Playoff Committee is Atrociously Bad / Blatant B1G Bias

#1
DiderotsGhost

DiderotsGhost

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#1
I'll admit I was never a fan of the 12-team playoff to begin with. It's just a money grab, but watching this unfold this year just further reaffirms my hatred for it.

First off, the whole "first-round byes for only conference champions" bit is completely idiotic. Boise State, the #3 seed, is ranked #25 by FPI. Arizona State, the #4 seed, is ranked #22 by FPI. So the #5 seed ironically ends up with the easiest path of all, and the #6 seed gets to play the FPI #13 team in the first round and the FPI #25 team in the 2nd. Why?

Also, how TF is Notre Dame #7? FPI has them #2, Sagarin #1, and the AP has them #3. How do you end up with an essentially "consensus top 3 team" at #7 just because they are an independent? Even with that, how are they below Penn State? Notre Dame's resume is way more impressive than Penn State's on every single metric imaginable. But remember ... the #6 seed is extremely lucrative because you get to play 2 teams that shouldn't even be in the playoff in the first 2 rounds ... so mysteriously ... Penn State gets ranked higher than Notre Dame and Notre Dame gets slotted in a potential 2nd round matchup with Georgia (arguably the best team in the country).

The entire exercise reeks of B1G bias. Penn State has a weak resume with no quality wins but somehow gets the coveted #6 seed. Ohio State gets the #8 seed and a home game after an embarassing loss. We get screwed into a road game against Ohio State. I don't even have a problem with Ohio State being ranked over us in the abstract - it's more that there's no consistency is evaluation. If Ohio State is above us due to "quality wins" and a strong FPI ranking, then why is Penn State above us and Notre Dame, when both us and ND have higher FPI rankings and better quality wins? The only consistent logic is that "whatever logic is needed to put a B1G team in the favorable position wins out".

Literally, the only thing I agree with is Oregon at #1 and Georgia at #2. Nothing else makes any sense except under the lens that the B1G is just rigging the entire thing to its benefit.

I'm happy we're in, but I can't say I'm excited for this monstrosity. This is even worse and more political than the NCAA basketball tournament seeding.
 
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#7
#7
DiderotsGhost said:
I'll admit I was never a fan of the 12-team playoff to begin with. It's just a money grab, but watching this unfold this year just further reaffirms my hatred for it.

First off, the whole "first-round byes for only conference champions" bit is completely idiotic. Boise State, the #3 seed, is ranked #25 by FPI. Arizona State, the #4 seed, is ranked #22 by FPI. So the #5 seed ironically ends up with the easiest path of all, and the #6 seed gets to play the FPI #13 team in the first round and the FPI #25 team in the 2nd. Why?

Also, how TF is Notre Dame #7? FPI has them #2, Sagarin #1, and the AP has them #3. How do you end up with an essentially "consensus top 3 team" at #7 just because they are an independent? Even with that, how are they below Penn State? Notre Dame's resume is way more impressive than Penn State's on every single metric imaginable. But remember ... the #6 seed is extremely lucrative because you get to play 2 teams that shouldn't even be in the playoff in the first 2 rounds ... so mysteriously ... Penn State gets ranked higher than Notre Dame and Notre Dame gets slotted in a potential 2nd round matchup with Georgia (arguably the best team in the country).

The entire exercise reeks of B1G bias. Penn State has a weak resume with no quality wins but somehow gets the coveted #6 seed. Ohio State gets the #8 seed and a home game after an embarassing loss. We get screwed into a road game against Ohio State. I don't even have a problem with Ohio State being ranked over us in the abstract - it's more that there's no consistency is evaluation. If Ohio State is above us due to "quality wins" and a strong FPI ranking, then why is Penn State above us and Notre Dame, when both us and ND have higher FPI rankings and better quality wins?

Literally, the only thing I agree with is Oregon at #1 and Georgia at #2. Nothing else makes any sense except under the lens that the B1G is just rigging the entire thing to its benefit.

I'm happy we're in, but I can't say I'm excited for this monstrosity.
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They get the easiest path of the teams that have to play the first round. A bye week and needing less wins to win it all is still better than a weaker 1st round home game.
 
#8
#8
I can’t keep up with you guys. So many people say Notre Dame shouldn’t be in because they lost to Northern Illinois, now we are saying they got screwed?

Notre Dame got penalized for having the worst loss of any team in the field and not playing a conference championship game. That’s fair. The Big 10 got four teams in because they had 3 teams with 1 loss at regular season’s end and another with two losses. That’s fair.

Pen. state had no bad losses. Notre Dame had an awful one. Ohio State had a bad loss, but so did we. But Ohio State beat two playoff teams, we beat none. If you want to count Bama as a great win, well we still didn’t have any other good wins.

This was, honestly, the least biased possible outcome. The absence of SEC bias does not mean they are being biased towards other conferences.
 
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#9
#9
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
I can’t keep up with you guys. So many people say Notre Dame shouldn’t be in because they lost to Northern Illinois, now we are saying they got screwed?
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I've literally never said that. You're confusing me for someone else or just very stupid. One or the other.

ND's loss against NIU was bad - but they are clearly not the same team from September. And I've never liked ND - but facts are facts. Anyone who has watched them the past few weeks should be impressed. I'm certainly more impressed with Notre Dame than Penn State and Indiana. And pretty much every good objective measure of performance agrees with this.

Sagarin literally has Notre Dame at #1 (Penn State, in contrast, is at #8). FPI has them at #2 (PSU at #9). The case for Penn State above ND is incredibly weak and feels very much like the B1G commissioner pushing the B1G narrative.
 
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#12
#12
LegionnaireOfTheMiserable said:
I can’t keep up with you guys. So many people say Notre Dame shouldn’t be in because they lost to Northern Illinois, now we are saying they got screwed?

Notre Dame got penalized for having the worst loss of any team in the field and not playing a conference championship game. That’s fair. The Big 10 got four teams in because they had 3 teams with 1 loss at regular season’s end and another with two losses. That’s fair.

Pen. state had no bad losses. Notre Dame had an awful one. Ohio State had a bad loss, but so did we. But Ohio State beat two playoff teams, we beat none. If you want to count Bama as a great win, well we still didn’t have any other good wins.

This was, honestly, the least biased possible outcome. The absence of SEC bias does not mean they are being biased towards other conferences.
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I don't get putting more emphasis on who you lost to versus who you beat.

Penn State and Indiana had no "bad losses" but no good wins either. So the formula appears to be play one good team to get beat by and then have a bunch of tomato cans for the rest of your schedule
 
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#14
#14
I think the conference champion should get an automatic qualifier but I don't think they should be guaranteed a bye.

The seeding of this bracket is a bit weird. Oregon's path as the 1 seed is much more challenging than Georgia's path as the 5 seed, even though they have earned the right as the 1 seed to have an easier path. Why do they play the 8/9 seed after the bye? Shouldn't they play the lowest seeded team remaining in the field in the second round?
 
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#19
#19
barney said:
I think the conference champion should get an automatic qualifier but I don't think they should be guaranteed a bye.

The seeding of this bracket is a bit weird. Oregon's path as the 1 seed is much more challenging than Georgia's path as the 5 seed, even though they have earned the right as the 1 seed to have an easier path. Why do they play the 8/9 seed after the bye? Shouldn't they play the lowest seeded team remaining in the field in the second round?
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I agree, but note Texas is the #5 seed, not Georgia. So Texas was basically rewarded for losing to Georgia. I don't have any gripe with them being #5 given the completely idiotic rules, but it's still silly.

Georgia gets "rewarded" by likely having to play Notre Dame in the 2nd round (and ND has arguably been a top 4 team over the past 2 months), while Texas will get Clemson in the 1st and Arizona State in the 2nd. It's beyond stupid.
 
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#22
#22
DiderotsGhost said:
I agree, but note Texas is the #5 seed, not Georgia. So Texas was basically rewarded for losing to Georgia. I don't have any gripe with them being #5 given the completely idiotic rules, but it's still silly.

Georgia gets "rewarded" by likely having to play Notre Dame in the 2nd round (and ND has arguably been a top 4 team over the past 2 months), while Texas will get Clemson in the 1st and Arizona State in the 2nd. It's beyond stupid.
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Not sure why they decided to do it this way. It would make more sense in my mind to give the top 8 seeds a bye and have the bottom 4 seeds play a wild card round instead of the other way around like how they do in the NFL.
 
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#24
#24
barney said:
Not sure why they decided to do it this way. It would make more sense in my mind to give the top 8 seeds a bye and have the bottom 4 seeds play a wild card round instead of the other way around like how they do in the NFL.
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Just do 16 teams and nobody gets a bye. The current one jacks the seeding up bad.
 
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