What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

[mattrd39]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

As for the original question, conference championship games are all about money. Ticket sales, hotels, TV ratings, advertising.

On the discussion about the playoff/selection committee, for all you people saying you should just take all the conference champions --- what benefit is there to playing anybody out of conference then?

If the criteria says you win your conference, you get in, do you think we are going to see games like Ohio State-Oklahoma or Alabama-USC?

Everybody is just going to treat it like exhibition/pre-season. Play three or four cupcakes at home, make sure nobody gets hurt, get your younger guys some reps. Why? Those games wouldn't matter at all. All that matters is winning your conference. That wouldn't make college football better, in my opinion.

Also, side rant: not all conferences or divisions are equal. I'm not just talking about how the SEC West is stronger than the East, that is entirely cyclical. Some play eight games, some play nine. Some have rotating cross-division opponents, some don't. It's pretty ridiculous in the ACC and SEC that you play most teams in the other division only once every six years.

There have been a couple 6-6 teams that made the CCG in recent years (UCLA and Georgia Tech off the top of my head). If one of those teams pulled off an upset, would you really think that team is deserving of a chance to win the national championship? Just because they won some arbitrary "conference title game"?

That would be kind of like a game show where they play two rounds and then a third round where the point values are worth 10 times as much and makes the previous rounds completely pointless. We don't want to make the regular season or non-conference part of the season pointless do we?

[ImTellinTim]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

We don't want to make the regular season or non-conference part of the season pointless do we?

We already have. Several times in history. And it will continue.

But the only way to completely prevent regular season games from being meaningless is to drop half of FBS and make 4 divisions with only the best teams. 13 teams per. Play all the other teams once. Then the top 1/2/4 of each division plays in the 4/8/16 team playoffs.

For variety you shuffle the divisions after 2 seasons while protecting certain "every year" rivalries. These teams would always be in the same division together.

I mean we already tell some teams that even an undefeated season isn't enough. Might as well just officially shut them out and let them figure something else out with their fellow "have-nots".

Also, your hypothetical game show exists. It's called Family Feud

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

I haven't taken a math class in decades, but I think we can all agree that: 2 losses > 1 loss.

That said, are all losses really equal? Does 1 loss always = 1 loss?

If my hypothetical team goes on the road and loses a heartbreaker at Alabama by 1 point and then loses at Michigan by 4 points, but finishes a respectable 10-2. And another team loses only once, but it's a 45 point home loss to Purdue and finishes a respectable 11-1...which is the better team? The team with 2 losses or 1? I assume we'd need more information to decide, correct? Or do you see this as cut and dried?

This is my main gripe with simply counting losses like the committee is doing. It's such a regressive act and doesn't take into account any of the myriad details available about the games, which is why making h2h and conference champ stuff way less important is very troubling. Moreover, nobody really needs a "committee" to count up to 1 or 2.

If CCG's don't matter, then we don't need them.

[LowerWolf]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

Did the committee say it came to down to one loss vs. two losses?

Ohio State had three wins (Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma) over top 10 teams and one close loss (Penn State). Penn State had two such wins (Wisconsin, Ohio State) and one bad loss (Michigan, bad because it was by 39).

To say Penn State deserved to be in over Ohio State is a completely valid argument. But I think you can make an argument for Ohio State over Penn State as well. Would have been interesting to see what happened if either A.) Ohio State doesn't have that win over Oklahoma or B.) The Penn State-Michigan game was closer.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

Did the committee say it came to down to one loss vs. two losses?

Ohio State had three wins (Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma) over top 10 teams and one close loss (Penn State). Penn State had two such wins (Wisconsin, Ohio State) and one bad loss (Michigan, bad because it was by 39).

To say Penn State deserved to be in over Ohio State is a completely valid argument. But I think you can make an argument for Ohio State over Penn State as well. Would have been interesting to see what happened if either A.) Ohio State doesn't have that win over Oklahoma or B.) The Penn State-Michigan game was closer.

No, not per se, but they said a lot of stuff that didn't seem to have any bearing on the final outcome. The proof is in the pudding as far as I'm concerned. There is no precedent for jumping a 2-loss team over a 1-loss team in the 3-year history of them doing this now. If ever there was an opportunity to do it, it would be when the 2-loss team has both the h2h result and conf. championship in its favor.

PSU also has a win over Temple, which isn't the same as a win over OU but looks like a quality win after what Temple did to Navy.

[Crimsontide27]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

I truly believe that the only reason Washington did make it into the playoffs with their 1 loss and terrible OOC schedule was the fact that during their conference championship, they destroyed a #8 team with a national audience watching. Of course Colorado's QB had probably the worst game that is possible completing only 3 passes for 21 yards and 3 interceptions or something silly like that.

Had it been close, my opinion is Penn State would have been in.

This idea someone floated about a 16 team playoff would be a disaster. We all know the majority of rankings are based off of popularity and at one point I even believe there was a team that was 3-4 and still in the top 25.

If you run a 16 team playoff, the same exact teams will be in the playoffs every year and would even be able to lose 2-3 games during the regular season to boot. If you look at the final rankings this year, that would mean there would be numerous teams in a playoff that lost a 3rd of all their games this year. Regular season would be completely meaningless just like basketball.

[jeremym480]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

I truly believe that the only reason Washington did make it into the playoffs with their 1 loss and terrible OOC schedule was the fact that during their conference championship, they destroyed a #8 team with a national audience watching. Of course Colorado's QB had probably the worst game that is possible completing only 3 passes for 21 yards and 3 interceptions or something silly like that.

Had it been close, my opinion is Penn State would have been in.

This idea someone floated about a 16 team playoff would be a disaster. We all know the majority of rankings are based off of popularity and at one point I even believe there was a team that was 3-4 and still in the top 25.

If you run a 16 team playoff, the same exact teams will be in the playoffs every year and would even be able to lose 2-3 games during the regular season to boot. If you look at the final rankings this year, that would mean there would be numerous teams in a playoff that lost a 3rd of all their games this year. Regular season would be completely meaningless just like basketball.

Agreed. I would support a six team playoff, but that's about as many teams as I would want to see. Anything less really devalues the regular season and turns college football, where all of my team's games are "must see TV" to me, to the NFL, where I'm fine with missing regular season games and mainly just watching the playoffs.

One can certainly say that the regular season was pointless during some seasons, but my argument for those seasons would be that the team that made it to the championship game with 1 or 2 losses still needed help in the form of other teams losing. Therefore, the regular season does matter.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

Agreed. I would support a six team playoff, but that's about as many teams as I would want to see. Anything less really devalues the regular season and turns college football, where all of my team's games are "must see TV" to me, to the NFL, where I'm fine with missing regular season games and mainly just watching the playoffs.

One can certainly say that the regular season was pointless during some seasons, but my argument for those seasons would be that the team that made it to the championship game with 1 or 2 losses still needed help in the form of other teams losing. Therefore, the regular season does matter.

This is pretty much my outlook to a "T" as well. I really like the idea of 6 teams and the resulting "bye" the top 2 seeds would get out of that. The seeding would add another layer of needing to not just make the field of 6, but to do so in dominant fashion.

At 8 teams, we are dipping a bit further into the also-rans. I don't think there is a compelling case over the past decade or so that there were more than 6 championship caliber teams in a season.

[NYJets]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

Agreed. I would support a six team playoff, but that's about as many teams as I would want to see. Anything less really devalues the regular season and turns college football, where all of my team's games are "must see TV" to me, to the NFL, where I'm fine with missing regular season games and mainly just watching the playoffs.

One can certainly say that the regular season was pointless during some seasons, but my argument for those seasons would be that the team that made it to the championship game with 1 or 2 losses still needed help in the form of other teams losing. Therefore, the regular season does matter.

Sure it devalues Alabama's regular season a bit, but adding 4 more playoff spots gives more teams something to play for, and to me makes the regular season more meaningful as a whole.

[Caulfield]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

The conference championships should be a reward of one more game to represent their university one more time. Most of the 100 plus young men on each team will never sniff the next level of the NFL so most will have their playing days behind them at 22 years old. While the season is no doubt a long grind, there are a lot of players that would love for the chance to play in one. I know fans get caught up in the money teams stand to make and the national championships as the penultimate, but at the end of the day, for all of our jaded cynicism, for the vast majority of NCAA players its not a business but a game, one in which every players days are numbered from the very first time they strap on the helmets and lace up their cleats. And most dont want to walk away from the game any sooner than absolutely necessary.

[Hammerhunker]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

It is very obvious the purpose of a conference championship game, in my opinion.

I've been involved in the argument wars for years on OS boards, and all of the arguments have been a big waste of time. The NCAA will never relinquish the tradition of bowls because of the money involved. The best way to determine the best team will never be created because it could never raise the money that 97 bowl games can create.

The conference championship games are just an extension of the bowl system and the cash grab system.

[Scott812313]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

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.

The reason they bumped TCU and Baylor for OSU was strictly about $$$. OSU has a rabid fanbase that invades any venue they play and they draw monster ratings for the television broadcast. OSU-Alabama was their dream game $$$ wise and they made sure they got it, especially being the first playoff, those initial ratings were crucial for ad revenue down the line.

This season, if you flipped PSU's resume with OSU's, the committee would have magically valued that head to head and conference championship much more than they did for PSU.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

Want to know the answer...........just follow the money.

[alltimegreat]

Re: What purpose does a Conference Championship game serve?

The conference divisions should bear the names of the various belts in the country instead of East/West or North/South. For example, Big 10 Rust Belt and Big 10 Corn Belt. SEC Sun Belt and SEC Bible Belt.