A View from Big Ben: Playoffs and Marino and the QUEEN

#1

London Vol

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#1
PLAYOFF EXPANSION
I was personally delighted to read this week that the are now concrete plans to increase the playoffs from the current 4 teams to 12 in 2026 with the aim to bring this forward by maybe two years to 2024.

The current system does not work I believe, here we are in week two and there is a strong possibility that Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia will occupy 3 of the 4 places with only a few other blue bloods fighting for the last place, how can that be good for the game? Under that structure the best players will be drawn to these few, thus it becomes effectively a closed shop. Now that 12 places will be available this will give something like 20 teams with a realistic chance to get one of the 12 golden tickets.

Then what about the matches? in the last few years particularly the semi finals have been quite frankly boring blow outs. Now look what match ups we would have had last year

Ole Miss v Oklahoma State bye Alabama

Georgia v Pittsburgh bye Baylor

Notre Dame v Utah bye Cincinnati

Ohio State v Michigan State bye Michigan

Now, there are some mouth-watering match ups would you not agree and many of the matchups would be ultra-competitive which after all is what all fans wish to see (less cupcake games please). The other advantage is that a team can get “hot” later in the season after a slow start and the odd loss then come right through to win it all.

Lastly whether you wish to ignore it or not College football is big bucks and just imagine the additional revenue from match day tickets and TV rights the above matches will bring in. I’m amazed it has taken the Universities this long to see it

MARINO
As some of you will know, my daughter Marino is now very interested in The Vols and she has decided to set up a blog at www.aviewfrombigben.com .Her aim is to try to introduce English, American Football fans, whom there many who follow the NFL, to also follow College Football and specifically Tennessee. She has also asked me to contribute to the blog, which of course I will be delighted to do so. But I still plan to continue to post here at Volnation which has brought me such happiness over the last thirteen years

QUEEN
Very sad to hear the news of our beloved Queen who died today.

A true monarch who took on the role that she was born into as a life of service. My admiration is even more by the way she always avoided taking sides (take notice some of the younger royals) believing that her job was to represent everybody.

GOD BLESS YOU MA`AM



Now, let’s go and beat Pitt !!

We look forward to reading your comments.


GO VOLS
 
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#3
#3
Just means the SEC will get more teams in and dominate the playoffs and make the national sports media hate the SEC even more, ha ha.
As a fan of a non-SEC team.... I'm ok with that. Like March Madness, every conference gets a shot... that's all anyone could ask. Win your league, and if you're one of the Top 6 conf champs, you're in. If the SEC gets 3 or 4 teams every year, and they earned the spot, then good for them.
 
#4
#4
Disagree with pretty much every point you made. Four teams is two too many. Hell, I’d rather go back to polls deciding than a tournament in which there isn’t even a series (understandable that won’t work) for each matchup. Doesn’t actually prove a damn thing, and the regular season will mean far less than it ever has.

I foresee a significant lowering of my college football give a damn meter when this begins. College football is the only athletic competition I pay attention to, and that’s primarily because of the importance of the season and lack of a tournament.
 
#5
#5
I remember having discussions about a college football playoff several years before it was implemented. I’m sorry to go back and point out I was right, but I was.

So many claimed the 4 team playoff would solve the issues that the polls and bowls created. I said it would make it worse, because more teams could claim to be unfairly excluded from a playoff and the inevitable end was a constantly expanding playoff. Here we are.
 
#8
#8
Very sad to hear the news of our beloved Queen who died today.

A true monarch who took on the role that she was born into as a life of service. My admiration is even more by the way she always avoided taking sides (take notice some of the younger royals) believing that her job was to represent everybody.

GOD BLESS YOU MA`AM
 
#12
#12
For the 2021 season, it would have been simply a combination of the playoff and New Year’s Six teams.

2021 playoff teams: AL, GA, Mich, Cincy
2021 New Year’s Six teams: Mich St, Pitt, OK St, ND, OSU, Utah, Baylor, Ole Miss

Conference representatives in 2021 are noted below. Still only 2 of 12 teams from outside the Power 5.
SEC: 3 (AL, GA, Ole Miss)
Big X: 3 (Mich, Mich St, OSU)
Big XII: 2 (Ok St, Baylor)
PAC XII: 1 (Utah)
ACC: 1 (Pitt)
AAC: 1 (Cincy)
Independent: 1 (ND)

This will be the typical process except for an occasional surprise conference champ. Last season, Pitt (playoff ranking 12) was the lowest ranked conference champ and lowest ranked team to make the final 12. Utah (10-3) was ranked 11 in the playoff ranking.
 
#13
#13
I remember having discussions about a college football playoff several years before it was implemented. I’m sorry to go back and point out I was right, but I was.

So many claimed the 4 team playoff would solve the issues that the polls and bowls created. I said it would make it worse, because more teams could claim to be unfairly excluded from a playoff and the inevitable end was a constantly expanding playoff. Here we are.

One thing is for sure. There's no need for even 4 teams. That's obvious. What the expanded playoff might do is to create some additional interest in some play-in game that occurs somewhere. It's not like somebody needs to "play in" and then we all realize "hey, they were the best team in the country and nobody knew it". It's not gonna happen that way.

So i fully expect that the available jibber-jabber has to expand to fill the available space. With a 12 team playoff you have to just have jibber jabber about whoever is 13th instead of whoever is 5th. After the games, we can jibber-jabber about who would have really won if the better players and coaching carousel riders all participated.

I think really there wasn't much problem declaring a national champion with just 2 teams in the BCS, and 4 is clearly more than you need. Back in the virginal Rose Bowl days, it was genuinely confusing.
 
#15
#15
I remember having discussions about a college football playoff several years before it was implemented. I’m sorry to go back and point out I was right, but I was.

So many claimed the 4 team playoff would solve the issues that the polls and bowls created. I said it would make it worse, because more teams could claim to be unfairly excluded from a playoff and the inevitable end was a constantly expanding playoff. Here we are.

The unfortunate thing is 4 is really the perfect system.

When it was 2, there was often 1 or 2 teams that could realistically claim to be the 'best team in the country' that got left out. Anything more than 4 is pointless; I can't think of a single example where the #5 or #6 were in discussion for "best team". And 12 is just downright silly. Was there really a case for Pitt (#12) or Utah (#11) as national champ last season? All it does is introduce more pointless blowouts.

I agree with you, but do think 4 was the perfect system. But I also knew this crap was going to happen eventually. And now that there's 12, the #13 and #14 teams will claim to be unfairly excluded, so we'll have to expand it to 16. And then 32. And it'll be just as stupid as the NCAA basketball tournament, which is the absolute worst method to crown a national champion imaginable. And hardly anyone gives a crap about the regular season in college basketball.
 
#16
#16
The unfortunate thing is 4 is really the perfect system.

When it was 2, there was often 1 or 2 teams that could realistically claim to be the 'best team in the country' that got left out. Anything more than 4 is pointless; I can't think of a single example where the #5 or #6 were in discussion for "best team". And 12 is just downright silly. Was there really a case for Pitt (#12) or Utah (#11) as national champ last season? All it does is introduce more pointless blowouts.

I agree with you, but do think 4 was the perfect system. But I also knew this crap was going to happen eventually. And now that there's 12, the #13 and #14 teams will claim to be unfairly excluded, so we'll have to expand it to 16. And then 32. And it'll be just as stupid as the NCAA basketball tournament, which is the absolute worst method to crown a national champion imaginable. And hardly anyone gives a crap about the regular season in college basketball.

It needed to be expanded. In fact I would be in favor of a 16 team playoffs. Let me explain why...

With it just being 4, the same 4 or 5 schools kept hoarding all the blue chip talent every year because kids want to go where they feel they have the best chance to go to the playoffs. It had become a vicious cycle. By expanding the number of playoff spots, you give more schools a recruiting tool they other wise would never have had. Maybe that blue chip QB from Kenosha Wisconsin stays in state and plays for the Badgers instead of going to Alabama or Clemson if he thinks theres a legit shot of going to the playoffs. Not saying this will happen over night but over time, the hope is to dilute the talent pool where its not all in just a few consentrated areas and we get more parity which leads to more interesting matchups and fewer dynasties.
 
#20
#20
Shocked to see that one wing of the new playoffs last year would have been OSU vs MSU with winner playing Michigan. Didn't we see those games already? Can they not format it to provide new match-ups, or are they locked into the pairings due to the rankings? TIA
 
#21
#21
Shocked to see that one wing of the new playoffs last year would have been OSU vs MSU with winner playing Michigan. Didn't we see those games already? Can they not format it to provide new match-ups, or are they locked into the pairings due to the rankings? TIA
To be honest I'm not in favor the whole bye advantage of 1-4. They have a big enough advantage by virtue of their talent over all the other programs. Id rather it have either been 8 or 16 teams.
 
#23
#23
Oh and by the way..... Great points as always.

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#24
#24
It needed to be expanded. In fact I would be in favor of a 16 team playoffs. Let me explain why...

With it just being 4, the same 4 or 5 schools kept hoarding all the blue chip talent every year because kids want to go where they feel they have the best chance to go to the playoffs. It had become a vicious cycle. By expanding the number of playoff spots, you give more schools a recruiting tool they other wise would never have had. Maybe that blue chip QB from Kenosha Wisconsin stays in state and plays for the Badgers instead of going to Alabama or Clemson if he thinks theres a legit shot of going to the playoffs. Not saying this will happen over night but over time, the hope is to dilute the talent pool where its not all in just a few consentrated areas and we get more parity which leads to more interesting matchups and fewer dynasties.
No sense giving 4 teams a week off and 2 weeks to prepare!
 

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