Nick Saban has never lost a non-conference road game in his 15 years at Alabama. If Bama wins at Texas this season, he will move to 3-0.

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MNfootballfan said:
Does the non-conference even matter now? Let’s say the gophers win every game, including the Big Ten Championship but were upset by Purdue or Illinois - I guarantee you we are not making the playoffs.

Let’s say Ohio State loses to Notre Dame and loses another Big Ten game so they have two losses. Michigan goes undefeated before losing to Ohio State in the last game of the year. Ohio State doesn’t make the championship but would bet every dollar I own a 2 loss Ohio State team would make it over a 1 loss Minnesota team.
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Not really, that’s part of my point.
 


btowngopher said:
What was memorable about it? The three undefeated powers? LSU dominating everyone?
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LSU being maybe the greatest of all time.
7 0 or 1 loss power 5 teams headed into conference championship weekend.
2 more G5 0 and 1 loss teams.
16 0 and 1 loss teams headed into week 13
Alabama outside the top 10 headed into bowl season
Illinois beat Wisconsin as a 30 point dog
Gophers beat penn state
Nov 5 - CFP, AP, and Coaches polls had 3 different #1 teams
7 top 10 matchups week 10 and beyond
3 top 6 teams lost as 20+ point favorites
One of the best rose bowls in the past 20 years IMO
 

Some guy said:
LSU being maybe the greatest of all time.
7 0 or 1 loss power 5 teams headed into conference championship weekend.
2 more G5 0 and 1 loss teams.
16 0 and 1 loss teams headed into week 13
Alabama outside the top 10 headed into bowl season
Illinois beat Wisconsin as a 30 point dog
Gophers beat penn state
Nov 5 - CFP, AP, and Coaches polls had 3 different #1 teams
7 top 10 matchups week 10 and beyond
3 top 6 teams lost as 20+ point favorites
One of the best rose bowls in the past 20 years IMO
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Woulda been more memorable with only 2 teams. When an undefeated team got left out. Maybe would’ve been OSU for scheduling a weak non conference. Maybe Clemson scheduling Wofford would have bit them.
 



btowngopher said:
Zero incentive to play them once a playoff was installed. Bigger playoff = far less interesting regular season. The bigger the playoff the more boring the regular season becomes.
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EXACTLY! Think basketball, who cares about seeing Duke vs. North Carolina during the regular season, because it's pretty much meaningless. Both teams are going to the tourney, so what matters is winning there. I don't want games like Michigan vs. Ohio State to get that same feeling, where we know both teams are going to an expanded playoff.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Not to derail the thread but I actually disagree with the bigger playoffs meaning far less interesting regular season. I actually think it is the opposite. In my dream scenario, you'd expand the playoffs to approximately 12 teams - All conference champions get an automatic bid and then a couple of at large bids. That would make the regular season far more interesting and a lot more teams (including our favorite team) having a realistic chance at making the playoffs.
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I disagree. I'm not at all excited about seeing "also rans" get a shot at the playoffs because they aren't winning it. This isn't basketball where an inferior team can pull off a victory by getting super hot from 3 point land.

A "realistic shot at making the playoffs" is nothing more than a "realistic shot at getting your a$$ kicked by #1 or #2 if you even make it that far".
 

MNVCGUY said:
Don't think you need to worry too much about derailing this thread. :)

I agree with your take on larger playoffs not diluting the regular season in this case. In pro leagues where there are only 30 some teams, expanded playoffs can make the regular season less interesting because like half the teams make it. I know this is definitely the case in the NBA where the regular season is pretty meaningless.

In college football right now you only have 4 of the 100+ FBS schools making the playoffs, so even if you expand the playoffs you still have a small percentage of the total eligible teams making it. Now granted, a good chunk of those "eligible" teams have little to no shot of ever making the playoff.
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Here's how it dilutes the regular season: now the top few teams like Alabama and Georgia, tOSU, etc. are given a mulligan. Prior to the playoffs, if a top team lost a single game, they had to rely on help to get back into the national championship game. i.e. other teams in front of them had to lose or they were screwed. Now you can watch Alabama or tOSU trailing an unranked team in the 4th quarter and it's like "no big deal, they'll still make the playoffs". We're losing that "edge of your seat" excitement in exchange for underqualified teams getting beat up in January.
 

Some guy said:
So if Playoff implications are the standard half the schedule is already meaningless.
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The excitement comes from watching Alabama lose to Johnny Football and then falling behind Oregon and Kansas State in the rankings. Then there was more excitement because later that year Oregon lost to Stanford, which propelled bama to #3, then K-State lost to unranked Texas Tech, putting bama back in the NC game. All that drama goes away with a playoff.
 



TNGophfan said:
If it is VT, Duke and Penn State, then he would have already played 3 and Texas would be 4 - 0. Too lazy to look up but was Saban at Bama in 2009?
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Yes he was. He was there in 2008 and won the NC after the '09 season.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Here's how it dilutes the regular season: now the top few teams like Alabama and Georgia, tOSU, etc. are given a mulligan. Prior to the playoffs, if a top team lost a single game, they had to rely on help to get back into the national championship game. i.e. other teams in front of them had to lose or they were screwed. Now you can watch Alabama or tOSU trailing an unranked team in the 4th quarter and it's like "no big deal, they'll still make the playoffs". We're losing that "edge of your seat" excitement in exchange for underqualified teams getting beat up in January.
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I have a feeling we value the CFP very differently. And I also think there are more than 4 teams that could win it all any given year. Yes you would have the favorites but on any given Saturday even a top team like Ohio State or Alabama can lose when going up against another good team.

In the current college football landscape there are very few teams with a realistic shot of winning the National title each year so for me I really don't get that caught up in it. To me it is pretty boring in the current structure.
 

MNVCGUY said:
I have a feeling we value the CFP very differently. And I also think there are more than 4 teams that could win it all any given year. Yes you would have the favorites but on any given Saturday even a top team like Ohio State or Alabama can lose when going up against another good team.

In the current college football landscape there are very few teams with a realistic shot of winning the National title each year so for me I really don't get that caught up in it. To me it is pretty boring in the current structure.
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Nice reply, thanks. I'm sure we do value it differently. I'd like to make 2 replies to you. First, your comment about "any given Saturday" - I think that applies a ton during the regular season and not at all in the playoffs. What I mean is the standard trap game stuff, where 'bama might be looking ahead to LSU and gets surprised by Ole Miss. With only a week between each game, the giants can be upset if they aren't careful. But when you give 'bama a month to prepare, there isn't any way possible for Cincy to beat them.

As for the boring part, that's the exciting part for me. Watching the games each week and seeing that 'bama is losing to Texas A&M, or USC (when they were on top) losing to unranked Oregon State, etc. The implications of the loss used to be so BIG that it made for edge-of-your-seat excitement. But you call that boring. So we will agree to disagree lol.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
The excitement comes from watching Alabama lose to Johnny Football and then falling behind Oregon and Kansas State in the rankings. Then there was more excitement because later that year Oregon lost to Stanford, which propelled bama to #3, then K-State lost to unranked Texas Tech, putting bama back in the NC game. All that drama goes away with a playoff.
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Which is why I don’t want an expanded playoff unless it is heavily weighted towards automatic bids for conference champions.
I don’t want the number of at larges increased beyond 4.


I would love 12
Automatic bids for outright conference champions in the top 20 and the rest convert to auto bids.
Could be 2 auto bids or more if conference champs suck.


It makes every conference game matter more.
It makes non conference games matter more too by reducing at large bids from the current 4 to 2.


Yes app state might lose to Oregon in playoff but I’ll watch that game
 



Some guy said:
Yes app state might lose to Oregon in playoff but I’ll watch that game
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You'll be the only one, outside of Oregon and the App State region. And it'll be an awfully boring, one-sided contest. That gets you excited? I suppose you thought the first round of the NFL playoffs this year was must-see TV too.

This playoff nonsense has ruined the post season. January 1 used to be an awesome day to watch bowl games of really good teams play each other and wanting to win, even though they had no path to the NC. Now those games are just an exhibition of next year's younger players as more and more players opt-out for the draft.

And what's the excitement of making the playoff knowing you're going to lose? I suppose you also got excited all those times that the Twins barely squeaked into the playoffs, IN DRAMATIC FASHION, like in a 163rd game, only to lose badly to the Yankees.

March Madness level excitement will never happen in football. It just isn't possible. If App State, or Cincy, if they actually get in and win something it'll be because they took out the other team's QB in the first quarter. That's about it.
 

Another thing about Alabama, they'll agree to a home and home series with an out of conference opponent, with the stipulation that the first game must be played in Tuscaloosa. MSU and Alabama were in negotiations when after agreeing to play the first game in Tuscaloosa, they wanted the return match up to be held in Austin at AT&T stadium, not Spartan Stadium, arguing that it was a larger facility and would generate more revenue. Apparently this wasn't the first time Alabama has pulled this stunt. They want to make sure that they play OOC games at a neutral site that isn't far from Tuscaloosa so their fans can dominate the crowd. They don't want to truly play an away game that will subject them to a crowd that isn't partisan Alabama.
 

Spartan4ever said:
Another thing about Alabama, they'll agree to a home and home series with an out of conference opponent, with the stipulation that the first game must be played in Tuscaloosa. MSU and Alabama were in negotiations when after agreeing to play the first game in Tuscaloosa, they wanted the return match up to be held in Austin at AT&T stadium, not Spartan Stadium, arguing that it was a larger facility and would generate more revenue. Apparently this wasn't the first time Alabama has pulled this stunt. They want to make sure that they play OOC games at a neutral site that isn't far from Tuscaloosa so their fans can dominate the crowd. They don't want to truly play an away game that will subject them to a crowd that isn't partisan Alabama.
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Interesting to know, thanks. I love SEC football, but that is kinda weak from 'bama's side.
 

Spartan4ever said:
Another thing about Alabama, they'll agree to a home and home series with an out of conference opponent, with the stipulation that the first game must be played in Tuscaloosa. MSU and Alabama were in negotiations when after agreeing to play the first game in Tuscaloosa, they wanted the return match up to be held in Austin at AT&T stadium, not Spartan Stadium, arguing that it was a larger facility and would generate more revenue. Apparently this wasn't the first time Alabama has pulled this stunt. They want to make sure that they play OOC games at a neutral site that isn't far from Tuscaloosa so their fans can dominate the crowd. They don't want to truly play an away game that will subject them to a crowd that isn't partisan Alabama.
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Yep. That's why the Home and Home with Penn State in '10,'11 was such a big deal. "Neutral" sites, nearly always in the South, is their idea of a "road"game. Think Georgia's past schedules have been very similar.

Saban is a fine coach and Alabama always has great talent, but scheduling has alway been their friend.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
You'll be the only one, outside of Oregon and the App State region. And it'll be an awfully boring, one-sided contest. That gets you excited? I suppose you thought the first round of the NFL playoffs this year was must-see TV too.

This playoff nonsense has ruined the post season. January 1 used to be an awesome day to watch bowl games of really good teams play each other and wanting to win, even though they had no path to the NC. Now those games are just an exhibition of next year's younger players as more and more players opt-out for the draft.

And what's the excitement of making the playoff knowing you're going to lose? I suppose you also got excited all those times that the Twins barely squeaked into the playoffs, IN DRAMATIC FASHION, like in a 163rd game, only to lose badly to the Yankees.

March Madness level excitement will never happen in football. It just isn't possible. If App State, or Cincy, if they actually get in and win something it'll be because they took out the other team's QB in the first quarter. That's about it.
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I don’t watch the nfl hardly at all
 

Alabama's neutral sites have been Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, and Orlando.

In all cases, Alabama had played at those facilities more time than their opponent. (And it's usually closer for them as well).
They are "home" away games for Alabama.
 

Spartan4ever said:
Another thing about Alabama, they'll agree to a home and home series with an out of conference opponent, with the stipulation that the first game must be played in Tuscaloosa. MSU and Alabama were in negotiations when after agreeing to play the first game in Tuscaloosa, they wanted the return match up to be held in Austin at AT&T stadium, not Spartan Stadium, arguing that it was a larger facility and would generate more revenue. Apparently this wasn't the first time Alabama has pulled this stunt. They want to make sure that they play OOC games at a neutral site that isn't far from Tuscaloosa so their fans can dominate the crowd. They don't want to truly play an away game that will subject them to a crowd that isn't partisan Alabama.
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I've never paid much attention to scheduling stuff and comparing (usually because I just don't know enough). But this Alabama stunt reminds me of the question:

"What do people call that white stuff on top of chicken shit? They still call it chicken shit."
 

btowngopher said:
Name a memorable season since playoffs went to four. This is what we used to have, just insanely more fun and interesting week to week. Maybe expanding it more will be better than four, but I doubt it will be better than 2 or none, as four is far worse than 2 or none in my eyes. We’ll see though, I’m sure it’s inevitable that it will expand. This sport continues to change in ways that make it less appealing for me so I’m sure that won’t stop.
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This video is great!!!
 

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