Entering the Playoff Debate

Everyone and their brother has been debating bowls vs. a playoff as of late. The latest round seems to have been a reaction to Ivan Maisel's article on ESPN.com yesterday.

The biggest fear from the bowl supporters is that a playoff will devalue the regular season. Maisel's article has two examples of how this could happen.

Example 1:

On the final weekend of the season, Washington at Hawaii received a 2.0 TV rating. An estimated 1.96 million households saw the game, even though it ended a 3:14 a.m., ET because the Warriors' victory all but assured them of an at-large berth in one of the five BCS games.

My response:

A playoff would have made this game even more attractive to viewers. As it was with the BCS, Hawaii was playing for a chance to get waxed in a BCS bowl. A BCS bowl that had they won, there was still ZERO chance they'd win the national title.

If an 8 team playoff existed, Hawaii would have been playing their way into a tournament where they would control their own destiny on a path to the national title. Now, they probably would have been waxed in the first round anyway, but we don't know that and certainly didn't know that when Hawaii beat Washington. A playoff would mean Hawaii was in the hunt for the national title in beating Washington, rather than a chance to play in a meaningless sideshow to the national championship game.

Example 2 (from Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese):

"Pitt played West Virginia in the last [Big East regular-season] game of the year [2007]. Everybody in the country watched the game. It did an incredible television rating. If we were in a full-blown playoff, who would have watched the game? West Virginia would have already won our league. What the BCS has done is, people who used to watch football in isolation -- the conference of their interest, the team of their interest -- are now watching it across the board because all those games have an effect [on the national championship]."

My response:

Who cares about the Big Least? A world where no one watches the final game of a so-called conference with no championship game is a better place in my opinion. If the Big East was a real conference, their final game on that same day would have been a conference championship game. Presumably, winning that game would earn an automatic bid into an 8 team playoff. People would watch that.

I have a whole lot more to say on this topic, but I'll leave it here for now. Feel free to disagree with me. I know a ton of people do, but I think those of you are wrong :-)

Non Conference Champs Playing for the BCS Title

Should it be allowed? Obviously most Georgia fans felt so this year. I felt so this year, but only because it was Georgia. I thought it was stupid when Oklahoma and Nebraska played in the BCS title game in the past without winning their conference.

However, Mark Richt had an excellent scenario on the Rude Awakening this morning on 680 The Fan. I'm going to put this into my own words, but it's basically what Richt said...

Hypothetically, let's say Georgia and Tennessee each go 11-1 in a crazy season such as this one. Florida goes 10-2. All three teams only losses are conference losses. Tennessee beats Georgia who beats Florida who beats Tennessee. Florida's second loss is to LSU.

Going into the Championship weekend, Tennessee and Georgia are ranked #1 and #2 respectively in all of the major polls.

Tennessee plays Arkansas for the SEC title. Arkansas went 8-4 on the season. However, they managed to win the wacky SEC West in a three way tiebreaker with LSU and Auburn (sorry Bama fans). Finally, Arkansas eeks out an upset win over UT and wins the SEC title.

So, do you keep the 11-1 Georgia team, who was ranked #2 prior to UT going down, out of the national title game because they didn't win the SEC? I think not, but what do you think?

James Carville on the BCS

I respect it when someone can put aside the fact that they are benefiting from a situation and still realize the situation is a bad one. This is the case with James Carville. Even though his beloved LSU Tigers will play for the national title, he still feels the BCS is a sham.

Shout out to Beaufort_Dawg on the DawgRun.

I'm No Longer Freaking Out

It's 4:30 on Sunday, and we've basically already been eliminated. The Coaches Poll came out earlier today. LSU's 7 point victory over Tennessee was apparently so impressive that the coaches felt the need to move them from 7 to 2. Oklahoma jumped from 8 to 3, and Georgia stayed put at 4.

I can actually see Oklahoma jumping like that. They beat the number one team. That makes sense. But LSU doesn't make sense to me. They barely beat Tennessee and they jump like that? Looks like all of the lobbying for LSU on behalf of ESPN last night worked. LSU is so far ahead of us in the coaches poll that it will take an absolute miracle in both the Harris and computers for Georgia to make the title game.

I've got a BCS spreadsheet. Based on my predictions we'll end up with a BCS like this.

1. Ohio State
2. LSU
3. Georgia
4. Virginia Tech
5. Oklahoma
I actually wouldn't be surprised if LSU jumps up to number 1 at this point. At any rate, we'll be on the outside looking in on the championship game. It was fun while it lasted!