How fucked is Auburn on Monday night?

[jmowreader]

I say Florida State by 14.

[Iggo]

1. PLAYOFFS!!!

[jmowreader]

2. The playoffs next year are going to be just as much bullshit as what we've got now

They need to change it to an EIGHT-team playoff:

the champions of the six current AQ conferences
the top independent school - yes, this means Notre Dame will probably be in the playoffs every year
and the best team in the FBS that isn't already in the championships

A four-team playoff that just looks at the rankings, which is what they're planning to do, has a pretty good chance of being an all-SEC affair because as we all know, an SEC team with two losses is better than a non-SEC team that's undefeated.

[BlueStreak]

3. Or how about

8 team playoff, the top 8 teams in the rankings, but no more than two teams from the same conference, so the 8th seeded team might actually be ranked 13th in the nation.

That would make it a lot more interesting because it is likely there would be one or two "Cinderella" teams in that mix.

That really doesn't penalize the biggest, strongest conferences very much. If they are really such a strong conference, surely their two teams would wipe out the rest of the field.

You are right that there are so few games played out of conference that there really is no good way to gauge the strength of any conference until the bowl games.

[jmowreader]

4. That would work too. Anything's better than what they thought up

Flat out: the four top teams without regard to conference, will be a recipe for an all-SEC playoff.

[BlueStreak]

8. Everything runs in cycles

With Alabama getting spanked and the very real possibility of Auburn getting trounced, the media might have a different view of the SEC going into next season. All we heard about this year was how invincible Alabama was.

[jmowreader]

10. The most delirious people in the world are SEC fans

During the run-up to the Heisman voting, every SEC fan in America was ready to hand Manziel his second Heisman because...well, he plays in The Toughest Conference In America and Jameis Winston does not.

Apparently playing in the SEC overrides two issues: there are six SEC quarterbacks who had better seasons than Manziel did, and a Heisman winner doesn't have a 10-34 game.

Now for the sick stat: the Idaho Vandals went to Tallahassee and got the worst beating of any team this season...but strangely enough, their offense did about as well as anyone else's. For all but two teams - Boston College, who got five TD and missed one extra point, and Maryland who scored 0 - FSU's defense gives up one or two TD per game...and the Vandals got two TD.

This would be a fun game people would watch the hell out of: the college football champion against the Super Bowl champion, on Easter weekend so everyone on both sides had time to rest. College football is the NFL's farm system anyway so why not?

[Fastcars]

14. I live in SEC country

And I know and I am a fan of the SEC, but your statement about every SEC fan wanting to give the Hesiman to Manziel is patently untrue. I don't know a SINGLE SEC fan that thought Manziel deserved the trophy this year. I heard some argue for McCarron (sp?) for his body of work over his career but most have no problem with Winston getting the trophy.

Only knock I have heard from anyone on FSU is strength of schedule, but I have no problem with them being there. They are the only team to make it through the year undefeated and have a wins over a few darn good teams.

The college football champ wouldn't stand a chance against the worst NFL team, more or less the SuperBowl champ. The best college team in the country has maybe a dozen guys on the team good enough to make an NFL roster. Not start, but simply make the roster. EVERY NFL team has 53 players good enough to make an NFL roster. Not that any NFL team is going to play a game in the midst of their off season. Nor would the NCAA allow a team to have organized practices for two extra months.

[Iggo]

9. I agree the new "playoffs" are going to suck.

Conference champions. That's the way to go. And no independents. Fuck Notre Dame. You wanna play? Join a conference and play by the same rules as everybody else.

[jmowreader]

11. Then you'd be looking at six teams, not four

The big problem you'd have with a conference-champ-only system: you need eight teams to make this work, and the conference realignments of the past few years have put all the good teams into the six AQ conferences. Like it or not, we're stuck with Notre Dame in this thing.

If you want to see how fucked a six-team playoff is, look at the NFL...the wildcard system means the Saints are going against a Seahawks team with a week of rest.

[madinmaryland]

12. I like the six AQ Conference champions, but then have two "at-large" teams

which would be decided by rankings. Independents can go qualify through an at-large bid, though it would probably be quite rare.

[nomorenomore08]

15. +1

I think this is the best suggestion yet.

[BlueStreak]

16. The conferences change every year

I don't think it makes much sense to base it on conference winners with as much flux as we see there.

[nomorenomore08]

17. It's the least imperfect approach I can think of, honestly. Any other would be even more arbitrary.

[BlueStreak]

18. Normally I think the sports writer polls are reasonably objective

but the problem is that none of the teams will schedule any serious competition for their out-of-conference games because they fear a single loss will knock them out of contention. So there is necessarily some subjectivity and imagination. But of we are talking about an 8-team playoff system. I am confident that the best 3 or 4 teams would be included in that group of 8. And therefore, the playoff really would legitimately name a real champion if based on the polls of sport-writers and coaches.

If every team had to schedule at least one out-of-conference game with a top-50 team, then we'd have a much better idea about relative strength of conferences.

[MrMickeysMom]

5. Who cares?

I hope they BOTH lose!

[civillawyer]

6. Should be a contest

on thread titles. This one is up there.

[bamademo]

7. This Tide fan hopes very.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. I will take that bet.