I know several of these teams don't have much to play for, but I'm asking you guys if you think they should be dogs anyway. I like the team with the points next to em.
CAR @ TB+3 who cares if TB doesn't have much to play for, CAR is DOO-DOO.
DAL +9 @ WAS Will the pokes (and jerry) REALLY let their #1 rival beat them by 10, even with starters on the bench?
JAX +6.5 @ HOU Jax would need to sit a LOT of their O line for this to be a houston win by 7.
SEA +1.5 @ ATL see carolina logic. atlants is worse. i think atlants is the worst team in the league.
i like these non playoff team matchups separately from the stars are sitting reasons:
CIN @ MIA +2.5 Cinci doesn't give a crap, Miami is playing hard to win a game, and Cin ain't really that tough.
NO -2 @ CHI Chi is starting Kyle. Orton. I just don't think they can score enough to keep up with NO unless I've missed a memo about the saints sitting everyone somewhere.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
NFL Cash Trasher
Here's what I like. If history is any guide, I am about 50% right.
Miami @ Buffalo -7
San Diego pickem @ Tennessee
Tampa Bay -3 @ Houston
Minnesota -8.5 @ SF
Cleveland -3.5 @ NY Jets
Nawlins -4 @ Atlanta
NY Giants @ Philadelphia +3
I reery, reery, rike TB, Cle, and NO. A lot.
Miami @ Buffalo -7
San Diego pickem @ Tennessee
Tampa Bay -3 @ Houston
Minnesota -8.5 @ SF
Cleveland -3.5 @ NY Jets
Nawlins -4 @ Atlanta
NY Giants @ Philadelphia +3
I reery, reery, rike TB, Cle, and NO. A lot.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
It's not that tough
Can I just point out that all the "upsets" this season were only upsets because the pollsters decided, based on VERY LITTLE INFORMATION, that some team was better than another? Is anyone in doubt that any college football poll made before the first month of play is USELESS?! Ok rant over, I just wanted to point out how fun I think it is that the sports media slobbers over all the 'upsets' this year, when it seems to me about 90% of those upsets only prove how BAD the sports media is at ranking the teams. So the more upsets, the dumber the pollsters are proven to be.
On to the meat of our article:
A college football playoff system isn't that tough. Everyone has their ideas, so here is mine to add to the mix.
Let me mention first the "+1 model" is stupid. Many years you don't need a +1, so what then? Other years, when there are 3 teams who should get in (remember Auburn getting the screw job so OU could get embarrassed by USC?) then how do you figure fairly who plays first and who only has to play the second game? It's just a clumsy, half way bandaid that will create more problems.
Everyone knows the BCS is broken and terrible. Its defenders point out it's only supposed to match the top 2 at the end of the season, and it gets that right some % of the time. So we're to settle for a system that, for instance, lets Kansas and Illinois into the BCS games and keeps Missouri out, and on top of that, only gets the #1 vs #2 matchup right in the years no one needs a system to decide that game? Let's do better.
Here, my friends, is better. The greatest sport deserves a great ending.
Let's address the objections first, and then I'll show you how my system knocks out each of them.
#1. Players can't play any more games because of academics.
#2. Reporters, whose media influence and almost control these discussions, would lose influence and power when the polls aren't important, so they'll never be on board.
#3. A Playoff system would reduce the virtual sudden death nature of the regular season, which is where most of the drama comes from.
#4. The current bowl system makes too many people too much money, and so we can't get rid of it.
The easiest first. Academics and extra games are stupid excuses, and we all know it. Women athletes miss a lot more class days, not to mention Div II football has a playoff, and they need an education much more! Since far fewer of them make it to the NFL, see. Also, with 45 days between some teams' last game and their bowl, there's plenty of time to fit in some playoff rounds.
For the reporters and pollsters, we'll have role for them inside the system. Keep reading.
A Playoff system would NOT lessen the importance of the regular season. How are the ratings on NFL regular season games? Ding! How about having a 1 loss Texas team or a 2 loss LSU team playing in a title game? Ding! Looks like college games aren't important because of the sudden death nature, but because there are so few games, and the games themselves are so awesome. So if we had a playoff system implemented that kept the regular season important, wouldn't that make everyone happy?
Lastly, the bowl system. I think the fix on this one is to have a playoff system that either utilizes the current bowls, or leaves some meaningful bowl games outside the playoff that people still want to watch. What about a system that does both? Woohoo!
So here it is:
A. EVERY conference must play a conference title game. Only conference champions are eligible for the playoff.
This keeps the regular season meaningful and exciting. You have to win your division to get to the conf. title tilt, so you have to win most of your conference games. There are 11 conferences and a handful of independent teams. Let the indys figure out their own crap, and offer us up one team for our playoff. We now have 12 teams, sounding like a nice 8 team first round, with 4 byes, an 8 team second round, a 4 team semi and a 2 team TRUE title game! This also allows plenty of room for Boise State '06 style Cinderellas, and would let us all see Hawaii '07 get CRUSHED.
By the way, since all of these teams are in a bowl currently, that means of the 11 playoff games, only 5 are extra. So a playoff system with only FIVE extra games total, and no team playing more than 3 extra? Sweet!
Yes, the champion of the MAC will be worse then the 5th best team in the SEC. This helps us here in 2 ways: if you don't win your conference, you can't be national champion! Secondly, it leaves some REALLY good teams for some exciting bowl games.
B. The pollsters seed the bracket.
Now the pollsters are still important, as they decide who gets the 4 first round byes. This also underscores how important the regular season is. You don't want a loss to Stanford to drop you to the #6 seed, do you?
C. The existing bowls host the playoff brackets.
There are 11 playoff games, and currently 32 bowl games. If YOU were the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, would you rather have Western Bohunk A&T vs. the MAC #3 team, or USC vs Hawaii in a first round playoff game? Exactly. The other 21 bowls would get to untangle their traditional tie ins and make meaninfgul invitations. How about taking UGA this year and putting them up against Missouri? Neither is a conference winner, but are you telling me you wouldn't watch that game in the Cotton Bowl, for instance?
There you have it, simplicity and a playoff we can all get behind. The only opponents left, after my awesome explanation, would be the conference presidents. They want a system where a good conference gets in 2 or 3 teams, for the money. However, the point of my system is to TAKE AWAY the subjectivity! So you have to win your conference to go to the dance. No committees, no votes, no straw polls. Just teams that won, no arguments.
The only other reasonable option is having a 32 team playoff, with the polls deciding which teams are in, satisfying all the "our conference deserves 4 teams" issues, as well as using every single existing bowl.
For fun, here's how it would look this season under my system. Please tell me what you think in the comments, including what you like about it, how you would seed the teams if we could, and what problems I may not have addressed. I really, honestly believe this concept truly addresses all the issues I've ever heard raised about a playoff. It is time to stop letting subjective pollsters and coaches, and a computer which puts in some programmer's subjective criteria, decide the ending to our nation's best sport.
(note: I can't make the text here let me keep a bracket. I'm too dumb. So this is ugly, but you get the idea. Either email help with formatting, or shut up. Thank you.)
#1 OSU
______#1 OSU
BYE
____________________#5 USC
#5 USC
______#5 USC
#12 Bowling Green
____________________________ #4 Va Tech
#8 BYU
______#9 Navy
#9 Navy
____________________#4 Va Tech
#4 Va Tech
______#4 Va Tech
BYE
#3 Oklahoma
______#3 OU
BYE
_____________________#3 OU
# 10 UCF
_______#7 WVa
#7 WVa
_____________________________#2 LSU
#6 Hawaii
_______#6 Haw
#11 FlaInt
_____________________#2 LSU
BYE
_______#2 LSU
#2 LSU
How exciting does this bracket look? I don't care who Navy or BYU are playing currently, but I would love to see that matchup in a playoff. I take Navy in the upset, and I take USC to beat OSU, and VaTech to beat them.
In the other half of the draw, the Tigers and the Sooners would actually get to play. That might be my favorite game. You could talk me into different winners for both my semi finals, but this is my party and this is how I want it to happen. I take LSU to win the title, but couldn't you see USC, or VaTech, or OU getting hot and running all the way through? How GREAT would that be?
On to the meat of our article:
A college football playoff system isn't that tough. Everyone has their ideas, so here is mine to add to the mix.
Let me mention first the "+1 model" is stupid. Many years you don't need a +1, so what then? Other years, when there are 3 teams who should get in (remember Auburn getting the screw job so OU could get embarrassed by USC?) then how do you figure fairly who plays first and who only has to play the second game? It's just a clumsy, half way bandaid that will create more problems.
Everyone knows the BCS is broken and terrible. Its defenders point out it's only supposed to match the top 2 at the end of the season, and it gets that right some % of the time. So we're to settle for a system that, for instance, lets Kansas and Illinois into the BCS games and keeps Missouri out, and on top of that, only gets the #1 vs #2 matchup right in the years no one needs a system to decide that game? Let's do better.
Here, my friends, is better. The greatest sport deserves a great ending.
Let's address the objections first, and then I'll show you how my system knocks out each of them.
#1. Players can't play any more games because of academics.
#2. Reporters, whose media influence and almost control these discussions, would lose influence and power when the polls aren't important, so they'll never be on board.
#3. A Playoff system would reduce the virtual sudden death nature of the regular season, which is where most of the drama comes from.
#4. The current bowl system makes too many people too much money, and so we can't get rid of it.
The easiest first. Academics and extra games are stupid excuses, and we all know it. Women athletes miss a lot more class days, not to mention Div II football has a playoff, and they need an education much more! Since far fewer of them make it to the NFL, see. Also, with 45 days between some teams' last game and their bowl, there's plenty of time to fit in some playoff rounds.
For the reporters and pollsters, we'll have role for them inside the system. Keep reading.
A Playoff system would NOT lessen the importance of the regular season. How are the ratings on NFL regular season games? Ding! How about having a 1 loss Texas team or a 2 loss LSU team playing in a title game? Ding! Looks like college games aren't important because of the sudden death nature, but because there are so few games, and the games themselves are so awesome. So if we had a playoff system implemented that kept the regular season important, wouldn't that make everyone happy?
Lastly, the bowl system. I think the fix on this one is to have a playoff system that either utilizes the current bowls, or leaves some meaningful bowl games outside the playoff that people still want to watch. What about a system that does both? Woohoo!
So here it is:
A. EVERY conference must play a conference title game. Only conference champions are eligible for the playoff.
This keeps the regular season meaningful and exciting. You have to win your division to get to the conf. title tilt, so you have to win most of your conference games. There are 11 conferences and a handful of independent teams. Let the indys figure out their own crap, and offer us up one team for our playoff. We now have 12 teams, sounding like a nice 8 team first round, with 4 byes, an 8 team second round, a 4 team semi and a 2 team TRUE title game! This also allows plenty of room for Boise State '06 style Cinderellas, and would let us all see Hawaii '07 get CRUSHED.
By the way, since all of these teams are in a bowl currently, that means of the 11 playoff games, only 5 are extra. So a playoff system with only FIVE extra games total, and no team playing more than 3 extra? Sweet!
Yes, the champion of the MAC will be worse then the 5th best team in the SEC. This helps us here in 2 ways: if you don't win your conference, you can't be national champion! Secondly, it leaves some REALLY good teams for some exciting bowl games.
B. The pollsters seed the bracket.
Now the pollsters are still important, as they decide who gets the 4 first round byes. This also underscores how important the regular season is. You don't want a loss to Stanford to drop you to the #6 seed, do you?
C. The existing bowls host the playoff brackets.
There are 11 playoff games, and currently 32 bowl games. If YOU were the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, would you rather have Western Bohunk A&T vs. the MAC #3 team, or USC vs Hawaii in a first round playoff game? Exactly. The other 21 bowls would get to untangle their traditional tie ins and make meaninfgul invitations. How about taking UGA this year and putting them up against Missouri? Neither is a conference winner, but are you telling me you wouldn't watch that game in the Cotton Bowl, for instance?
There you have it, simplicity and a playoff we can all get behind. The only opponents left, after my awesome explanation, would be the conference presidents. They want a system where a good conference gets in 2 or 3 teams, for the money. However, the point of my system is to TAKE AWAY the subjectivity! So you have to win your conference to go to the dance. No committees, no votes, no straw polls. Just teams that won, no arguments.
The only other reasonable option is having a 32 team playoff, with the polls deciding which teams are in, satisfying all the "our conference deserves 4 teams" issues, as well as using every single existing bowl.
For fun, here's how it would look this season under my system. Please tell me what you think in the comments, including what you like about it, how you would seed the teams if we could, and what problems I may not have addressed. I really, honestly believe this concept truly addresses all the issues I've ever heard raised about a playoff. It is time to stop letting subjective pollsters and coaches, and a computer which puts in some programmer's subjective criteria, decide the ending to our nation's best sport.
(note: I can't make the text here let me keep a bracket. I'm too dumb. So this is ugly, but you get the idea. Either email help with formatting, or shut up. Thank you.)
#1 OSU
______#1 OSU
BYE
____________________#5 USC
#5 USC
______#5 USC
#12 Bowling Green
____________________________ #4 Va Tech
#8 BYU
______#9 Navy
#9 Navy
____________________#4 Va Tech
#4 Va Tech
______#4 Va Tech
BYE
#3 Oklahoma
______#3 OU
BYE
_____________________#3 OU
# 10 UCF
_______#7 WVa
#7 WVa
_____________________________#2 LSU
#6 Hawaii
_______#6 Haw
#11 FlaInt
_____________________#2 LSU
BYE
_______#2 LSU
#2 LSU
How exciting does this bracket look? I don't care who Navy or BYU are playing currently, but I would love to see that matchup in a playoff. I take Navy in the upset, and I take USC to beat OSU, and VaTech to beat them.
In the other half of the draw, the Tigers and the Sooners would actually get to play. That might be my favorite game. You could talk me into different winners for both my semi finals, but this is my party and this is how I want it to happen. I take LSU to win the title, but couldn't you see USC, or VaTech, or OU getting hot and running all the way through? How GREAT would that be?
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