The State of NCAA Football

[MtnBuff]

I honestly think the death knell for bowls started long ago. Since I've been following CFB, many coaches have treated bowl games as exhibitions: relaxing player rules (e.g. curfews, practices) and giving practice snaps to next year's starters vs the current years.

As @FlaBuff mentioned this has been common for a long time. With the additional weeks of practices many coaches worked in time to start preparing guys for the next year, sometimes even starting to put in completely different systems.

The players opting out though is now much more common.

This again can be traced back to the impacts of the playoff. Teams used to focus their goals on a specific bowl game, in the old PAC8/10 and the B1G from the first day of spring ball the players were focused on Rose Bowl, Big 8/12 teams know that a successful season meant playing in the Orange Bowl, etc.

Even for lower level leagues like the old WAC (now basically the MWC) they knew they weren't going to be in the conversation about the national championship but they knew that if they won their league they could play for the Holiday Bowl trophy so that was what they focused on.

Under the current system the focus is on being one of the four playoff teams. Any other result means that you fell short of your goals and the bowl game is a reward more that something to focus on winning. For the G5 teams the focus is on getting the NY6 slot (Cincinnati this year) again with everyone else falling short of their goals.

 

[dio]

I think playoffs are only a small part of the problem... the main issue is money. You have completely lopsided budgets, tv deals, conference revenue, etc. This means that those SEC schools can pay your headcoach more to be an assistant than you can pay him to be your HC. They can bring NFL quality 'analysts' to help you. Massive recruiting staff and budget.

Most schools, including some very successful school, cannot do that. There are only a handful.

It is impossible to have parity in that type of world. There is no salary cap, there is no draft.

I don't know how you solve for that unless you axe the NCAA, and get a more robust governing structure in place. I also don't see how the SEC agrees to anything that reduces their current advantages.

Thus I think CFB becomes a regional sport, like NASCAR. The other 85% of school will have to start making choices about whether they keep even trying to compete, or if there becomes almost a second division in college football.

 

[Jens1893]

I think playoffs are only a small part of the problem... the main issue is money. You have completely lopsided budgets, tv deals, conference revenue, etc. This means that those SEC schools can pay your headcoach more to be an assistant than you can pay him to be your HC. They can bring NFL quality 'analysts' to help you. Massive recruiting staff and budget.

Most schools, including some very successful school, cannot do that. There are only a handful.

It is impossible to have parity in that type of world. There is no salary cap, there is no draft.

I don't know how you solve for that unless you axe the NCAA, and get a more robust governing structure in place. I also don't see how the SEC agrees to anything that reduces their current advantages.

Thus I think CFB becomes a regional sport, like NASCAR. The other 85% of school will have to start making choices about whether they keep even trying to compete, or if there becomes almost a second division in college football.

The playoff feeds into that. The playoffs give your school and your conference exposure which you can turn into money because there’s more interest in your school and your conference due to the exposure you get by playing on the biggest stage in the biggest games.

 

[MtnBuff]

The playoff feeds into that. The playoffs give your school and your conference exposure which you can turn into money because there’s more interest in your school and your conference due to the exposure you get by playing on the biggest stage in the biggest games.

And it impacts the fans sense of success or failure.

It used to be that even if you weren't as good as the obvious best team in the nation your goal all season had been to win the ______ Bowl. Do that and the season was a success. You had a bunch of teams and fan bases that even knowing that they win the title in the polls had a successful season.

Now it is almost as if everybody but one team is a failure. Doesn't matter if they have twice your budget and an administration that would let in an illiterate convicted felon if he would help that team win, by comparison since you didn't win the playoff you are losers.

 

[DBT]

I would favor an 8 or 16 team division 1 playoff using purely the top 8 or eventually the top 16 ranked teams at the end of November, to ignore the outcomes of conference championship games, and with no guaranteed spots for any conference. To boost ranking integrity, a combined coaches and media poll along with a computerized ranking taking strength of schedule into account would help.

Similar to the system now adopted in basketball, it should reduce incentives to pad schedules with easy wins and pointless non conference home games. A team with 2 or 3 “Class A” losses could be ranked above an undefeated team with a lot of creampuff opponents. I would also want to devalue garbage time points and take out incentives to run up ridiculous lopsided scores.

That doesn’t fix the equity problem. The ‘bamas of the college football world will still win it all.

 

[CarolinaBuff]

I think that one of the biggest negative effects of the playoffs is removing so much focus from Conference Championships.

As much as I dislike the playoffs and do not favor expansion, I acknowledge that giving auto-bids to conference champs would restore a lot of that emphasis.

24 of the 28 bids have gone to conference champions and of the other 4 bids, 3 have gone to 1-loss teams and the other went to an undefeated independent. A 1- loss champion has only been left out twice and those were both very unique situations. So a 1-loss P5 champion is a virtual lock to make the playoff.

 

[gone native]

That doesn’t fix the equity problem. The ‘bamas of the college football world will still win it all.

Alabama has won 5 of the last 10 NCAA championships (both before and after playoffs were started), but it isn’t at all implausible to think they still might’ve done just the same if the playoff system didn’t exist.

At least a 16 team bracket gives other teams 4 shots to dethrone them.

I also think this won’t last forever. Other programs will rise up as has happened throughout college football history. But, ideas like limiting scholarships ought to help.

 

[Willard Hall Hooligans]

The state of NCAA Football is pure dysfunction and blatant corruption. It is absurd that in 2021 we don’t have an NCAA Football tournament or playoff.

The “College Football Playoffs” are corrupt to their core. Power and money influencing a 2nd SEC team that doesn’t even qualify for the SEC Championship game over Conference champions. Disgusting.

Forego weeks where Alabama plays Appalachian State or Michigan playing Middle Tennessee State. Get rid of non-conference completely. 16 team tournament. Conference Chamipons ONLY way to gain invitation.

oh and Pac-12 winner ALWAYS plays Big-10 winner in the Rose Bowl week 1 of playoff.

 

[Bison]

Alabama has won 5 of the last 10 NCAA championships (both before and after playoffs were started), but it isn’t at all implausible to think they still might’ve done just the same if the playoff system didn’t exist.

At least a 16 team bracket gives other teams 4 shots to dethrone them.

I also think this won’t last forever. Other programs will rise up as has happened throughout college football history. But, ideas like limiting scholarships ought to help.

I have seen the same issue from D2 & FCS football for years so I don't think DBT was off track in this case. The FCS expanded the playoffs not that long ago and it didn't stop North Dakota State from winning more FCS championships.