NCAA College Football - 2018 Thread

Jimmy Two Times

eagle eye wrote: »

The insane fake punt cost them big. Kinda fitting.

Hard one for Kirby to call. If they punt the ball chances are Bama run it up the field and score anyway, all they needed was a Field Goal.

Think the mistake was telegraphing it by leaving Fields where he was. Might have been best to let the actual Punter take his chances.

Great game though, no easy catches for any receivers in the second half and a brilliant display from Hurts. Have to feel for the Dawgs though. Two years in a row they have the game almost won just to get caught at the death.

Can't see past Bama / Clemson in the Playoff Final.

eagle eye

Imo Clemson are untested. They look really good but until they face a top team you cannot be sure.

Realt Dearg Sec

rebelyell99 wrote: »

Notre dame are a good team for sure .I just feel there not as good as alabama clemson georgia whereas oklahoma has an explosive offence .It needs to be changed to 8 teams ,Ohio state are a conference champion ,hammered the suposedly best defence in the country , u could say they were hard done by.I just think its a flawed system just my opinion .

I think we all agree that the system is flawed in so very many ways. But I just don't see any compelling reason why ND are the evidence for the system being broken.

The tendency seems to be that when casting doubt on the top four, ND are the team everyone calls out. Tebow said they hadn't played anyone when they had already beaten more ranked teams than Alabama, that goon of a QB from UCF said they were better than ND because they had beaten Pitt by more than the Irish had (but didn't mention their respective games against Navy), etc. I don't see why Clemson shouldn't be subjected to the same logic. Who have they played? Two ranked teams, both of whom they struggled to put away. ND are undefeated, having played three currently ranked teams, and with a tougher overall strength of schedule.

Also, Clemson and ND have played five teams in common (Pitt, Syracuse, Florida State, Vtech and Wake Forest) and ND had bigger victories in four of those five games, for a total winning margin of 118 points to Clemson's 81.

I'm not saying ND will definitely win their playoff against Clemson, I'm just saying that the idea Clemson somehow obviously deserve to be there while ND doesn't, just doesn't hold up to objective scrutiny. It's based on nothing more than that they are an independent college.

LuckyLloyd

'But they don't play a conference championship game' :rolleyes:

They also don't play lower division opponents or true cupcakes but hey ho.

brinty

Folks think it's pretty easy picking the top four
Three undefeated teams and a one loss team who avenged it this weekend

Talk about eight team playoffs will only further the argument when division winners don't get in and you've a couple of SEC and big 10 teams and no pac12 team etc

rebelyell99

I just feel that stretching it to 8 teams would avoid all confusion , this year for instance u wud have bama , clemson , oklahoma, notre dame ,georgia , ohio state ,lsu and michigan .Not many people could argue with that and u would have very entertaining games instead four of these teams play in a bowl game that some of there players will skip to prepare for the draft

brinty

rebelyell99 wrote:

I just feel that stretching it to 8 teams would avoid all confusion , this year for instance u wud have bama , clemson , oklahoma, notre dame ,georgia , ohio state ,lsu and michigan .Not many people could argue with that and u would have very entertaining games instead four of these teams play in a bowl game that some of there players will skip to prepare for the draft

UCF would argue that ranking straight away

Of those you named
3 SEC teams with a 2 and 3 loss team
2 Big 10
1 Independent,big 12 and ACC

Pac-12 would go nuts

Washington,Penn State and Florida all lost three so why are they out and LSU who are ranked 11 in all polls and rankings in..


I don't disagree with what you say but that's a very quick look at things... I'm sure others could make their case for a place in an 8 team play of heck Washington state only lost two games and they're not in.. they'd a great air raid offence under Mike Leach but list the apple cup to Washington and didn't play a pac-12 championship game.

rebelyell99

brinty wrote: »

UCF would argue that ranking straight away

Of those you named
3 SEC teams with a 2 and 3 loss team
2 Big 10
1 Independent,big 12 and ACC

Pac-12 would go nuts

Washington,Penn State and Florida all lost three so why are they out and LSU who are ranked 11 in all polls and rankings in..


I don't disagree with what you say but that's a very quick look at things... I'm sure others could make their case for a place in an 8 team play of heck Washington state only lost two games and they're not in.. they'd a great air raid offence under Mike Leach but list the apple cup to Washington and didn't play a pac-12 championship game.

From my understanding the playoff was meant to be the best teams .I feel the teams I named were the best 8 this year maybe im harsh leaving out washington state.Yes UCF have done very well last few years but there not in a power 5 conference and have an easy schedule for the most part .None of the pac 12 teams would come close to beating any of the teams who are in the playoff this year.Thats just my opinion but if it were an 8 team playoff those are the ones id pick.

Realt Dearg Sec

rebelyell99 wrote: »

From my understanding the playoff was meant to be the best teams .I feel the teams I named were the best 8 this year maybe im harsh leaving out washington state.Yes UCF have done very well last few years but there not in a power 5 conference and have an easy schedule for the most part .None of the pac 12 teams would come close to beating any of the teams who are in the playoff this year.Thats just my opinion but if it were an 8 team playoff those are the ones id pick.

Yeah but at the end of the day no matter how many teams you pick you'll always have debates like this. The playoffs don't solve that fundamental structural problem with CFB, that at the end of the day there is an element of subjective opinion informing the whole process. I actually am in favour of your idea, though, simply because while we may not agree on who the top four teams are, or the top eight, what we can PROBABLY agree on is that the top four teams in the country would certainly all make it into the playoffs if the eight top ranked teams get in (if that makes sense?). It reduces the likelihood that a genuine contender for the championship will be left out of those playoffs.

But a proper fair system would require getting rid of the bizarre conference system altogether and establishing a national championship with, say, four conferences, regionally organised and involving in-conference and out of conference scheduling, where the winners of the fours conferences each year go into the final four.

Of course that is not going to happen for loads of reasons, mostly to do with money, but also to do with traditional rivalries and stuff which could potentially get disrupted. But it would mean that the genuinely good teams would be less spread out across the conferences, the ND independent thing would be gone, and scheduling could be taken out of the hands of college administrators and put in the hands of the NCAA with a view to creating a balanced, even system with a logical progression towards the playoffs every year.

But then what would we argue about?!

LuckyLloyd

It’s not a pure power ranking. It doesn’t matter what Vegas says about a hypothetical neutral field match up between UCF and LSU: the former is undefeated and had the higher achieving season so would get in ahead in an 8 team playoff.

What’s amazing to me is how little the conversation has progressed each year over a decade. Despite Boise and TCU and a bundle of ****ty ‘power 5’ champs playing bowl games the same biases get trotted out every time.

brinty

Urban Meyer stepping down after the Ohio State University bowl game
Ryan Day is taking over in Columbus

boccy23

Heading to the NFL?

eagle eye

I'd imagine it's over the controversy regarding Zach Smith.
He started claiming he was getting bad headaches during games a couple of weeks ago and I'm sure he will use that as his reason but for me the Smith domestic abuse controversy is the real reason.

brinty

boccy23 wrote: »

Heading to the NFL?

retiring

Foxtrol

eagle eye wrote: »

I'd imagine it's over the controversy regarding Zach Smith.
He started claiming he was getting bad headaches during games a couple of weeks ago and I'm sure he will use that as his reason but for me the Smith domestic abuse controversy is the real reason.

Wouldn't be the first time he used questionable 'health' issues to get out of somewhere. I'm guessing he'll disappear for a while to let things die down and jump back in when a school puts enough money on the table for him.

eagle eye

Watching North Dakota State vs Colgate and the Bison QB is really exciting me. The successor to Carson Wentz has great pocket presence, is well able to check down and has all the throws. Looks like another big NFL prospect.
Whoever is scouting for the Bison clearly knows his QB's.

Realt Dearg Sec

Really worrying news: Navy just got a TD and now just need a FG to tie this game up at 10-10. The is a very real risk of over time, which nobody will enjoy.

rebelyell99

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Really worrying news: Navy just got a TD and now just need a FG to tie this game up at 10-10. The is a very real risk of over time, which nobody will enjoy.

It is always a boring game tbh just option offense.The navy qb was woeful didnt complete one pass not that he attempted many of them.

Realt Dearg Sec

rebelyell99 wrote: »

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Really worrying news: Navy just got a TD and now just need a FG to tie this game up at 10-10. The is a very real risk of over time, which nobody will enjoy.

It is always a boring game tbh just option offense.The navy qb was woeful didnt complete one pass not that he attempted many of them.

I know but it was the only thing on! What am I supposed to do, read a book? Talk to my family? Let's be real here

rebelyell99

Kyler wins the heismann , well deserved he was great all season just a pity hes going playing baseball now .I feel he has the potential to be sucessful in the NFL very similar to russell wilson.

eagle eye

Yeah, I felt over the last few weeks that Kyler had overtaken Tua. Tagovailoa just had a poor end of the season with injury not helping him.


I think Lawrence will get it next year.

Realt Dearg Sec

rebelyell99 wrote: »

Kyler wins the heismann , well deserved he was great all season just a pity hes going playing baseball now .I feel he has the potential to be sucessful in the NFL very similar to russell wilson.

And Wilson was another lad drafted in the mlb. If I had my pick of both leagues, and was just as talented at both sports, I'd pick baseball in a heartbeat.

BKWDR

Can someone explain how the college football ends ...

I watched the games and i know there were different conferences but have always been at a loss to now, theres no more games and there will be a rake of bowl games shortly?

Realt Dearg Sec

BKWDR wrote: »

Can someone explain how the college football ends ...

I watched the games and i know there were different conferences but have always been at a loss to now, theres no more games and there will be a rake of bowl games shortly?

Yeah the bowl games are mostly at the end of December with the biggest ones normally on January first, but the top four teams play in two bowl games that also double as the semi finals of the championship. So notre Dame and Clemson are in the cotton bowl in Texas and Alabama and Oklahoma will be in the Orange bowl. Those were traditionally to of the biggest bowl games in the country anyway. There are loads of bowl games these days (more every year, nearly all named after a sponsor with stupid names like the famous Idaho potato bowl, and the likes) and to be honest it's a mystery to me exactly how teams are sorted into them, but most of them involve teams I personally wouldn't have much interest in anyway.

LuckyLloyd

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Yeah the bowl games are mostly at the end of December with the biggest ones normally on January first, but the top four teams play in two bowl games that also double as the semi finals of the championship. So notre Dame and Clemson are in the cotton bowl in Texas and Alabama and Oklahoma will be in the Orange bowl. Those were traditionally to of the biggest bowl games in the country anyway. There are loads of bowl games these days (more every year, nearly all named after a sponsor with stupid names like the famous Idaho potato bowl, and the likes) and to be honest it's a mystery to me exactly how teams are sorted into them, but most of them involve teams I personally wouldn't have much interest in anyway.

They all hold loose conference tie ins, and priority lists depending on how results ultimately shake out. So some of the earlier bowls may have designations like 'worst qualifying ACC team vs worst qualifying Big 10', with rotations of officiating crews from different conferences. Take, for example, the Armed forces bowl:

"The bowl's partnership with the Big 12 Conference ended with the 2005 season. From 2006 to 2009, the Mountain West Conference was signed to provide a team to face either a team from the Pacific-10 Conference or Conference USA (depending on the year; Pac-10 teams would play in odd number years while C-USA teams would play in even numbered years). As such, the 2006 and 2008 games featured Conference USA teams Tulsa and Houston, respectively, whereas California represented the Pac-10 in 2007. The Pac-10 was unable to send a representative to the game in 2009, so Conference USA sent Houston to the game for a second consecutive year. In 2010, since the Mountain West did not have enough eligible teams and Army was bowl eligible, they played SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Following the 2013 football season, the Armed Forces Bowl signed multi-year agreements with the American Athletic Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Mountain West Conference, Army and Navy to set bowl match-ups for the next six seasons (Navy would later join the American Athletic Conference)."

If you care, you can find all of this online. Suffice to say, teams would have a rough idea where they're going before the announcements are made each year.

Marley and Marley

What are peoples predictions for the Semi Finals at the weeked.

I have a bad feeling there will be 2 very one-sided games.

Hope I'm wrong and we get a Notre Dame v Oklahoma final but I can't see it happening.

It's a particularly big weekened for Notre Dame as in some ways it's about more than just winning a national semi final for them as in order to have credibility as a playoff candidate going forward they really need to put in a strong performance and not get a pasting from Clemson, if they get a big beating from Clemson I think it will massiveley reduce Notre Dame's chances of getting considered for the playoff in the future as they always start the season behind the 8 ball due to not being in a conference and each year they have to do a lot more to justify their selction than other teams do.

brinty

Bama v Oklahoma could be tighter than people expect. Sooners will score and Murray will make things happen. But i still expect Saban and the tide to come through.

Clemson v the irish will be very clsoe. Clemson for everything they've done this season haven't been impressive and will give up scores. Considering the talk last year was that with their D Line of Clelin Ferrell, Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence and Austin Bryant all coming back they'd be unstopable except against maybe the Tide or Bulldogs.

I'm gonna go bold and pick the irish to beat the Tigers...

Realt Dearg Sec

Marley and Marley wrote: »

What are peoples predictions for the Semi Finals at the weeked.

I have a bad feeling there will be 2 very one-sided games.

Hope I'm wrong and we get a Notre Dame v Oklahoma final but I can't see it happening.

It's a particularly big weekened for Notre Dame as in some ways it's about more than just winning a national semi final for them as in order to have credibility as a playoff candidate going forward they really need to put in a strong performance and not get a pasting from Clemson, if they get a big beating from Clemson I think it will massiveley reduce Notre Dame's chances of getting considered for the playoff in the future as they always start the season behind the 8 ball due to not being in a conference and each year they have to do a lot more to justify their selction than other teams do.

Why would you think Clemson will be giving anyone a pasting?

eagle eye

Trevor Lawrence is still untested against a top defense. Same can be said for Book of course.
Notre Dame D has 12 picks on the year and 18 sacks. I'd imagine thats much better than anything Clemson has faced to this point.
I think it'll be a very close game. I'm hoping the Irish win it but I really don't know for sure.
I think the other game will be a blowout win for Alabama as long as Tua is healthy. Murray won't get the room to run against that D and he isn't going to be finding receivers wide open down the field either. Sooners D is awful and will get destroyed by the Crimson Tide.

Marley and Marley

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Why would you think Clemson will be giving anyone a pasting?

They've been top notch for the last few years, Trevor Lawrence looks pure class and they've put up some huge scores this year. The fact that they've been in the playoff 4 years in a row and Notre Dame haven't played such a big game since 2012 makes me think that Clemson definitely won't be fazed by the occasion. whereas I've a bad feeling that Notre Dame might be.