Cincy in the playoffs

[Spin]

This will be an interesting game. If Cincy blows chunks the mid-majors can probably forget ever being taken seriously again.
 

Playing #1 Bama is a recipe for disaster for anyone outside the top 20. But a decent showing could change some minds. 

Edited December 31, 2021 by Spin

[LZIp]

20 minutes ago, Spin said:

This will be an interesting game. If Cincy blows chunks the mid-majors can probably forget ever being taken seriously again.
 

Playing #1 Bama is a recipe for disaster for anyone outside the top 20. But a decent showing could change some minds. 

Playing Bama is a disaster even if you are OSU. Just look at last year's 4 score loss to Bama in the natty. The elitists will use it against the G5 for sure if Cinci gets blown out, but i'm sure they'll forget to recognize 10 out of the 14 playoff games thus far have had margin of defeats by 3 scores or more.

[Spin]

Bama 10-3 into the second quarter. Pretty competitive.

 

A lot depends on how well a tired Cincy does against Bama bench riders that would start on any Other Five program.

[Spin]

Well that was interesting for awhile. Whether it will help mid-major recruiting remains to be seen.

 

I have my doubts.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Spin

[clarkwgriswold]

The biggest difference between those two teams was the line play.

[GJGood]

That was the first loss for a Group of Five team to a Power Five team in the entire bowl season. The Group of Five was 7-0 in 2021 bowls against the Power Five prior to the Cotton Bowl, including the MAC’s own Central Michigan winning the Sun Bowl over Washington State.

[Zipmeister]

Cincy lost by 21 to the 1st seed.

Michigan lost by 23 to the 3rd seed.

Could have switched their opponents and ended up with the same two teams in the championship game.

I think Cincy represented the G5 pretty well.

[Captain Kangaroo]

1 hour ago, Zipmeister said:

Cincy lost by 21 to the 1st seed.

Michigan lost by 23 to the 3rd seed.

Could have switched their opponents and ended up with the same two teams in the championship game.

I think Cincy represented the G5 pretty well.

Put OSU, OK State, ND or anyone else against Alabama and Georgia today and the results would have been the same or worse. They’re head and shoulders above everyone else. 

[GP1]

I saw a few minutes of both invitational tournament games. Cincy put up a decent fight but didn't have the firepower to really compete. There was nothing compelling about the second game after watching for 10 minutes at the Green Turtle on Amelia Island. If the powers that be think the second two games are good for college football, they need immediate psychiatric help. If they think more of the second two games are good for college football, they need immediate institutionalization. I'll be interested to see what the television ratings were for that crap. I hope the ratings were terrible so there will be no incentive to increase the volume of crap.

 

I went to the Gator Bowl yesterday. It was fun. Got back to my hotel, showered and went to downtown Fernandina Beach for the annual shrimp drop and fun.  If you can find things to do in life other than sitting around waiting for 8 hours of crap to be shoveled through a television in your direction, more fun can follow. 

 

I'll be ignoring the national championship game. Not a big fan of reruns. 

 

EDIT: Oh, by the way. Enough is enough. A division for G5 schools needs to be established. Cincinnati was destroyed in a meaningful game, not a meaningless bowl game. Reality needs to take over. 

Edited January 1, 2022 by GP1

[GJGood]

Group of Five 7-1 against the Power 5 in bowl season. MAC 1-0. 
 

You can say these mean less than the Cincy game and they do but it still shows that the gap is not as wide as the experts and ESPN would have you believe.

 

I still say if they would just have a playoff, like every other sport, that includes all conference champions, the so called Group of Five would close a good bit of the perception gap after a handful of years. It would only help recruiting, coach retention, and fan interest in conferences like the MAC and that makes a big difference.

[GP1]

45 minutes ago, GJGood said:

Group of Five 7-1 against the Power 5 in bowl season. MAC 1-0. 
 

You can say these mean less than the Cincy game and they do but it still shows that the gap is not as wide as the experts and ESPN would have you believe.

 

I still say if they would just have a playoff, like every other sport, that includes all conference champions, the so called Group of Five would close a good bit of the perception gap after a handful of years. It would only help recruiting, coach retention, and fan interest in conferences like the MAC and that makes a big difference.

I would caution against using exhibition games as your evidence. Cincinnati is the best P5 school I have ever seen. They played an Alabama team that is not nearly as good as AL teams in the recent past and they were soundly beaten in a meaningful game. Nobody wants 8-10 blowouts to take place in a 16 team playoff. If I wasn't too lazy to do it, it figure out the average margin of victory in the other divisions. I bet it is very high. Just bad entertainment. The country doesn't need more crap shoved at them. 

 

The fate of western civilization does not hinge on whether or not the college football invitational tournament is expanded. I think it would be terrible for the sport. 

 

What I do see are bowls allowing schools to use their football programs in a way that benefits the players, students, alumni, fans and general communities. There are lots of winners and happy people. Even the losing bowl teams give their fans enjoyment. 

Edited January 1, 2022 by GP1

[Zips Win!]

What does a division for P5 only accomplish? 

 

70 of the 75 teams in a P5 division will not compete for the national championship so what's the point?  

 

So a crappy Okla State played Alabama instead and got routed.  What does that prove?

 

  I'm not arguing the fact that Cincy or any other G5 has no chance, but like I pointed out 70 of the P5 schools have no chance either...

[GJGood]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:08 PM, GP1 said:

I would caution against using exhibition games as your evidence. Cincinnati is the best P5 school I have ever seen. They played an Alabama team that is not nearly as good as AL teams in the recent past and they were soundly beaten in a meaningful game. Nobody wants 8-10 blowouts to take place in a 16 team playoff. If I wasn't too lazy to do it, it figure out the average margin of victory in the other divisions. I bet it is very high. Just bad entertainment. The country doesn't need more crap shoved at them. 

 

The fate of western civilization does not hinge on whether or not the college football invitational tournament is expanded. I think it would be terrible for the sport. 

 

What I do see are bowls allowing schools to use their football programs in a way that benefits the players, students, alumni, fans and general communities. There are lots of winners and happy people. Even the losing bowl teams give their fans enjoyment. 

I hear everything you are saying about an expanded playoff but you neglect to consider one thing... and that is why the G5 is so inferior to the P5 in the first place.. a lot of things would change with G5 conference champions having inclusion in a national playoff, you would see better fan interest, better recruiting, and possibly even better coach retention. While most of the country now will only see the 63 schools that make up the elitist conferences, if there was to be legitimately possible inclusion of the other 67 programs it would only serve to close the very gap that you are stating as the reason it should not happen.

Will Akron ever be an Alabama or Ohio State in our lifetimes? Most likely not but with all conference inclusion in a playoff there would be a lot more Boise State, Cincinnati  and Central Florida type teams out there. As it stands now I don’t know why recruits would choose a MAC school over a FCS school but if the MAC was guaranteed a rep in the playoff every year that would go against the best that college football has to offer then I can see the recruiting advantage. 
Sure, it would likely be tough and not all that entertaining for those of us pulling for the underdog in the beginning but given a little time things would become much more competitive.

 

By the way, you say 16 teams but I am a proponent of 14 teams, which would allow those very top teams to be playing to get those two first round byes that were the one bit of true excitement the old BCS got right and to cut down on player opt outs and irrelevance in late season games.
 

If we would have had a 14 team NFL style (all champs in and seeded above wild cards/at larges) playoff this year the matchups would have been greatly entertaining.

 

1 Alabama ... bye 
9 Utah State at  8 UTSA

 

12 Ohio State at 5 Utah
13 Notre Dame at 4 Baylor

 

14 Oklahoma State at 3 Cincinnati 
11 Georgia at 6 Pittsburgh

 

10 Northern Illinois at 7 Louisiana
2 Michigan... bye

 

Does it produce a different champion? Maybe not.. Is that really the point though? No.... It’s about rewarding the programs that accomplished what should be their primary goal which should be a conference championship. Secondly inclusion can only help the balance of competition overall.

 

I don’t want to see the bowls go away either but right now there are 84 bowl slots for 130 teams, would having that number drop from 84 to 70 really be that detrimental if playoff games also went up from 3 to 13?

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by GJGood

[GP1]

12 minutes ago, GJGood said:

I hear everything you are saying about an expanded playoff but you neglect to consider one thing... and that is why the G5 is so inferior to the P5 in the first place.. a lot of things would change with G5 conference champions having inclusion in a national playoff, you would see better fan interest, better recruiting, and possibly even better coach retention. While most of the country now will only see the 63 schools that make up the elitist conferences, if there was to be legitimately possible inclusion of the other 67 programs it would only serve to close the very gap that you are stating as the reason it should not happen.

Will Akron ever be an Alabama or Ohio State in our lifetimes? Most likely not but with all conference inclusion in a playoff there would be a lot more Boise State, Cincinnati  and Central Florida type teams out there. As it stands now I don’t know why recruits would choose a MAC school over a FCS school but if the MAC was guaranteed a rep in the playoff every year that would go against the best that college football has to offer then I can see the recruiting advantage. 
Sure, it would likely be tough and not all that entertaining for those of us pulling for the underdog in the beginning but given a little time things would become much more competitive.

 

By the way, you say 16 teams but I am a proponent of 14 teams, which would allow those very top teams to be playing to get those two first round byes that were the one bit of true excitement the old BCS got right and to cut down on player opt outs and irrelevance in late season games.
 

If we would have had a 14 team NFL style (all champs in and seeded above wild cards/at larges) playoff this year the matchups would have been greatly entertaining.

 

1 Alabama ... bye 
9 Utah State at  8 UTSA

 

12 Ohio State at 5 Utah
13 Notre Dame at 4 Baylor

 

14 Oklahoma State at 3 Cincinnati 
11 Georgia at 6 Pittsburgh

 

10 Northern Illinois at 7 Louisiana
2 Michigan... bye

 

Does it produce a different champion? Maybe not.. Is that really the point though? No.... It’s about rewarding the programs that accomplished what should be their primary goal which should be a conference championship. Secondly inclusion can only help the balance of competition overall.

 

I don’t want to see the bowls go away either but right now there are 84 bowl slots for 130 teams, would having that number drop from 86 to 70 really be that detrimental if playoff games also went up from 3 to 13?

 

There is a zero percent chance of this ever happening. 

 

The reality is this. The invitational tournament is absolute trash. More trash is not what college football needs. 

[GP1]

23 minutes ago, Zips Win! said:

So a crappy Okla State played Alabama instead and got routed.  What does that prove?

What we know is it would prove ABC/ESPN can dupe sponsors into supporting absolute trash. I struggle to come up with a reason for why college football shouldn't discontinue the invitational tournament. It's junk. College football simply isn't designed for a "playoff" as there are no structures to promote even competition. 

 

A separate division would shield the G5 schools from their athletic directors and provide an environment where G5 schools can realistically complete against like schools. 

[Spin]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:08 PM, GP1 said:

 If I wasn't too lazy to do it, it figure out the average margin of victory in the other divisions. I bet it is very high. Just bad entertainment. The country doesn't need more crap shoved at them. 

 

The latest I heard today on ESPNU Radio on Sirius today, don't look for expansion of the playoffs anytime soon. There was an agreement for a 12 or 16 team playoff that "everyone" agreed on, but when the teams starting jumping conferences, it fell apart. Now the conferences want to be sure they will have a place in the bracket, while the SEC wants all of their highly ranked teams in. Whether or not all of the P5 conferences are represented. 

 

So they're staying with the status quo for the next several years.