Official 2015 College Football Championship week thread

[Dutch]

Mississippi State vs NC State is the ultra-prestigious Belk Bowl...

[CU Tiger]

most TEAMS that go to bowl games lose money.

But it is a nice tax write off and marketing expense for the title sponsor and it gets the schools extra practice

[Kodos]

Well at least Indiana will get the chance to beat Duke in something this year. And the Pinstripe Bowl is actually close enough for me to kick around going to it...

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Well at least Indiana will get the chance to beat Duke in something this year. And the Pinstripe Bowl is actually close enough for me to kick around going to it...

I've been twice when Rutgers was in. We got lucky with the weather both times, once where it was just generally nice and another where it was actually warm. Sightlines are pretty bad but Yankee Stadium does a decent job as gameday host. There isn't much going on in the days leading up unless your group is planning something in the city on its own. It's not bad to have as part of a few days in NYC but as a gameday only thing, your tailgating will be in the crappy bars around the stadium.

[molson]

You can usually find a "homebase bar" for your team at a random bowl game. That can be fun if you're not going with a big group.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

'Bama is getting a good matchup in the first round, but they are going to struggle against whichever team they play in the final, if they can even make it past Michigan State. But I think Michigan State will be able to hold that offense to 10 points or less. Henry is a good back, but I also might be able to get 100 yards behind their offensive line if you gave me 45 carries a game.

The only teams that Michigan State held to 10 or less this year were Maryland(on their 3rd string QB) and Central Michigan. This same team allowed 20+ to Western Michigan, Air Force, Purdue, Rutgers, Michigan, Indiana and Nebraska.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by molson

You can usually find a "homebase bar" for your team at a random bowl game. That can be fun if you're not going with a big group.

For Tampa, that means: Florida, Florida St, and Ohio St...

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

But it's not THE Tangerine Bowl. That's the Citrus

This is the old Blockbuster (later CarQuest) Bowl.

Yep but after Carquest it was renamed the Tangerine bowl, albeit briefly

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

Umm... there are 40 bowl games? Really? They can't be all profitable can they?

It's profitable for the organizers

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

The years where the Peach is a NY6 the Russel Athletic bowl is the ACC #1 tie in. You can still call in the Tangerine Bowl if it feels better, we did.

Seriously - I want my bowls to be things that sound like Pac Man bonus items. Not jock straps, tires, and mortgages.

[Edward64]

Liberty Bowl for AR vs KS. I guess I'll take it all things considered ...

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Also find the Alabama love very interesting. This is a team that lost to the highest ranked team it played in convincing fashion.

Sorry, can't let this slide. Alabama was -5 on turnovers, Ole Miss had that long crazy tipped touchdown, and it was a 6 point game where Alabama had the ball and chance to win late. I hate the Saban Death Star too, and agree this isn't one of their best teams, but that wasn't a blowout loss.

Originally Posted by Kodos

And in the battle of unlikeables, we have Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. Who to root against more?!? Gotta give the edge to the Golden Domes.

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Was trying to remember the last time the Fiesta Bowl was on during the daytime. Scheduled for a 1 PM eastern start, which will be 11 AM local time.

Wish it was a playoff game, but Ohio State/ND should be great. Hopefully we can break the streak of not winning a "January bowl game" in 25+ years, even if that is a bit of a misleading stat, and I'd rather do it vs a "real" team instead of getting matched up some year with a Houston-type or in a meaningless bowl. I'm sure the Rose Bowl demanded the 5pm slot, but agreed it's weird that the Fiesta Bowl is at 1pm EST and the Sugar Bowl got the 8:30 EST start.

I'm not sure how I feel about the playoff games being on NYE but I'm leaning against it. I think I would definitely prefer them on New Years Day instead, but the NFL also has no games scheduled for Saturday Jan 2nd, so I'm not sure why they chose to move the games back to Dec 31 instead of doing Jan 2 again like last year.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Sorry, can't let this slide. Alabama was -5 on turnovers, Ole Miss had that long crazy tipped touchdown, and it was a 6 point game where Alabama had the ball and chance to win late. I hate the Saban Death Star too, and agree this isn't one of their best teams, but that wasn't a blowout loss.

Bama scored 14 points late against back ups to lose by only 6.
And turnovers are part of the game, they go both ways. I literally listened to Finebaum say last week this, "Bama should be #1 because Clemson (who turned the ball over 4 times against SCar) barely won this week, and the only loss Bama has they turned the ball over 5 times."

How is that for circular logic?

Turnovers are caused by the opponent

[tarcone]

Did you see the 8 team playoff breakdown?

1. Clemson vs. 8. Notre Dame
2. Alabama vs. 7. Ohio St.
3. MSU vs. 6. Stanford
4. Oklahoma vs. 5. Iowa

And the 9 and 10 teams really cant make a case. It would be an outstanding 8 team playoff this season. So much good in those match ups.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Bama scored 14 points late against back ups to lose by only 6.
And turnovers are part of the game, they go both ways. I literally listened to Finebaum say last week this, "Bama should be #1 because Clemson (who turned the ball over 4 times against SCar) barely won this week, and the only loss Bama has they turned the ball over 5 times."

How is that for circular logic?

Turnovers are caused by the opponent

Alabama got the ball back down 43-37 with 3:01 left in the game (and promptly turned it over for a 5th time, before also getting it back with :31 seconds left which I won't really count). I wasn't watching the game too closely or know the Ole Miss roster that well, but if they were scoring vs Backups that's a pretty big screw up on Hugh Freeze's part because it was still a game. (Now that you say that I do vaguely recall that they did go backups in for the TD drive at 43-24, but like I said my memory from 1am that night is a little hazy.)

Of course turnovers are a part of the game, but they're also partly luck and not nearly as predictive as general success rate, and this was clearly all luck (although on the flip side there was a pretty crazy bounce and onside kick recovery by Alabama - I don't think I've ever seen a team recover an actual onside kick that far down the field). But I'm not arguing that the loss shouldn't count against Alabama, just that it was a 50/50 game where they had more yards, first downs, t.o.p. and a chance to win on their last real possession while Ole Miss got big plays whenever it needed one and then hung on to win. The idea that Ole Miss was convincingly better or Alabama only made it close in garbage time is bollocks. (I'm also not sure why we're even discussing Alabama's loss to a pretty good team as a weak spot when MSU and Oklahoma both got outgained in losses to 5-7 teams, but that's a separate argument.)

PS if you hate SEC bias so much, you probably shouldn't listen to Paul Finebaum... And fwiw that's not circular logic, just ignorance or deliberately misleading on Finebaum's part.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Wish it was a playoff game, but Ohio State/ND should be great. Hopefully we can break the streak of not winning a "January bowl game" in 25+ years, even if that is a bit of a misleading stat, and I'd rather do it vs a "real" team instead of getting matched up some year with a Houston-type or in a meaningless bowl. I'm sure the Rose Bowl demanded the 5pm slot, but agreed it's weird that the Fiesta Bowl is at 1pm EST and the Sugar Bowl got the 8:30 EST start.

I'm not sure how I feel about the playoff games being on NYE but I'm leaning against it. I think I would definitely prefer them on New Years Day instead, but the NFL also has no games scheduled for Saturday Jan 2nd, so I'm not sure why they chose to move the games back to Dec 31 instead of doing Jan 2 again like last year.

I think you answered your own question. Pretty sure the rose bowl deal gives them 5:00 on New Year's Day regardless of whether a playoff game or not.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Did you see the 8 team playoff breakdown?

1. Clemson vs. 8. Notre Dame
2. Alabama vs. 7. Ohio St.
3. MSU vs. 6. Stanford
4. Oklahoma vs. 5. Iowa

And the 9 and 10 teams really cant make a case. It would be an outstanding 8 team playoff this season. So much good in those match ups.

And only one of those seems likely to be much of a game right now. Stanford might give MSU some problems given the way the Spartan QB looked against Iowa but otherwise I see no chance at all you end up with anything other than the same final four you have already.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

The idea that Ole Miss was convincingly better or Alabama only made it close in garbage time is bollocks. (I'm also not sure why we're even discussing Alabama's loss to a pretty good team as a weak spot when MSU and Oklahoma both got outgained in losses to 5-7 teams, but that's a separate argument.)

I don't necessarily think that Ole Miss was convincingly better overall. But from a resume standpoint, 'Bama's best wins were against fringe top-20 teams, while all the other teams had multiple top-15 wins. That's the point.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And only one of those seems likely to be much of a game right now. Stanford might give MSU some problems given the way the Spartan QB looked against Iowa but otherwise I see no chance at all you end up with anything other than the same final four you have already.

This is laughable. You did watch the Sugar Bowl last year, right?

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And only one of those seems likely to be much of a game right now. Stanford might give MSU some problems given the way the Spartan QB looked against Iowa but otherwise I see no chance at all you end up with anything other than the same final four you have already.

You don't think the team that lost by 2 at Clemson would have a shot in a rematch on a neutral field?

I completely agree with the final 4 and think none of 5-8 can have any complaints, but there's only one team amongst those 8 who would get blown out imo.

Originally Posted by digamma

I think you answered your own question. Pretty sure the rose bowl deal gives them 5:00 on New Year's Day regardless of whether a playoff game or not.

Doesn't answer why Fiesta (MST) gets the early slot while the Sugar (CST?) gets the later one. Not that I'm complaining, although my liver might.

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I don't necessarily think that Ole Miss was convincingly better overall. But from a resume standpoint, 'Bama's best wins were against fringe top-20 teams, while all the other teams had multiple top-15 wins. That's the point.

Yeah, that's the main point of your post, but the idea that Alabama was blown out seems to get thrown around a lot (notice CUTiger jumping on board immediately talking about garbage time) and I'm calling out that specific phrase. I do also think that quality of loss does matter - would Alabama's resume look better if they'd beaten Ole Miss but lost to Arkansas? Would Michigan St's be worse if they'd beaten Nebraska but lost to Oregon? Not in my mind, but people seem to care a whole lot more about parsing the differences in wins, while just lumping every loss together.

I also don't really agree with the committee's rankings past that top 4. Sorry Tarcone, I was actually rooting for your guys to shock the world and win the whole thing, but I still don't think Iowa is a top 5 team. I don't think TCU or Baylor are as good as their ranking with their QB situations. If you want one pro-B1G/anti-SEC (although it does help Bama's case a little) I think Wisconsin is at least as good a team as Florida and should be in the top 25 even if they didn't beat anybody.

And finally, manner of victory does matter in my mind. Michigan State winning 4 games in the last minute including possibly the least likely win ever vs Michigan is awesome as a fan, but that plus 2 more teams (Oregon/Purdue) having the ball near midfield and a chance to win in the last minute really doesn't seem impressive or sustainable. I don't think MSU is outclassed, and I've learned not to hate too much on B1G playoff teams who were unimpressive in the regular season after the 2003 and 2015 Ohio State titles, but I'm not shocked by the 9-pt spread in Alabama's favor. If you really think MSU is as good (or has the better resume) that's a pretty juicy line.

[digamma]

I thought you were just asking about why the playoff games were on NYE.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by digamma

I thought you were just asking about why the playoff games were on NYE.

Oh, on that part I'm trying to figure out why they went with Dec 31 over the same Jan 2 date that worked last year,but I definitely threw multiple trains of thought in there. I liked the idea of having a number of pretty good games on Jan 1, but then having the 2 real games the next day. Not that they actually matter either way, but having the consolation bowls the day after the playoff games makes them seem even more anti-climactic. It'll be interesting to see how ratings play out - whether more casual fans will put the game on because they're out at gatherings or whether you'll see a big drop-off in viewership in the 2nd half, particularly if that game starts going a little long...

I'll just say that my roommate who is a Clemson alum and a pretty big NYE fan was terrified that Clemson would be in that 8pm game.