SEC armor - hypothetical results

[50PoundHead]

Get rid of conference championship games, and just have everyone play 13 games. All P4 play 10 conference games and have to play 2 P4 nonconference games.

Go back to using the BCS or something similar for the rankings. Top 4 teams in the rankings gets the byes.

Conference championship games are now basically superfluous and eat up a week. Someone is always going to be left out regardless of how many teams are in the CFP. Fans just to live with that.

 

[Some guy]

Byes really do screw it up. Having teams on 11 days rest playing against teams on 25 days rest can be a disadvantage to the higher seeded team. January 20th it too late for a championship game that ends its season the first Saturday in December/Last Saturday of November.

Since conference championship games won't always have the best two conference teams in it due to tie breakers and unbalanced schedule, just have the top 2 in the P4 get auto bids.

In 2026 an expansion could look like this.
Season ends on 27th/28th with selection Sunday on the 29th.
December 4th/5th is round of 16 on Campus
December 11th/12th is (Rotate, 2-3 time zones, possibly on campus)
December 19th Semi Finals (Rotate 4 major bowls)
January 1st Championship Game Location Bid)

(Maybe put it on the conferences to determine their 2 Auto bids as the top 2 in their conference)

Auto bids (Go Back to Week 15 Rankings)
2 SEC (Georgia and Texas)
2 B1G (Oregon and Penn State)
2 B12 (Arizona State and Iowa State)
2 ACC (Clemson and SMU)
2 G5 (Boise and UNLV) (Ole Miss gets in if only one G5)
6 At-Large Teams (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, Miami)


Seed 1-16 and play the games.

16UNLV at 1Oregon
15Clemson at 2Texas
14Iowa State at 3Penn State
13Arizona State at 4Notre Dame
12Miami at 5Georgia
11Alabama at 6Ohio State
10Boise at 7Tennessee
9Indiana at 8SMU




PORTAL OPENS ON JANUARY 2nd.

Bus would be less of an issue if the semi finals were Jan 1 and the first two rounds were immediately following the conference title games

 

[Schnauzer]

Just a note to potentially get this thread back on track:

1. There is a different thread dedicated to the playoff and how it is structured.

2. This thread is about how the SEC leans on hypothetical game assumptions instead of actual w/L results to suggest teams like Indiana don’t belong.

 

[disco]

Or, we could just do a 24 team bracket. Like this for example.

 

[disco]

Apologies. Should say not deserving to win for accuracy sake.
If OSU wins, it will be the first national champion since 2007 LSU to have more than one loss and I’d imagine Oregon is still going to be pretty bitter given they split H2H and lost one fewer game. LSU is the only 2 loss champ since the bcs era started (and at least since 1970 but im not digging back further)

In the past 30 years, at the FCS level, there have been eight 2 loss champions, and four 3 loss champions. That's how playoffs work. You deserve to win based on how you perform in the playoffs.

 

[upnorthkid]

In the past 30 years, at the FCS level, there have been eight 2 loss champions, and four 3 loss champions. That's how playoffs work. You deserve to win based on how you perform in the playoffs.

the FCS also plays FBS teams. Not really applicable. There's 2015 NDSU, 2010 EWU (lost to Nevada to start the year and finished 13-2), 2008 Richmond (3 losses but lost to Virginia), 2007 App State (the one who beat Michigan), 2005 App State (lost to Kansas and LSU, finished with 3 losses), 2004 JMU (lost to WVU as one of their 2 losses), 2002 WKU (lost to K State as one of 3 losses), 2000 GA Southern (lost to GA and one other time), 1999 GA Southern (lost to OR State and once other time), 1998 UMass (who lost to UConn twice; I don't claim to know how FCS teams schedule but that was an odd one that was once as a conf game and once as a non con game), 1995 Montana (lost to Wash St) as your 2+ loss teams in the last 30; apologies if I missed one.

It's pretty damn rare given the 2 loss teams that actually lost 2 FCS games are 2015 NDSU, 2008 Richmond, 2007 App State, 2002 WKU, and 1998 UMass in a league that used to have much more parity (since 2011 its been NDSU 9x, SDSU x2, JMU x1, SHSU x1 with 1 of NDSU or SDSU getting this one). Agreed how you play in the playoffs is important, but it also is different in that every conf champ gets in in FCS

 

[disco]

Agreed how you play in the playoffs is important, but it also is different in that every conf champ gets in in FCS

I hadn't taken into account that they do occasionally play FBS teams. Fair enough.
But I still advocate for all FBS conference champs to get into the playoff.

 

[dlw4gophers]

A week ago many were complaining about the first round games not being competitive, now some want to expand to 24 teams. I think not.

 

[upnorthkid]

I hadn't taken into account that they do occasionally play FBS teams. Fair enough.
But I still advocate for all FBS conference champs to get into the playoff.

i 100% agree all FBS champs should get. Otherwise separate if you're going to do a playoff. Entirely unfair to just discount them.

 

[Some guy]

A week ago many were complaining about the first round games not being competitive, now some want to expand to 24 teams. I think not.

Moving it to 24 would make the first round games more competitive

Probably would make second round games worse

 

[PMWinSTP]

Moving it to 24 would make the first round games more competitive

Probably would make second round games worse

Don't like the byes.

 

[Some guy]

Don't like the byes.

I don’t love the byes.
But I don’t mind the byes

I think they’re horrible at doing the rankings.

If they fixed the rankings all methods of playoff would be better. If they keep just naming certain brands higher up in the polls for no reason, they’re going to continue to have issues.



Penn state being ranked lower than Ohio state as they should be fixes 80% of the issues with this years playoff.
BYU or Miami being rated ahead of SMU and Bama would fix the other 20%

 

[disco]

A week ago many were complaining about the first round games not being competitive, now some want to expand to 24 teams. I think not.

The same people complaining about the first round games are generally not those of us who advocate for expansion.

 

[Wally]

Beautiful watching Georgia get thumped today.

SEC sucks!

 

[Some guy]

Beautiful watching Georgia get thumped today.

SEC sucks!

They don’t! They’re fine! About the same as everyone else

 

[Ope3]

Penn state being ranked lower than Ohio state as they should be fixes 80% of the issues with this years playoff.
BYU or Miami being rated ahead of SMU and Bama would fix the other 20%

I do think Ohio St's loss to Michigan (at home no less) properly justified the Buckeyes being ranked lower than the Nittany Lions, despite the head to head result.

 

[Some guy]

I do think Ohio St's loss to Michigan (at home no less) properly justified the Buckeyes being ranked lower than the Nittany Lions, despite the head to head result.

I don’t
Penn state lost to Ohio state and Oregon
Ohio state lost to Oregon and a Michigan team Penn state didn’t have to play

 

[Ope3]

I don’t
Penn state lost to Ohio state and Oregon
Ohio state lost to Oregon and a Michigan team Penn state didn’t have to play

Ohio St also didn't have to play a 13th Regular Season game and finished behind Penn St in the standings.

Nits also beat a decent West Virginia team on the Road.

While Ohio St also beat a quality Marshall team, it was at Home. They also played 8 regular season Home games.

Totally fine with the ranking.

 

[Some guy]

Ohio St also didn't have to play a 13th Regular Season game and finished behind Penn St in the standings.

Nits also beat a decent West Virginia team on the Road.

While Ohio St also beat a quality Marshall team, it was at Home. They also played 8 regular season Home games.

Totally fine with the ranking.

Then you’re a moron

penn state loses to Ohio State. Avoids the two teams Ohio State lost to.
Clearly better since Ohio state lost to Oregon and Michigan

What’s that? Beat down by Oregon? No worries still better than the team that beat them

 

[Ope3]

Then you’re a moron

penn state loses to Ohio State. Avoids the two teams Ohio State lost to.
Clearly better since Ohio state lost to Oregon and Michigan

What’s that? Beat down by Oregon? No worries still better than the team that beat them

I never said "clearly better", but I was good with the ranking (heading into the CFP).

Penn St 11 Ws total, 9 against P4 teams & 5 on the road.
Ohio St 10 Ws total, 7 against P4 teams & 3 on the road. 1 of those wasn't even at the other teams normal Home Stadium (Northwestern).

Both had 2 Ls, and Ohio St's 2nd was much worse.

Penn St finished T2 in the Big 10 standings while Ohio St was 4th. Sure that's derivative of unbalanced non-interlocking schedules (which we agree suck), but still the Buckeyes finished lower.

The Buckeyes had no control over the Big 10 schedule, but they did get an extra Home game. Plus they wussed out and played 3 Home Non-conferences games all against non-P4 opponents.

It's totally reasonable that the Committee put Penn St ahead of Ohio St, despite the head-to-head. It would have also been totally reasonable to put Ohio St ahead of Penn St.

In the end both got Home 1st Round games. Both in the Final 4 after multiple score wins in each round. All good.

As for "fixing 80% of the seeding" that also would have been unfair to Oregon, since they had already beaten Penn St. Switching them straight up wouldn't have fixed squat.

Any "fixing" would have also needed to involve maneuvering Notre Dame (or Texas).