2024 College Football - Four B1G Newbies and Two More to Tango in the SEC - And 3x as B1G a Playoff - WOW!

[Jon Joseph]

We are on the cusp of something new in College Football (CFB), a Real Playoff. Yes, the format is screwed up for the next two seasons but expanding the playoff from four to twelve teams will not devalue the regular season. With seven at-large spots plus four spots for the Power 4 champs and the G5 with a playoff reservation, the participants in and the seeding of the Delighted Dozen will make the entire season matter through the conference champ games. 

 

Unlike last season's East Division Michigan championship team's boring beat down of West Division champ Iowa in the B1G champ game, which nevertheless drew 10.2 million viewers, what would the divisionless Oregon versus Ohio State rematch in the B1G champ game draw? Without divisions in the SEC, will we witness a rematch of Georgia versus Alabama, a game that drew 17.2 million viewers? Or will Ole Miss defeat Georgia in Oxford and Texas defeat Georgia in Austin so that these two play for the title in Atlanta? And with the winners of the ACC, B1G, B12, and SEC champ games being seeded in the playoff top four with a first-round bye, conference champ games will be more impactful than before the playoff expansion to twelve teams. 

 

Get your popcorn and craft brews ready, it will be a fistfight from the opening games through the conference championship games.

 

College Football News agrees that the regular season will not be diminished by the playoff being 3x B1Gger. ore teams in the playoff mix will draw more CFB Fanatics and viewership numbers will increase to record-setting numbers.

 

https://collegefootballnews.com/news/conference-championships-with-no-divisions-one-big-new-thing-for-2024

Edited May 11 by Jon Joseph

[JabbaNoBargain]

Can’t wait to start playing and step away from all the other stuff for a while, Beavis bashing aside. 

[Charles Fischer]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:29 PM, JabbaNoBargain said:

Beavis bashing aside. 

The Pig-2, Beavis and Butthead will be fine...

 

[Jon Joseph]

LOL; the GIF is Spot On!

[Solar]

Josh Pate keeps driving me nuts with his talk about the playoffs devaluing the regular season as such a massive negative.

 

Maybe the proper rebuttal is it re-values it appropriately. It's stupid to require such perfection out of 20 year olds over the course of a season to even be eligible to compete for a national championship.

 

I don't want every game all season to be a playoff game. I want to feel happy when the Ducks win, not relieved they didn't lose.

 

Sports are about improving yourself and your team over the course of a season, and peaking at the end to be at your best to win it all. 

[PittDuck]

Please tell me that ESPN does not have all the CFP games!

[Jon Joseph]

On 5/11/2024 at 8:26 PM, PittDuck said:

Please tell me that ESPN does not have all the CFP games!

 

It's all ESecPN -

[David Marsh]

On 5/11/2024 at 3:54 PM, Solar said:

Josh Pate keeps driving me nuts with his talk about the playoffs devaluing the regular season as such a massive negative.

 

Maybe the proper rebuttal is it re-values it appropriately. It's stupid to require such perfection out of 20 year olds over the course of a season to even be eligible to compete for a national championship.

 

I don't want every game all season to be a playoff game. I want to feel happy when the Ducks win, not relieved they didn't lose.

 

Sports are about improving yourself and your team over the course of a season, and peaking at the end to be at your best to win it all. 

I find myself agreeing with him in many points. 

 

Because to be brutally honest in any given year there are really only two at most three teams that are good enough to compete for the championship. 

 

Last year was a bit more interesting... But Michigan was clearly better than Washington. I think end of season Bama was better than Texas, even though Texas won against Bama early in the year. 

 

If I were to rank those four teams I'd put them Michigan, Bama, Washington, Texas. 

 

I know Florida State being snubbed was a major point of contention. Though without their starting QB and then having won a very very weak ACC I completely understand the snub.

 

Should Georgia and Oregon been involved in the playoff? The reality there is that they lost their conference championship games and isn't that basically a playoff game? Win and in or win and move forward. They lost and were eliminated. 

 

I think either could have made a good playoff run in reality. I think Oregon matched up better against everyone but Washington. Washington could just exploit Oregon's defensive weakenesses in a way no other team Oregon played last year could.

 

I think Georgia just had a bad day against Bama. 

 

But in both cases that's sports and life. 

 

I see the B1G and SEC champs being the heavy favorites and the Big 13 and ACC champs looking like they don't deserve their first round byes. 

[Jon Joseph]

On 5/12/2024 at 1:40 PM, David Marsh said:

I find myself agreeing with him in many points. 

 

Because to be brutally honest in any given year there are really only two at most three teams that are good enough to compete for the championship. 

 

Last year was a bit more interesting... But Michigan was clearly better than Washington. I think end of season Bama was better than Texas, even though Texas won against Bama early in the year. 

 

If I were to rank those four teams I'd put them Michigan, Bama, Washington, Texas. 

 

I know Florida State being snubbed was a major point of contention. Though without their starting QB and then having won a very very weak ACC I completely understand the snub.

 

Should Georgia and Oregon been involved in the playoff? The reality there is that they lost their conference championship games and isn't that basically a playoff game? Win and in or win and move forward. They lost and were eliminated. 

 

I think either could have made a good playoff run in reality. I think Oregon matched up better against everyone but Washington. Washington could just exploit Oregon's defensive weakenesses in a way no other team Oregon played last year could.

 

I think Georgia just had a bad day against Bama. 

 

But in both cases that's sports and life. 

 

I see the B1G and SEC champs being the heavy favorites and the Big 13 and ACC champs looking like they don't deserve their first round byes. 

DM, a very reasonable comment; however, with NIL and a wide-open transfer portal, I think there are more than two or three teams that could win a CFB championship. If FSU had not been given a stiff arm by the committee, the SEC would likely have been left out of the playoff with the SEC champ game eliminating UGA and Bama's loss to B12 champ Texas benching the Tide. 

 

13-0 FSU, with a healthy starting QB, UW, Texas, and Michigan would have been the Final 4. In particular, FSU would not have gone 13-0 without bringing in top players from the portal, including RB Trey Benson from Oregon. Players were incented to relocate to Tallahassee, in part, by NIL. 

 

I'm reasonably certain that the 2024-25 playoff games will set many viewing records. I hope that in 2026 we will see more on-campus games. These games will bring a level of excitement and interest that is not often seen in bowl games. 

 

I expect the twelve-team field and seeding will come down to the wire in the P4 and the G5.

[JabbaNoBargain]

On 5/12/2024 at 10:40 AM, David Marsh said:

I find myself agreeing with him in many points. 

 

Because to be brutally honest in any given year there are really only two at most three teams that are good enough to compete for the championship. 

 

Last year was a bit more interesting... But Michigan was clearly better than Washington. I think end of season Bama was better than Texas, even though Texas won against Bama early in the year. 

 

If I were to rank those four teams I'd put them Michigan, Bama, Washington, Texas. 

 

I know Florida State being snubbed was a major point of contention. Though without their starting QB and then having won a very very weak ACC I completely understand the snub.

 

Should Georgia and Oregon been involved in the playoff? The reality there is that they lost their conference championship games and isn't that basically a playoff game? Win and in or win and move forward. They lost and were eliminated. 

 

I think either could have made a good playoff run in reality. I think Oregon matched up better against everyone but Washington. Washington could just exploit Oregon's defensive weakenesses in a way no other team Oregon played last year could.

 

I think Georgia just had a bad day against Bama. 

 

But in both cases that's sports and life. 

 

I see the B1G and SEC champs being the heavy favorites and the Big 13 and ACC champs looking like they don't deserve their first round byes. 

Anything that reduces the impact of voting for a champion and moves it to the field is good in my book. Imagine how different NFL history would be if it was a 2 or 4-team playoff, or if March Madness was a field of 8.

 

Personally, I have always thought if you want a true national champion, then have a playoff and do it right. I’m also good with no playoff at all and having traditional bowls and arguments…this time period of having a foot in each era was always annoying to me, pick one.  

Edited May 12 by JabbaNoBargain

[David Marsh]

On 5/12/2024 at 11:41 AM, Jon Joseph said:

DM, a very reasonable comment; however, with NIL and a wide-open transfer portal, I think there are more than two or three teams that could win a CFB championship. If FSU had not been given a stiff arm by the committee, the SEC would likely have been left out of the playoff with the SEC champ game eliminating UGA and Bama's loss to B12 champ Texas benching the Tide. 

I think the biggest factor in it all is actually Saban retiring. In part he was driven to retirement by NIL and the portal but if he was five years younger I think he'd stick around longer. 

 

Saban's retirement has turned college football on its head more than anything else this past year. And it will make NIL and the transfer Portal have a greater impact as teams see an opening for success. 

 

Saban's Bama team lost to Michigan in a close game where Michigan had a roster full of 5th year vets. 

 

If Saban wins that game he gets a national championship as Bama would have beaten Washington without a doubt. 

[David Marsh]

On 5/12/2024 at 11:48 AM, JabbaNoBargain said:

Anything that reduces the impact of voting for a champion and moves it to the field is good in my book. Imagine how different NFL history would be if it was a 2 or 4-team playoff, or if March Madness was a field of 8.

 

Personally, I have always thought if you want a true national champion, then have a playoff and do it right. I’m also good with no playoff at all and having traditional bowls and arguments…this time period of having a foot in each era was always annoying to me, pick one.  

I'm in agreement that I like getting voting out of the picture for a national champion. But I feel 12 teams is a false hope generator for most teams thinking they belong in the conversation where they don't. 

 

The Big 12 is going to be grossly disappointed. The G5 team will have more moderated false hope because they'll get on the field and get beaten regularly in the first round and if they do manage an upset they aren't making it out of the second round. 

 

I think in the new environment there might be at most 6 teams that belong in the title hunt and they aren't guaranteed to be conference champions.