All four teams with a bye lost….
- Thread starter Henry322
- Start date
It is an indicator of a very flawed selection process (not that we didn't already know that, though).
I can agree if it was only the minor conference champs losing. But I have a hard time saying the undefeated #1 team with that resume, and the SEC champ were flawed choices.
The B1G and SEC champs did not have byes. With that said all 5 conference champs are now out.
At least they had all their starters who were able to play available for those games, right?
(and weeks to prepare)
Georgia and Oregon DID have byes. A big problem was seeding, too. Aside from Arizona State and Boise State getting byes, which they shouldn't have, Oregon got the winner of Tennessee/Ohio State while Penn State got to go play Boise State. Georgia got the winner of Notre Dame/Indiana while Texas got to go play Arizona State. So, while the losers of the B1G/SEC CGs had to win that extra game, they were also set up with easier paths to the Final Four. The automatic byes were dumb. In realty, Oregon, Georgia, Penn State and Texas should have gotten the byes.
I would say the same thing though. I could argue that some of the conference champs getting 3 and 4 seeds was wrong. But then you'd be arguing that Oregon was seeded incorrectly, and UGA too.
We're just talking "evidence" or "indicators." Of course, teams who get byes will sometimes lose anyway. But when they _all_ lose, that is a stronger indicator of a flawed system. Having said that, it's also possible that this year is just a statistical anomaly. But so far, the trend is confirming what a lot of people suspected.
I think the byes during a season are fine, but it was painfully obvious that the teams who got the four byes and then didn't play for 3-4 weeks had some serious rust whereas the teams who beat them got to knock that rust out last week. The playoffs should probably start either the week after conference championship games or leave one week in there as a bye for everyone to rest. Any more than that seems to be a problem.
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