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College Football Unpopular Opinions


ETXfan16

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3 hours ago, Lhornfan said:

In my opinion, none of the big Power 5 players want a bigger playoff. Why give the little guys a chance? Those guys don't want to line up against Boise State just to win and get to a semi-final match-up. I've stated many times why I think the playoff should be expanded:

On the first day of practice in August, every FBS D1 head football coach should be able to tell his players if they take care of business and win all their games they have a chance to win a NC. And that is NOT the case for over half the teams in FBS football. Their victory is making it to what we refer to as the shitty bowl games. If a team or teams does not have an opportunity to play for the championship in their league then they should not be in said league.

Yea man, just ask the Longhorns who are tearing up the mighty Alamo Bowl & Texas Bowl.   And throw in that Sugar last year.  

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3 hours ago, Lhornfan said:

In my opinion, none of the big Power 5 players want a bigger playoff. Why give the little guys a chance? Those guys don't want to line up against Boise State just to win and get to a semi-final match-up. I've stated many times why I think the playoff should be expanded:

On the first day of practice in August, every FBS D1 head football coach should be able to tell his players if they take care of business and win all their games they have a chance to win a NC. And that is NOT the case for over half the teams in FBS football. Their victory is making it to what we refer to as the shitty bowl games. If a team or teams does not have an opportunity to play for the championship in their league then they should not be in said league.

You make a well reasoned argument with some valid points. Let me counter with this. I keep hearing that a 16-team playoff is the ticket to a fair path to a national championship. Why 16? Basically, everyone is saying “Let’s model it after the FCS playoffs!” We’ll, the FCS has a 24-team playoff. Has anyone looked at the history of that? Hint: one team has won 7 of the last 8 titles. Let’s replace “North Dakota State” with “Alabama”, “Clemson”, “Ohio State” or “Oklahoma” and see how many people break out in the warm fuzzies. And if you don’t think there’s a coach in FBS capable of building a program that can dominate like that, I wanna show you the Idaho beach house I’ve got on the market. Secondly, it’s a well established fact that interest in non-playoff bowl games is at an all time low, so much so that more and more top players elect not to play in them. So the solution is to utilize those bowls as playoff sites. Ok let’s look at that. You take 10-12 of the non-playoff bowls and integrate them into the playoff, then you fill out the rest of the bowls with non-playoff teams. Sounds simple enough for fans, right? But guess what that means? Because you’re using more of the bowls in the playoff, you now have fewer teams actually getting bowl invitations, and the bowls that are being played are going to mean even less than they do now. You think it’s hard to get draft elgible juniors to suit up for the Gator Bowl? Wait until they find out they’re playing in the New Mexico Bowl instead. Why are these lower level bowls important? Because they give those teams that are on the upswing extra weeks of practice. One of the reasons you see the same 3-4 high school teams winning the majority of the championships in each division is because under that system, winning breeds more winning, and it’s due to more weeks of practice. It’s what is happening in FCS now with North Dakota State. Sure, the off-season program goes from late November till the end of July, but there’s a huge difference in off-season and actual practice. That’s the kind of thing that gives guys like Saban, Riley and Swinney (and the staffs they assemble) a huge advantage. It’s simply a case of the rich getting richer. To account for the extra games on the schedule, coaches will lobby for, and get, additional scholarships to increase depth. That means that the teams at the top will be able to put more of the top players each year on their roster. Football is a much different animal than basketball. The pool of quality players coming out of high school and juco each year is much larger, compared to the roster positions available, for basketball, than it is for football. So if the scholarship limit for football goes to 90 from the current 85, that’s 5 more of the available 4-5* players that the top teams are not only adding to their rosters, they’re taking them away from the second tier teams. Again, the rich get richer. The other argument is that we need to give the teams from the G-5 conferences a fair shot. Ok, so you put them in and seed them favorably against a P-5 at-large team. What happens when a unbeaten SunBelt champ gets taken to the woodshed by the second place team out of the Big10? The argument that they didn’t belong there just got validation. Again, the rich get richer. Occasionally, you will get the December equivalent of a “March Madness Bracket Buster” but those will be few and far between, and pretty soon, the enthusiasm over those teams “getting in” will fade as the supporters of the idea grow tired of the blowouts. My whole point is this: under the current system, the regular season is virtually 14 weeks of must-see TV, because all the games mean something. The farther from perfection you require teams to be to have a shot at the title, the less meaningful the regular season is. As of now, we’re pretty certain that the top team is among the four that make the playoff, and the regular season games are fun to watch. I don’t really think any of this matters. Eventually, the NCAA is going to cave to the pressure from the media and the public and expand the playoff. I hope that my thoughts on this are wrong and that things are still fun to watch. Football is more fun when more teams play at a high level. I enjoy competitive games, and I haven’t seen near enough of those recently. 

 

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10 hours ago, BlackShirtD said:

Yea man, just ask the Longhorns who are tearing up the mighty Alamo Bowl & Texas Bowl.   And throw in that Sugar last year.  

Sarcasm is fun, but be let's be realistic just for arguments sake. The Longhorns last NC win was in 2005 and a loss to Alabama in 2010. How many different teams won the NC in the last 15 years? It's a small group when compared to the total number of teams eligible to win the NC. And hate all you want on the Longhorns, but there last two bowl victories were nice wins over two teams that were in playoff discussion going into their conferences' championship game. 

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6 hours ago, Lhornfan said:

Sarcasm is fun, but be let's be realistic just for arguments sake. The Longhorns last NC win was in 2005 and a loss to Alabama in 2010. How many different teams won the NC in the last 15 years? It's a small group when compared to the total number of teams eligible to win the NC. And hate all you want on the Longhorns, but there last two bowl victories were nice wins over two teams that were in playoff discussion going into their conferences' championship game. 

Yes and I also root for the home state Longhorns.  I was being very sarcastic in fun.  You mentioned "small group compared to the total teams eligible".  That statement alone is enough to make a 16 team playoff.  

Thanks for the response!

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4 minutes ago, CoachPelvisPresley said:

First, more difficult to build a dynasty program in FBS because more teams are collecting up the big time talent. FCS, you have literally 4 or 5 schools snagging some top talent and when you add a talented coaching staff in with that better talent you get the dynasty. It does definitely work to those teams advantage too that the playoffs play at their home field "Fargo Dome" and the like. Loud, 10 feet of snow outside, etc to throw off the southern teams coming in trying to knock them off. There's a reason that they aren't having the FBS Championship game played at Michigan State Stadium, Washington Husky Stadium, Iowa Stadium, etc...they want near perfect weather...nothing inclement at all as to produce the near perfect result (same with Super Bowls now).

People would love the every couple two to three years when a "bracket buster" would storm through the football tournament...just like with basketball. Those are the years people are really freakin' out about the tournament. There would be quit a few teams that dropped a couple early because of injuries, upsets or whatever that locked it in after about the first 4 weeks and stormed to a title. Some truly scary teams, like last years Horns. Clearly they had talent on offense and had a stout defense...SEC fans mouthed and mouthed that Georgia would motorboat Texas...only to get manhandled. They would have been seeded lower and yet I doubt many teams would have enjoyed playing the split personality Horns. Upsets bring excitement.

Third, if more teams made a true playoff...more games would mean something! More teams would have a shot and so it would keep fans (and players on those teams) locked in, because they still could get a bid. Now if you lose a game in week 2, you have people checking out because it's "oh well, our season is over"...who cares about the Bluebonnet or Sun Bowl...unless you're one of 2-3 SEC teams then despite losses even in the last couple weeks then they miraculously are NEVER eliminated. 

The extra practices help...sure, but winning & having a championship opportunity nearly every year is what continues to draw in those big numbers of 4* and 5* players and would give them even more if they upped scholarship numbers. It's different from the college sport I coached, but when certain universities pressed me to recruit more players in (have a larger roster), etc...I could see it sometimes and some places, but as I aged and got experience dealing with schools and my rosters...I pushed back saying that once you get to a "tipping point" on your roster where players have no chance to start or get significant playing time (and see that writing on the wall)...then those extra become a cancer to your team environment. Just like those teams of mine, where $$ can be scarce at times...you can't take all those extra players on the road for your cross country trips. There are D1 teams now that aren't rolling in dough and I guarantee the coaches say something along the lines of "we can only carry 70 this week" because of the space on the plane or whatever. The disappointment and disillusionment is what's led to so many in the transfer portal. They think about interest that other schools showed during their recruitment and they think they'll be more appreciated elsewhere...it's never the work ethic, time management skills, substance issues, or girl issues so many players have once away from mom , dad, grandma, whoever.

It happens at all levels and all sports.

Just my 2 cents...

Amen Elvis!  Preach on!

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7 hours ago, CoachPelvisPresley said:

First, more difficult to build a dynasty program in FBS because more teams are collecting up the big time talent. FCS, you have literally 4 or 5 schools snagging some top talent and when you add a talented coaching staff in with that better talent you get the dynasty. It does definitely work to those teams advantage too that the playoffs play at their home field "Fargo Dome" and the like. Loud, 10 feet of snow outside, etc to throw off the southern teams coming in trying to knock them off. There's a reason that they aren't having the FBS Championship game played at Michigan State Stadium, Washington Husky Stadium, Iowa Stadium, etc...they want near perfect weather...nothing inclement at all as to produce the near perfect result (same with Super Bowls now).

People would love the every couple two to three years when a "bracket buster" would storm through the football tournament...just like with basketball. Those are the years people are really freakin' out about the tournament. There would be quit a few teams that dropped a couple early because of injuries, upsets or whatever that locked it in after about the first 4 weeks and stormed to a title. Some truly scary teams, like last years Horns. Clearly they had talent on offense and had a stout defense...SEC fans mouthed and mouthed that Georgia would motorboat Texas...only to get manhandled. They would have been seeded lower and yet I doubt many teams would have enjoyed playing the split personality Horns. Upsets bring excitement.

Third, if more teams made a true playoff...more games would mean something! More teams would have a shot and so it would keep fans (and players on those teams) locked in, because they still could get a bid. Now if you lose a game in week 2, you have people checking out because it's "oh well, our season is over"...who cares about the Bluebonnet or Sun Bowl...unless you're one of the 2-3 SEC teams that despite losses even in the last couple weeks, miraculously are NEVER eliminated. 

The extra practices help...sure, but winning & having a championship opportunity nearly every year is what continues to draw in those big numbers of 4* and 5* players and would give them even more if they upped scholarship numbers. It's different from the college sport I coached, but when certain universities pressed me to recruit more players in (have a larger roster), etc...I could see it sometimes and in some places (I understood they wanted more students), but as I aged and got experience dealing with schools and my rosters...I pushed back saying that once you get to a "tipping point" on your roster where players have no chance to start or get significant playing time (and see that writing on the wall)...then those extra become a cancer to your team environment. Just like those teams of mine, where $$ can be scarce at times...you can't take all those extra players on the road for your cross country trips. There are D1 teams now that aren't rolling in dough and I guarantee the coaches say something along the lines of "we can only carry 70 this week" because of the space on the plane or whatever. The disappointment and disillusionment is what's led to so many in the transfer portal. They think about interest that other schools showed during their recruitment and they think they'll be more appreciated elsewhere...it's never the work ethic, time management skills, substance issues, or girl issues so many players have once away from mom, dad, grandma, whoever.

It happens at all levels and all sports.

Just my 2 cents...

First of all, you are correct in that FCS playoff games are home games for the higher seeded teams. However, for the last 5 years, the championship game has been played in Frisco, Texas. Weather aside, NDS has created a dynasty more dominant than college football has ever seen. Your proposal would reduce the overall number of teams playing in the postseason, which means several 7-5 or 6-6 teams end their season in novels, preventing them from getting those all-important extra practices in. Like I said, I feel like an expanded playoff will happen, but I don’t see it being good for the overall health of the game. I hope I’m wrong. 

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10 hours ago, trueblue82 said:

First of all, you are correct in that FCS playoff games are home games for the higher seeded teams. However, for the last 5 years, the championship game has been played in Frisco, Texas. Weather aside, NDS has created a dynasty more dominant than college football has ever seen. Your proposal would reduce the overall number of teams playing in the postseason, which means several 7-5 or 6-6 teams end their season in novels, preventing them from getting those all-important extra practices in. Like I said, I feel like an expanded playoff will happen, but I don’t see it being good for the overall health of the game. I hope I’m wrong. 

correct it is played in Frisco, but top teams are getting eliminated in those QF, SF games...after being top ranked teams along the way...they are the best, with their factory style of tradition.

I'm absolutely NOT saying have less bowl games and there would still be as many or more...it's been reported a ton that more towns/organizations have been clamoring to bring a bowl to their community every year and the NCAA says, "woe, let's wait til we see we need it". if they were using some games for early round playoff games, then more bowls (sponsors) would jump into the "bowl game". nothing but more $$ is sitting out there to be made off college football.

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