Not sure which is more entertaining, the Citrus Bowl or the mind games going on between the head coaches over late player substitutions. Bielema’s smirk shows he’s doing it intentionally, not that I expect the Big Ten’s powderpuff commissioner to come down on him for unsportsmanlike behavior.
Will the NCAA fix this rule before a fistfight between coaches follows a game rather than a handshake?
Mike Nolan
The feud continues.
I get the feeling no one really likes either of these coaches as no one seems to be rushing in to defend Boss Hogg (who clearly was taunting him) or Junior (who ran his mouth about the SEC and playoffs so much that people thought he was almost as annoying as Lane Kiffin, which is a pretty high standard for annoying).
In other news, it appears we’ll have the Big Ten/SEC semifinals everyone wanted/dreaded next week. PSU and Texas have looked unbeatable at times … and then astoundingly dumb in their play calling and falling asleep later while failing to put BSU/ASU away early. With UGa wounded, it still looks like today’s classic in Pasadena will be the de-facto championship game (as it was last year). I hope the Ducks can do it … but gonna be hard to beat OSU’s talent twice. And if they get by that, they have the Horns in Dallas and Dawgs in Atlanta. Talk about a BRUTAL draw.
Go Cats!
SjT
Tonight’s Sugar Bowl has been postponed until tomorrow evening due to the attack in New Orleans.
They really need to fix the seeding issue, IMHO that’s more important than adding two more teams to serve as cannon fodder for the truly elite teams.
I’d like to see the substitution rule fixed, too, Bielema is NOT the first coach to abuse it. The SEC is sort of cracking down on faking injuries to get a time out. IMHO there’s a simple way to deal with that, if a player is injured, he has to sit for multiple plays (4 seems reasonable), unless the team wants to expend a time out to get him back sooner.
Arizona State is trying to get back into the Peach Bowl game, is Texas about to blow another one?
I agree they’ll revise the seeding first … though I’m fine with there being some sort of reward for winning your conference. In the NFL, you’ll have some 9-8 teams hosting playoff games while 14-3 teams who didn’t win their division have to go on the road. It’s fine with me - but with the whining this year, that will probably be their first fix (though ASU may have helped the argument for the conference champs).
But I think it’s inevitable that it goes to 16 teams soon. You may not have had great games, but you had amazing atmospheres with 100,000 or so people in State College, Columbus, South Bend and Austin. Fans in Eugene, Boise, Tempe and Athens missed out on that. I don’t see them going to home field for the quarters/semis because of the Big Six bowls (though I wish they would … this year we’re going to see Texas with a home game in Dallas in the semis and Georgia with a home game in Atlanta in the finals and they could have had another home game in Atlanta in the quarters) … but I think they’ll give everyone a home game soon as well.
The Peach Bowl was a sloppy mess but a fun game. Terrible missed targeting call, some amazing plays and a crazy end. Texas did everything they could to lose and really didn’t deserve the win, but lucked it out with their talent and a few calls. PSU let up on the gas as well last night, but at least they never tried to give it to Boise. Not sure the Nits or Bevo can compete with the Dawgs or Bucks/Ducks unless they finally put a complete game together.
Go Cats!
SjT
The other argument you’re going to start hearing for expanding to 16 (especially if Georgia looks slow tomorrow) … each of the three teams coming off the bye has looked terrible in the first half of their bowl games. Sloppy, sluggish and sleepy – not rested – while the three teams coming off the win lit it up right away. ASU was able to come back in the second half and make a game of it and Oregon is gonna try, but you wonder if they would have been faster starters had they been coming off a big win at home to start the playoffs.
Go Cats!
SjT
So far it seems like 12 teams is about 4 too many, and I find it difficult to list 4 more teams that really deserved to be in the playoffs this year and would have looked like respectable opponents.
But now more than ever it’s about the money, and if the networks are willing to throw more money in the pot for 4 more games, they’ll happen.
Never mind that the NFL outdrew the first round of the playoffs by a substantial margin, and for games that weren’t exactly thrillers.
Both teams started off a bit sluggish this afternoon, then Georgia had two turnovers and a sideline interference call, and couldn’t close the gap after the 2nd half kickoff return.
So all 4 of the teams that got the automatic byes lost. Gonna be some interesting discussions about how to handle next year, including whether to add 2 or 4 more teams.
Just follow the money.
I think the game schedule has to be off the rankings not the seedings
https://collegefootballplayoff.com/rankings.aspx
The conference champions still get a bye otherwise no conference will have a championship game.
Based on that it should’ve been:
Byes: Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State
First round games remain the same as they are ranking based.
Second round games are:
#1 seed Oregon vs. the lowest ranking team #12 Arizona State
#2 seed Georgia vs. #9 Boise State or #10 SMU(if they won vs. PSU)
Since the #3 and #4 teams Texas and PSU play in the first round you would have to wait until the games are complete to determine the teams.
If everything went to rank:
1 Oregon- 12 Arizona State
2 Georgia - 9 Boise State
3 Texas - 6 Ohio State
4 Penn State - 5 Notre Date
Then
1 Oregon - 4 Penn State
2 Georgia - 3 Texas
Same as the NCAA basketball region bracket. Basically conference champion even in an awful league gets you in, but you still might have to play a #1 seeded Duke to start the tournament.
I think the resultant games would be more compelling in general.
I agree as to conference champions although I”d be fine to see championship games go away and the CFO moved up a week or two if you start the season in week zero.
The committee really screwed up in setting Texas up for a virtual home game in the semifinals. Would have been easy enough to fix by flip flopping Texas and PSU. Don’t think it will ultimately bother tOSU.
The Big Twelve commissioner was (deservedly) upset over the no-targeting call late in the game, but officiating needs to be good the whole season, not just in the playoffs. And there was a LOT of bad officiating across all of D1 this year.
If you go to 16 with no byes the conference championship will need to be eliminated.
There is no good way to be fair to the northern teams while also not burdening the fans with awful weather.
Games prior to the start of most classes are a sacrifice I would be willing to make to end the regular season BEFORE Thanksgiving.
The conference championships aren’t likely to be eliminated, IMHO. Eliminating them and having a full slate of 8 playoff games that week would also complicate the revenue distribution process, I think right now the conference game broadcast fees go directly to the conferences.
What to do with the Army-Navy game is a comparatively minor issue, but one that is likely to be a stumbling block anyway. (Now that Army and Navy are in the same conference, the game is not part of the conference schedule.)
I agree they’ll tinker with the seedings … but that’s the quick fix this year. In the near future, it will go to 16 (no chance it’s cut to 8 - as Mike says, follow the money) so we have more of the awesome on-campus games with the atmosphere and no one is rusty off a bye. The on-campus atmosphere was amazing even if they games this round were not. Imagine if fans in Eugene, Boise, Tempe and Athens got ta have that fun as well. Maybe the exit in the quarters wouldn’t sting as much then.
It’s just funny to hear all the moaning. We had some TERRIBLE B(C)S games when it was just two teams. We had some AWFUL semifinals and finals when it was four teams. Nothing guarantees close games every round. And this year is already LIGHT YEARS ahead of the 2- and 4-team format and more interesting. It seems the only ones really throwing a hissy fit are the SEC good ole’ boys. Funny how they don’t seem to like this format where teams have to earn a title on the field over the old “eye test” where their name and rep got them a free pass to a virtual home game for the title.
GO CATS!!!
-SjT
PS - Why TF is the SEC commish even intervening in a semifinal game that is between Notre Dame and Penn State? He doesn’t have enough to whine about between Ole Miss, Alabama and South Carolina in the first round and now Georgia boo hooing everything from the walk-on kid to the SEC refs telling them you can’t substitute to the seeding??? Just sit down, SEC and enjoy!
The SEC did get an ideal semi-final game site for their new member from Texas. Should be two interesting semi-final games, hard to handicap them.