[Vulcan00]

The long awaited payoff for the National Championship is finally here, and boy is it a mess. There is going to be some very upset fans come 12:45pm December 07, 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mresseguie]

My son enthusiastically says the UO Ducks have a shot at the title this year. He may be a wee bit biased as this is his fourth (and last) year there.

[Letitroll98]

I voted for "?".

[S Clark]

I voted for "?".

WHAT??? Are you nuts? Clearly "?" is better than "?"!! Sheesh. 

[Letitroll98]

Well the public's with you, "?" has three votes to "?"s one vote.

Seriously, looks like they picked the four most marketable teams, the whole thing stinks.  Go back to the poles and have a mythical champion again, it's a amateur athletics.  Or have a eight team conference winners playoff and dump the bowl system.  It really needs to be trashed and rebuilt.

[charmerci]

Well the public's with you, "?" has three votes to "?"s one vote.

Seriously, looks like they picked the four most marketable teams, the whole thing stinks.  Go back to the poles and have a mythical champion again, it's a amateur athletics.  Or have a eight team conference winners playoff and dump the bowl system.  It really needs to be trashed and rebuilt.

You don't want to go back to a mythical championship - the 4 team playoff needs to be around long enough to show the NCAA that it will be profitable to expand the playoffs. Patience, Padawan!

[S Clark]

Well the current system smells to high heaven.  TCU is ranked 3rd, wins 55-3, and drops three spots to let a much larger market team into the top 4.  Hmmmm.  Why would anyone think this is something other than market driven rankings?  It's all about money.

[roscoeiii]

I am no Ohio State fan, but I think that the following do make sense in terms of why Ohio St got in:

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/12/7/7347725/ohio-state-playoff-baylor-tcu

IIRC, Ohio St also had a tougher non-conference schedule as well.

[roscoeiii]

http://www.businessinsider.com/baylor-strength-of-schedule-2014-12

The Buckeyes beat seven teams that currently have winning records (6-5 Navy still has to play Army next week); TCU defeated four such teams and Baylor beat three.

You want to talk about schedule strength? The Buckeyes didn't play an FCS foe (Baylor played Northwestern State and TCU played Samford).

[S Clark]

http://www.businessinsider.com/baylor-strength-of-schedule-2014-12

The Buckeyes beat seven teams that currently have winning records (6-5 Navy still has to play Army next week); TCU defeated four such teams and Baylor beat three.

You want to talk about schedule strength? The Buckeyes didn't play an FCS foe (Baylor played Northwestern State and TCU played Samford).

Don't misunderstand.  I'm not arguing that Ohio St is a weaker team than TCU, just that nothing changed to cause TCU to move down one notch, much less three.  You aren't ranked 3rd one week, win 55-3, and move down to 6th the next week... there is just no explanation that doesn't involve a financial decision. 

[TF1216]

What I don't understand is how an undefeated team, like FSU, doesn't get the #1 seed.  If the committee doesn't make them #1, then they could easily make an argument for them not to be in the top 4.

[macrojack]

The playoff teams were decided in March. I'm glad to see this upheaval. A little anarchy, followed by a lot of apathy might get the attention of the NCAA.
We don't vote at the polls. If you want your vote to matter, cast it at the cash register. True in all situations.

[BobC]

Seems to me that if the SoS is so important, then TCU should never have been put #3.  I think this is what hurts....being #3 then dropped to #6 after a lopsided win (to a cupcake).

I don't understand how TCU was ranked over Baylor after losing to them anyway.

Plus lack of a Championship game kills the Big 12.

(yeah, I'm a Buckeye  )

[BobC]

I think the 4 team playoff is designed to give a clear #1 at the end....they'd rather have a largely irrelevant argument about #4 early, but a clear winner at the end.

An 8 team playoff would help...but then we'll argue about the #8 spot....and before long is like March Madness where half of the teams get in.

[brother love]

Say what you will, I think the (4) teams selected for the playoffs is spot on (I have no affiliation with any of the teams under consideration).

Ohio State had 12 wins & thrashed the #13 team in the country 59-0. The Big 12 still only has 10 teams, & per NCAA rules can't have a conference championship unless there is 12 teams. If TCU & Baylor had played in a Big 12 championship game, I think the winner would have been the 4th team selected. Since they didn't, both teams only had 11 wins each, so it made the decision easy-peazy.

[BobC]

I also think the committee needs to select the 4 teams which will give the best show...this means 4 teams which are playing at their peak.  So they probably would have loved to drop FSU, but couldn't because they're undefeated.  But it explains the OSU pick...because if the Bucks play Alabama they way the did against Wisc.....it'll be a good show!

Last, being a realist....big schools with a long football history create a large fan base who at a minimum will tune in, but also will travel, stay in hotels, buy expensive tickets, eat and drink a lot....you get the idea.  So if everything else is equal, then they go for the money.

[Mudslide]

I think that the mistake, if any, was the committee ranking TCU at #3 last week.  But in the committee's favor, they said early on that the final four would lean on conference champions...which the Big12 had none.  Given wins, strength of schedule, etc, I think the committee succeeded in finding the four best teams for the playoff....with the possibility of FSU.  (I think FSU couldn't be left off because of their undefeated season...even if it was against lesser competition and they looked over-matched in some of those games.)

But someone please tell me why the BIG10 has 14 teams and the BIG12 has ten.  At least they could change the conference names after reallignment...ala PAC12.