Bit of a let down of a game. I still think Oregon is the best team in the country though. Shame the playoff didn't start this year. Would love to see how they'd do against Alabama or ND.

Originally Posted by A Happy Panda Glad we finally got to see that Oregon v K-State match, shame it wasn't in the NCG. Go Ducks.

I'm thankful it wasn't. It was over after the opening kickoff and ensuing 2-point conversion. I mean, damn. What a brutal game.

Definitely not a shame this wasn't the NCG because K-State clearly wasn't worthy of playing for the title.

I mean, I'm clearly only wishing it was the NCG so I could be piss drunk through the weekend celebrating a national title for the Ducks.

If the playoff started this year we probably would have gotten ND vs Florida and Alabama vs Oregon, so K-State wouldn't have been in the mix since they were ranked 5th. Guess the committee might have went with them to avoid taking two SEC teams though....

Originally Posted by dmaul1114 If the playoff started this year we probably would have gotten ND vs Florida and Alabama vs Oregon

I would bet good money that playoff scenario would have heard plenty of people crying foul. Four is simply not enough and I can't imagine it's going to take more than a couple years for most people to realize that.

Agree 100%. Need 8 teams minimum for it to really work.

Not enough separation between team #4 and the next 2-4 teams that get left out.

Go to 8 teams, and sure there will still be some bitching by teams 9 and 10 that get left out. But that doesn't matter as much when you're talking teams with 2 or 3 losses vs. teams with 1 loss, or 2 losses to top teams etc. that get left out in a 4 teams playoff.

Originally Posted by dmaul1114 Agree 100%. Need 8 teams minimum for it to really work. Not enough separation between team #4 and the next 2-4 teams that get left out. Go to 8 teams, and sure there will still be some bitching by teams 9 and 10 that get left out. But that doesn't matter as much when you're talking teams with 2 or 3 losses vs. teams with 1 loss, or 2 losses to top teams etc. that get left out in a 4 teams playoff.

Yep, I totally agree. My wife and I argue about this all the time. She thinks the playoffs are a bad idea because it makes the rest of the bowls meaningless and someone will still get screwed (i.e. the NCAA tournament).

I keep telling her it's the best of both worlds. If you end up top eight or whatever the cutoff is, you get a chance to win the title. If not at least you can still qualify for a bowl. Like you say, there will still be arguments over the last teams in/out but that's still 1000 times better than the current system.

All the bowls other than the one that decides the champion are already meaningless. I mean, it's potentially cool to see your team play someone they never usually run into but at the end of the day, even something as big as K State vs. Oregon wound up being nothing more than bragging rights for Oregon.

EDIT - Go to an eight team, single elimination tournament and boom, seven games that mean something.

Manziel certainly backed up his Heisman win last night vs. Oklahoma.

Passing: 287 YDS, 2 TD, 1 INT
Rushing: 17 CAR, 229 YDS (bowl record for a QB), 2 TD

What's A&M got coming back next year? Should be a title contender the next couple years if they have the talent/experience around him.

I think we might see the Pac 12 move up in the conference power rankings to #2. All of the arguments about Big 12 being a close second behind the SEC and being the overall deepest league won't hold water now that the top two Big 12 teams were beaten so soundly in their bowls.

I don't know, Baylor crushed UCLA and Texas beat Oregon St. in the other Big 12 vs SEC games and USC got wrecked by the Yellowjackets. Arizona St. did get a big win but then again so did Oklahoma St. I'd say it's about even between the two. This bowl season has been all over the place with results, like the Louisville win over Florida, that were very unpredictable.

I think that's good though, if the games aren't going to carry any real weight they should at least be unpredictable. It would be nice if most of them were good, close games too. I find that any game won by a touchdown or less decided in its final portion is exciting, even if I don't really cheer for either team. That's what I'm hoping for with the title matchup, I just want a competitive contest.

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It's almost as if there isn't a single dominant conference and more parity than the media hype machine would have you believe. Of course, that doesn't draw ratings and page views, so you'll never see them admit it.

I think reading which conference is best based on bowl games is kind of ridiculous.

Originally Posted by blindinglights I think we might see the Pac 12 move up in the conference power rankings to #2. All of the arguments about Big 12 being a close second behind the SEC and being the overall deepest league won't hold water now that the top two Big 12 teams were beaten so soundly in their bowls.

As a Pac-12 fan, the Pac-12 was awful this year, and I had been saying it all season to the dismay of my friends, but hey, most of what I turned out true.

UCLA and Oregon St were never as good as people said, UW continues to suck, WSU continues it's seemingly never ending rebuilding efforts, Cal was way worse than usual this year, USC had an awful, awful season by SC standards (and most standards actually) despite all that talent. Kiffin needs to go or get a playcaller if USC wants the opportunity to return as a power in the conference, let alone nationally.

Colorado and Utah continue to struggle, but I expected this.

Despite winning their bowl games, AZ and ASU are average/mediocre at best.

The conference is so top-heavy it's ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Genocidal It's almost as if there isn't a single dominant conference and more parity than the media hype machine would have you believe. Of course, that doesn't draw ratings and page views, so you'll never see them admit it.

Originally Posted by munch I think reading which conference is best based on bowl games is kind of ridiculous.

Originally Posted by A Happy Panda As a Pac-12 fan, the Pac-12 was awful this year... The conference is so top-heavy it's ridiculous.

I agree, there is more parity than E$PN and the rest of the media admits. I also agree that ranking conferences is kind of ridiculous, especially because ALL of them are almost always very top heavy most years.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if it's ridiculous that teams and conferences are evaluated by bowl game performances because they are. Rewind to week one, how many times did we hear "Michigan is coming off an 11 win season with a BCS bowl win" whenever the media personalities were explaining their #8 pre-season ranking. Bowl performance has a large effect on pre-season rankings, which helps shape the perception of who the best teams are and which conferences are the strongest.

As far as the rest of the Pac-12 being awful, the top of the conference tends to be what caries the most weight (look at the SEC), so Stanford and Oregon winning while Oklahoma and K-State were taken to the woodshed will probably have an effect on what the pollsters think.

You're right, the previous bowl season is always put into play the following year. I think that part of that is because there really isn't anything else to base early rankings on. There's no way to know how teams will perform on the field until they actually take it. The logic is that any indicators are better than none I guess. We can only wait and see as to how the poll voters view all of this come next season.

Side note: Do any of you frequent a NCAA Basketball thread here on CAG?

Originally Posted by chuckie88 You're right, the previous bowl season is always put into play the following year. I think that part of that is because there really isn't anything else to base early rankings on. There's no way to know how teams will perform on the field until they actually take it. The logic is that any indicators are better than none I guess. We can only wait and see as to how the poll voters view all of this come next season. Side note: Do any of you frequent a NCAA Basketball thread here on CAG?

This is why I'd love to see no polls and rankings for the first X weeks of the season in football. In basketball I don't think it's as big of an issue because there's a larger sample size of games to help put things into perspective, and top schools will play each other throughout non-conference play because of how important RPI is even if they lose. There will always be complaints, but I think the biggest ones in basketball come from teams fighting for slot 68, or upset about the strength of their region.

There's been NCAA hoops threads in prior years, but they've not been very active so I didn't bother bumping or starting one this year. That along with WVU sucking this year....