(01-09-2024 04:45 PM)Garrettabc Wrote: I don't know if more inventory of worthless games is the answer, but the ACC should strive to get multiple teams in the playoffs every year, that's where the most money can be gained. If the ACC was smart, they'd game the system by keeping their best team out of the ACCCG and put in the 2 vs 3. No sense in saddling your #2 team with an extra, unnecessary loss if they played the #1 team. ACC champs can be determined after the playoff committee does the end of season ranking.
if a conference cannot draw "top teams" that will improve the conference by their addition then the other answer is to improve the teams in the conference that are not doing as well (which is a long term proposition)
you do that by having more teams in the conference with more wins and then the conference games that you do play "just mean more" because it is better teams facing each other across the board
if a conference has 10 teams and they play 12 games each that is 120 total wins and losses that the conference has
if a conference plays 9 conference games that means there will be 45 guaranteed wins for the conference and 45 GUARANTEED losses for the conference and then 30 OOC games that have the POTENTIAL to be 30 wins for the conference in an ideal situation with 0 losses for the conference
so playing 9 conference games the best record a conference can have is 75-45
if you reduce that to 8 conference games then you have 40 guaranteed wins and 40 guaranteed losses and then the POTENTIAL for 40 wins with no losses
so then a conference can have a record of 80-40 or the potential to have 5 more wins playing 8 conference games vs 9
if you take the idea that the best 2 teams in the conference will be 12-0 or 11-1 under either situation then that is 33 of those potential wins that the top two team eat up out of those potential 75 or 80 wins (9 or 8 conference games)
from there when you spread the remaining wins around the other teams in the conference if you want teams with 9 wins or even 10 wins (records that could be in the top 12 and making the playoffs) you start eating up a lot more of those potential wins
that means the bottom 5 of 6 teams in the conference start looking at records that will at best be 4 or 5 wins and some even less
so when you take 5 potential wins (playing fewer conference games) that also do not guarantee a conference loss well those potential wins are there for the teams that are weaker in the conference.....the teams that the conference really needs to improve to make an overall better and more appealing conference.....when you get a team with one more win and they get a bowl bid that is better for the conference especially if they win that bowl game....if you get a couple of teams in that situation it is even better for the conference
if you have two teams that are generally 9+ win teams avoid each other in season and instead of one beating the other (what has to happen in a game) and instead they both get an OOC win then you may well have an additional team with 10 wins and in the rankings to make the playoffs.....instead of a team that lost a "tough conference game" and is now #17 with 9 wins instead of #11 with 10 wins
an example of this in 2023 would be Louisville.....if Louisville had avoided a conference game over Pitt and instead had beat a tomato can on Oct. 14th when Louisville was #14 then they would have at least stayed at #14 if not moved up a spot or two in the rankings
instead they dropped to #18 and beat Duke, VT, UVA, and Miami (Fl) to get back to being ranked #10 before they lost to Kentucky......with the loss to Kentucky they fell to #14 to face FSU.....after the loss to FSU they fell to #15
if they had avoided that 4 spot drop with the loss to Pitt and instead had stayed ranked the same or slightly moved up there is a good chance they would be #11 even after the loss to FSU (when they ended up #15) and they would be in the playoffs
another example would be FSU in 2022.....they were #16 when they beat Florida so 5 spots out of the playoffs if the top 5 conference champs are going to get in (Clemson being the conference champ)....FSU lost to Wake, NC State, and FSU all in a row and they were #23 facing Wake and they were still #16 heading into bowl season after winning the rest of their games
if they had avoided one of those 3 teams especially Wake #22 at the time when FSU was #23 and instead they beat an OOC tomato can then they would have been still ranked to play #14 NC State (so your conference media partners would have a game with two ranked teams facing each other) and there is a chance that even with a loss to NC State and Clemson and a win over an OOC tomato can (much less a half decent OOC game) they would have been higher than #16 to end the regular season and possibly as high as #11 to make the playoffs
and with that OOC win instead of a conference loss to Wake they would have been a better strength of schedule opponent for NCState and Clemson
lastly some will say "well there is no guarantee that you win the OOC games and that is true, but if a conference as a whole is winning well over 50% of their OOC games (say 70%) then you still have 70% X 5 (in the case of a 10 team conference) or 3.5 more wins to spread out in the conference.....and as shown above if those wins happen to spread the right way (they will some years and some years they might not) then you end up with more ranked teams to head into the playoffs (or bowl season in the past) and you build from there
in a 14 team conference (we will exclude ND because they only play 5 conference games) then you are looking at a POTENTIAL 7 additional wins for the conference without the guaranteed loss of a conference game.....and if you are as a conference winning 70% of your OOC games then 70% X 7 = 4.9 or basically 5 extra wins to spread around the conference.....and as shown with 2022 and 2023 as an example of those 5 wins happen to fall right it can make a major difference.....while it makes little of any difference that there were fewer conference games
and the reality is the media partners pay for ranked teams facing ranked teams and teams that have playoff potential against teams that have playoff potential.....they do NOT pay for a few good teams in a conference beating up on a lot of teams that are generally not going to sniff the playoffs or a bowl game
and year in and year out when you sneak an extra team in the playoffs, get an extra team or two or three in a bowl game, and have a couple of more teams with 9 or 10 win and ending the year ranked that builds into the next year and beyond.....it is what the SEC SEC SEC does year in and year out....combined with their tomato cans being late in the season when other conferences that have not figured it out are beating up on each other and knocking each other down in the rankings