Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2024 3:52:46 GMT -5
College football is about to get something totally right.
I’m hardly Charlie Cheerleader, and I’ll light up the flame-thrower when college football gets something wrong - they screwed up this NIL thing and the transfer portal something fierce - but these kids nailed it with the new expanded College Football Playoff.
Seriously, have you really digested what this is about to do and what it’s going to be?
No, you haven't, and I really don’t think the sports media types - especially those covering college football - have fully grasped just how much rocket fuel is about to be poured on to this sport.
For those who aren't familiar with this, what is the expanded College Football Playoff going to be? 12 teams, the top four conference champions get a bye, the first round is at the home sites of the higher-seeded teams, and then the bowls take over with the bigger ones getting the quarterfinals, semifinals, and national championship.
Now, while I do think tweaks have to be made to the new CFP - one word: RESEEDING - let’s dismiss with the myths and lazy hot take talking points you're about to endure.
“The expanded College Football Playoff will diminish the regular season.”
It’ll have the totally opposite effect.
Last Saturday night Duke and North Carolina played a college basketball game. You might have watched it. Maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter.
Two top seven teams, prime slot game, the stadium vibe was insane, the two fan bases were out of their minds, social media was buzzing, and it all meant absolutely nothing. And why?
Unlike games between teams fighting to get into the college basketball post-season, regular season games between top teams don’t matter - and stop with the seeding argument; last year we got a 4, two 5s and a 9 in the Final Four, and the NCAA Tournament was great.
It’s still football. There are still just 12 regular season games, and as the last ten years of College Football Playoff rankings have shown, there’s no way you’re getting an at-large bid without going at least 10-2.
And the conference championship games will be massive.
The playoff in college football really starts in early December, because the top five ranked conference champions get an automatic bid. FINALLY, there’s an aspect to the playoff that gets taken out of the hands of the judges - win your Power 4 conference, get in.
It's still going to be the best regular season in all of American sports.
“Rivalry games won’t mean as much.”
That Duke-North Carolina basketball game - no, it didn’t matter when it comes to the entirety of the season, but ask Blue Devil and Tar Heel fans on Saturday night what that game meant to their weekend.
If you’ll allow me to be even more condescending than normal, anyone who suggests the importance of a Michigan vs Ohio State football game could ever be lessened should be mocked and ridiculed for their ignorance.
“12 teams … that’s too many. Now the playoff in college football will be just like all the other sports.”
9%. That’s how many college football teams will make the playoff.
Close to 20% of college basketball teams make the NCAA Tournament, 44% of NFL teams get into the post-season, and you have to actually try to not make the playoffs in the NBA, NHL, or MLB with over half the teams getting in.
“The expanded playoff will kill the bowls.”
1) And? 2) Nah.
The lesser Wednesday afternoon bowls in mid-December between MAC school X and Conference USA team Y will still roll.
There will be the minor bowls, the big ones for the CFP, and yeah, there will be an abyss of a midsection with everyone transferring out, changing jobs, etc., but that's happening anyway.
But overall, here’s what everyone is failing to grasp.
No, the expanded College Football Playoff won’t be March Madness - that’s a three-week fun-fest with nothing else going on in the world - and the CFP will still be in the shadow of the NFL.
However, again, the conference championships will be even bigger than they are now, the two week chatting between the end of the regular season and first round of the expanded College Football Playoff will be loud, and then …
Boom.
Seriously, if this doesn’t do it for you, I can't help …
December 20th: First Round College Football Playoff game … on campus
December 21st: Smörgåsbord Saturday - three on campus College Football Playoff games
December 22nd: Week 16 NFL - the most important Sunday of the season for both the league and fantasy implications
December 23rd: A Monday Night Football NFL matchup that will almost certainly be among the most watched TV events of the year
And you’re hopefully going to be off work for most of that week - if not all of it - and the holidays will be happening.
It’ll all flow into more bowls and Week 17 of the NFL before the College Football Playoff Quarterfinals kick in, with the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday, December 31st rolling into three more quarterfinal games on New Year’s Day.
And THEN the CFP semis are eight days later, and then …
Fine, so here's the problem. A College Football Playoff National Championship on January 20th is WAY too late - this thing will lose steam and the NFL will fully take over - but that’s all of December and most of January with a buzz around college football like never before.
And now back to lawsuits, and conference payout discrepancy, and the latest transfers, and …
collegefootballnews.com/news/college-football-playoff-will-be-huge-daily-cavalcade
I’m hardly Charlie Cheerleader, and I’ll light up the flame-thrower when college football gets something wrong - they screwed up this NIL thing and the transfer portal something fierce - but these kids nailed it with the new expanded College Football Playoff.
Seriously, have you really digested what this is about to do and what it’s going to be?
No, you haven't, and I really don’t think the sports media types - especially those covering college football - have fully grasped just how much rocket fuel is about to be poured on to this sport.
For those who aren't familiar with this, what is the expanded College Football Playoff going to be? 12 teams, the top four conference champions get a bye, the first round is at the home sites of the higher-seeded teams, and then the bowls take over with the bigger ones getting the quarterfinals, semifinals, and national championship.
Now, while I do think tweaks have to be made to the new CFP - one word: RESEEDING - let’s dismiss with the myths and lazy hot take talking points you're about to endure.
“The expanded College Football Playoff will diminish the regular season.”
It’ll have the totally opposite effect.
Last Saturday night Duke and North Carolina played a college basketball game. You might have watched it. Maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter.
Two top seven teams, prime slot game, the stadium vibe was insane, the two fan bases were out of their minds, social media was buzzing, and it all meant absolutely nothing. And why?
Unlike games between teams fighting to get into the college basketball post-season, regular season games between top teams don’t matter - and stop with the seeding argument; last year we got a 4, two 5s and a 9 in the Final Four, and the NCAA Tournament was great.
It’s still football. There are still just 12 regular season games, and as the last ten years of College Football Playoff rankings have shown, there’s no way you’re getting an at-large bid without going at least 10-2.
And the conference championship games will be massive.
The playoff in college football really starts in early December, because the top five ranked conference champions get an automatic bid. FINALLY, there’s an aspect to the playoff that gets taken out of the hands of the judges - win your Power 4 conference, get in.
It's still going to be the best regular season in all of American sports.
“Rivalry games won’t mean as much.”
That Duke-North Carolina basketball game - no, it didn’t matter when it comes to the entirety of the season, but ask Blue Devil and Tar Heel fans on Saturday night what that game meant to their weekend.
If you’ll allow me to be even more condescending than normal, anyone who suggests the importance of a Michigan vs Ohio State football game could ever be lessened should be mocked and ridiculed for their ignorance.
“12 teams … that’s too many. Now the playoff in college football will be just like all the other sports.”
9%. That’s how many college football teams will make the playoff.
Close to 20% of college basketball teams make the NCAA Tournament, 44% of NFL teams get into the post-season, and you have to actually try to not make the playoffs in the NBA, NHL, or MLB with over half the teams getting in.
“The expanded playoff will kill the bowls.”
1) And? 2) Nah.
The lesser Wednesday afternoon bowls in mid-December between MAC school X and Conference USA team Y will still roll.
There will be the minor bowls, the big ones for the CFP, and yeah, there will be an abyss of a midsection with everyone transferring out, changing jobs, etc., but that's happening anyway.
But overall, here’s what everyone is failing to grasp.
No, the expanded College Football Playoff won’t be March Madness - that’s a three-week fun-fest with nothing else going on in the world - and the CFP will still be in the shadow of the NFL.
However, again, the conference championships will be even bigger than they are now, the two week chatting between the end of the regular season and first round of the expanded College Football Playoff will be loud, and then …
Boom.
Seriously, if this doesn’t do it for you, I can't help …
December 20th: First Round College Football Playoff game … on campus
December 21st: Smörgåsbord Saturday - three on campus College Football Playoff games
December 22nd: Week 16 NFL - the most important Sunday of the season for both the league and fantasy implications
December 23rd: A Monday Night Football NFL matchup that will almost certainly be among the most watched TV events of the year
And you’re hopefully going to be off work for most of that week - if not all of it - and the holidays will be happening.
It’ll all flow into more bowls and Week 17 of the NFL before the College Football Playoff Quarterfinals kick in, with the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday, December 31st rolling into three more quarterfinal games on New Year’s Day.
And THEN the CFP semis are eight days later, and then …
Fine, so here's the problem. A College Football Playoff National Championship on January 20th is WAY too late - this thing will lose steam and the NFL will fully take over - but that’s all of December and most of January with a buzz around college football like never before.
And now back to lawsuits, and conference payout discrepancy, and the latest transfers, and …
collegefootballnews.com/news/college-football-playoff-will-be-huge-daily-cavalcade