The New World

[hurricaneman]

A couple things that have become very obvious listening to the national narratives:

1) We're back to the days of needing to run up the score and maximize your point differential. "Just win" no longer holds water.

2) A loss is not a loss anymore either. Late momentum clearly matters. It can shockingly help erase things like early blowout losses and early losses to .500 teams

3) But a win against a ranked team weighs more than a loss against...seemingly anyone, no matter how bad

4) SOS also weighs more than a loss, regardless of how you navigated it

5) The ACC will likely max out at 2 spots in the playoff

6) Preseason rankings are more important than ever and teams will have to campaign during the off season. Spring games will need to be much more of a showcase.

7) Because of that, bowl wins are going to matter a lot more than they have these past years. Momentum into the offseason will be necessary to get a good ranking. Navigating that with players sitting out will be difficult.

8) The "SEC!" chants we all hate will have to be adopted by us and all the teams need to tow the line, like the SEC has

9) Conference championship games are not good for conferences. You're giving one of your teams a guaranteed loss, and likely to the team that is susceptible to the bubble. In addition, you're forcing them to play one more game in a grueling marathon for no overall conference gain.

 

[mcnaire2004]

A couple things that have become very obvious listening to the national narratives:

1) We're back to the days of needing to run up the score and maximize your point differential. "Just win" no longer holds water.

Well, if we just win we'd be fine.

2) A loss is not a loss anymore either. Late momentum clearly matters. It can shockingly help erase things like early blowout losses and early losses to .500 teams

More than anything being an SEC team and losing isn't the same as being somebody else.

3) But a win against a ranked team weighs more than a loss against...seemingly anyone, no matter how bad

Well remember in 2001 when Colorado put 60 on Nebraska in the Big 12 title game? Or when Kansas State destroyed Jason White and Oklahoma in 2003s Big 12 champ game?

We've seen blowouts not matter before is all.

4) SOS also weighs more than a loss, regardless of how you navigated it

This part I like. Why play ***** schedules? That's what I hate about how we schedule games.

5) The ACC will likely max out at 2 spots in the playoff

If dabo has his way, 3

6) Preseason rankings are more important than ever and teams will have to campaign during the off season. Spring games will need to be much more of a showcase.

Remember in 2004 when Auburn went undefeated. They started the preseason ranked 16 or 18. The argument at the time was their preseason ranking was too low to overcome.

I guess what I'm saying is I disagree with you. We've been there before and that's not where we are now. Just win.

7) Because of that, bowl wins are going to matter a lot more than they have these past years. Momentum into the offseason will be necessary to get a good ranking. Navigating that with players sitting out will be difficult.

I guess this disagreement follows from the previous.

8) The "SEC!" chants we all hate will have to be adopted by us and all the teams need to tow the line, like the SEC has

So ACC, ACC!? I mean I guess. I generally root for ACC teams. When we join this conference it looks like it would be one of the strongest conferences in the nation.

9) Conference championship games are not good for conferences. You're giving one of your teams a guaranteed loss, and likely to the team that is susceptible to the bubble. In addition, you're forcing them to play one more game in a grueling marathon for no overall conference gain.

This is actually a good point. Not every conference had a championship game and it took a long time to even get to that. But with a new playoff format it's now a liability and self-defeating.

This should be solved with a smaller playoff and smaller conferences with more conference championship games and only champions make the playoffs. But I digress that for another thread

 

[CaneinBroward]

This is actually a good point. Not every conference had a championship game and it took a long time to even get to that. But with a new playoff format it's now a liability and self-defeating.

This should be solved with a smaller playoff and smaller conferences with more conference championship games and only champions make the playoffs. But I digress that for another thread
[/QUOTE]
I'm not so sure about that. I think the extra game gives conferences an opportunity to steal an extra spot. For example, if Clemson beats SMU, the ACC is basically guaranteed to get 2 in the playoff. If SMU wins, it's up in the air as to whether the committee would allow either Clemson or Miami in.

Plus, I can foresee a future ND team finishing 10-2 team losing out to a conference championship game loser who ends with a record of 11-2. Yes, same number of losses, but the conference runner-up has that extra win on their schedule. Possibly even a 10-3 team conference game loser could argue they have the same number of wins as ND in that circumstance.

 

[TemplarCane]

Parity is the keyword in this new expanded playoff-transfer portal-NIL era. Gone are the days of dominant seasons from Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, and Clemson (at one time).

This greatly improves college football. I was sick and tired of knowing who the four CFP participants were likely to be by mid-October. Fans complaining the expanded playoff reduces the value of the regular season don’t get the point. The regular season was meaningless for most of college football by November. Fans had nothing to look forward to except whatever bowl game your team might play in unless you were an Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and Clemson fan.

In this new era a team with a loss or two, and maybe even three, could get on a roll and surge into the playoffs. Then anything can happen.

Should the Canes be chosen for the playoffs and blown out it will be because of the defense, not because they’re 10-2. Would we think the same had we lost early to Virginia Tech and Cal, but regrouped and won out the remainder of our games with an improved defense? Finishing the regular season strong rather than limping.

 

[DTP]

What’s funny is none of that is new.

Style points aren’t new. You need to beat bad teams by a lot.

Early losses have always been forgettable while late season swoons are a death knell.

Preseason rankings, while pointless impact the entire regular season way too much and always have. Teams that start outside of the rankings have to claw their way up. Teams that start the season ranked will only drop if they lose. If you play in a conference with a bunch of preseason ranked opponents, your losses will hurt less because it’s a “quality opponent” and you’ll have more opportunities to beat “good” opponents.

My big issue with today’s game is that super conferences make it near impossible to schedule tough out of conference opponents. Why would any SEC team schedule anyone out of conference? Just schedule three cupcakes because your conference schedule is more than enough to get you into the playoffs.