ESPN top headline: Bama to rethink schedule
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2024 Bama is the case study as it relates to this thread, and you could apply the same thing to 2024 OM (who lost at home to a 4-8 team).
Bama isn’t out of the playoff because of 3 losses. They are out because 2 of the losses were terrible losses…..particularly that OU game because they got completely dominated. That’s the noose around their neck. If they got beat by Tennessee, Texas, and LSU, while beating UGA, OM, USC, and everyone else…..they are in the playoff over SMU.
Flip the argument to USC. They have no terrible losses….but LSU was a semi-bad loss because it was at home to an unranked team. More importantly, they had no great wins, either. Best wins were over #16 Clemson / #19 Mizzou. They could have benefitted from a 9th game. They play and beat a Tennessee or UGA instead of pounding Wofford or Old Dominion, they’re in over SMU. Maybe that knocks out Tennessee or UGA, maybe not, but on the whole it doesn’t put the league in a worse spot by default.
So adding a 9th game can hurt or help, overall playoff team depth….depending on the situation. Overall, I’d argue that it’s a wash. And I think the B1G getting in 4 teams with a 9-game schedule also proves that to be true.
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“Maybe that knocks out Tennessee or UGA, maybe not, but on the whole it doesn’t put the league in a worse spot by default.” As your example shows- It’s not gonna help the league. You can draw up multiple scenarios it can hurt it.
Well first off, it’s absolutely guaranteed to help the league financially. Replace 2 games watched by a total of less than a million people, and replace with one that’s going to be watched by 3-5 million people. Then do that 7 more times. Its a big part of why the B1G TV contract is bigger than the SEC now, in spite of the new teams not getting nearly as much revenue. They have fewer nonsense games and a higher percentage of compelling matchups. And also, more scheduling flexibility to put those compelling matchups where they want them because there’s not a bunch of games no one cares about to work in there.
Secondly, it could help the league with the CFP. If 9th game for USC was Texas, they win, the SEC gets 4 teams in this year instead of 3 regardless of what Bama does. Texas is still in the title game against UGA based on everything else.
Bama could have had a path to get the autobid with more chaos in front of them….just another example. You’re never going to eliminate the risk of teams not getting in due to multiple bad losses, but those teams don’t have much of a case anyway, and don’t really help the SEC by just being another team that’s going to lose a 1st round game.
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Money is a different deal. But I’m not sold espn wants to pay us anymore money On the whole I think a 9th game is a terrible idea for getting teams in the playoff with this committees line of thinking. They never seemed to value wins or SOS too much.
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I absolutely love this new era of publicly calling out public figures on their public BS.
It really is fun watching "professionals" state their case publicly before thinking it all out. Makes them all look pathetic and not savvy enough to speak on the topic. Kiffin, Byrne, etc.
Kirby has been on point so far though.
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I think that's a big part of it. ESPN has the exclusive right to any SEC home game, so either ESPN would have to pay for up to 8 more games or the SEC would have to give them up to 8 more games for free.
Honestly, though, I don't think the 9th conference game helped the Big Ten all that much and it sure didn't help the Big 12. The Big Ten got in one more team, but nobody was clamoring for their only 3 loss team, Illinois, to get in, even though they had one more conference win than Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri, and South Carolina.
Sec chose to add Texas and OU sec chose to add Texas AM and Mizzou. Sec voted on expanding our teams and who to add. Sec said we ain't skeered. We the big bad sec. Well, obviously it wasn't a cake walk adding in those 4 teams. It needs to be noted though while people talked crap about smaller conference , the big 12, the pac 12. Oregon came in and won the big 10. SMU came in and play for the ACC title, Arizona state came in and won the big 12, Texas came into the SEC and finished 2nd in the SEC and lost in OT in the title game. These conference have more parity than they did 10-15 years ago. Sec didn't win it all last year. I would imagine the bottom half of sec loses to SMU this year for sure. Bama beating them is not certain either, bama couldn't beat candy. Struggled most of the game agai st usf, lost to ou.
They said they would not drop a team out of the playoffs completely if they were in before the playoffs. The regular season matters more than losing your conf championship.
Bama shouldn't have lost 3 games if they wanted to make it. Teams the expect to win it all should not lose to mediocre teams.
They actually did not say that at all. Agree that Bama shouldn't have lost 2 games to 6-6 teams. I have no sympathy for them at all. But if you take the names and conferences off of the teams and just compare the resumes, the one with 3 quality wins (vs 0) and 3 losses is a better resume. The one with a strength of schedule in the 60s and best win is Duke & Pitt just doesn't hold up.
I heard it and wondered if true as well. I could not find it written from anyone but I didn't look that hard. My information was second hand information but rumors are meant to be spread right?
This is what was said as I understood it:
If a team was in the playoffs going into the conference title game, they would still be in the playoffs after the game. That is what happened whether by design or not. I know I heard it several times from several sources. Were they repeating each other? Maybe? It is the day of lies told for truth and people believe what they chose.
The reason you can't find it is because that's not what the committee said. What they said was:
Most of the talking heads are idiots who don't really know much more than you or I do. They also intentionally make stuff up and ignore what people plainly said when they want to.
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