Matt Millen said

[Bucky Dog]

You can't penalize OSU necessarily for the VT loss because if they were to play them again, they would maul them!! What an idiot! You can say that about a lot of games or teams. You can't assume what would have happened or should have happened, it's only whether you win or lose the damn dame win you play them. This playoff system is flawed simply because you allow subjectivity into the decisions. Mood or bad the BCS was designed to take that part out.
Let's play OM again and make it in Starkville and I bet we win so we should be 11-1! Does that get us in the playoff??

[msstate7]

Today we'll find out what carries more weight: good win or bad loss.

Tcu has the best loss (Baylor), but only has 1 top 25 win (ksu)

Baylor lost to WV (7-5) and beat 2 top 25 teams (tcu and ksu).

Ohio state lost to VT (6-6) and beat 2 top 25 teams (mich st and Wiscon)

[Smitty]

Matt Millen was the GM of a winless NFL team.

Surely if they played those games again he would win one!!!11!!!1!1!11

[Smitty]

Top 25 doesn't mean anything msstate...

[msstate7]

Top 25 doesn't mean anything msstate...

Ok...

Baylor has a win over a top 10 team

Ohio state has a top 10 win

Tcu has a top 10 loss

[Smitty]

Body. Of. Work.

Bad losses should be a huge punishment. You are SUPPOSED to win if you want to be considered a top 4 team.

[msstate7]

Body. Of. Work.

Bad losses should be a huge punishment. You are SUPPOSED to win if you want to be considered a top 4 team.

I'm not advocating any team to be in or not. Simply put... State won't make it so I don't care.

I will say this though... There will only be top 10 teams in the playoffs though so it stands to reason what you did against top 10 teams matters. Tcu lost to a top 10 team. Ohio state and Baylor beat one.

Again though I don't care

[Bucky Dog]

What we are doing is the problem. It all becomes too subjective, and emotional and the "what if's" come into play. It should be the teams that had the best body of work in this scenario. If not then make it an 8 team playoff like the pros. Winner of top 5 conferences get in and 3 wild cards. No conference championship games.

[CJDAWG85]

I'm tired of this "if" crap... Ohio St. lost the game. Can't do anything about it now. If they put them in over either of the Big12 schools, it's highway robbery.

[BulldogBear]

This is and only this is where conference champs should come into play. When comparing Baylor and TCU there should really be no comparison, especially because Baylor won head to head. And TCU can get a cute little trophy and ring (pay attention Ole Miss) but if you lose the tiebreaker, you didn't really win crap. A tie breaker breaks the tie. Therefore there really is no tie. The idea of co-champions is an old old old way of thinking that goes way back. There's really no such thing. Honestly, I would have TCU out and only really be asking myself if my ballot had Ohio State (boo) or Baylor. Both have a "bad" loss but Ohio State's is worse. Perhaps Ohio State has a better eye test, but also The Big 12 is slightly tougher than B1G. I can't decide, but it doesn't matter I'm not on the committee. TCU should only get in if Baylor does too and that ain't happening. If TCU gets in it flies in the face of head to head competition on the field which should be the ultimate tiebreaker in anything. TCU, if you want to be considered better than Baylor and the only criteria left when all other things are more or less equal is head to head, then you need to prove you are better than Baylor by BEATING them. You, TCU had a chance that Oregon, Bama, Ohio State, and Florida State did not have and that's an actual game with one of the other contenders. If TCU gets in, why the 17 do we even have a regular season. Let's just have a tourney with all teams and start in early October after playing a few warmup games****

[CadaverDawg]

What we are doing is the problem. It all becomes too subjective, and emotional and the "what if's" come into play. It should be the teams that had the best body of work in this scenario. If not then make it an 8 team playoff like the pros. Winner of top 5 conferences get in and 3 wild cards. No conference championship games.

I agree about your subjectivity comments....but I disagree about putting all 5 conference winners in the 8 team playoff automatically. I don't think you should get an automatic bid to a playoff just because you win a shitty conference. Say everything was the same this year and it was an 8 team playoff, but imagine that FSU won the ACC with 3 losses. Do they deserve to be in that playoff? Heck no. I hate the "auto bid" argument. Do you want to see the best 8 teams in the country battle it out for the Title, or not? You aren't getting the best 8 teams if you have auto bids, so we might as well go back to the old Bowl System if we're going to guarantee that a 8-4 winner of the ACC gets in, for example.

But I agree that computers need to rank the teams, not subjective humans.

[HoopsDawg]

How is Matt Millen on ESPN? How does he have a forum to speak. My mom knows more about sports.

[MabenMaroon]

Matt Millen is not on the playoff committee.

[TUSK]

I think it would be most fair if we eliminated all subjectivity and inequitable comparisons, and focused on completely "objective" metrics...

Under my plan, the 2014 bracket would look like this:

#1 Air Force would play #4 UAB*
#2 Akron would play #3 Alabama

*would be replaced by Appalachian State in 2015.

[blacklistedbully]

I agree about your subjectivity comments....but I disagree about putting all 5 conference winners in the 8 team playoff automatically. I don't think you should get an automatic bid to a playoff just because you win a shitty conference. Say everything was the same this year and it was an 8 team playoff, but imagine that FSU won the ACC with 3 losses. Do they deserve to be in that playoff? Heck no. I hate the "auto bid" argument. Do you want to see the best 8 teams in the country battle it out for the Title, or not? You aren't getting the best 8 teams if you have auto bids, so we might as well go back to the old Bowl System if we're going to guarantee that a 8-4 winner of the ACC gets in, for example.

But I agree that computers need to rank the teams, not subjective humans.

CD, I think the idea is, though an 8-team P5 auto-qualifier could result in your scenario, it's far more likely to include a team that deserves to be there, like a 2-loss SEC team. And in those cases where an undeserving P5 Champ gets in, they should get exposed in the playoff, resulting in just one of eight spots being occupied.

Keep in mind, the purpose of an 8-team playoff isn't really to reward 8 deserving teams, it's simply to more accurately attempt to include the 2 best teams in the playoff. Any team that gets left out of an 8-team format because the spot was given to a P5 Champ is going to be far enough away from the likely top 2 as to make their exclusion less of an issue than the possibility of a more deserving P5 Champ getting screwed because their conference was so much more challenging than others.

The problem with 4, as we are all seeing, is somebody is going to get left out that can make a very well reasoned case for being close enough to the top 2 that they deserve to be in a playoff. By the time we get down to the 8th spot, we're, more-often-than-not, looking at a team that can make a case for being in the Top 4, but not the top 2.

It's all about the final 2.

[Smitty]

8 team playoff would rightly eliminate the conference championship games

[CadaverDawg]

CD, I think the idea is, though an 8-team P5 auto-qualifier could result in your scenario, it's far more likely to include a team that deserves to be there, like a 2-loss SEC team. And in those cases where an undeserving P5 Champ gets in, they should get exposed in the playoff, resulting in just one of eight spots being occupied.

Keep in mind, the purpose of an 8-team playoff isn't really to reward 8 deserving teams, it's simply to more accurately attempt to include the 2 best teams in the playoff. Any team that gets left out of an 8-team format because the spot was given to a P5 Champ is going to be far enough away from the likely top 2 as to make their exclusion less of an issue than the possibility of a more deserving P5 Champ getting screwed because their conference was so much more challenging than others.

The problem with 4, as we are all seeing, is somebody is going to get left out that can make a very well reasoned case for being close enough to the top 2 that they deserve to be in a playoff. By the time we get down to the 8th spot, we're, more-often-than-not, looking at a team that can make a case for being in the Top 4, but not the top 2.

It's all about the final 2.

What? So you're telling me that having auto bids would more frequently end up wi a deserving second SEC team, than an 8 team playoff without auto bids? No it wouldn't.

Look, what we need is the best teams in the playoff. I don't give a shit if it's a 4 team, 8 team, 16 team, 32, or 64 team playoff....I want the best teams in the playoffs. If there is a 8 team playoff, and you are giving auto bids to conference winners in the P5....when you have a Georgia Tech win the ACC in a game like last night, they don't deserve to be in the playoff. FSU just deserves to be out of it. I want the best 4 teams in the playoff this year, and if you are putting weight on a conference Championship, you aren't guaranteeing me the best 4 teams...period.

If you go to 8 teams next year, and we end up with a 4 loss Missouri upsetting an undefeated Bama in the SEC Championship....that doesn't mean Mizzou should be in the playoff with 4 losses. Auto bids are a weak way of being politically correct and giving everyone a shot whether they deserve it or not.

If your goal is not to put the best teams in the playoff and get a true champion, we should just go back to the old bowl system and give damn near everyone a trophy, because we aren't getting a true winner if we include Marshall and Georgia Southern in a playoff because they won a shitastic conference. Follow me?

[blacklistedbully]

What? So you're telling me that having auto bids would more frequently end up wi a deserving second SEC team, than an 8 team playoff without auto bids? No it wouldn't.

Look, what we need is the best teams in the playoff. I don't give a shit if it's a 4 team, 8 team, 16 team, 32, or 64 team playoff....I want the best teams in the playoffs. If there is a 8 team playoff, and you are giving auto bids to conference winners in the P5....when you have a Georgia Tech win the ACC in a game like last night, they don't deserve to be in the playoff. FSU just deserves to be out of it. I want the best 4 teams in the playoff this year, and if you are putting weight on a conference Championship, you aren't guaranteeing me the best 4 teams...period.

If you go to 8 teams next year, and we end up with a 4 loss Missouri upsetting an undefeated Bama in the SEC Championship....that doesn't mean Mizzou should be in the playoff with 4 losses. Auto bids are a weak way of being politically correct and giving everyone a shot whether they deserve it or not.

If your goal is not to put the best teams in the playoff and get a true champion, we should just go back to the old bowl system and give damn near everyone a trophy, because we aren't getting a true winner if we include Marshall and Georgia Southern in a playoff because they won a shitastic conference. Follow me?

I follow you, I just disagree with you. I think you are losing sight of the true and only real purpose - to have a better chance of getting to the 2 best teams in a CG. Keep in mind, this was all to replace a system that was only about picking the Top 2. It came about, not because people were clamoring for more games, etc, but because people were frustrated that the 2-team system easily left out teams that could make a legit claim.

Fans wanted a CG game that more convincingly increased the odds we were, in fact, getting the 2 most deserving teams. At 4 teams, we still have controvery. At 8 teams, even with auto P qualifiers, you're in pretty damned good shape.

Think about it. If you reward every P5 conference champ, odds are already high you have the 2 best in there somewhere. But we also know there's a good chance either a 2nd place team in a conference (let's say SEC for sake of argument) is the 2nd best in the nation as well, or perhaps practically as good as the #1 ora non-P5 team is that. Having 3 open spots after rewarding the P5 Champs should be enough to get legitimate Top 2 contenders in a position to "prove it".

CD, at the core, we will never agree on this point as long as you believe the playoffs are more about "rewarding the top 8 with a playoff", instead of believing, as I do, that it's really just about "coming up with the best chance of getting the actual 2 best teams in a NCG".

We can respectfully disagree on this point. To each his own.

[mcain31]

What? So you're telling me that having auto bids would more frequently end up wi a deserving second SEC team, than an 8 team playoff without auto bids? No it wouldn't.

Look, what we need is the best teams in the playoff. I don't give a shit if it's a 4 team, 8 team, 16 team, 32, or 64 team playoff....I want the best teams in the playoffs. If there is a 8 team playoff, and you are giving auto bids to conference winners in the P5....when you have a Georgia Tech win the ACC in a game like last night, they don't deserve to be in the playoff. FSU just deserves to be out of it. I want the best 4 teams in the playoff this year, and if you are putting weight on a conference Championship, you aren't guaranteeing me the best 4 teams...period.

If you go to 8 teams next year, and we end up with a 4 loss Missouri upsetting an undefeated Bama in the SEC Championship....that doesn't mean Mizzou should be in the playoff with 4 losses. Auto bids are a weak way of being politically correct and giving everyone a shot whether they deserve it or not.

If your goal is not to put the best teams in the playoff and get a true champion, we should just go back to the old bowl system and give damn near everyone a trophy, because we aren't getting a true winner if we include Marshall and Georgia Southern in a playoff because they won a shitastic conference. Follow me?

I disagree about saying that FSU should be out of it. They are undefeated and did try to play a tough OOC schedule. They couldn't have possibly known that Ok St, ND, UF would turn out to be so bad.