If there were a legit playoff...

[Schadenfreude]

That's a streeeeeeeeeeetch....how does the Big 12 get shoe horned into the South?

Three fifths of the conference is in either Texas or Oklahoma. Seems fair.

[Flipper]

Stop..
OK is...at best south central US. Notre Dame is not "basically an ACC" team. They are Midwestern with the same national reach actually any top P5 program This isn't a real playoff, but it isn't a SEC playoff.

This is a tournament that losing to a mediocre Purdue team is enough to exclude you.

[kdog27]

Losing badly to a mediocre team at that.

[mbenecke]

Notre Dame has all the perks of playing in the ACC but none of the difficulties. They're contractually obligated to play 5 ACC teams per year, but they aren't forced to play a 13th game (in the form of a conference championship game). They got to avoid Clemson this year, and the semifinal is basically the real ACC championship game. It's a weird perk for ND. They got to squeak by in like 8 of their games (including beating Ball State by 8) and they got the benefit of the doubt by going undefeated, and they didn't have to put it on the line in the ACC championship game like Clemson did or like Georgia/Bama did in the SEC championship.

[Flipper]

And they beat Michigan and didn't get destroyed by a non entity like Purdue. They were unbeaten...Clemson was unbeaten and so was Bama. WTF kind of championship would you have if you excluded a P5 unbeaten team? Now...you an argue that unbeaten UCF should be in there instead of OU...but then, they'd be the southernmost team in there and you sure as hell don't want that.

OU had one loss...to a pretty decent Texas team and they avenged it. OSU lost to Purdue. Purdue.....and they got mollywhopped in the process.

The right teams are in the invitational

[footballguy51]

Any playoff that does not include UCF is not a legit playoff. I'm standing by that statement. How can you go undefeated for two straight seasons and not be considered for the playoff is beyond me! Hmmm, perhaps that's why it should be renamed as an invitational.

[Flipper]

They didn't beat anyone....

[footballguy51]

They didn't beat anyone....

They beat 12 teams this year. They beat 13 last year. This year the American was pretty strong, with Cincinnati ranked, USF ranked at one time, and a historically strong team Memphis on their schedule TWICE! The only team they avoided in conference was Houston, and Memphis was better. Their game against North Carolina was canceled due to the weather, but UNC is actually worse than more than half of the AAC.

The fact is, people say they played nobody because we're all stuck in this mindset that you are nobody unless you play in a P5 league, and then only if you are in the top half of those conferences. If you put UCF in the ACC, they would have probably been 11-1 or 10-2 this year. They would have owned every team in the Coastal division (they beat the best team in Pitt this year) and would have probably lost to Clemson and MAYBE Syracuse.

Going 25-0 is something, regardless if you play "somebody" or "nobody". You still have to have talent to pull that off, and leaving them out of the discussion is criminal.

[Flipper]

C'mon...are you really trying to tell me that the talent level is equal? That UCF is on an even footing with OU? That the teams UCF beat are on the same level as the upper echelon of the P5?

Kyler Murray and the Heisman folks would tend to disagree

[pdt1081]

C'mon...are you really trying to tell me that the talent level is equal? That UCF is on an even footing with OU? That the teams UCF beat are on the same level as the upper echelon of the P5?

Kyler Murray and the Heisman folks would tend to disagree

Why weren't those teams on their schedule? Are they on the schedule in the future?

[jpfalcon09]

The Athletic had an article today that there's momentum for an 8-team playoff with a guaranteed spot for the best G5 team. Not surprisingly it's backed by those with B1G ties since the conference has been excluded from the party the last two years.

[It's the Journey...]

12 team tournament with 10 automatic bids for conference champions. That makes winning your conference meaningful. You have 2 at large spots for independents or the 2nd and 3rd place SEC teams. Seeding is done based on season schedule with strength of schedule used as tie breakers. Top 4 teams get a bye. If you move the regular season back to 11 games that should give time for everything to play out. Once eliminated you are eligible to be selected to a bowl game unless you make the top 4 teams. That allows the bowl games to keep making their money.

If you are going to have a tournament and not an invitational then all the conference champs must be included, otherwise it's just another circle jerk invitational like we have now.

[Falconwriter]

Stop..
OK is...at best south central US. Notre Dame is not "basically an ACC" team. They are Midwestern with the same national reach actually any top P5 program This isn't a real playoff, but it isn't a SEC playoff.

This is a tournament that losing to a mediocre Purdue team is enough to exclude you.

Okay, let's be clear: Oklahoma is NOT in the South Central United States...they are South WEST team...and always have been. Their chief rival is Texas, another SW team. You can argue the technicalities of geography, but more goes into identity than geography alone. Ohio considers itself to be in the Midwest, even though, with the same technicalities of geography, they would be more Mid Eastern...except culturally they identify with the Midwest. Oklahoma used to be in a conference CALLED The Southwest Conference...and they were charter member from 1919 until the league disbanded in 1996. They've always been associated (historically) more with teams from the Southwest than teams from elsewhere, although with expansion, the Big 12 now has teams in more Eastern states.

As for Notre Dame, they are a de facto member of the ACC without the same requirements as every other member (as has been noted). One of the things I'd do if I ran the show would be to tell ND that if they want to be a playoff participant, they have to join a league. Then it would be up to them to comply or not. There should not be a separate set of rules just for them.

[Flipper]

Stop...

You don't even know the history you are quoting...OU LEFT the Southwest Conference to join what became the Big 8 in 1919. It's not exactly a salient point any way since ARKANSAS was a member of the conference until it disbanded in 1996. Are they "southwestern" too?

Do you know why Notre Dame gets to ask for separate rules? Because they're Notre F**KING Dame and they can get away with that.

OSU failed to get in because they filed to win against a mediocre Purdue team. There isn't a team in that tournament with a loss that comes anywhere near that...primarily because three of the teams have NO LOSSES AT ALL.

They got this one right...you get four teams at the end...they picked the right four. How this is even up for debate is beyond me

[Schadenfreude]

In reporting college football scores, the Associated Press has traditionally grouped schools into these regions: East, South, Midwest, Southwest, and Far West. I believe they've always been putting Oklahoma universities in the Southwest.

Here is an example:

https://www.apnews.com/5d2aadb93378124f5ff18f43170a3eb6" target="_blank

Note where they put the Oklahoma-Kansas State game, played in Norman.