Interesting article on conference perception

[shakeitsugaree]

Bill Connelly’s take on the Pac12

Can’t really disagree with this:

We have turned inclusion in the College Football Playoff into a de facto gauge of conference strength — we talk about conferences being eliminated from the title race as much as teams — and while the Pac-12’s best recent program (Washington) has been strong and consistent of late, the ACC has Clemson. The Pac-12 basically wins every test of strength beyond that, but the ACC gets to claim last year’s national title, and the Pac-12 hasn’t had a CFP team in the last two seasons.

The conclusion is that teams from the Pac12 have a more difficult path to the CFP than teams from any other P5 conference. Bummer

[shakeitsugaree]

Also liked Connelly’s write up on the 2019 Utes

[Stone]

The ACC is extremely top heavy, but they don’t get knocked because, the top team is the defending champ. The way the playoff is set up now creates a perverse incentive for a conference to be top heavy. A deep conference will struggle to get a team invited to the playoff. The easiest solution is to create expand to an 8 game playoff with an auto-bid for each P5 champion. Then the whole “strength of conference” becomes largely irrelevant (sure, there will then be arguments about the at-large invitations, but the counter to that is to win your damn conference!).

Barring that, the quickest/easiest way for the Pac12 to improve its perception is to go to an 8-game league schedule. It will upset some because it means teams will go a bit longer without seeing certain teams from the other division, but as it is, the Pac12 will continue to look weaker.

[shakeitsugaree]

Agree on all counts. Will an 8 team playoff ever happen, though? What’s the incentive for the other conferences to do this?

[PlainsUte]

MONEY

Look at the NCAA D1 basketball tournament.  It is a huge money maker.   A fair tournament that starts with ALL conference champs, includes 3 at large teams, and has a chance for an exceptional G5 team to get in I think would be extremely attractive.   “How can we add games?”  Well every other sport other than D1 football manages to do it.  JUST DO IT!!

[shakeitsugaree]

Agreed!

So, why hasn’t it happened? Serious question

[Stone]

Just spitballing, but as it is, the conferences that have thrived under the playoff format would presumably not be too stoked about an expanded playoff. There *should* be more money for all under an expanded playoff…but we saw how long it took for the BCS to become a 4-team playoff, despite the same situation.

When a party is entreched in a good position (ala the SEC), it is not easy to convince them that change is good. Will an expanded playoff benefit the SEC? I would argue, yes; but some may see it as an opening for other conferences to get more power to the SEC’s detriment.

[Chidojuan]

An exception is that the CFP Committee has not shown any hesitation about selecting multiple contenders from the same conference, so the SEC might see it as an opportunity for even more teams to compete, thereby increasing their dominance.  Of course, only Georgia and ‘Bama are likely to get in, so it won’t make much difference.

[UM4G]

I think it will take another year of chaos (a la 2007), with no clear top 4 teams, and a little dash of controversy such as the SEC, or any conference really, getting two teams in again.

[shakeitsugaree]

I think it’s weird it hasn’t happened yet. With the Big12 being left out, and now the Pac12 twice, it seems like there should have been movement on this. Which makes me wonder, what is preventing it?

[Chidojuan]

Probably just need to wait for the current contract to expire, can’t remember when, it does.  It’s not too far away, just a few years I think.

[shakeitsugaree]

I don’t know what contract you’re referring to – can you elaborate?

[Chidojuan]

CFP has a contract with ESPN, don’t remember the details at the moment, but I’ll look it up.

[Chidojuan]

2025, so unless they decide to renegotiate, which is unlikely, that’s how long it will be until an 8 team playoff is considered.

[shakeitsugaree]

Did not know this – probably has something to do with the current state of things. Thanks for shedding some light on this!

[Author]

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