2020 College Football Discussion and Pick 'Em Thread

[Santander]

Oregon State-Stanford could be the best game of the week.

[Santander]

Malzahn is almost certainly going to end up as a head coach somewhere else (maybe Arizona or Illinois?)

I wonder if they could lure Tommy Tuberville out of the Senate to take the job?

dream on.

[Santander]

Iowa State (if chaos happens, could Iowa State sneak into the playoff?)

Iowa State doesn't even have a case for being the best program in their state, let alone the country. Iowa State lost by 17 to a Sun Belt team, which is just unacceptable. How the CFP has them ranked so highly is beyond me.

[Santander]

Northwestern gets to be America's Team this week

Florida, you mean.

[Santander]

Vanderbilt-Georgia cancelled

Mercifully for this team.  But, the bigger Vandy news is that we have hired a coach.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/30521916/vanderbilt-names-clark-lea-new-head-football-coach

I thought Lea might end up at Illinois or Auburn, actually.

He's basically getting set up to fail at Vanderbilt.

James Franklin used Vandy as a springboard to a top 15 job. Vandy is not a bad job. A DC with no SEC experience never had a shot at the Auburn job.

[Santander]

They only dropped Florida 1 spot after losing to LSU and Cincy dropped another spot. This is rigged! All in on Iowa State now (though I expect them to lose to OU....)

Iowa State should be neither ranked ahead of Iowa nor in the Top 10. UNC is also vastly overrated in the rankings.

Florida is still better than any of the teams ranked below them.

[Santander]

People are seriously picking Illinois over Penn State?

[Santander]

People are seriously picking Illinois over Penn State?

I mean, I don't know ... both suck, haha.  However, I certainly wouldn't pick the Coachless Illini over PSU on the road.

Penn State had a horrendous start, but isn't a bad team and look to have turned the corner. Losing to Ohio State was expected, and in retrospect, losing to Indiana and Iowa wasn't that bad. I'd put Penn State in the middle of the Big Ten pack, and I'd put Illinois at the bottom only maybe ahead of Rutgers.

[Santander]

FYI, my plan is for us to play all the bowl games after Christmas, which gives us 6 days to pick as normal. (Also gives us 26 games, pending cancellation, most matchups wont be decided until Selection Sunday)

I'm not thrilled with that idea.

Picking the bowls is hard, as a lot of teams just don't care.

On top of that, several teams have already stated they won't accept a bowl invitation due to the pandemic.

So you want us to just pick....the playoff games? That's kind of boring. Given there are no restrictions on who can play this year, there are plenty of teams willing to play.

I'm less than thrilled with the bowls being put up, but far be it from me to try to stop you if that's what you want to do.

I posted in the original rules when this started that we would play the bowl games though, plus we played them in previous years as well, just picking the playoff is boring. We know Alabama will roll over the competition.

Ohio State

[Santander]

Does Northwestern jump up into the top 4 if they win? I think they have to.

They lost to Sparty. No way.

[Santander]

Does Northwestern jump up into the top 4 if they win? I think they have to.

They lost to Sparty. No way.

By my count, 6 of the 24 teams who made the CFP in 2014-2019 lost to an unranked team [in the final poll], including 3 who lost to teams with losing records.

Those were brand name teams who played full seasons. Let's be real here.

[Santander]

so TAMU got beaten up by Alabama, Notre Dame got beaten up by Clemson, but they will leave undefeated Cincy out.

Clemson and Notre Dame split their two games. It would be a scandal to leave Notre Dame out for losing a conference championship game against a team they already beat in a conference they aren't even a member of.

[Santander]

so TAMU got beaten up by Alabama, Notre Dame got beaten up by Clemson, but they will leave undefeated Cincy out.

It is fundamentally unfair that a team can go undefeated and still not have even a shot at a championship, especially this year when Cincinnati was unable to schedule some high-quality non-conference games, but we really can't blame the selection committee for leaving out a team with Cincinnati's very soft resume.

If you put it to a vote of college football fans, I think an overwhelming majority would prefer an 8-team system that included 5 P5 autobids, 1 G5 team, and 2 at larges. SEC and Big 10 fans would see their conferences get extra teams in pretty often, the other P5s would be glad to have the guarantee, and the G5s would love it. Too bad college football is run by out-of-touch olds.

In the vast majority of seasons, there aren't even 4 teams that could legitimately claim to be the best team in the country, and never more than 5-6. Having quarterfinal games would further ruin the heritage of prestige bowls, too.

[Santander]

so TAMU got beaten up by Alabama, Notre Dame got beaten up by Clemson, but they will leave undefeated Cincy out.

It is fundamentally unfair that a team can go undefeated and still not have even a shot at a championship, especially this year when Cincinnati was unable to schedule some high-quality non-conference games, but we really can't blame the selection committee for leaving out a team with Cincinnati's very soft resume.

If you put it to a vote of college football fans, I think an overwhelming majority would prefer an 8-team system that included 5 P5 autobids, 1 G5 team, and 2 at larges. SEC and Big 10 fans would see their conferences get extra teams in pretty often, the other P5s would be glad to have the guarantee, and the G5s would love it. Too bad college football is run by out-of-touch olds.

In the vast majority of seasons, there aren't even 4 teams that could legitimately claim to be the best team in the country, and never more than 5-6. Having quarterfinal games would further ruin the heritage of prestige bowls, too.

There should be no such thing as a "claim" to being the best team. It should be definitively settled on the field.

For years the minority of fans who lurved the BCS claimed that the BCS always got it right in the end. Then in year 1 of the playoff, Ohio State, who didn't have a "claim" and would have gotten no consideration whatsoever under the BCS, won it and proved they were the best after all. In 2017, Alabama did it again. It's reasonable to think that it would have happened a few more times with a 4-team playoff during the BCS years.

Looking at who's been selected under the 4-team model and who just missed out, it's easy to see that an 8-team playoff would have picked up pretty much everyone with a legitimate case for deserving to play for a title, as well as making sure every P5 conference is represented, as well as at least 1 G5 cinderella each year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football_Playoff#Selections_by_year

There should not even be a national championship game. It should be settled by polls, and if the polls disagree, so be it. Let both schools hang banners, who cares? (UCF is a literal national champion, regardless of if they played in a "championship game" or not) But if there is to be one (a purely revenue-generating exercise), it should only be settled by teams with a legitimate claim of being the best. We are talking about teams with the claim of being the best team, not teams with a claim of being the #4 or #5 best teams. Winning a one-off game doesn't make you the best team, otherwise the national championship might as well be like boxing where you give it to whoever beats Alabama during the season.

The year all 5 P5 champions go undefeated, we can discuss having a 6-team playoff.

[Santander]

There should not even be a national championship game. It should be settled by polls, and if the polls disagree, so be it. Let both schools hang banners, who cares? (UCF is a literal national champion, regardless of if they played in a "championship game" or not) But if there is to be one (a purely revenue-generating exercise), it should only be settled by teams with a legitimate claim of being the best. We are talking about teams with the claim of being the best team, not teams with a claim of being the #4 or #5 best teams. Winning a one-off game doesn't make you the best team, otherwise the national championship might as well be like boxing where you give it to whoever beats Alabama during the season.

The year all 5 P5 champions go undefeated, we can discuss having a 6-team playoff.

I guess you and I just have a different philosophy about this and won't be able to agree, but there is no other sport that restricts playoffs to only teams who can "claim" to be the best just based on their regular season, even though pretty much every sport gives teams a better opportunity to do that than college football does.

2014 Ohio State and 2017 Alabama had no "claim" before the playoff started and their inclusion at all was controversial, but I'm glad they got their chance to prove it, and with the playoff games included they both have deserving resumes for the national title.

1-loss Ohio State gave Wisconsin the most humiliating defeat in their history while playing a 3rd-string QB. Hardly controversial, unless you're a TCU or Rapist U supporter. Ohio State had more claim of being the best team than Florida State.

1-loss Alabama with only 1 loss at highly-ranked Auburn, playing in the toughest division in the toughest conference at the time, edges out 2-loss conference champs playing in weaker (Ohio State) or vastly weaker conferences (Southern Cal). Hardly controversial if you care about strength of schedule at all.

[Santander]

The selection committee chose the most popular team over the team who earned it. Any team that makes it through the SEC with only 1 loss deserves to play for the title, period.

With an 8-team model, this would never be in question

You say SEC as if the SEC is good this year. A&M has 1 quality win, against a team whose stock dropped big time. They don't deserve to play for the title because they're not at the same caliber as the teams above them.

[Santander]

The selection committee chose the most popular team over the team who earned it. Any team that makes it through the SEC with only 1 loss deserves to play for the title, period.

With an 8-team model, this would never be in question

You say SEC as if the SEC is good this year. A&M has 1 quality win, against a team whose stock dropped big time. They don't deserve to play for the title because they're not at the same caliber as the teams above them.

It's impossible to compare the SEC to other conferences based on W/L records since it didn't play any out-of-conference games, but it's reasonable to think that the SEC is probably a cut above the rest of the conferences like it is every year.

Vandy, Mississippi St, Arkansas, South Carolina, LSU, and Tennessee would be basement dwellers in any P5 conference. There are years where surviving the SEC West relatively unscathed is a tremendous achievement, but this isn't even close to being one of them.

[Santander]

Complete disgrace. 9-2 Army being shut out of a bowl game is more damaging to America's soul than anything Trump ever did.

One of the loser schools need to do the patriotic thing and cede their bowl berth to Army.

[Santander]

Complete disgrace. 9-2 Army being shut out of a bowl game is more damaging to America's soul than anything Trump ever did.

One of the loser schools need to do the patriotic thing and cede their bowl berth to Army.

It's quite surprising that they couldn't find an opponent literally. Like, Rutgers and Texas Tech were projected to maybe play in bowls and I couldn't find any news article about them opting out, so why isn't one of them playing Army? And if they both did a soft opt-out, surely someone out there, even a bad Sun Belt team or something, would have played.

I didn't realize until halftime of today's bowl game where it was mentioned that the Pac-12 refused to play them because they did not want to prepare for the triple option. Pretty lame and pathetic.

We should not be surprised by such unpatriotic behavior from those Californians.

[Santander]

A little late, but f*** Notre Dame. They are always so overrated, you’d think the committee would’ve learned from the ND fiasco in the playoffs last year, but no. Should’ve been A&M. Not Cincinnati, they barely beat Tulsa, I can’t even imagine how bad Bama would destroy them.

What part of Texas A&M's 28 point loss to Alabama makes you think a rematch would be a compelling matchup? At least Notre Dame can say that they showed that in their best win (even if it was fluky) they could beat a playoff team. The best Texas A&M could do was a fluke over a three-loss Florida. And Notre Dame's second best win is over a ranked North Carolina while Texas A&M's is over an unranked Auburn which just fired its coach. The SEC this year (outside of Alabama, of course) was a dumpster fire that did nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt.

And even then, the SEC landed 3 teams in non-playoff NY6 bowls, which is 2 more than they deserved this year.

[Santander]

https://twitter.com/ArmyWP_Football/status/1341181455704068096
It is confirmed now! Edited in the pick'em

Army vs WVU, what a patriotic matchup! God bless America!

[Santander]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2020/12/21/ballots-college-football-coaches-amway-coaches-poll-panel/6548641002/ Wow....Dabo Swinney ranked Ohio State #11 in his Coaches Poll ballot, clear he does not respect his opponent in the Playoff lol

Okay SEC teams in #4, 5, and 6, lol. Delusional.

https://twitter.com/ArmyWP_Football/status/1341181455704068096
It is confirmed now! Edited in the pick'em

Army vs WVU, what a patriotic matchup! God bless America!

Puke-worthy. I hope we don't have to pay for the welfare queens to all make the trip to the Liberty Bowl like we do for the Army Navy game.

Why do you hate America?

[Santander]

TransPerfect Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN
Iowa vs Missouri 4 PM EST ESPN

Arizona Bowl at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, AZ
Ball State vs #22 San José State 2 PM EST CBSSN

Bold...

[Santander]

The reason for the change, of course, was that 10 Florida starters are sitting out the Cotton Bowl, mostly because they're going pro. We are seeing the results of that now, with OU up 17-0 and (Heisman Finalist) Trask having thrown three interceptions, almost certainly in part because Florida's four best receivers opted out.

This game is, I think, the biggest proof yet that an expanded playoff is necessary. If ten starters are opting out of an NY6 game, its a clear sign that the NY6 no longer has the distinction and value it did under the BCS. They need to go ahead and get rid of them in favor of an 8 team playoff.

The only purpose of non-playoff bowl games is to enable programs to maintain their practice year round.

You're lucky that Atlas doesn't have any Rose Bowl fanatics to provide a few pages about The Mystique and Tradition of the Oldest Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is more important than the CFP Championship.

[Santander]

Very sad that Army lost. I guess winning at football is harder than cheating on a calculus exam.