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College Football Bowls and Playoffs

madinsomniac said:
Eh Bama was a 3 loss team that won a CFP game, that was probably the expectation... you break a tv when the ******* 94 chargers upset the Steelers... or the 01 pats take out the steelers on a punt return... or the 92-93 Pens...

Lol thats the response for when you get upset unexpectedly... i dont think this Bama squad was that kind of team
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92-93 Penguins loss was just a kick in the balls. Sick to my stomach for weeks afterwards. That was probably the best team in franchise history.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
But with the bowls, BOTH teams were idle for that long. Now you have 1 team idle for almost a month and the opponent is coming off a playoff win. If you watched the playoffs last year, this was noticeable on the field as each bye team looked awful in the first half.

Here are the first quarter and halftime scores of last year's round 2 games. The Bye team is the second team struggling early.

Penn State 14 Boise St 0 17-7
Ohio State 14 Oregon 0 34-8
Texas 14 Arizona State 3 17-3
Notre Dame 0 Georgia 0 13-3

Maybe the Bye teams saw this trend and have done more full contact to try to compensate, but the sluggish early play was very noticeable last year.

There's a reason why NFL teams who clinch a playoff early may rest players in the last week but they don't rest them for multiple weeks.
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Just adding this year's results. First quarter and halftime scores. Bye team listed second

Miami 0 Ohio State 0 14-0
Bama 0 Indiana 0 0-17
Ole Miss 6 Georgia 0 13-21
Oregon 3 Texas Tech 0 6-0

All 4 Bye teams scored 0 points in the 1st quarter. Indiana and Georgia were the only 2 teams to turn in on before the half.

The record of Bye teams is now 1-7

This is no longer a fluke and a matter of bad seeding. This is an established fact that any team sitting idle for 25+ days and playing a team who just played the week before is an unfair, nearly insurmountable disadvantage.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Just adding this year's results. First quarter and halftime scores. Bye team listed second

Miami 0 Ohio State 0 14-0I
Bama 0 Indiana 0 0-17
Ole Miss 6 Georgia 0 13-21
Oregon 3 Texas Tech 0 6-0

All 4 Bye teams scored 0 points in the 1st quarter. Indiana and Georgia were the only 2 teams to turn in on before the half.

The record of Bye teams is now 1-7

This is no longer a fluke and a matter of bad seeding. This is an established fact that any team sitting idle for 25+ days and playing a team who just played the week before is an unfair, nearly insurmountable disadvantage.
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I am all for replaying the Bama vs Ind game to substantiate your findings ........
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Just adding this year's results. First quarter and halftime scores. Bye team listed second

Miami 0 Ohio State 0 14-0
Bama 0 Indiana 0 0-17
Ole Miss 6 Georgia 0 13-21
Oregon 3 Texas Tech 0 6-0

All 4 Bye teams scored 0 points in the 1st quarter. Indiana and Georgia were the only 2 teams to turn in on before the half.

The record of Bye teams is now 1-7

This is no longer a fluke and a matter of bad seeding. This is an established fact that any team sitting idle for 25+ days and playing a team who just played the week before is an unfair, nearly insurmountable disadvantage.
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The favorites in those games are 6-2. Nothing to do with the bye, everything to do with the poor seedings/rankings. Penn St. was a 10-pt favorite over Boise last year, are you saying it was the bye that doomed Boise St? Reverse the seeds and PSU rolls them still.

You're pounding a narrative that isn't based in reality.
 
WindyCitySteel said:
The favorites in those games are 6-2. Nothing to do with the bye, everything to do with the poor seedings/rankings. Penn St. was a 10-pt favorite over Boise last year, are you saying it was the bye that doomed Boise St? Reverse the seeds and PSU rolls them still.

You're pounding a narrative that isn't based in reality.
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It doesn't change the point that they need to play home games through the finals and condense the postseason so it ends at the start of January.
 
WindyCitySteel said:
The favorites in those games are 6-2. Nothing to do with the bye, everything to do with the poor seedings/rankings. Penn St. was a 10-pt favorite over Boise last year, are you saying it was the bye that doomed Boise St? Reverse the seeds and PSU rolls them still.

You're pounding a narrative that isn't based in reality.
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So you're saying you actually watched those games and the Bye teams all looked sharp from opening kickoff?
 
WindyCitySteel said:
Does every team, every week look sharp from the opening kickoff during the season? Why not?

Correlation <> Causation.
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This is clearly a unique situation where one team is idle for 25+ days and the opponent is coming off a game the previous week. In this situation, 7 teams have been shutout and 1 has managed a FG in the 1st quarter. The Bye team has scored a grand total of 3 points in the 1st quarter of 8 games. You are free to ignore the obvious if you wish.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
This is clearly a unique situation where one team is idle for 25+ days and the opponent is coming off a game the previous week. In this situation, 7 teams have been shutout and 1 has managed a FG in the 1st quarter. The Bye team has scored a grand total of 3 points in the 1st quarter of 8 games. You are free to ignore the obvious if you wish.
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Do you have the first-quarter stats of the first round games?
 
SteelerFan448 said:
Do you have the first-quarter stats of the first round games?
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2024 First round - Home team listed second
Indiana 0 Notre Dame 7
SMU 0 Penn State 7
Clemson 7 Texas 7
Tennessee 0 Ohio State 21

2025 First round - Home team listed second
Bama 0 Oklahoma 10
JMU 3 Oregon 13
Tulane 0 Ole Miss 14
Miami 0 Texas A&M 0

Plenty of scoring in the first round both years. The home teams obviously have the advantage of hosting the game. You're suppose to earn an advantage, not a disadvantage.

What we see here is in round 1, the home team, which is the higher seed and likely better team, takes advantage of home field for a fast start. In round 2, we see the opposite. The higher seed who earned the bye, starts off ice cold.

It's a problem. Especially because the weakest teams get eliminated in round 1 so there's no cupcake in round 2 (not in 2025 anyway). A slow start can be a killer. I think the bye is a major reason why Ohio State lost.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
2024 First round - Home team listed second
Indiana 0 Notre Dame 7
SMU 0 Penn State 7
Clemson 7 Texas 7
Tennessee 0 Ohio State 21

2025 First round - Home team listed second
Bama 0 Oklahoma 10
JMU 3 Oregon 13
Tulane 0 Ole Miss 14
Miami 0 Texas A&M 0

Plenty of scoring in the first round both years. The home teams obviously have the advantage of hosting the game. You're suppose to earn an advantage, not a disadvantage.

What we see here is in round 1, the home team, which is the higher seed and likely better team, takes advantage of home field for a fast start. In round 2, we see the opposite. The higher seed who earned the bye, starts off ice cold.

It's a problem. Especially because the weakest teams get eliminated in round 1 so there's no cupcake in round 2 (not in 2025 anyway). A slow start can be a killer. I think the bye is a major reason why Ohio State lost.
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Assuming the higher seeds are the "better teams" points to a comical misunderstanding of how the seeds were given out. You can't possibly think Boise St. was the better team than Penn St last year.
 
madinsomniac said:
The obvious thing is to play the first round the week after the seasons end.. then all the teams play on greater than two weeks rest
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There is a 2-week break between conference championship games and the first round of the playoffs (3 weeks off if a team doesn't make it to the conference championship game but makes the playoffs).
 
madinsomniac said:
The obvious thing is to play the first round the week after the seasons end.. then all the teams play on greater than two weeks rest
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Get rid of the conference championships and start the playoffs the 1st or 2nd weekend in December, end on Jan 1. Problem is all the money lost by the CC and Jan 1 bowls.

Money rules.
 
WindyCitySteel said:
Get rid of the conference championships and start the playoffs the 1st or 2nd weekend in December, end on Jan 1. Problem is all the money lost by the CC and Jan 1 bowls.

Money rules.
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Adding more playoff teams (16 or even 24) and opening up bidding to have playoff games on multiple networks would more than makeup for any TV deal impact of conference championship games.
 
WindyCitySteel said:
Assuming the higher seeds are the "better teams" points to a comical misunderstanding of how the seeds were given out. You can't possibly think Boise St. was the better team than Penn St last year.
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The seeding was dumb in 24 and that's why nobody noticed the Bye disadvantage. Penn State was supposed to beat Boise. Texas over ASU, ND over Georgia minus their starting QB, and OSU over Tenn was not a surprise to most either. Of course Penn State was better than boise but Boise got jumped in that first quater and had zero chance to compete the rest of the way.

They changed the seeding for this year's playoff, so Yes, in 25, the top 4 seeds were rated as better than their opponents. Point spreads are about public perception to get even money bet on both sides.

I'd bet the playoff changes again and the bye will be a hot topic.
 
SteelerFan448 said:
Adding more playoff teams (16 or even 24) and opening up bidding to have playoff games on multiple networks would more than makeup for any TV deal impact of conference championship games.
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I'm in favor of 16 teams for logistical reasons. It gets rid of the Bye and clears the path for multiple rounds of on campus games. They can't go to 24 because that would make the regular season nearly meaningless.

Everybody loves the NCAA basketball tournament but the dirty secret is that it makes the regular season a snooze. We're already at a point where 3 loss teams get into a 12 team playoff. I don't want 4 loss teams in a playoff.
 
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