I didn’t think I’d see it, but here it is: A college football playoff!
These men look as if they'd just accomplished something historic. Which they had. (AP photo)
I’d given up. I’d gone from believing a college football playoff was inevitable to believing it was … the opposite of inevitable. The bowls were too powerful, I conceded. There was no belief among the movers and shakers that any moving and/or shaking was warranted. What we had was, give or take the occasional BCS tweak, all we’d ever get, and what we had was awful.
My surrender came in January 2008. The BCS had been more of a mess than usual — two-loss LSU wound up playing for (and winning) the national championship in a sport where every game was supposed to matter — and, bang on cue, the Georgia president Michael Adams went public with a plan that made sense: an eight-team playoff overseen by the NCAA.
I had some small part in this: I wrote the story for this newspaper that outlined Adams’ proposal and rationale. It appeared Jan. 8, hours after LSU had won the BCS title in New Orleans. I’d covered the game, and in the lobby of the Marriott the next morning I was approached by SEC officials and even some SEC-loving writers who were irate — irate, I tell you — over Adams’ gall. They questioned his timing and his motivation (LSU had bunny-hopped over Georgia in the final BCS standings), but mostly they were miffed because they thought: Why change what had, at least in their minds, just worked?
My thought, then as now: You call that working?
Let’s recall the date: Jan. 8, 2008 — roughly 4 1/2 years ago. Adams’ proposal died a quick death at the NCAA convention in Nashville the next week, and that, I figured, was that. If an insider like Adams could offer a reasoned alternative that gained no traction among his presidential peers, what chance was there?
Here, as reported in the AJC on Jan. 9, 2008, was Wisconsin chancellor John Wiley’s not-exactly-measured response to Adams: “Are you kidding me? Isn’t there anyone out there who cares more about the student-athletes than about the preferences of sportswriters? Playoffs are a sham/fiction, anyway. Look at the upset statistics. On any given day, there are probably dozens of teams that can beat any other team in the collection. What’s so special about winning once in a single matchup?”
So it is with equal parts surprise and satisfaction that I note: As of June 26, 2012, big-time college football has a playoff. It’s not the one Adams advocated — it’s only half as big, and the NCAA has no part in it — but it is a playoff. And not a sham/fiction. Cold reality.
I wish I could tell you what changed over those 4 1/2 years, but I honestly don’t know. To say the BCS kept getting worse was to ignore the obvious: The BCS was lousy from the start. Obviously the SEC’s dominance had something to do with it: With two teams from the same conference (guess which) playing for the 2011 national title, the marginalization of other leagues was complete. Surely in a four-team playoff, the Big Ten/Big 12/Pac-12/ACC had to think, there’ll be room for some of them … won’t there?
To say that conference commissioners were motivated more by the will of the people than by craven self-interest would be to disregard human nature. (Those same conference commissioners had gone decades ignoring the will of the people.) But the bowl system, which is the cash cow for all big-time conferences, had begun to buckle under its own weight. Only the BCS title game came to matter, which is a big deal when you note that 35 — yes, 35 — other postseason games exist.
Earlier this month, SEC commissioner Mike Slive told me, “We want to take back New Year’s.” And that’s what the playoff will do: The semifinals will be held on either Dec. 31 or Jan. 1, with the title tilt to come a week (or so) later.
Left unclear is … well, pretty much everything else. What will happen to the bowls that aren’t staging semifinals? Will the New Year’s Eve/Day schedule be big enough to accommodate non-playoff games? (The NIT doesn’t play its semifinals on the same day as the Final Four, does it?) Who’ll pick the four teams? How many of the four can come from one conference? How many league champions will be guaranteed playoff invites? Will a Boise State ever get a sniff?
But enough. I reserve my inalienable American right to gripe about process for another time. For now I’m content to be shocked and happy. (Yes, happy. Yes, me.) I thought the day would never come when I could type these words, but here they are:
We have a playoff.
By Mark Bradley
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201 comments Add your comment
Rickster
June 27th, 2012
11:24 am
About @#$%^% time!
Rickster
June 27th, 2012
11:27 am
And kudos to the NCAA for removing their craniums from their nether regions to give the fans (remember us?) what we’ve been asking for for years.
David C
June 27th, 2012
11:29 am
Still like to see the Guidelines that the commitee will have to follow when selecting 4 Teams for Playoff. 1st time you have a 5th or 6th Ranked Team jump 4th Ranked Team I think you will see outcry of Fans demanding 8 Team Playoff. Don’t understand why they can’t just keep the BCS Rankings and just add 2 more teams.
Speed Racer
June 27th, 2012
11:34 am
We know 8 teams will come so why didn’t they head it off at the pass and make a playoff with 6 conference champs and 2 at-large. Done.
GTanner
June 27th, 2012
11:39 am
I never thought I’d see it either. Man, it’s a good week. Football playoff and Hawks do something right. Amazing.
Najeh Davenpoop
June 27th, 2012
11:39 am
Great!
Now for the hard part: getting UGA or Tech good enough to play in it.
Ryan
June 27th, 2012
11:49 am
The next step is this. 4 super conferences. Then the 8 team playoff. The winners of that conference will get a bid along with 4 at large. What will be messed up is when teams play in their conf champ game and then get matched up in the playoff a week or two later.
Person
June 27th, 2012
11:49 am
Love the institution of a playoff, but now we get to listen to everyone argue about who finished #’s 4 & 5 in the country. I can hear it now…. “How come this one-loss SEC team finished 4th and Boise St was undefeated but finished 5th?” Same arguments, different positions in the polls.
keepinitreal
June 27th, 2012
11:50 am
“Now for the hard part: getting UGA or Tech good enough to play in it.”
UGA would have qualified in ‘02 and ‘07, I believe.
Mark Bradley
June 27th, 2012
11:50 am
Georgia was third in the final BCS standings in 2002; it was fifth in 2007. For what that’s worth.
Silly Bloggers
June 27th, 2012
11:51 am
David C, couldn’t agree more. Take the 6 BCS conference champions with 2 at-large teams with the only caveat that if the conference champ does not finish in the Top 12, their playoff spot is forfeit and you add a third at-large team.
wes
June 27th, 2012
11:54 am
PLAYOFFS?
DogTheMan
June 27th, 2012
11:58 am
This whole thing smells. So how much will the PLAYERS recieve in this multi-billion dollar enterprise. They won’t recieve a thing!!! College atheletics is the biggest hypocrisy in the country!!!!!!!!!!
wes
June 27th, 2012
12:00 pm
“DogTheMan” isn’t placing too much value on a college education.
Shocked I tells ya’! SHOCKED!!!!
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
12:03 pm
I’m not sure that you can call a 4 team tournament, with teams selected at random, an actual playoff. There are no preconditions for getting in, and the selection committee won’t follow any guidelines that everyone thinks they will. It is slightly better then what we have now but it is still an insult to all college football fans who would like to see a real postseason. The major schools in college football have two missions, protect the power they currently have, and generate as much money as possible. Fairness, fans, and the general spirit of collegiate sports aren’t really even considered anymore.
Luke
June 27th, 2012
12:04 pm
How about approximately 40k in tuition, fees , and board (not counting all the freebies, travel, and tutoring and such) over the course of four years. Sorry that’s not enough for some people.
Shug
June 27th, 2012
12:04 pm
Everyone wins, except the college football player.
Boise Dawg
June 27th, 2012
12:08 pm
I think this is still going to be a huge mess. Go look most years at teams 2 – 8 in the final poll before the bowl games. Several teams from major conferences and several teams with the same exact record. It is going to be very difficult for a committee to determine the worthiness of the #3 and #4 seed. Think of the outrage fans/media have when teams are left out of the NCAA basketball tournament. You can multiply that outrage 10 fold for all the teams ranked in the top 8 that will be left out of the playoff.
Ken Stallings
June 27th, 2012
12:12 pm
The NCAA is not completely out of the picture. There will be an NCAA committee that will officially select the four teams. It seems clear that the RPI will be the measure used. You were absolutely right that the principle motivator at work was too many conferences feeling themselves frozen out. Now and undefeated Boise State will have their shot, as the odds of having more than four undefeated teams is extremely low. Any team from any conference who’s team goes undefeated in the regular season will likely find themselves in that four-team setup, and have their chance to prove it on the field.
I like it!
Dawg Bite
June 27th, 2012
12:13 pm
Do Away with the Conference Championship games. Let the SEC and all others rank their teams 1-12, or however many the conference has, and the guy on top gets the bid to the playoff. If a tie within the 1-12, set up tie breakers such as head to head, or National ranking. Why have the CCG if it might put the wrong team in as the CC? OR, expand the playoffs to 8 teams. Whatever, at least maybe a step in the right direction with the approved format.
Frank Lane
June 27th, 2012
12:14 pm
Shug, do you think that the playoff will not help a players chances for a pro contract, which is the biggest prize of all?
skier
June 27th, 2012
12:14 pm
What changed. Follow the money.
Joe 12-Pack
June 27th, 2012
12:15 pm
1 step forward, 2 steps back.
Getting a playoff is great but having a selection committee pick the participants is not.
Skram30082
June 27th, 2012
12:17 pm
Hey Mark, get one of your graphics designer types to photoshop you into that picture!
VinnyD
June 27th, 2012
12:18 pm
This is the step that was needed. I feel better about the 5th team getting hosed than the 3rd and 4th.
Dawg Bite
June 27th, 2012
12:18 pm
Luke, I agree with you. If these players aren’t happy with getting a free ride for a college education, then let them go to a technical school, or better yet, go to work. Why should they get any more out of this? No one is making them play the game, it’s their choice to pursue an education via football!
Boise Dawg
June 27th, 2012
12:19 pm
Dawg Bite. Couldn’t you theoretically view the conference championship game as the defacto first round of the playoff? Is a team that can’t win it’s conference championship game worthy of a top 4 spot? am not opposed to doing away with the conference championship games, but I am opposed to crowning a conference champion that hasn’t played everyone in their conference. Especially given that in the SEC, you now have 13 conference opponents, yet only play 8 of them in any given year. That just isn’t acceptable in my opinion.
David Granger
June 27th, 2012
12:19 pm
Yeah, looks like it’s going to happen.
Not a perfect system, but it moves the annual argument down a couple of spots. Right now the big fight is always over which team is #2, and which teams are #3 and below. (Last year was a perfect illustration of this.) Now the big argument will be which team is #4, and which ones are below that. I also think it will pretty much preclude a team from a smaller conference from getting in.
D.A. Nuggla
June 27th, 2012
12:20 pm
The problem will come down to those doing the selections, their agenda, biases, and favoritisms. Each year there will be at least one team left out that swears they earned the right to be there.
Tech Fan Since 1950
June 27th, 2012
12:21 pm
It is still a fraud Mark and you know it. Save for another day? Teams play within the NCAA, but the NCAA has no role in a Division I playoff(?), while they sponsor playoffs in all other sports. Ask Valdosta State, Furman, Georgia Southern, etc. how much fun real playoffs are. (They are great!) Yes, the old guard blinked a bit because the front porch of their so-called integrity was caving in. Hope one day they’ll get to the back porch and the rest of the foundation. The NCAA has the construction plans up in Indiana in case they are interested (and I know they are not). Hard for me to believe the truly “Big Boy” conferences act like they play tough schedules, but frame their schedules between conference schedules with the little sisters of the poor (some teams from other NCAA divisions or weak teams from Division I). Some way to build rankings?
SSIgator
June 27th, 2012
12:22 pm
Mark Bradley -
“I didn’t think I’d see it, but here it is: A college football playoff!”
You might not get to actually see it Mark since it doesn’t start until 2014. Remember what they say on ESPN Sports Center, “So and so was injured, but his status is listed as day to day. But then again, aren’t we all”.
TuffShhhtuff
June 27th, 2012
12:23 pm
Reminds me of this for some reason: “When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.”
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
12:26 pm
The NCAA is not completely out of the picture. There will be an NCAA committee that will officially select the four teams.
The NCAA will have nothing to do with the playoff or the selection committee.
TuffShhhtuff
June 27th, 2012
12:26 pm
Or even better this little nugget of wisdom: ” The 50-50-90 Rule- Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there is a 90% probability you will get it wrong.”
HighTech
June 27th, 2012
12:27 pm
Meh. Will last a couple of seasons until a deserving team gets screwed out of a place in the bracket or the committee hypes a pairing with Clemson-West Virginia results. Dr. Saturday has the best playoff plan.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/the-doc-sat-playoff-plan-2011-bracket-engaged?urn=ncaaf,wp11266
Jim 70
June 27th, 2012
12:27 pm
BCS was an improvement over the previous system, and this one is better. I agree with many previous bloggers on putting the conference champions in an 8 game playoff, maybe that will happen in the next iteration. Doing away with the CCG would be good and a way to jump start a better playoff, but there is too much money involved by the conferences for that to happen, and we all know this is entirely driven by dollars.
Dawgdad (The Original)
June 27th, 2012
12:30 pm
I never ever thought the Berlin Wall would come down and it did, so I learned to never say never as far as a playoff. Glad we have this concession, now quickly move to 8 teams, best teams picked by a committee using a RPI type strength of schedule.
The rest of the bowls should be looking for a cemetery plot however, good riddance I say
Missing rule
June 27th, 2012
12:33 pm
It should be that if you lose your final game of the year, be that regular season or conference championship, that you can’t be in the playoff.
SWAT Native
June 27th, 2012
12:33 pm
Thanks for helping get this done, Mark.
charles s.
June 27th, 2012
12:35 pm
LMAO. Shug nailed it.
Clewis564
June 27th, 2012
12:42 pm
It’s not a real playoff until at least 16 teams are in it. Do it like div. II and III.
Seen It All
June 27th, 2012
12:51 pm
Anybody who believes a playoff will solve the controversy about naming a national college football champion needs to buy the oceanfront condo I just acquired in Acworth. I’ll go ahead here and name the Top 10 objections to the playoff results once those results appear:
1. My team wasn’t named a semi-finalist, although we had a better strength of schedule, etc.
2. Our best player(s) was hurt when the playoffs started.
3. This team selection was biased because smaller conferences weren’t represented on the committee.
4. There’s no way the team that won the national championship could have beaten my team on a neutral field.
5. I don’t see how my team was left out, since it beat one of the semi-finalist teams in the regular season.
6. This system stinks—allowing one lousy game to determine the national championship just wipes out the sustained excellence we showed during the regular season.
7. It’s just what I expected—choosing referees exclusively from the major conferences just stacked the odds against us.
8. The site chosen for our semi-final game was only 400 miles from our opponent’s campus—it was a home game for them.
9. We were shut out of being in the final four because of a couple of weak opponents that were scheduled six years before this system came into being.
10. The refs robbed us blind. Anybody could see that we were clearly the better team on that field.
UGAnSFLA
June 27th, 2012
12:54 pm
I’m happy that there will finally be a playoff, but it should really be 8 teams as opposed to 4.
Big Dawg Daddy
June 27th, 2012
12:55 pm
Wow. 2 games instead of 1. Huge change Mark. Maybe you can fix health care next.
RiffRaff
June 27th, 2012
1:02 pm
So which four SEC Teams will be in it??
te29wr
June 27th, 2012
1:06 pm
Coming next 4 conf. of 16 teams = 64 conf winner will play in first round winners will play for Nat Champ all other teams not in the four major conf., will be on the outside looking in or as we would say second class This includes teams like Troy State, Tulane, So. Miss , U Conn, Rutgers Toledo, Fresno St New Mexico Ga State So Fl. Cent Fl etc so get ready
Paul in NH
June 27th, 2012
1:06 pm
@Seen It All
You missed an objection
11. We may have lost 2 games including a 21 point blow out but we were playing better than any team in the nation at the end of the year.
DC
June 27th, 2012
1:09 pm
Mark,
I guess you didn’t care when AU got snubbed from the title in 2004…
Yurtle_the_Turtle
June 27th, 2012
1:10 pm
I like the move to a playoff format but watch while Boise State and TCU start screaming once again that they are left out of the playoff picture (because they annually play only one or two games with competition) and sue the NCAA for representation. Not sure we’re there yet but it’s a step in the right direction. My other concern is that basketball has 64 teams that get in the tournament, yet still have complaints from teams that feel they should have gotten in. Watch the complaints from teams 5,6,7, all saying they belong too.
DogTheMan….not too smart, are you? Tuiton and a free education aren’t enough for you? If they want to get paid, go to try out for a professional team. College sports are not hypocritcal. They are supposed to be amateurs, dolt!
GIVE ME A BREAK
June 27th, 2012
1:10 pm
Money talks.
mtraininjax
June 27th, 2012
1:12 pm
This is great, a playoff system, now what can we do with the 50+ bowl games? Any way we can pare those down? Raise the minimum win to 7, now that 1-AA teams count? Let’s not stop here, let’s challenge the players and coaches to do better, after all, who wants to see a 6-6 team in a bowl game? It is the equivalent of kinder gardeners getting a cookie on a kids birthday.
P. Bull Terrier
June 27th, 2012
1:16 pm
I remain opposed to any plan that includes computer rankings with secret formulas. I would rather have Mark Bradley pick the Top 4 than let the rankings be decided by some computer guy from MIT, hiding in his mom’s basement. At least when Bradley picked a 3 loss Kentucky team over an undefeated UGA team, he would have to write a column explaining his choice.
Big Crimson 75
June 27th, 2012
1:17 pm
The Big 10 & Pac 12 were never in favor of having a Playoff System,
The SEC & ACC were the 1st conferences to push for a Playoff.
Their is so much negativity associated with the BCS, this change was bound to happen.
Something smells really fishy about how things went down. No one can convince me Jim Delaney wanted a Playoff!! Even watching 2 SEC Teams play for the Title wasn’t enough to change his mind.
What happened last year with Bama & LSU was an anomaly.
Do I think 4 Teams are worthy of playing for a National Championship — maybe.
Are 8 Teams worthy of playing for a Title — NO.
If anyone thinks controversy is going away b/c of a 4 team playoff, you’re delusional.
I have a feeling next year, you’ll see 2 teams finish un-defeated & they’ll be forced to play an extra game before meeting each other for the Title — for what reason??!!
B
June 27th, 2012
1:18 pm
2nd sentance is missing a word
Big Al
June 27th, 2012
1:20 pm
2014! The Year Mark Richt will be fired by Georgia. Dawgs will never make final four under Richt. Book it.
robodawg
June 27th, 2012
1:20 pm
Take back New Year’s Day indeed. Jan.1 was vacated this year by college football.
DC
June 27th, 2012
1:20 pm
@yurtle the turtle..uhh..the kids would try out for the NFL if they could. But due to regulations set in the NFL they cant. Most of the kids playing football don’t want to be in college and definitely dont want an education. Its a big hustle…billions of dollars made and all they have to do is throw some tuition and boarding for the kids..
Abnerish
June 27th, 2012
1:21 pm
I, for one, am ecstatic by this decision. I just wish it would happen sooner. I think the real culture shock will come when the selection committee DOESN’T choose the top 4 teams in the BCS or AP rankings. Everyone seems to think that for some reason, the committee is going to use these rankings to decide the playoff participants. That is EXACTLY what the committee is created NOT to do!! If the rankings were so great, we wouldn’t need a playoff or a selection committee. But I think the majority of people don’t realize this and it. It will be interesting to watch it unfold.
Oh, and I firmly believe that this will become an 8-team playoff before 2020. The power brokers will see the $$$ that could be available by expanding it. Plus, the public will be clamoring for more. It will happen.
Paul in NH
June 27th, 2012
1:22 pm
The reason Jan 1 was vacated by college football in 2012 is because it was a Sunday. CFB cannot compete against the NFL.
PittJacket
June 27th, 2012
1:25 pm
Just a point of clarification . . . UGA is no LSU. In the same league, yes, but not in the same “League”.
Ted M
June 27th, 2012
1:26 pm
it certainly is better but its just barely a playoff. should have been 16 teams.
Irate Ostrich
June 27th, 2012
1:29 pm
FYI: I think you left out ‘playoff’ in your first sentence. ‘ believing College football playoff’
Irate Ostrich
June 27th, 2012
1:30 pm
Do you believe a college football?
HB
June 27th, 2012
1:32 pm
This supposed 4 team playoff is not that much different than the existing BCS system. It will still mostly be based on subjectivity. They are shortchanging the fans by not having a more open playoff format like the other NCAA divisions have had for years. The new proposed system was devised as backlash at the SEC for their recent run of winning the last six national championships.
Alphare
June 27th, 2012
1:40 pm
I don’t feel a 4-team playoff system is better than the current 2-team playoff. The reason is, people pay more attention to #1 and #2 and have a better chance to make them right, while #4 or #5 are a whole lot murkier.
Alphare
June 27th, 2012
1:43 pm
And by the way, what’s that selection committee? that’d be a big downgrade from the current BCS scoring system.
DawginLex
June 27th, 2012
1:45 pm
Still won’t make everyone happy
Still will be complaints
Last year for example, who are the 4?
1)LSU
2)Okie State
3)Alabama
4)Stanford
Oregon destroyed stanford head to head. See the problem?
TCU one year
Boise another year
Still really does not determine true champion and complaints will continue. Good grief, 64 teams plus play-ins for basketball and ESPN spends hours discussing who was left out
dean
June 27th, 2012
1:46 pm
1 thing is for certain: This has opened a brand new can of whupass for the blogosphere!
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:48 pm
I don’t like the fact thay they agreed to lock into this system for 12 years. If it becomes evident that an 8 team playoff would be a better format than we end up waiting a decade to be able to make a change. One big step in the right direction but 12 years is a long time to commit to an unproven idea.
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:53 pm
Football players that play on state championship winning high school team will play 15 games in a season. NFL players on a Superbowl team may play 24 games in a season (including preseason and playoffs). I’ve never understood the arguement against college kids playing 14 or 15 games in a season. I have no idea why it took so long to get this playoff idea off the ground.
Sage of Bluesland
June 27th, 2012
1:57 pm
College football is boring, but feel free to keep buying those overpriced tickets, sheep. Gosh, you people are stupid. Real stupid.
Weyman C. Wannamaker Jr (A Great American)
June 27th, 2012
1:57 pm
I wonder what ol’ Lewis would say about this?
BravesFan79
June 27th, 2012
2:05 pm
And so… CF finally moves in relevance past other “sports” where the champion is “voted on”. Dog shows and bodybuilding compeitions. About time!
WTF
June 27th, 2012
2:06 pm
and BS walks – hopefully over sports writers who write columns full of 1st person pronouns, their ‘feelings’, their analyses, their consciousness. Why not just a straight story without all the MB personalization?
We miss you, Mr. Bisher. More and more every day.
LOLOLOL
June 27th, 2012
2:07 pm
“Georgia was third in the final BCS standings in 2002; it was fifth in 2007. For what that’s worth.”
It’s not worth anything. UGA didn’t win then and won’t win now.
LawDawg
June 27th, 2012
2:08 pm
MB: You might want to have your editor give this a once-over. There are at least two typos in the first 2 paragraphs. “A college football was” “A eight-team” “
chris
June 27th, 2012
2:11 pm
Its decided on the field which is the place a champion should be decided. I also think that if the committee takes polls into its consideration that the coaches poll should be erased. Coaches don’t have time to watch all the meaningful games, they vote for their own teams and their own conferences so its not a legit poll.
There will always be a debate over the 4 teams that get picked just like we debate the teams that get left out of March Madness but at least we now can settle this thing between the lines.
GStateBen
June 27th, 2012
2:20 pm
When my Panthers go undefeated, we better get a chance at this playoff!
Red Stick
June 27th, 2012
2:22 pm
DawginLex
June 27th, 2012
1:45 pm
“Still won’t make everyone happy
Still will be complaints
Last year for example, who are the 4?
1)LSU
2)Okie State
3)Alabama
4)Stanford
Oregon destroyed stanford head to head. See the problem?”
At least it’s 4 teams which significantly narrows the problem that full blown playoffs have in which teams come out nowhere to win it all (ie. the NY Giants, 9-7 in the regular season, wins the 2012 Super Bowl, the St. Louis Cardinals, who made the playoffs on the last day of the season last September and wins the World Series, and UConn in 2011 wins the NCAA tourney despite having a .500 record in the Big East).
Even the 4th seed, Stanford, with the loss to Oregon, had a better regular season than the above teams.
Yes there will be controversy as to who is deserving to make the new playoffs but it will be that way no matter if it’s 8, 12 or 16 teams in a playoff.
Geaux Tigers
Go SEC
BravesFan79
June 27th, 2012
2:23 pm
I can tell who on here is not really a sports fan. Or knows very little about anything other than college football. Face it bama fans (and others), your system was outdated, lame, and went against the very principle that the United States was built upon, which was that everyone has a fair shot! Now this gives room for a undefeated Utah or Boise State team to get in, and thats great!
I dont think id wanna play a sport if someone told me “hey, even if we go undefeated, we have NO chance at a national title because our names not Bama, Ohio State, or LSU”.
College football… where all the little kids get trophies at the end and a free t shirt.
blue
June 27th, 2012
2:26 pm
Riffraff: congratulations on being the first tool to use that tired old line about “which four SEC teams”. You are so very original and funny. I guess that is why the team that won the SEC East lost to Michigan State, right? Because they should have been one of the four teams?
My 2 cents.
June 27th, 2012
2:26 pm
It is progress, but I think they can do better and here’s how. Go back to the old days of slotting teams into the 4 major bowls (Sugar, Rose, Orange, Fiesta) with conference tie-ins and at large teams, this gives you an 8 team field and makes everyone of these bowls as important as ever (unlike the current proposal of rotating semi’s thru 2 out of these 4 every year). Then take the 4 winners from these bowls and seed them accordingly, just like they’re talking about doing now. Let these 4 play in the 2 new bowls that they said they would use along with the other 4 in the current proposal. Then bid out the “Championship Monday” game just like the current proposal. I feel like this would be the perfect way to blend the old bowl system, with their conference tie-in’s and history; into a new playoff format, that would produce an eventual champion on the field.
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
2:31 pm
At least it’s 4 teams which significantly narrows the problem that full blown playoffs have in which teams come out nowhere to win it all
Is coming out of no where to win it all a bad thing? Why shouldn’t teams be allowed to improve as the season goes along? The Giants had to beat 5 good teams (including Cowboys) in a row to win the championship. To me that is what a championship should be about. Not beauty contests.
jerry
June 27th, 2012
2:32 pm
This is bad news for UGA. It will now take back-to-back flukes for them to win a NC.
true
June 27th, 2012
2:52 pm
Houston, we have a problem…………each team left out will be raising hell until they up it to 64 teams……it will get more and more RIDICULOUS sooner than later
I don't think so, Tim
June 27th, 2012
2:56 pm
No, we don’t have a playoff. We have a 4-team exhibition. Division II has a playoff, Division I does not – not even with the new initiative.
PMC
June 27th, 2012
2:58 pm
Well, it’s a Plus One anyway, not really a playoff.
DeathFromAbove
June 27th, 2012
3:02 pm
So now these kids can play even more games, generating money for their schools and risking their bodies, while still making nothing? Some will now play FIFTEEN games?
Red Stick
June 27th, 2012
3:02 pm
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
2:31 pm
“Is coming out of no where to win it all a bad thing? Why shouldn’t teams be allowed to improve as the season goes along? The Giants had to beat 5 good teams (including Cowboys) in a row to win the championship. To me that is what a championship should be about. Not beauty contests.”
Then I assume that you have no problem with a 7-9 Rams team making the playoffs in 2010. If they had won the Super Bowl they would be champions with a 11-9 final record.
Playoffs with many participants makes the regular season much less important.
Geaux Tigers
Go SEC
Delbert D.
June 27th, 2012
3:04 pm
If Bobby Bowden is on the committee (he’s has lobbied for it), there goes the credibility. The sideline TV view of him in his last season asking an assistant, “What’s his name?” after his own player kicked a go-ahead field goal is explanation enough. If Brent Musberger is on the committee…well, I’d support suspending the Posse Comitatus Act to take care of that.
SecFan
June 27th, 2012
3:18 pm
Yeah Mark we have a play-off, thanks to the All-SEC championship game that you opposed. We can be eternally grateful for those true football-respecting voters who opted to match the two best teams last year instead of going for a choker that couldn’t even beat an unranked team when it controlled its own destiny. We have a play-off!!!!!!!!!!
TallaDawg
June 27th, 2012
3:22 pm
Those are some weird-looking dudes!
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
3:24 pm
Playoffs with many participants makes the regular season much less important.
So you think every sport on earth has it wrong except D1 college football? Also, you really think the regular season in college football is going to mean anything now? It was meaningless last year and will be for the foreseeable future. The myth of every game matters is dead. And no, I had no problem with the Seahawks(not Rams) making the playoffs.
octavian
June 27th, 2012
3:24 pm
Anyone who believes that a four team play-off system will last more than, say, 5-6 years is deluding himself. Sooner or later the pressure will come to expand the system. From four teams, I predict the system will morph to eight and then to twelve.
We’ve seen the NCAA basketball tournament expand from 32 (if I remember correctly) to 64 with a couple of play-in slots. And the pressure is on the expand the BB tournament.
So, look for a 12 team playoff within a decade at most.
While some may applaud this, expansion means the dectruction of the conferences.
Does it matter anymore who wins a conference BB regular season? No. All that matters is getting into the NCCA tournament.
Roll Turd
June 27th, 2012
3:38 pm
At least this is a start….not perfect…but at least a step in the right direction.
Let's Go
June 27th, 2012
3:49 pm
It’s only 4 teams right now but as soon as the first year when a PAC 12 or SEC school is not part of it they will be screaming for 8 teams. Wait and see, should of made it 16 teams to begin with
Red Stick
June 27th, 2012
4:06 pm
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
3:24 pm
“So you think every sport on earth has it wrong except D1 college football? Also, you really think the regular season in college football is going to mean anything now?”
I didn’t say every other sport has it wrong. I said having alot of teams makes the regular season less relevant. I think that is pretty accurate.
I don’t see how you can believe that the regular season was “meaningless” last season. In the last month of the season, LSU, Alabama, Okla St, Oregon and Stanford all had a chance to play for the BCS title. That doesn’t include all of the other schools that were in the mix in November to go to a BCS bowl such as Georgia, Arkansas and Virginia.
The fact of the matter is that the 2 best teams made it to New Orleans last year.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
4:21 pm
Rickster
June 27th, 2012
11:27 am
And kudos to the NCAA for removing their craniums from their nether regions to give the fans (remember us?) what we’ve been asking for for years.
Your head is still LOST somewhere IF YOU THINK THE NCAA had ANYTHING to do with the BCS or the Bowls or the new Mythical Championship.
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
4:23 pm
The fact of the matter is that the 2 best teams made it to New Orleans last year.
That isn’t a fact at all, it is your personal opinion. What I do know is that when LSU beat Alabama on the road, it was completely meaningless. When LSU played UGA in the SEC championship, the outcome was completely meaningless. All Alabama had to do last year to win a championship was beat one ranked team, and go 1-1 against another ranked team. Sorry if I don’t think that was a particularly meaningful resume for a title contender.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
4:23 pm
Speed Racer
June 27th, 2012
11:34 am
We know 8 teams will come so why didn’t they head it off at the pass and make a playoff with 6 conference champs and 2 at-large. Done.
Because the BIG Conferences are going to take the 12 years to KILL all the Lesser Conferences so Only 40 teams will EVER get a realistic shot at the Championship Game.
Quagmire
June 27th, 2012
4:25 pm
This still stinks. Get rid of the bowl games, have a 16-team playoff that starts the week after the last regular-season game. Waiting until New Year’s Eve is stupid. No need to wait an entire month, perhaps more, after the regular-season games end. Imagine if the NFL waited a month after the regular season to start the playoffs.
Why division 1-A football can’t follow what 1-AA does is mind-boggling to me. And why Notre Dame gets to be a part of this crappy playoff stuff is also beyond my comprehension. Force them to join a conference for crying out loud!
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
4:31 pm
Thank God I will probably Die during this STUPID fake National Championship playoff.
It is a JOKE and will still not decide anything other than the Perception by ESPN & other media that the SEC is the best conference.
Delbert D.
June 27th, 2012
4:33 pm
That 1 month lag between games is ridiculous. There are too many examples of teams in bowl barely resembling the teams that played 1 month previously (LSU last year, for example. Possibly even Georgia). Cancel the meaningless CCGs, and schedule the semis no later than the 2nd weekend in December.
Brendan Murphy
June 27th, 2012
4:45 pm
And why do we need to further distance collegiate athletes from amateur status? With this change, the athletes should be paid. Stop the pretense that they are student-athletes.
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
4:45 pm
There are too many examples of teams in bowl barely resembling the teams that played 1 month previously
This is very true. The Auburn/Oregon game was the best example in my opinion. Both teams looked terrible in that game.
Why Stop There?
June 27th, 2012
4:54 pm
It’s a good thing to remove the two-faced NCAA from the selection process….but why stop there? Given that football has become a huge business, it’s time for the big guns to fire the NCAA altogether and run their businesses the way they see fit – it’s not about the books, folks, it’s the M-O-N-E-Y. Parity, how’s that working out for all y’all? If you can afford to dress out 399 people, go ahead! Let’s let the marketplace reign supreme and just kill those sanctimonious pretenders in the NCAA, who themselves get rich off making rules they selectively enforce while calling it an “amateur” sport. Ha. Ha. Ha.
stupid is as stupid does
June 27th, 2012
4:55 pm
There goes the final nail in the coffin of college football. Welcome to the NFL development league. Playoffs? Playoffs?! … Playoffs?! It’s out of control. We have systematically pushed the tradition out of college football. Super conferences, playoffs, calls for paying players, etc. Sounds like the pros to me. Sad. Mark you’re a jerk for being a part of the death panel for college football.
Why Stop There?
June 27th, 2012
4:56 pm
And that’s right – pay the players. They are NOT like other students. Other students can have a job and a life. These guys pretty much sharecrop for the man and are owned by the company store. Let those other 35 games, which are ridiculous in that most of them are staffed by people with losing records, die the death in this new money arena.
Joey
June 27th, 2012
4:57 pm
“And by the way, what’s that selection committee?”
*****************************************
Good question Alphare.
I think the answer is, whomever ESPN wants on it . . .
Why Stop There?
June 27th, 2012
4:59 pm
I worked for a major college athletic deparment covered up with trophies and tradition going back to the 1800s, Stupid Is As Stupid Does – in modern times, it’s always been about the proving grounds for the pros and about making bucks for the schools. Boo hoo the tradition. Wake up to the real world or go back to wearing a coonskin cap, driving a jalopy and waving a felt pennant. Should we go back to leather helmets, playing both ways, and the Notre Dame Box?
Why Stop There?
June 27th, 2012
5:01 pm
Yeah, the kids should be paid. They are to the universities what sharecroppers were to the Man – owned lock, stock and barrel by the company store, and the schools and the conferences and the NCAA rake in the big profits off the sweat of their brows and off the ruin of their bodies. Pay them. Bout time.
Why Stop There?
June 27th, 2012
5:03 pm
And, if any of you get all excited by keeping up with recruits and signing day and all that, you can’t holler about the death of tradition. New traditions arise, and have, ever since the inception of the sport. Times change, traditions change with the times. I can’t wait to see a woman coach somewhere. And yes, she can.
stupid is as stupid does
June 27th, 2012
5:12 pm
I’d never wear a coonskin cap, I hate Tennessee. My jalopy is running fine. And I mailed a letter to the pennant store, but never got the durn thing. I guess the store only responds to them e-letters that get mailed through the Interwebs. You’re right, change is inevitable, but these things are cyclical. Eventually what’s old becomes new again. Seen any kids wearing those hideous neon shirts, vans and wayfarers I used to wear as a kid? Yeah, I have a feeling that eventually people will want their rivalries and traditions to mean something again. You know what they say about opinions. But I like my opinion the best.
FMX
June 27th, 2012
5:21 pm
I call bs on this. This “playoff” is just a reaction to the SEC’s dominance over the past 6 years. You can bet your ass that there will never be 2 SEC teams in the top four.
unbiased committee
June 27th, 2012
5:29 pm
Rule #1 is
the team which comes in 2nd in the SEC West
is an automatic qualifier.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
5:35 pm
If any of you actually think this will be better you are crazy. We are going to have 12 more years of BS and not a real champ that won it.
Stop the CUPCAKE games. Make the Conferences all equal in number of teams. Go with 8 teams playing 10 conference games. Divide ALL the TV money for the Playoff Equally among the Conferences.
This will be a BIG POLITICAL MESS and the RICH will just get richer buy avoiding to have to WIN the regular season.
Bama v LSU……….1-1
FSU V UF…………..1-1
The Champ was the team that won the last game on both 2nd meetings. Winning the LAST game shouldn’t matter more than winning the 1st game. We are going to see 2 SEC team in the 4 team mix that already lost to each other but they will not be FORCED to play in the 1st round of the playoffs. That means we could have 2 SEC teams playing for the CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN. people will not watch it just like they didn’t watch the Bama v LSU rematch.
You people were just sold a pile of Cow Crap and told it was Rose Fertilizer.
Nothing was made better and it will still be a MNC…………too much guessing, opinion polls, & political maneuvering for selection committee member’s conference. Same JOKE for 12 more years.
1eyedJack
June 27th, 2012
5:37 pm
“Rule #1 is
the team which comes in 2nd in the SEC West
is an automatic qualifier.”
Only if said teams name starts with an A. Otherwise the team which comes in closest to 2nd in the SEC West whose name starts with an A will automatically qualify.
Joey
June 27th, 2012
5:38 pm
The “kids” do get paid. Do a little shopping to see what a 4 year, bachelor’s degree costs at these universities.
There you go . . .
wow !
June 27th, 2012
5:38 pm
But Alabama ” almost ” … won the SEC West last season.
1eyedJack
June 27th, 2012
5:42 pm
“The “kids” do get paid. Do a little shopping to see what a 4 year, bachelor’s degree costs at these universities.”
And check out how much grocerie$ these guys can eat. And free health care…and rent…and lights…
FootballTopFan
June 27th, 2012
5:59 pm
College football fans nationwide would like to CONGRATULATE The BCS on their decision to start a college football playoff system.
Fans believe that it will give us a true consensus national champion. The excitement has already started to build and grow. Fans love college football.
FootballTopFan and fans worldwide eagerly await the start of the college football playoffs.
FootballTopFan@yahoo.com
Joey
June 27th, 2012
6:02 pm
True, 1eyedJack. I’m not familiar with the legal doings of our wonderful Federal Govt, but I think the #1 reason the players don’t actually get some kind of cash payment monthly is Title IX.
I bet, under that law, the exact compensation to a star football player would have to be made to a 3rd string female softball player, whose “sport” is a money drain.
Not sure if that’s correct, but wouldn’t be suprised . . .
GaTruth
June 27th, 2012
6:04 pm
RATS! I’d rather have the old bowl system and alliances! While this format is better than an extensive playoff, I’d rather have arguement. Three words as to why an expanded playoff would suck – New York Giants. The whole season was meaningless! Same thing when Villanova won the NCAAs with eleven losses – please! Eventually this will make so much cash, they will expand it to eight teams, then 16, then the regular season will suck. Damn…
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
6:41 pm
1.Clemson 6-2 10-4
2.Florida State 5-3 9-4
3.North Carolina State 4-4 8-5
4. Maryland 1-7 2-10
5. Virginia Tech 7-1 11-3
6. Virginia 5-3 8-5
7. Georgia Tech 5-3 8-5
8. Miami (FL) 3-5 6-6
9. North Carolina 3-5 7-6
10. Oklahoma State 8-1 12-1
11. Kansas State 7-2 10-3
12. Oklahoma 6-3 10-3
13. Missouri 5-4 8-5
14. Texas 4-5 8-5
15. Texas A&M 4-5 7-6
16. Texas Tech 2-7 5-7
17. Kansas 0-9 2-10
18. Cincinnati 5-2 10-3
19. West Virginia 5-2 10-3
20. Louisville 5-2 7-6
21. Pittsburgh 4-3 6-7
22. South Florida 1-6 5-7
23. Syracuse
24. Michigan State 7-1 11-3
25. Michigan 6-2 11-2
26. Nebraska 5-3 9-4
27. Wisconsin 6-2 11-3
28. Penn State 6-2 9-4
29. Purdue 4-4 7-6
30. Ohio State 3-5 6-7
31. Southern Miss 6-2
32. Houston 8-0 13-1
33. Brigham Young — 10-3
34. Notre Dame — 8-4
35. TCU 7-0 11-2
36. Boise State 6-1 12-1
37. Oregon 8-1 12-2
38. Stanford 8-1 11-2
39. Washington 5-4 7-6
40. California 4-5 7-6
41. Oregon State
42. USC 7-2 10-2
43. UCLA 5-4 6-8
44. Arizona State 4-5 6-7
45. Arizona
46. Georgia 7-1 10-4
47. South Carolina 6-2 11-2
48. Florida 3-5 7-6
49. Tennessee 1-7 5-7
50. LSU 8-0 13-1
51. Alabama 7-1 12-1
52. Arkansas 6-2 11-2
53. Auburn 4-4 8-5
I see about 53 teams that might actually ever have a shot at this 4 team Championship playoff.
The DEATH of College is starting and you people are cheering for it to start.
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
June 27th, 2012
6:47 pm
@ Mark Bradley:
I believe UGA finished No. 2 in 2007. Am I wrong???????????????
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
6:50 pm
Brainiac……………
AP Top 25
RK TEAM RECORD PTS
1 LSU (60) 12-2 1620
2 Georgia (3) 11-2 1515
3 USC (1) 11-2 1500
4 Missouri 12-2 1347
5 Ohio State 11-2 1346
6 West Virginia 11-2 1342
7 Kansas (1) 12-1 1303
8 Oklahoma 11-3 1139
9 Virginia Tech 11-3 1096
10 Texas 10-3 962
10 Boston College
USA Today Poll
1 LSU (60) 12-2 1500
2 USC 11-2 1380
3 Georgia 11-2 1370
4 Ohio State 11-2 1287
5 Missouri 12-2 1241
6 West Virginia 11-2 1239
7 Kansas 12-1 1217
8 Oklahoma 11-3 1016
9 Virginia Tech 11-3 979
10 Texas 10-3 924
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
June 27th, 2012
7:04 pm
In the event that there is more than one team in the West Div.whose name starts with an “A” the playoff team will be picked in alphabetical order.
EXAMPLE: 1) Alabama
2)Arkansas
3)Auburn
Brainiac(Dawg for life)(CMR fan for life)
June 27th, 2012
7:07 pm
Thanks Twinky Man!!!!!! Being a senior citizen I need all the help i can get.
Flounder
June 27th, 2012
7:23 pm
Who will be the members of the Selection Committee? And who will select the Members of the Selection Committee?? And who will select the people who will select the Members of the Selection Committee???
There’s gonna be a River of behind-the-scenes Propaganda, Payouts and Politics.
Flounder
June 27th, 2012
7:36 pm
… which is no different than what we currently have, I suppose
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
7:44 pm
EXACTLY…………………..Flounder.
It will still be all Big Money Big Conference and Big Politics.
It will not be a real National Championship Still.
DogTheMan
June 27th, 2012
7:45 pm
@wes.. I would if those players got a chance to really go to class instead of taking classes that are designed to keep them eligible… Its all a sham!!!
Enemas for Easter
June 27th, 2012
8:31 pm
Yeah…..Most of you are excited now, but the very first year there will be a throng of fans bitching how their team was unfairly excluded from the play off.
This will never work. There will always be flaws. If you want an ideal play off situation, follow the NFL.
football final 4
June 27th, 2012
8:59 pm
… really looking forward to
what team comes in Second Place in the SEC West this season.
D man
June 27th, 2012
9:10 pm
It’s a step in the right direction to crown a true National Champion.
football final 4
June 27th, 2012
9:14 pm
No more boring re-matches.
OLD MAN
June 27th, 2012
9:46 pm
they should have 16 teams no play off with 4 the big teams are afraid some little team will whip their a55 if they have 16 teams WAKE UP
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
9:50 pm
8 teams and 8 16 team conferences playing 10 conference games(no cupcake paid for wins) and then a Strong OOC schedule will not HURT and Conference Champs fight it out. 17 total games for the 2 in the Championship Game.
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 27th, 2012
10:05 pm
128 teams in DIV 1.
Divide into 8 conferences
8 16 team conferences
Play 10 conference games and a Championship game = 13 games
8 champions in playoff = 16 game season.
1 week off after the Conference Championship games(Dec 1 2012)
Playoff start…DEC 15th(8teams)
2nd round Championship games….Dec 22 2012 (4 teams)
3rd round Championship games…Dec 29 2012 (2 teams)
Championship Game Jan 5th 2013
All lil Bowls are played from Dec 26th to Jan 4th
It will change every year because the weekend days change, but All games end a week after Jan 1.
Skeezix
June 27th, 2012
10:50 pm
All one can say is that it’s about damn time.
MoneyTR
June 27th, 2012
11:19 pm
billions more in revenue and the players get nothing except some chump change education costs. They should get $2,000 per month for all the money they bring in these big dollar schools—if not, they need to form a union and go on strike!
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 28th, 2012
12:26 am
Don’t get drunk and stupid on the Marketing pitch. If Arty Blank wants to put his Money and Butt on the line fo a Superbowl or College Championship Game then he can do it. If it makes KILLER money then it is his but if it DON’T then the loss is his too. TAXPAYERS that will never get a TICKET to these games don’t need to pay the bill.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
12:55 am
Mark Richt era Record vs Top 5 Year End Rankings :
6-7 LSU Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
5-10 Florida Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-10 Auburn Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-14 Alabama Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
3-14 vols Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
1-10 Georgia Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
BridgesOverTroubledDawgH2O's
June 28th, 2012
12:58 am
Its all about the Benjamins and the best SEC team!!! Sic em!
i dropped my fried spam
June 28th, 2012
1:04 am
lmao, boy…TBROWN incarnate! Gotta start somewhere! NCAA BBALL does it right and its the BEST Tourney in sports!
SmokinStokin
June 28th, 2012
1:06 am
We’ll get our Natl Champ in the GA Dome! Bama loves us!
thwg
June 28th, 2012
1:08 am
Yet one more thing a group of old white guys can screw up – politics and college football. This is no playoff rather only a money grab. College football has become nothing more than a minor league for the NFL. For my money, I’d rather go back to UPI and AP polls. Sad day for college football.
tevin
June 28th, 2012
1:09 am
thwg: I agree with the UPI and AP part 100%!!! No need to get into race.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
1:11 am
Oh, he is whining about 2007 is all in this blog. 2007 LSU beat 2 teams listed in that AP Poll Top 10, while Mark Richt not only beat none. But, lost to 6-6 South Carolina who did not even play in a bowl game. And, was wiped from the planet by the lowly vols. Clearly, LSU was the better team.
As for your list of Alabama, LSU and Arkansas – yes, those would have been 3 of the 4 were it implemented already. This Plus One +1. You might recall Plus One +1. I have said for 10 years on these blogs every single time the topic was brought up : Plus One +1.
You’ll kept up your posts about 8-team play-off. 16-team play-off. 120-team play-off. You tried all this time to prevent Plus One +1. I told you so.
Others whined about mythical nc and stated, we need a play-off. To which I replied, we have a 2-team play-off now, what we need is a 4-team play-off.
Is there a team such as Arkansas at # 5 for the season just ended, who has a legitimate beef being left out ? I don’t think so. Seems clear to me that Alabama and LSU proved it on the field that Alabama beat 2 and LSU beat 3 teams who finished in the AP Poll Top 10.
While you ponder your navel, might I point out that the direct correlation of national champions is, the pollsters voted for the teams who actually beat teams who actually did end up in the AP Poll Top 10. Forget that the AP Poll removed itself from BCS Rankings, as the facts are the AP Poll actually is the basis of all the other 25 polls every year. Kenneth Massey, for example. Jeff Sagarin. Coaches’ Poll. Richard Billingsley. They all, and all the rest of them, all base their poll on the AP Poll.
And, just what does the AP Poll base itself on ?
Pollsters right now look at UGA’s schedule 2012 and say ok, UGA will win them all. Truthfully, we play 1 team who made any top 25 poll and 11 opponents who have an average of 4.8 wins.
Sure, we will go 13-1. The question remains will Mark Richt remain 3 wins out of 16 games against teams who actually earn AP Poll Top 10 all 11 years ? I firmly believe he will. I do not see him beating the top teams. He’s incapable of it.
It’s his offense, which has all 11 years since being hired here because of his offense, which has averaged the NCAA # 51 Total Offense.
DieHardDawglikeme
June 28th, 2012
1:12 am
POLLS rarely ever got it wrong thwg except in ‘90 with the Buffaloes clearly better than the Jakerts!
i dropped my fried spam
June 28th, 2012
1:14 am
TBrown at MARK RICHT: Go downstairs..Mom will call you when Fried Twinkies are ready
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
1:18 am
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rfsc/history/Records%20vs%20Top%2010%20based%20on%20YER%20(year%20end%20ranking).xls
Mark Richt era Record vs Top 5 Year End Rankings :
6-7 LSU Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
5-10 Florida Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-10 Auburn Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
4-14 Alabama Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
3-14 vols Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
1-10 Georgia Mark Richt era vs Top 5 YER
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
1:20 am
And, the 1 win was beating # 4 vols, “knocking the lid off” the all-time # 11 college football program in wins all-time in a season in which he LOST 4 games.
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:23 am
Got us to the SEC game! Please argue! But LSU legitamately whipped our aces! Couldn’ stop 4th string RB’s…though new season bout upon us!
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:30 am
thought so..all the dog haters dont acknowledge we made it to the Championship;i.e. Tbrown, twinkie boy,Mark Richt etc….but they will bleed useless stats that mean nothing…FOOLS!
I dropped my fried twinkie
June 28th, 2012
1:47 am
chavez…………….What Championship did you make it to exactly?
chavez ravine dawg
June 28th, 2012
1:52 am
stop w the idiosy u know
moms glazed filled
June 28th, 2012
1:57 am
Cmon down honey! ur Twinkies are ready..u can hate on the Dawgs and and Offe Coordin in the afternoon
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
2:02 am
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rfsc/history/Records%20vs%20Top%2010%20based%20on%20YER%20(year%20end%20ranking).xls
Mark Richt era Record vs Top 10 Year End Rankings :
# 1 .4400 win % 11-14 LSU
# 2 .4074 win % 11-16 Auburn
# 3 .3214 win % 09-19 Florida
# 4 .2083 win % 05-19 Alabama
# 5 .1875 win % 06-26 vols
# 5 .1875 win % 03-13 Mark Richt
Mark Richt all 11 years vs AP Poll Top 10 Year End Rankings compared to other SEC teams.
Yeah, right, Mark Richt is the Best Coach in The SEC in his 11 years here. B.S. he is.
itsmeagain
June 28th, 2012
2:49 am
Anyone who wants to argue that college players should get paid (and especially the guy that said that what they get from the school is chump change):
Using the rates i found at Georgia State, i estimated a year there (including summer semester) including room and board, meal plan, tuition, fees, and $1000 for books (though not parking and no may mester), a student athlete on scholarship receives approximately $24,573 per year from their scholarship. To put this into perspective, the average income in Georgia from 2006-2010 was $25,134, and in the US was $27,334 (according to the census website). So the average college football player at Georgia State receives almost dead on the wage of an average Georgian. Take into account some universities cost more than this, and you’ll find it difficult to argue that college football players don’t receive enough for playing. I’d have killed to graduate with no loans.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
3:01 am
The average debt after graduation from college in this state of Georgia, with the Hope Scholarship old monies they used to give the students, is in excess of $ 20,000.
The college graduate makes, in his lifetime, millions of dollars more for having a degree than not; which is why people lie on their resumme that they do when they do not.
The average college education costs right at a quarter of a million dollars, out-of-state.
There are approximately 50 Georgia Bulldogs in the NFL today, slightly more than 50, some of whom will not make the 53-man squads. The aggregate salary contracts of just Georgia Bulldogs in the NFL is now well over one billion dollars.
1. You’re absolutely correct.
2. The players at Georgia are given great publicity to go to NFL
3. Their probability of a degree taking the scholarship is 57 % at UGA
4. Their income is great in the NFL
5. They get the NFL monies because they take the scholarship here
6. They graduate with no debt
7. Anyone who doesn’t understand your point about debt misses it
8. It is impossible for anyone who accumulate $ 20k after taxes at 1 time
9. Average income in Georgia is BEFORE TAXES
10. They make millions more because of their degree than without it
11. They are paid millions upon millions to play college football
12. I have no issue with giving them even more
13. No one has any issue with giving them more of the pie
14. They will get more of the pie, in additional expenses
Bobby
June 28th, 2012
4:52 am
a four team “playoff” still isn’t enough…should be eight at a minimum to be credible, and I am not so sure about this “selection committee”…should just keep what we have until a credible playoff with eight teams can be developed.
Oy vey.
June 28th, 2012
6:49 am
The Roberts Court will rule the college football playoff unconstitutional by a five-four decision.
mgdawg
June 28th, 2012
6:50 am
It’s funny, before all this happened everyone said that a playoff wasn’t realistic because of how much money the bowls bring in, now everyone is getting amazed at how much money a playoff will bring in. Keep the bowls pretty much the same, I never understood the argument that a playoff would make the bowls useless, did the a team playing in the liberty bowl ever really think they had a shot at the NC? This is a great time, 4 team is as big as it should be. It shouldn’t allow a team to rest players, and no one past 4th deserves a shot at being number 1. 8 is too many, you can rest players the last week if you are number one then. Now to find out how they select the 4….
8 teams!
June 28th, 2012
7:24 am
they need to change the 4 teams to 8 teams after 1 year. 4 teams isn’t enough.
MARK RICHT CANNOT BEAT THE TOP TEAMS
June 28th, 2012
7:28 am
4 teams is perfect. It keeps teams like Boise State, Out.
4 allows The SEC to one year have 3 of the 4.
Oh.
June 28th, 2012
8:20 am
This isn’t a playoff.
Chris S
June 28th, 2012
9:09 am
It will only get better from here. As soon as the NCAA realizes it can increase revenue by adding games, we will move to an 8-team playoff (around 2019), then to a 16-team playoff (about 2025). Within 30 years, we will be looking at a 64-team playoff, with talks of adding another 4 teams to make it 68.
The good news is that Georgia need only go 6-6 every year to qualify for the post-season, so we won’t have to waste all those good golfing Saturdays in September and October going to the Athens to watch pre-season games.
Gene
June 28th, 2012
9:35 am
Any idea of what Adams’ cut of the revenue will be?
Buckeye
June 28th, 2012
9:35 am
Hey dogs,
Urban will get in 2-3 times before Win With even sniffs the field.
TIME OUT!
TIME OUT!
TIME OUT!
Fed Up
June 28th, 2012
9:49 am
At least this is somewhat of a step in the right direction. There will now be four teams aboe to compete instead of just two. What I really want to know is when will the Obama campaign try to take credit for this?
ARdawg
June 28th, 2012
11:17 am
Buckeye is a true Gomer
Devil's Advocate
June 28th, 2012
11:31 am
I was fine with the BCS, but this playoff has the “potential” to be better. A TRANSPARENT selection committee is crucial. Obviously the #5 team will complain, but that’s better than # 3 complaining. I prefer a selection committee over a set format, because set formats historically lead to unpredictable scenarios that are unfair. 7-9 Seattle made the 2010 NFL playoffs AND got a home game; that is ridiculous! Presumably a selection committee can prevent that kind of foolishness. I’m glad the contracts will last 12 years; I wish they were 100. I don’t want an 8 or 16 team playoff ever. I don’t want to burden players and families just for our entertainment. Plus, I don’t want the regular season diminished.
Jim
June 28th, 2012
11:34 am
A semi playoff. Why can’t they do it like Division II football & all the other sports? At least 32 teams to fight it out. That’s what makes March Madness so wonderful.
Techmate
June 28th, 2012
1:46 pm
In order for the term “student-athlete” to mean anything, I would like to see the college presidents grow a pair and require some kind of metric for including academics into the mix for qualification. Otherwise, this playoff will be the same 6-8 teams year after year from football factories. The real college game, I fear, died with the big TV dollar invasion.
JASon
June 28th, 2012
3:14 pm
“I didn’t think I’d see it, but here it is: A college football playoff!”
And you gave a typical one dimensional sec viewpoint. You had one article and not even once mentioned the reason for the playoff.
Let me help you: a 4 team playoff is preferable in college football because, with all of the different conferences and great teams, it is often difficult to pick just two teams that deserve to be there. A 4 team playoff is exciting because you can finally find out how great teams from different parts and different systems match up, and determine with fairly good certainty who the best team is.
JJ
June 28th, 2012
3:21 pm
I just don’t want to see the Championship game played in a city that has no revelance to college football. NO New York or New Jersey. No Chicago or Philadelphia. No DC. These are pro cities and
care nothing about college football.
AceDawg
June 28th, 2012
3:59 pm
It is a fairly satisfying outcome. I think 8 or 12 teams would have been reasonable as well, but with four teams there is a better argument that the fifth ranked team is undeserving of a shot than there is that the third ranked team is undeserving. Even four teams ads plenty of extra drama to each season whereby probably 10 or so teams still have some sort of decent shot in the last week or two of the season.
HB
June 28th, 2012
4:22 pm
This newly devised system is nothing more than a modified version of the existing BCS. They will still SELECT the four teams to be in the so-called playoffs.
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
June 28th, 2012
6:23 pm
No doubt DC, my AU Tigers did get snubbed in 04 when they went undefeated but in ALL fairness & if you’ll recall we stunk it up on the national stage, 02, 03 with USC throttling us in LA and in AU…just stating the facts and I am a huge AU Tiger fan.
War Damn Eagle and I am digging the decision but to whoever stated it should be 16 teams, COME ON MAN!
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:14 pm
Rickster
June 27th, 2012
11:27 am
And kudos to the NCAA for removing their craniums from their nether regions to give the fans (remember us?) what we’ve been asking for for years.
_______________
GTBob
June 27th, 2012
12:03 pm
The major schools in college football have two missions, protect the power they currently have, and generate as much money as possible. Fairness, fans, and the general spirit of collegiate sports aren’t really even considered anymore.
****************************
No, Rickster, they don’t remember us (the fans)–nor do they care about us. As GTBob points out, it’s all about power and money–and not much else.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:21 pm
Boise Dawg
June 27th, 2012
12:19 pm
I am opposed to crowning a conference champion that hasn’t played everyone in their conference. Especially given that in the SEC, you now have 13 conference opponents, yet only play 8 of them in any given year. That just isn’t acceptable in my opinion.
________________
Typical SEC, whose teams will do anything to keep from having to drop another cupcake from their OOC schedules. The hope with this new system is that we’ll return to the years when strength of schedule actually meant something–and factored in to the rankings. Can’t happen soon enough.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:28 pm
Tech Fan Since 1950
June 27th, 2012
12:21 pm
Hard for me to believe the truly “Big Boy” conferences act like they play tough schedules, but frame their schedules between conference schedules with the little sisters of the poor (some teams from other NCAA divisions or weak teams from Division I). Some way to build rankings?
____________________
But that is exactly what the “Big Boy” conferences do. The “Big Boy” OOC schedules are a disgrace–and those that schedule cupcakes (i.e., buy wins) conveniently overlook the fact their their own conference schedules (SEC included) ALREADY have their share of softies.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:36 pm
Dawgdad (The Original)
June 27th, 2012
12:30 pm
The rest of the bowls should be looking for a cemetery plot however, good riddance I say
___________________
Shouldn’t have much trouble finding those cemetery plots; most of them already resemble tombs–with their half-empty stadiums and ho-hum matchups.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:46 pm
Big Crimson 75
June 27th, 2012
1:17 pm
If anyone thinks controversy is going away b/c of a 4 team playoff, you’re delusional.
_________________
At this stage, it’s not about doing away with controversy. But it IS a step (albeit a small one) in the right direction. And considering the dimwits responsible for stonewalling a playoff for many years in the biggest college sport of all, we probably should be grateful for ANY step in the right direction.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:52 pm
Paul in NH
June 27th, 2012
1:22 pm
The reason Jan 1 was vacated by college football in 2012 is because it was a Sunday. CFB cannot compete against the NFL.
___________________
Oh, CFB can compete alright, but the sickeningly greedy TV network execs simply won’t allow it. It’s all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$–and don’t you EVER forget it!
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
8:57 pm
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:48 pm
I don’t like the fact thay they agreed to lock into this system for 12 years. If it becomes evident that an 8 team playoff would be a better format than we end up waiting a decade to be able to make a change. One big step in the right direction but 12 years is a long time to commit to an unproven idea.
_______________________
I agree.
What you see here is classic powers-that-be thinking: “Oh, you want a playoff, do you? Well, here’s your damn playoff, and like it or not, you’re stuck with it for 12 years! Now we won’t have to do anymore progressive thinking during our lifetimes.”
cs
June 28th, 2012
8:58 pm
Another sham and disgrace. afetr last year’s mulligan tide bs who cares about college rigged football until they get a real playoff system.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:03 pm
Stank Wren
June 27th, 2012
1:53 pm
Football players that play on state championship winning high school team will play 15 games in a season. NFL players on a Superbowl team may play 24 games in a season (including preseason and playoffs). I’ve never understood the arguement against college kids playing 14 or 15 games in a season. I have no idea why it took so long to get this playoff idea off the ground.
___________________
The problem is that you’re trying to apply logic to the warped thinking of pompous imbeciles who care nothing about sports (college presidents), and of power brokers who care only about $$$$$$$$$$$$. There is NO valid reason why this couldn’t have been done years ago. None whatsoever.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:11 pm
WTF
June 27th, 2012
2:06 pm
and BS walks – hopefully over sports writers who write columns full of 1st person pronouns, their ‘feelings’, their analyses, their consciousness. Why not just a straight story without all the MB personalization?
We miss you, Mr. Bisher. More and more every day.
____________________
He’s a sports COLUMNIST, idiot–not a sports writer. His job is to publish his sports OPINIONS in AJC columns, which is exactly what he does–and exactly what Bisher did. You should consider yourself fortunate to be able to comment at all with your own OPINIONS.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:14 pm
Red Stick
June 27th, 2012
2:22 pm
Yes there will be controversy as to who is deserving to make the new playoffs but it will be that way no matter if it’s 8, 12 or 16 teams in a playoff.
___________________
Bingo.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:18 pm
My 2 cents.
June 27th, 2012
2:26 pm
. . . Then bid out the “Championship Monday” game just like the current proposal.
_________________
Except make it a “Championship Friday” or “Championship Saturday” game so us poor working stiffs can stay up ’til 1 a.m. to see it all.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:24 pm
DeathFromAbove
June 27th, 2012
3:02 pm
So now these kids can play even more games, generating money for their schools and risking their bodies, while still making nothing? Some will now play FIFTEEN games?
__________________
This is easily the award winner for stupidest comment on the blog.
They’ve BEEN playing 15 games for YEARS, Mr. Crap for Brains–just not at the D-1A level, where $$$$$$$$$$$$ and politics have ruled.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:27 pm
Delbert D.
June 27th, 2012
3:04 pm
If Bobby Bowden is on the committee (he’s has lobbied for it), there goes the credibility. The sideline TV view of him in his last season asking an assistant, “What’s his name?” after his own player kicked a go-ahead field goal is explanation enough.
____________________
Now Delbert, don’t you be takin’ potshots at ol’ Bobby when you can barely write a legible post yourself (”he’s has lobbied for it”)???
Hello?
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:42 pm
thwg
June 28th, 2012
1:08 am
Yet one more thing a group of old white guys can screw up – politics and college football. This is no playoff rather only a money grab. College football has become nothing more than a minor league for the NFL. For my money, I’d rather go back to UPI and AP polls. Sad day for college football.
____________
tevin
June 28th, 2012
1:09 am
thwg: I agree with the UPI and AP part 100%!!! No need to get into race.
******************
Maybe his handle’s actually “thug” rather than “thwg”?
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:51 pm
TallaDawg
June 27th, 2012
3:22 pm
Those are some weird-looking dudes!
_________________
True–although I think “smarmy-looking” might be even more appropriate.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:57 pm
Devil’s Advocate
June 28th, 2012
11:31 am
I’m glad the contracts will last 12 years; I wish they were 100. I don’t want an 8 or 16 team playoff ever. I don’t want to burden players and families just for our entertainment.
___________________
Ask ALL the other college football division players and families if they feel “burdened” by getting to participate in and watch a TRUE championship.
Guess what? They don’t.
DawgNole
June 28th, 2012
9:59 pm
Always fun to get in at the azz end of the comments. That way nobody questions your questionable opinions–or even reads them, for that matter.
intellibird
June 28th, 2012
10:38 pm
Soon Adams will be gone and I hope UGA will hire an intelligent businessman in his place. Maybe, he can go fishing with Sonny Perdue.
Rey
July 1st, 2012
9:53 am
Mark, I can’t stand you, but I couldn’t agree more today about how happy this makes me! Go Jackets!
Richard
July 2nd, 2012
2:56 pm
I’m not all that thrilled until I see how the teams get chosen. The problem with the BCS was never 1 vs 2. It was how 1 and 2 were decided. There was zero standard for picking the teams which allowed any team to whine (if you were ranked #120 in the nation, there was nothing that said the voters couldn’t just vote you in anyways).
My question is how are 1, 2, 3 & 4 picked. There needs to be a set standard where teams know going into a season how to get into the playoff. If not, all the BCS would have done is remove the C.