Deepsouth":1koahc9k said:
Greybeard, y'all can stop with all the SEC conspiracy stuff. I'm not saying that the SEC should of had another team in the playoff but I am saying that im not sure that Ohio State is a better team than either TCU or Baylor. If either one of these teams had been the clear cut conference champion chances are Ohio State doesn't get in.
I will admit that last night I figured they were going to jump FSU with OSU so they would be in the Sugar Bowl to hopefully draw a bigger crowd to the Rose Bowl with OSU. But I was wrong about that so maybe im wrong about it all.
(this could get long--bear with me)
I'm unsure of that Ohio State part as well, but only because no one has seen enough of this new Ohio State qb to know if his great game was just a flash in the pan or if he's real. Unsure, in the context of "I just don't know" well enough to make an opinion--but I didn't have to.
This whole TCU/Baylor fiasco falls squarely on Bowlsby, the Big12 chairman. He knew full well that the committee had said they would give Conference Champions consideration--that it was part of the equation. That, can only be taken one way--conf champs will be a + consideration (there's just no way it could ever be seen as a negative) and if you have no conf champ, then that is a defacto negative. Bowlsby said today, he "didn't know that Big12 would be penalized for not having a Conf champ, and wish he had been informed of that fact". ??HUH??
I think Bowlsby and Big12 officials, once they saw the committee move TCU up, actually believed, he could stick to Big12's policy of a tie/co-conf champs and get TWO Big12 teams into the final 4, based on the fact yhat both the Big12 and Committee were going to go with tie breaker. Baylor had beat TCU, but TCU was ranked ahead of Baylor, so Bowlsby probably figured the committee would have no other choice but to shoehorn both Baylor and TCU in. The committee had sent a strong hint that this wasn't going to happen--the jump committee gave to TCU over both Baylor and FSU. The committee was saying "Hey, we think TCU is stronger than FSU and Baylor--we ain't bringing Baylor into the top 4". Big12 still wouldn't decide on a conf champ, Ohio State put on a good win and Committee said "Ok--screw Big12--they want to stick with Baylor/TCU co champs--let them both slide down". I hate it for TCU, but Brumbsy knew all along not having a designated or outright conf champ was not going to be a good thing. Since Committee had also previously said they would honor the tiebreaker rule Big12 has, Bowlsby should have hastily held a Big12 meeting and eliminated that tiebreaker/conf co-champ thing and just choose a conf champ. They had the authority to do that, but not the guts to do it.
The other part is, that Big12, at some point, had already petitioned NCAA to have the rule relaxed about needing 12 teams for a playoff game--I'm pretty sure it happened earlier this year. NCAA is made up of members from all conferencs--I don't blame them for not relaxing the rule this year, especially if the request came after Baylor had beaten TCU and TCU had begun to pull away as the better of the 2 teams.
Been a good season and a lot of fun discussions. I looked back at last year's CT discussions, and they were good, but nothing like this years, so I think the current format has done a good thing in stirring up more interest in college football.
It will be a good championship playoff--gonna get interesting in a few weeks...
Going to be some pretty good bowl game outside the top 4 too.
Texas/Ark in the Texas Bowl--shades of the old SWC.
#9 Ole Miss/#6 TCU in the Peach Bowl--one of the better matchups IMO.
#8 Mich St/ #5 Baylor in Cotton Bowl--I haven't looked at Mich St at all, but will be watching to see if Baylor is better than I think they are.
Kansas St/UCLA in the Alamo Bowl--should be a really hard fought contest.
