Post by ochobeavo on Jan 9, 2018 7:42:40 GMT -8
I don’t think #9 would have a leg to stand on, but 8 teams (IMO) is the only thing that makes sense. How can you say that if a conference is deemed worthy of “equal status” with the other 4, that their champion shouldn’t automatically deserve a spot in the playoff - even when the conference has what’s perceived as a down year? They play virtually no common opponents with other conference members as very few teams in the conversation find much value in scheduling solid opponents from other Power 5 conferences in their OOC schedules.
Lame excuses like “it would trivialize the regular season” are just justification from greedy bowl reprentatives and the NCAA. They have little interest in what we want, it’s all about the benjamins. I consider any argument that suggests that a system that always leaves out at least one conference champion from the playoff as not worth my energy to debate. It’s just wrong. The system is incredibly subjective, and such a joke given the love affair that exists for all things SEC. Even knowing that we have an all SEC final and the fact that the PAC 12 was horrible in bowl games doesn’t change my opinion an iota. The way the SEC did in almost every other bowl game shows that it wasn’t a deep conference - so how tough was the road they traveled to get there?
Unless we want them to rate worthiness of each conference on a yearly basis, when you are judged as competitively equal - which they claim that the Power 5 are - the champion of all 5 deserve a spot. Period.
I have an issue with Alabama being in it for reasons similar to those you point out above. They were not the champion of their conference. I would also argue that a team should not receive an advantage due to their lack of presence in the title game. Alabama avoided their conference's title game and by doing so were able to rest and prepare players an extra week that was not available to the other teams in the playoff.
As this game will represent the kind of offensive football that would make the Flying Wedge seem inventive by comparison, I'm not watching a down of it. I remember the last all-SEC final, easily the worst one played in this BCS/playoff era.
I'm a fan of an 8-team playoff myself. Only problem is that unless you make the P5 champions automatic entrants, it will end up getting stacked with Big 10/SEC teams to the exclusion of more worthy teams in other conferences.