(01-28-2022 03:12 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 03:04 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:53 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:45 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:08 PM)stever20 Wrote:  As far as why Chiefs got the better time slot was because it was a 2/3 game.

We can't analogize the NFL treatment of playoff game times and TV slots to the CFP, because maximizing TV audience size in each time window is only one factor the NFL has to deal with. The NFL is not only putting games in various time slots, but dealing with four different TV networks as to which network gets which games and which time slots, with some things guaranteed in a network's TV contract and other things at the NFL's discretion.

To this point, if we had the totally subjective ranking system of the CFP applied to the NFL, then that Chiefs-Bills game would have been the equivalent of a #1 vs. #2 game - what ought to be the Super Bowl - being played in the divisional round. (No one outside of Nashville bought the #1 seed of the Titans for good reason.)

Considering that CBS received 43 million viewers for that game, they were certainly happy even though the best matchup and game of the year happened two rounds before the Super Bowl.

KC and Buffalo would not have been the 1 and 2 seeds going into a CFP like playoff with NFL teams. KC might have been 1 but Buffalo sure as hell wouldn't have been the 2 seed.

I guess if you're looking at the entire NFL, it probably would have been Chiefs at #1 and Packers at #2 going into the playoffs. However, if you're looking at the AFC, I think many people would have had Chiefs-Bills as #1-#2 going into the playoffs. As a fantasy football owner of Ryan Tannehill this season, I got a weekly reminder of how I couldn't ever trust the Titans as a #1 seed.

That being said, I'm glad that it's totally irrelevant because the NFL is decided entirely on-the-field (unlike college football). As much as I didn't believe in the Titans, they did earn their #1 seed on-the-field as opposed to being slotted by a bunch of committee members sitting in a conference room in Dallas.

I think h2h would have made people hold the noses and have Tennessee over KC, especially with how decisive it was.

(01-28-2022 03:13 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 03:03 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:36 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 02:08 PM)stever20 Wrote:  If you don't think the networks care that it could be possible that 1 seed could have to face harder team in QF than 2 other teams who got to play each other- I don't know what to tell you. Why do you think there is seeding in the current CFP even now? Seeding has to be a part of things.

As far as why Chiefs got the better time slot was because it was a 2/3 game. Saw it in the NFC as well. Go look at the CFP. The 2/3 game has been the prime time slot every single year except for 2 years(and those 2 years were due to the Rose Bowl time slot on NYD). It's a well duh type of thing.

And I don't think we're seeing a bracket that's reseeded every round. We don't see it in the NCAA tournament ever for basketball- and because of that the tourney is popular as anything because folks can fill out brackets w/o thinking ahead of time.

No, I don't think the TV networks care.

What they care first and foremost about are the biggest national brand names: Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, etc.

If they can't get the national brand names, then they want the teams with large fan bases from the P5 conferences.

It's no different from any other sport. If you think that the networks care whether the Tampa Bay Rays are a higher seed than the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox when it comes to TV scheduling, then I don't know what to tell you. If you think that the networks care whether the Suns and Grizzlies are higher seeds than the Lakers or Warriors when it comes to TV scheduling, then I don't know what to tell you. TV networks are straight up elitist - they would just automatically send Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame straight to the playoff every year if they could (much less have P5 auto-bids).

As I've stated, though, it's water under the bridge. We'll get the straight bracket that you've long advocated for. This is merely a concurring opinion because I believe the reasoning is very different than what you've suggested here.

If TV cared so much about brands, and this is something you have never answered- why is there NO provision at all that if Rose is hosting semifinal and Big Ten/Pac 12 are in the playoff- that the Rose must be Big Ten/Pac 12. Thought brands were so damn precious? And we saw that in 2014 where Oregon was 2 and Ohio St was in there that it would have been easy to manipulate it to have Oregon/Ohio St. And yet after that- not a damn thing changed. Just answer that 1 simple question.

I've said it many times already! The other conferences refused to agree to it and, ultimately, the Big Ten and Pac-12 acquiesced. THAT is why that's the case. The SEC was the one that was complaining that a Big Ten or Pac-12 team could get an "easier" matchup compared to them or a higher-ranked SEC team could get sent to play a "road game" in Pasadena against a lower-ranked Pac-12 team. It was the other conferences that pushed back and, to be fair, I totally understand why they did so.

However, it was NOT from the TV networks. The TV networks would love a traditional Big Ten/Pac-2 Rose Bowl that's a guaranteed playoff game regardless of ranking, but that's simply not the system that the other conferences would agree to... so that's why we have what we have now. You're being blinded by your apparent disdain for the Rose Bowl/Big Ten/Pac-12 relationship here - it's SUPER valuable to the TV networks and they'd be over the moon if they had a Rose Bowl semifinal or quarterfinal with #1 Ohio State vs. #2 USC, but when 9 of the other 11 CFP members were voting in one direction, the Big Ten and Pac-12 simply had to concede on that point.

The 3 highest rated Rose Bowls in the last 17 years were in 2005(Texas/USC), 2014(Oregon/Florida St), and 2017(Georgia/Oklahoma). The slot is what is valuable to the networks. Not the conferences. You put any QF or SF in the Rose Bowl slot, and it's going to be the #1 game. The networks know that and the Rose Bowl knows that.

ESPN and the conferences know in a 4 team setup there can not be any scenario where the top 2 teams are facing off in the SF. Why do you think college basketball changed about 5-6 years ago to make it where the #1 overall seed automatically gets matched up with the #4 overall seed in the brackets? Because they don't want any chance of the top 2 teams facing off before the finals. You might think brackets don't matter, but to most folks they absolutely do.

Don't get me wrong - I think the brackets matter, but the difference is that I also don't see them as some type of ironclad infallible ranking system when it's all totally subjective in the case of college football. It's one thing when it's like the NFL when they have seedings completely based upon on-the-field records, but that's the not the case with college football. I don't take it as an article of faith that X team is #1 and Y team is #2 and Z team is #3 - it's all just hypothetical when it comes to college football.

In any event, I'm done arguing about it. We've spent way too much arguing about something that, at the end of the day, we practically agree upon the conclusion regardless of the reasoning. I've stated many times already that I believe that we'll have a straight bracket in the new playoff system.

They’re wanting the 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 to be upsets like college basketball. So I think they’ll do a bracket & lock the top 4 seeds into a location to make it easier for the quarterfinal & semi-final bowls to draw people.

(01-27-2022 03:15 PM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 02:53 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-27-2022 10:55 AM)stever20 Wrote:  https://theathletic.com/3095820/2022/01/...ed_article

* Make week 0 week 1.
* make CCG time the Saturday after Thanksgiving
* make following weekend Army/Navy
* make following weekend 1st round of playoffs
* make following weekend QF round of playoffs
* semifinals both on NY Day. Rose always along with 1 of Sugar, Orange, Peach, Cotton, Fiesta
* championship game remains as currently scheduled. location always 1 of Sugar, Orange, Peach, Cotton, Fiesta

I like this set up a lot. And yeah, it does away with trying to compete with the NFL Playoffs totally.

Quarterfinals don't work during Christmas week. And the non-semi-final bowls don't draw very well so ESPN is unhappy.

Nobody cares about Army-Navy getting an exclusive weekend. Everybody seems to forget that is a relatively new phenomena. They've only been December 8 or later consistently since 2009. It was Thanksgiving weekend most of the time prior to the 80s. From 1890-1980, it was played in November 68 of those 91 years and 20 of those December games were December 1 or 2, only one was later than the 2nd after 1934. With 2 exceptions, it was played between before December 8 from 1980-2008.

I agree! Move the Army/Navy game to Thanksgiving weekend and give them exclusivity on Friday.

I'd love to see the end of Army-Navy having a whole weekend to itself. I've tried numerous times to get into that game and just can't. It's certainly a great tradition that should be preserved, but I wonder if we couldn't accomplish the same thing for them by just giving them an exclusive timeslot with no competing games at the same time? Either let them have the afternoon and play other games later, or if they want prime time schedule other games first in the afternoon. They might even do better if they weren't the ONLY game, I'd be more likely to watch if it was before/after another game that I have more interest in.

(01-28-2022 03:21 PM)AuzGrams Wrote:  They’re wanting the 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 to be upsets like college basketball. So I think they’ll do a bracket & lock the top 4 seeds into a location to make it easier for the quarterfinal & semi-final bowls to draw people.

I think they want a bracket to allow the brackets to be like what we see for college hoops with the bracket pools. That has helped explode the popularity of the basketball tourney quite a lot. Everyone plays them- even ones that have no clue about college basketball.

(01-28-2022 03:25 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 03:21 PM)AuzGrams Wrote:  They’re wanting the 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 to be upsets like college basketball. So I think they’ll do a bracket & lock the top 4 seeds into a location to make it easier for the quarterfinal & semi-final bowls to draw people.

I think they want a bracket to allow the brackets to be like what we see for college hoops with the bracket pools. That has helped explode the popularity of the basketball tourney quite a lot. Everyone plays them- even ones that have no clue about college basketball.

I think you're right, the bracket is huge. I have absolutely zero interest in basketball until the tournament. I never even know how my schools are doing until those stories start to come out about who will make the bracket and who is on the bubble.

(01-28-2022 03:19 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  It's one thing when it's like the NFL when they have seedings completely based upon on-the-field records, but that's the not the case with college football. I don't take it as an article of faith that X team is #1 and Y team is #2 and Z team is #3 - it's all just hypothetical when it comes to college football.

Yup. If there is a 12-team playoff, there will be arguments pretty much every year about both the last in/last out teams and the 4/5 teams if there are 4 first-round byes. And there will be even more arguments about every other seed from 1-12 whether or not the bracket is fixed, because, as with March Madness, it can matter a lot whether a team is matched against a rock-solid opponent that is underseeded or a questionable team that is overseeded.

(01-28-2022 03:25 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-28-2022 03:21 PM)AuzGrams Wrote:  They’re wanting the 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9 to be upsets like college basketball. So I think they’ll do a bracket & lock the top 4 seeds into a location to make it easier for the quarterfinal & semi-final bowls to draw people.

I think they want a bracket to allow the brackets to be like what we see for college hoops with the bracket pools. That has helped explode the popularity of the basketball tourney quite a lot. Everyone plays them- even ones that have no clue about college basketball.

When I ran the NCAA office pool we allowed picks to be updated. Nothing like having a secretary relaying a call from a boss in Beijing, "I don't know what this means but Bill said, 'Louisville, Georgia, Baylor'"

The Chinese monitoring the call probably thought it was a code, but eventually decided it had something to do with NASCAR.