What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

[BigDofBA]

A few years ago the committee said that Baylor didn't get in because of their weak OOC schedule.

That same year, they dropped TCU out of the playoffs the Final weekend because they didn't play a championship game. Both Baylor and TCU had one loss.

Fast forward to this year and Washington is in with a horrible OOC schedule and Ohio State is in without playing in a conference title game or even winning their conference.

I just want some consistency and some criteria. I understand that the committee put in who they "think" are the best four teams I'm just sick of hearing their ridiculous reasoning. It does seem like a beauty pageant.

People say if the playoff were 8 teams, like I want, then there would be an argument over who the 8th team was. To me, it's comparing apples and oranges. At least with 8 teams, you could have five automatic bids for power five teams based on winning your league. At least everyone would know what they had to do to get in. I would rather be arguing about which second place PAC-12 or Big-12 team didn't get in rather than complaining about the Big 10 champion not get in over a team they beat in their division.

I like a world in which you have OOC games like OU/Ohio State, Wisconsin/LSU, Alabama/USC, or Michigan/Colorado.

I don't like a world in which you can get rewarded for playing Rutgers, Idaho, and Portland State and get the nod over a team that won the Big 10 and another team (Michigan) that has three wins over top 10 teams and one loss against a top 10 team in overtime.

For the record, I think Washington is a good team and I will be rooting for them to win it all. I'm just pointing out what I perceive to be huge flaws with this system.

We screamed for years to get a playoff, and now the system is improved, but I want the powers at be to continue to improve the system because it could still be a lot better.

[Sportsforever]

I'm probably not going to phrase this correctly, but the biggest issue I have with OSU getting in is as follows:

- by not winning their division and NOT playing in a conference championship game, OSU was essentially rewarded with a bye and didn't have to play what essentially was a quarterfinal game for Washington/Clemson (Alabama was in regardless of their result more than likely).

Along with the other things I've mentioned in other threads about their merits vs PSU's, it just really doesn't sit well to me to reward OSU and not make them play the 13th game/have to play to get in. Furthermore, they then weren't placed as a #4 seed.

Regardless, this year has really basically given the middle finger to conference championships/games...it's re-enforced that this sport is still a figure skating competition that placed a heavy emphasis on "style points".

[BigDofBA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Sportsforever

I'm probably not going to phrase this correctly, but the biggest issue I have with OSU getting in is as follows: - by not winning their division and NOT playing in a conference championship game, OSU was essentially rewarded with a bye and didn't have to play what essentially was a quarterfinal game for Washington/Clemson (Alabama was in regardless of their result more than likely). Along with the other things I've mentioned in other threads about their merits vs PSU's, it just really doesn't sit well to me to reward OSU and not make them play the 13th game/have to play to get in. Furthermore, they then weren't placed as a #4 seed. Regardless, this year has really basically given the middle finger to conference championships/games...it's re-enforced that this sport is still a figure skating competition that placed a heavy emphasis on "style points".

Thank you! This was what I had in mind when I made this thread.

After Ohio State beat Michigan, Herbstreit made a comment that Ohio State fans might actually root for Penn State to win. It didn't make sense at first, but after I thought about it did.

If you're solidly in at #2, why would you want to risk playing an extra game when you're already in?

So essentially, they lost head to head to Penn State, Penn State won their division, and Penn State won their conference. At the end of the day, what happened on the field didn't matter and Ohio State got in despite all of this.

I think Ohio State is really good too but I have a problem disregarding what happens on the field. To me that should be the ultimate decider.

And like I've already said, the entire reason the committee bumped TCU from #3 to #6 the final week of the 2014 season is because TCU didn't play in a conference title game. This year that logic completely changed. The logic and reasoning makes no sense and it changes game to game, team to team.

[Swamp Swagger]

I could have swore at one time or another Urban was one coach who said you shouldn't get a shot if you didn't win your conference

Maybe it wasn't him but I thought it was


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[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by Swamp Swagger

I could have swore at one time or another Urban was one coach who said you shouldn't get a shot if you didn't win your conference Maybe it wasn't him but I thought it was Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yea he said. I think it was in 2006.


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[Sportsbuck]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigDofBA

And like I've already said, the entire reason the committee bumped TCU from #3 to #6 the final week of the 2014 season is because TCU didn't play in a conference title game. This year that logic completely changed. The logic and reasoning makes no sense and it changes game to game, team to team.

Slight revisionist history here as I mentioned in the other thread. The conference title win helped OSU, but the only reason it propelled them into the playoffs was because they shellacked #13 Wisconsin 59-0 in the biggest blowout in CCG history (w/ their backup QB to top it all off).

If Ohio State beats a Wisconsin team that was playing their back-up QB 38-31 or any other variation of close score, I think Baylor/TCU are probably in at the #4 spot.

The emphatic blowout of that win is what got OSU into the playoffs.

[kehlis]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

Yea he said. I think it was in 2006. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seems the sarcasm went over your head.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigDofBA

A few years ago the committee said that Baylor didn't get in because of their weak OOC schedule. [b]That same year, they dropped TCU out of the playoffs the Final weekend because they didn't play a championship game. Both Baylor and TCU had one loss. ....

Yeah, but there were 6 teams with 1 or 0 losses that year in the final CFP rankings:

#1 Bama 12-1
#2 Oregon 12-1
#3 FSU 13-0
#4 OSU 12-1
#5 Baylor 11-1
#6 TCU 11-1

So they have never gone against the "fewest losses" rule, but simply augmented it back in 2014 with the "most wins" rule to break the OSU/Baylor/TCU tie. Again, this committee is not doing any sort of complex or even thoughtful analysis aside from adhering to W-L records (in pre-BCS era fashion).

Quote: Originally Posted by Sportsbuck

Slight revisionist history here as I mentioned in the other thread. The conference title win helped OSU, but the only reason it propelled them into the playoffs was because they shellacked #13 Wisconsin 59-0 in the biggest blowout in CCG history (w/ their backup QB to top it all off). If Ohio State beats a Wisconsin team that was playing their back-up QB 38-31 or any other variation of close score, I think Baylor/TCU are probably in at the #4 spot. The emphatic blowout of that win is what got OSU into the playoffs.

Which is looney because the one consistent thing the committee has said is they don't consider margin of victory. So, for essentially MoV in a single game to catapult OSU over Baylor/TCU back then would've been incredibly hypocritical. Either that or there's another explanation. Maybe some of the previous committee members thought differently about MoV back then? There has been some turnover.

Whereas the CFP was originally designed to prevent against the 3-undefeateds scenario, I think it's time to design a 6/8-team playoff to solve the ~6 one-loss teams with varying degrees of conference dominance scenario that we now have. With a 6-team field, TCU and Baylor would've got in back in '14, OSU would've got in last year, and Michigan and PSU get in this time. Seems like that would placate a lot of people without diluting the field too much.