Wednesday, November 4, 2009

SarcasMike NCAA Football playoff 2009 version 1

I think we're finally far along enough in the season to track teams in my hypothetical NCAA Football playoff.

Here are the ground rules:

  • All 11 conference champs make the 16 team field.
  • The remaining at-large teams are selected based on BCS ranking.
  • Notre Dame (or any independent) makes the field if they have a BCS ranking of 20 or better.
  • No intra-conference match-ups in the opening round
  • First two rounds are held at campus sites
  • Only conference champs can host an opening round match-up

Here's the playoff potential for this week:

16 Troy @ 1 Florida

9LSU @ 8 Oregon

12 USC @ 5 Cincinnati

13 Pittsburgh @ 4 Iowa

3 Alabama @ 14 Houston

11 Penn St @ 6 TCU

10 Georgia Tech @ 7 Boise St

15 CMU @ 2 Texas

14 of the top 16 BCS ranked teams make this playoff. Only CMU and Troy are not in the top 16 of the BCS. Utah and Ohio State are the two teams that would have their bubbles burst. I don't have any issues with them being left out. Notre Dame is currently ranked 22. So they may be knocking someone else out in the future.

Alabama is the only higher seed playing on the road. They'll make their case to be at home if they make it to the SEC championship game.

I think the majority of these games would have relatively close point spreads. Only the top 2 seeds would likely be large favorites.

9 comments:

  1. 3 Alabama @ 14 Houston...

    is stupid. You are punsishing the #13 to #9 teams by not giving them a home game. I like the idea of only conf champs getting home games, but maybe you could reseed so conference champs are on top, and then fill in the rest with non-champs. Just an idea to throw some reason into your system.

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  2. so if your Alabama would you rather play @ 14 Houston or 8 Oregon? Reseeding them to 9th (or 12th?) is double punishment, they play on the road AND they face a tougher opponent, that doesn't make sense.

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  3. It makes more sense than rewarding #14 with a home field, even though they aren't even one of the top 8 conference champs. With your system, a team that isn't even in the top half of the NCAA could host the #2 team. Yikes.

    Your real problem is giving autobids to all conferences, but that is the only reason to have 16 teams in the first place. And 16 is more fun than 8.

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  4. No, the real problem is your only conference champs get home field in the first round. That is what makes no sense. I know you like it because it is fun, but it doesn't make sense unless you are going to truly punish non champs. So, does it matter if you are conference champs or not? Depends on the seed in Mike's tourney.

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  5. Exactly, I think it SHOULD matter that you win your conference. That's what college football used to be about. This format makes that important again. Not only from a perspective of OSU and Utah losing spots to CMU and Troy, but also being forced to play on the road in the first round.
    There is still incentive to be the best at-large team you can be (just to get in, to face a weaker opponent)
    There is a randomness to it, certainly moreso from whioh low seeded conference champ gets to host. But I still think it is better than the alternatives you've given.

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  6. The other problem you've got is you are giving Conference USA (with 6 teams) the same benefit that the SEC (with 12 teams or so) gets for winning the conference. Should they really be equal (based on number of teams, not quality)? Really.

    Face is, your system will not be adopted by the NCAA because it isn't logical. That's the ONLY reason.

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  7. The NCAA treats them as equals right now in all their sponsored championships. Take the NCAA basketball tournament for instance, The ACC champ gets an automatic bid and so does the Patriot League champ.
    The NCAA does not sponser a championship for FBS college football, I don;t thin you can know what they would or wouldn't accept.

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  8. But the autobids only represent a fraction of the basketball field. In football, autobids would be 70% of the teams in the tourney. I could see a few MAC teams and a few WAC teams getting together to form a 6 team league to get an autobid. We would call that league the Sarcasm0i5ke Conference.

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  9. but in this case only 2 of the teams wouldn't be in a 16 team tournament anyway. Strawman...

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