Yea, I'm a bit late on the research, but after reading HOW the NC will be

[gravedigger]

determined next year, I'm pretty sure there will be NO agreement on the final 4 teams.

Yea, last year had Notre Dame and that ended up a joke. But anyone who criticizes that conclusion didn't really explain HOW they would have justified another team other than just expressing it at the last moment. There has to be a process to select, and it must be transparent and understandable to joe fan out there or there really isn't a champion. The reason the much maligned BCS championship was successful was not that it was the best possible solution. It was that it replaced the ****ing train wreck of sportswriters and coaches who didn't really give a shit giving out split national drunkenmillerlite championships.

We bitch and cry about the las in the field of 64 teams with basketball, but certainly we all agree, the team who wins that monster of a tournament deserves the trophy. Same with baseball. You get to the end and win, you pretty much deserved it.

But with football there is going to be a board of 13 people. They are going to use things like strength of schedule, and head to head and whatever the **** else they are going to use, but at the end of the day there will be nothing more than a group of people subjectively asserting their opinions. To the extent they use each category is anyone's imagination. I imagine, whomever the most demonstrative person in the room, will likely influence the others and THAT person will unwittingly decide the critical differences in teams 4 and 5.

Even when I thought there was a major flaw in the BCS, it gave me figures I could see and compare to week to week. Typically what made me the most irritated were preseason polls that had the potential of handicapping a team.

Now 13 people are going to be able to shrug their shoulders and say, 'shit, I just wanted to get home for dinner and I'm not sure how the 4 teams came out that way" and that will be what we have.

I'm fine if you hate the BCS....but don't tell me this is going to be any better. At least not yet.

[PassInterference]

I agree. Why in the sam hell does a committee pick the teams?

I can see having a committee to pick 64 teams for basketball because polls don't go that high. Besides, when 64 teams are chosen, all the good teams that matter are gonna get included. So what if #40 gets snubbed.

But for football? For 4 teams? WTF. The fewer teams you have, the more critical it is to get the right teams in there. If the BCS poll/computer method was good enough to pick 2 teams why the hell can't it pick 4?

The need for a committee is a real head scratcher. Maybe its a defense against lawsuits. They'll be able to say an independent committee chooses the team instead of some formula designed to keep the Sunbelt out.

A committee-based 4-team field is gonna be a cluster until 1) they go back to polls & computers, or 2) the field gets big enough that splitting hairs over the top 2, 4, 6, etc teams won't matter.

[Bullmutt]

I basically agree with your points. I will say that the only saving grace will be that, with four teams included, it is much more unlikely that the best team in the country will be left out (think back to the 13-0 Auburn team a few years ago). The only real concern, at least in most years, is that a team picked fifth by the committee might actually be better than the one picked fourth.

[chef dixon]

There will ALWAYS be controversy regardless of the number of teams, but your case will simply not be as strong if there are 4 slots as opposed to 2. I think once you guys get to watch 3 monster match-ups with everything on the line about a year from now, you'll be happy its done this way.

[AROB44]

I basically agree with your points. I will say that the only saving grace will be that, with four teams included, it is much more unlikely that the best team in the country will be left out (think back to the 13-0 Auburn team a few years ago). The only real concern, at least in most years, is that a team picked fifth by the committee might actually be better than the one picked fourth.

I chuckle every time I remember this. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch of assholes.

[Goat Holder]

None of it matters, a freaking monkey can pick the 4 teams. And I'll tell you another thing, people talk about how this 'committee' is going to 'work hard', give me a f*cking break. It's cronyism. And it's why I will not give my money to a bowl game and such. My money goes to games at MSU and Starkville, that's it.

The playoff teams this year are FSU, Auburn, Bama and one of Michigan State, Baylor, Ohio State and Stanford. Look at those four and evaluate. Baylor got blown out, Stanford lost twice, so the argument is Sparty vs. Ohio State. I'm almost willing to put in Ohio State based on who they lost to. Either way, that team plays FSU and gets beaten.

2012, your playoff is ND, Bama, Ohio State, Oregon. If tOSU is ineligible, it's Kansas State. Can't put Florida in over a 1-loss Big 12 team when it's gray.

Bottom line, make the damn thing a 16 team playoff. THEN and only then is a committee needed to seed teams and choose the bottom half. And it won't be the best 16 teams, just like the NCAA is not the best 64 teams.

[Bullmutt]

^^ This! As long as every major school with no more than one loss has fans, there will be controversy, regardless of the number of team playoff slots.

[Political Hack]

Chair Jeff Long - from ohio.
Alvarez - Wisconsin guy
Lt Gen Gold - Air Force
pat Haden - USC and Notre Dame
Jernstadt - Oregon
Luck - W Virginia
Archie - Black Bears
Osborne - Nebraska
Willingham - Mich St & Notre Dame
Condaleeza - Stanford and Notre Dame
Radakovich - Clemson
tranghese - big East
Weiberg - from Missouri, but not sure about school. A reporter.

One SEC guy IMO... and it's an OM guy. Unless we win the SEC, we will never go with this selection committee. I also don't think a 2nd SEC school goes unless they're ranked second or third and didn't play the SEC champ (one loss to division champion).

[gravedigger]

Yea but the key to this being accepted, no matter how it's chosen is if the fans can grasp the Objective methods and if they are revealed.

Basketball suffers because of the closed door decisions but because of the number of teams, it's offset.

This is 4 teams out of 10 that are probably legit contenders. To tell fans they selected without some model of how that is happening that people can follow (the bcs's best attribute) is going to create more discontent than they had with the computers.

[It_Could_Happen]

Chair Jeff Long - from ohio.
Alvarez - Wisconsin guy
Lt Gen Gold - Air Force
pat Haden - USC and Notre Dame
Jernstadt - Oregon
Luck - W Virginia
Archie - Black Bears
Osborne - Nebraska
Willingham - Mich St & Notre Dame
Condaleeza - Stanford and Notre Dame
Radakovich - Clemson
tranghese - big East
Weiberg - from Missouri, but not sure about school. A reporter.

One SEC guy IMO... and it's an OM guy. Unless we win the SEC, we will never go with this selection committee. I also don't think a 2nd SEC school goes unless they're ranked second or third and didn't play the SEC champ (one loss to division champion).

Jeff Long is the athletic director at Arkansas?

[smootness]

Chair Jeff Long - from ohio.

Uh...he may be 'from Ohio,' but he's the current AD at Arkansas. That definitely counts as another SEC guy.

[smootness]

I basically agree with your points. I will say that the only saving grace will be that, with four teams included, it is much more unlikely that the best team in the country will be left out (think back to the 13-0 Auburn team a few years ago).

This may be true, but it also makes it more difficult for the true best team in the country to end up with the national title. There are a lot of years where it is clear who the top 2 teams are, and there are a lot of years where it's clear who the top team is. But you're now adding 2 less deserving teams, in most cases, and causing those teams to have to win an extra game.

So it's hard to use the argument that we're going to 4 to better ensure the best team wins it. The first year the 4 seed wins the thing is when we'll really hear outcry over there only being 4 because the first couple of teams left out will claim they were better and should have had a shot, and it will be hard to argue with that.

The real reason we're going to 4 is because fans want to see 2 more good teams in a playoff; that's it. It has nothing to do with crowning a more legitimate national champion. And that's fine, but they need to be honest in their arguments.