about the subject.
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The joy of This is what’s in the ratings. They include baked in bias of recruiting rankings, sos (against those teams baked in higher ratings from aforementioned recruiting rankings), and it feeds forward from the year prior.

It’s all whatever, but it’s going to be a problem when it comes to MN. We would’ve missed the playoff in our 10-2 season because of exactly the bias you’re mentioning
 

upnorthkid said:
The joy of This is what’s in the ratings. They include baked in bias of recruiting rankings, sos (against those teams baked in higher ratings from aforementioned recruiting rankings), and it feeds forward from the year prior.

It’s all whatever, but it’s going to be a problem when it comes to MN. We would’ve missed the playoff in our 10-2 season because of exactly the bias you’re mentioning
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This year I think that’s true.
I do think 10-2 MN would’ve been ranked higher than 9-3 Texas though.

There’ll be fewer 10-2 teams when the ACC and SEC go to 9 conference games
 

W
upnorthkid said:
The joy of This is what’s in the ratings. They include baked in bias of recruiting rankings, sos (against those teams baked in higher ratings from aforementioned recruiting rankings), and it feeds forward from the year prior.

It’s all whatever, but it’s going to be a problem when it comes to MN. We would’ve missed the playoff in our 10-2 season because of exactly the bias you’re mentioning
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We were 18th and ranked behind four 3 loss teams, 8 other 2 loss teams and an 11-1 Memphis team. Also the two teams that beat us.
 

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