Air Force Coach and Chair of the NCAA Football Rules Committee

[SpaceRaider]

excerpt:

...Calling it "un-American," Air Force coach Troy Calhoun minced no words in expressing his opinion of the four-team College Football Playoff.



Calhoun, the outgoing chair of the college football rules committee, feels the playoff needs at least eight, and probably 16, teams involved.



"There's no doubt that it's all set up for five conferences, as it is," Calhoun said. "You've got to be in one of those five conferences.

"It's un-American, bottom line. We live in a country where upward mobility is possible, where games should be played out on the field."







This post was edited on 12/11 4:57 PM by SpaceRaider

Air Force's Calhoun rails against 'un-American' c

 

[RaiderDoug]

I was an anti-playoff guy for years. I thought it would cheapen the regular season.

I was 100%, flat out dead wrong.

Bring on 8.

I might have a hard time with 16 though. 16 would be great if they gave the little guy a shot. But if they didn't and just used it to squeeze more P5 teams in, then that's bad - that would mean we would be seeing a rematch of Alabama and Mizzou. That's pointless.



12 with the top 4 teams getting a bye might work best, IMHO.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

Originally posted by RaiderDoug:
I was an anti-playoff guy for years. I thought it would cheapen the regular season.

I was 100%, flat out dead wrong.

Bring on 8.

I might have a hard time with 16 though. 16 would be great if they gave the little guy a shot. But if they didn't and just used it to squeeze more P5 teams in, then that's bad - that would mean we would be seeing a rematch of Alabama and Mizzou. That's pointless.



12 with the top 4 teams getting a bye might work best, IMHO.

16 is the only answer...Conference Champions and 5 at large. Right now and even at 8 teams, its a beauty contest that only allows the P5 teams.

MT will NEVER have a chance unless a conference champion gets in. Next year, we could beat Bama and go 13-0 and we would not get in.

 

[Raiderclyde]

No system is absolutely perfect, but at least conference champions getting a berth makes it the most fair. Every other division has no problem crowning a champion; in fact that's one of the reasons I miss FCS/1-AA football. At least our Blue Raiders could make it to a championship game if we kept winning while in 1-AA. Sadly, our first date (in 1984) was as far as we ever went in the playoffs--the semifinals vs. La Tech right here at home. Our 11-0 1985 team, or the four consecutive playoff runs ended either in the first round or in the quarterfinals. But at least we got there!

Marshall had zero chance this year of making the P5 bowl. Even if they managed to defeat WKU and go 13-0, Boise would have squeezed them out, somehow. Matter of fact, Marshall was denied a ranking at 12-1 and CHAMPION of C-USA. When they did get ranked, it was ridiculously low rating for one week at #24 and being undefeated while Boise was higher with two losses. Are several four loss teams really that much better than our conference champion (Really--as many as nine spots higher or thirteen in a power ranking poll that a sports network had at end of season?)

As bad as I didn't like the BC$, thought the BC$ process was more fair than what we have now. We are basically back to the days of the AP and UPI voter days of determining who is #1 except there are four teams versus two in play. With what we have now, season ending #1 and #2 are not guaranteed to meet either--so that is a step backward.

This post was edited on 12/12 6:11 PM by Raiderclyde

 

[mtutmut]

In America, it is tradition to give the little guy at least the illusion of equality.

This post was edited on 12/16 8:43 AM by mtutmut

 

[RaiderDoug]

Originally posted by Blueraider_Mike:

Originally posted by RaiderDoug:
I was an anti-playoff guy for years. I thought it would cheapen the regular season.

I was 100%, flat out dead wrong.

Bring on 8.

I might have a hard time with 16 though. 16 would be great if they gave the little guy a shot. But if they didn't and just used it to squeeze more P5 teams in, then that's bad - that would mean we would be seeing a rematch of Alabama and Mizzou. That's pointless.



12 with the top 4 teams getting a bye might work best, IMHO.

16 is the only answer...Conference Champions and 5 at large. Right now and even at 8 teams, its a beauty contest that only allows the P5 teams.

MT will NEVER have a chance unless a conference champion gets in. Next year, we could beat Bama and go 13-0 and we would not get in.

I'm just not convinced that the 16 team will allow all conference champs. Which would be awesome.

But that would mean that schools like UTSA and North Texas have an equal shot at getting in as Texas does. That's not going to fly.

At 8, I could see them giving a spot to a token G5 school like Boise or Marshall. At 16, I'm just not convinced that those extra 8 teams will mean expanded opportunity for the G5.

What's more likely to happen to those 8 extra slots if you go to 16:

3 more P5 at-larges and 5 G5 conference champs?

or

6 more at-large P5 schools and maybe 2 G5 conference champs?

 

[mtutmut]

The winner of lesser conferences will be cannon fodder for the first few years. However, with a real shot at the title, smaller programs will be able to compete better for top-shelf players. Also, some of the bottom feeders in the larger conferences might jump ship in order to compete better at a lesser conference if that conference gets a legitimate chance at the title. The little guys will still be at a huge disadvantage, but at least they will get a chance every year, and someone will eventually have a Cinderella season. People love those stories, and it increases their interest in sports at a time that people seem to be becoming more apathetic towards college football. Everyone loves the illusion of equality. It is what this country is based on.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I would rather get boat raced by Oregon at their place in a playoff game with meaning than play in the Bahamas bowl with 10K in attendance.

 

[RaiderDoug]

I really think that if we had a 16 team playoff with conference titles, we'd see very quickly the level of parity even out among all college football.

We (and most of the G5) keep losing recruits to the bottom of the P5, simply because the P5 can sell the illusion of competing for a national title and big bowl games.

If you take that away, there's simply no reason to go to the Kentucky's, Iowa State's, or Indiana's or Wake Forest's of the college football world.

That's also the main reason I think it'll never happen. There's a good # of P5 schools who know they'll never be in a 4 team playoff, but they'd gladly give up the chance at a 16 team playoff if it meant being overtaken by G5 schools.