Best College Football Schedule I Have Ever Seen
- Thread starter DeltaHog
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highwayman
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What am I going to do the other 5 minutes?
frozengopher
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I find it extremely entertaining that an Arkansas fan is contributing on this board when there really is no connection between the two teams, just the fact that the particular fan was in the metro over a weekend. We need more people like this! How about a Rainbow Warrior?
Keep on keepin' on, DeltaHog. Your posts bring a certain balance, amid all the sitting and standing
Keep on keepin' on, DeltaHog. Your posts bring a certain balance, amid all the sitting and standing
Schnoodler
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We had the Cal guy for a couple as well. It is fun to have these guys around.
LC19
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Looks like I'll be drinking some beer watching college fb this Saturday in my home bar. Will be nice to be home to watch some other games this Saturday after attending 5 straight games of Gopher fb.
And to add, big college hockey series with Friday/Saturday games against UND. Going from Gopher fb to hockey will be a nice day. Cheers.
And to add, big college hockey series with Friday/Saturday games against UND. Going from Gopher fb to hockey will be a nice day. Cheers.
Winnipegopher
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To be fair, this kind of schedule will happen for the next 6 weeks or so. Good times and the next few weeks will really show who is a contender/pretender.
It is a great time of year for sports (I also watch a fair bit of NHL, CFL and NFL).
It is a great time of year for sports (I also watch a fair bit of NHL, CFL and NFL).
KoolAid
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How about October Baseball? Stuff gets my blood boilin...
i'm batman
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i was just going to start a Charleston Southern vs. Gardener-Webb thread. barn-burner!
Thanks! It stinks that I probably will be fighting to watch the Gopher game let alone all of the other action due to family committments.
Oh well!
Go Gophers and Razorbacks! (Whoa Pig Sueeee?)
There are a ton of great college games this week...and every week for the rest of the season.
A PLAYOFF SYSTEM WILL RUIN THIS.
Cripes, even the Tulsa/Boise game being played right now is a big game since no playoff system is in place.
Why do so many want to change this?
A PLAYOFF SYSTEM WILL RUIN THIS.
Cripes, even the Tulsa/Boise game being played right now is a big game since no playoff system is in place.
Why do so many want to change this?
GophersInIowa
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Why would a playoff system change this? Unless you're talking about 32 team playoffs, every game still counts. If a playoff system was in place and Boise loses, they would have a very little chance of getting into a 4 or 8 team playoff. The "playoffs would mean the regular season is less meaningful" argument just doesn't make sense to me.
If it were me, an 8-team playoff system would be perfect. The first round would be played at the higher seeds home field. Even if a team thinks they will get into the playoffs, they would still want to get a high seed to be at home that first game. That's a huge advantage. Just think if a LSU or Florida had to travel to Ohio St. or better yet, Minnesota for a playoff game in December.
If it were me, an 8-team playoff system would be perfect. The first round would be played at the higher seeds home field. Even if a team thinks they will get into the playoffs, they would still want to get a high seed to be at home that first game. That's a huge advantage. Just think if a LSU or Florida had to travel to Ohio St. or better yet, Minnesota for a playoff game in December.
There are numerous reasons not to have a playoff system.
I like having "desperation" games every Saturday. I'm anticipating a Florida/Alabama SEC title game with both undefeated. Similar to the Mich/OSU game three years ago. Where's the drama if they're both going to make the playoffs?
I'm of the belief that, with an 8-team playoff, you will have even more controversy about who gets in. There will be 8-10 teams saying they got jobbed, as opposed to the 1 or 2 we have now.
I like that college sports have different ways of determining champions than the pros do. We already have an NFL playoff system. Why do we need a copycat?
A playoff system will eventually eliminate the majority of bowl games, which would
put an end to the Gopher season every November.
I could go on and on....
I like having "desperation" games every Saturday. I'm anticipating a Florida/Alabama SEC title game with both undefeated. Similar to the Mich/OSU game three years ago. Where's the drama if they're both going to make the playoffs?
I'm of the belief that, with an 8-team playoff, you will have even more controversy about who gets in. There will be 8-10 teams saying they got jobbed, as opposed to the 1 or 2 we have now.
I like that college sports have different ways of determining champions than the pros do. We already have an NFL playoff system. Why do we need a copycat?
A playoff system will eventually eliminate the majority of bowl games, which would
put an end to the Gopher season every November.
I could go on and on....
Does that argument honestly not make sense to you? Playoffs will and do, by definition, take importance away from the regular season.
I couldn't agree with CP more. I absolutely hate the idea of a playoff, and I'm really tired of people (especially the media) talking about it like everyone wants it, it's obvious/inevitable, etc. I don't want playoffs.What I want is to see the Gophers in the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately, if we get playoffs, that dream, along with many other wonderful things, would die.
dpodoll68
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It does make no sense. The dilution of the regular season is relevant in the NFL, because .500 teams make the playoffs all the time, and 12/32 teams (37.5%) make the playoffs every year. You start the season having almost a 50/50 chance to make the postseason.
A potential playoff in college football would have significantly lower odds - whether 8 (6.6%), 12 (10.0%), or 16 (13.3%) teams are involved. You can rest assured that, regardless of the number of teams involved, it would be a very rare team that would get in with more than 2 losses, and even then only if they were dumb enough to involve 16 teams. Hell, LSU won the national title two years ago with 2 losses, so was their regular season meaningless?
If someone suggests a playoff with equal odds (45 teams), then yes, the dilution of the regular season angle is valid. Otherwise, it simply does not hold water.
Ok, this is really simple, and a little bit embarrassing to have to explain.
Right now, after the regular season is over, two teams have a chance at the national championship. This means that through the season, if your team wants a chance to win it all, they need to be one of the two best teams of the 119, or roughly in the top 2% of teams (I get that this is inexact, you can never actually know which two teams are the 'best' etc, but that is irrelevant to this specific point).
Now, say we have just a 4 team playoff...in order to have a chance at the championship, a team would need to finish the regular season among the top 4 teams, or roughly the top 4%. This means that, BY DEFINITION, the regular season is less important. Specifically, in this instance, for the teams that make it, it is TWICE AS EASY to get in to the title picture.
What you're arguing is that the decrease in importance for regular season games isn't great enough to harm your enjoyment of the games. Arguing that the regular season wouldn't be less important is flat-out impossible to do for anyone with a 2nd grader's knowledge of math, or just common sense.
dpodoll68
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Nice condescension. The fault in your logic is that you assume a loss will knock you out of contention. In the event that there are exactly 2 BCS conference teams that are undefeated, this is true. However, any other scenario is far more likely, and having a playoff would result in (gasp!) deciding the championship on the field! Having twice as many participants does not make your inclusion twice as likely, and by extension, make the regular season half as meaningless. Sorry, the math just does not work out that way.
While we're on the topic, every other team sport, at every level, ever, decides their championship on the field, and yet one subdivision of college football has a glorified beauty pageant. Yet they're the ones who are right, and every other sport, at every level, is wrong? Please explain that to me. K thanks.
I apologize for the condescension, however, there is no argument that a playoff doesn't make the regular season less important. I'm not exactly sure what you're trying say there, but you're wrong. The regular season matters less with a playoff...I don't know how to say it any more clearly than I already have. Yes, having twice as many participants does indeed make it twice as easy to get in. I'm not saying it makes the regular season half as meaningful, or that the 3rd and 4th teams are half as good, but you can't argue that it's not easier to get in when more teams get in...you just can't. Please don't try.
As to the other point, that every other sport has a playoff...good for them. I'm not saying college football is right and they're wrong, I'm saying college football is different, and that's a big part of what I love about it.
I love that there are a bunch of bowls, of varying importance, and that the Gophers can end the season with a postseason win without being national champs. I love the Rose Bowl. I love cheering for Big 10 teams I had to root against all year. I love that a mediocre team that gets hot at the right time isn't going to be our 'champion.' I love that we have a system where we don't just look at wins and losses, but actually factor in when a team is obviously overmatched. I LOVE college football for what it is, and would enjoy it much less with a playoff.
AMEN to that!
I love the NFL. I love watching the playoffs.
I love college football and its system as well.
The bowl games are fabulous, with wide-open play and excitement. It also gives teams like ours the chance to keep playing.
I'm convinced college football purists are against a playoff. (And NO, anyone who works for ESPN is NOT a purist, but a schill for the network that would be broadcasting such a money-making venture)
I love the NFL. I love watching the playoffs.
I love college football and its system as well.
The bowl games are fabulous, with wide-open play and excitement. It also gives teams like ours the chance to keep playing.
I'm convinced college football purists are against a playoff. (And NO, anyone who works for ESPN is NOT a purist, but a schill for the network that would be broadcasting such a money-making venture)
GophersInIowa
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Even with an 8-game playoffs, every game is still big. Every game still matters. Do you honestly think that if a team like Ohio St. would just kinda try to win early in the season, then lose one game and say "Oh crap, we need to really start trying now because if we lose one more, we're probably out of the playoffs"? You just don't know how things will shake up at the end or where you'll be ranked so you better make sure to win every game.
1- I'm not saying games wouldn't still be big. In fact, the regular season would still be more important than the regular season in any of the major professional sports in America. But it would undoubtedly be less important.
2- I do honestly think that a team like Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, etc would have a lot less pressure to win early. Every single one of those teams gets into an 8 team playoff with one loss this year. None of them have a chance now unless SEC Champ and/or Texas lose. That's how it should be.
word.
GophersInIowa
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GophersInIowa
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I get what you're saying and all, I just think that the excitement of a playoffs would easily make up for this small decrease in regular season game importance. Just imagine last year, with a playoffs in place the teams would have been Oklahoma, Florida, Texas, Alabama, USC, Utah, Texas Tech, and Penn St. How much fun would that have been to watch?
Why would that eliminate the bowl games? Unless you're one of the top 8 teams, you would still go to a bowl game.
It would eliminate the Rose Bowl. That's enough for me.
Since we seem to be well into this discussion, I have to admit, I think I'd be ok with a plus 1 after the BCS games, based on ranking, and doing away with the BCS Championship game as it exists now (so long as the bowl matchups are not seeded). This would preserve the tradition of the bigger bowls, and even take us a small step back to where we used to be, while at the same time giving a team like undefeated Boise State a chance to prove it can play with the big boys and get a quality win, therefore earning their way into a championship game.
I could probably be talked out of it, though.
dpodoll68
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The point is not whether it's easier to get in. Unless your goal is to make the playoffs, of course. That and $3.50 will get you a Frappucino at Starbucks. I don't think any team would set "making the playoffs" as a goal at the beginning of the season.
At the beginning of any given season, I could feel quite confident writing the names of 10 teams on a sheet of paper, and that the eventual national champion would come from that list. In other words, only around 10% of DI-A teams have a national championship as a realistic goal. The inclusion of a playoff affects these teams only. In other words, the 2009 Minnesota team would not be affected by such a scenario, unless you were on crazy pills and held up the national championship as a reasonable goal for this year's squad.
So, the regular season is slightly less meaningful for a select minority of college football teams. Congratulations. Point made.
In fact, I would argue that a playoff makes the season more meaningful for a great deal of teams. An otherwise superior team who has an early-season slip-up (see USC, pretty much every year lately) would still have a realistic chance at a national title if they ran the table from now on, instead of the infinitesimal one they have now.
Moreover, I posit that any potential to dilute the regular season is more than offset by the difficulty in winning an additional game (or, more likely, two) to even advance to the national title game.
I fail to see how either of these things would be affected by a playoff. There would still be bowl games, and they would still hold the same meaning as before. The Gophers beating Vanderbilt in the micronpc.com Toilet Bowl, or beating Oregon in the Rose Bowl, would be the same either way.
Again, I fail to see how either of these things would change.
Once again, this is a huge fault in your logic. There is no possible way a "mediocre" team can win the national championship. Period. Unless you consider a 1- or 2-loss team "mediocre". If you do, then you have impossibly high standards.
Who is anyone to say when a team is "overmatched"? The overwhelmingly majority of people wouldn't have bet a nickel on Utah being able to beat Alabama straight up. Instead, Utah won by two TDs in a game that was actually more of a blowout than the score suggested. Obviously, Utah didn't think they were "overmatched." As Denny Green would say, "that's why they took the damn field."
In response to two of your points, the Rose Bowl as we know it would cease to exist if we had a playoff. It would become either 1) a second-tier bowl which would only feature Big 10 vs. Pac 10 champs if neither were in the top X number of teams (not likely) or 2) the semifinals of a playoff, with seeded teams (in all likelyhood not tied to conference), where the goal would be to get to the next round, not to be the Rose Bowl Champion.
In response to another point, there would be a mediocre Notre Dame team in the playoffs every other year. And yes, I consider plenty of 1 or 2 loss teams "mediocre" in relation to what I think a national champion should be.