ACC goes all in - Keep 4 Team Playoff they say

[aeromech]

I will leave it at this; there are numerous reasons why Tech football is where it is right now, and Dodd ain’t one of them. I suppose you believe Tulane would be rockin right now if they stayed in the SEC?

You can't possibly think Tulane is better off out of the SEC.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

I will leave it at this; there are numerous reasons why Tech football is where it is right now, and Dodd ain’t one of them. I suppose you believe Tulane would be rockin right now if they stayed in the SEC?

They would be similar to Vandy. Tulane would have more money and they would have retained their series with LSU. They were not relevant in football when they left. That would not have changed.

 

[aeromech]

They would be similar to Vandy. Tulane would have more money and they would have retained their series with LSU. They were not relevant in football when they left. That would not have changed.

It depends on whether they tried. If they didn't try then they would be like Vandy, if they did try, maybe more like Mississippi State or Kentucky. If we hadn't made it into the ACC we might be similar to Tulane today.

 

[OptionJacket]

These are the same arguments made along every step of the way. Some of you are either old and senile or young and naive. I’m 51. I grew up watching journalism majors for liberal art schools picking the national champion year after year. Teams were literally given Nattys by having a bigger media presence near their school (cough, cough Notre Dame / cough, cough Colorado getting the entire west coast media vote). Oh, and those New Years Day bowl games that some of you love were jokes. Hey, let’s watch a rigged system of the #1 play #9 and then carry their coach off the field. It was a joke and a money grab from the bowl mafia.

Once the BCS killed the bowl mafia these same posts were made. The BCS lasted 15 years. Now, we are 8 years into the 4 team playoff and even if expansion isn’t passed now it’s not going to go away and will be here soon. Then it will expand again. And again. So, all these posts about conference champions or 6 or 8 team playoffs are just laughable. These are the same arguments we’ve heard since the BCS killed the bowl mafia. In case you haven’t noticed the fans have spoken already about what they want - bowl games are bleeding attendance and playoff games are sold out.

 

[donsue]

It depends on whether they tried. If they didn't try then they would be like Vandy, if they did try, maybe more like Mississippi State or Kentucky. If we hadn't made it into the ACC we might be similar to Tulane today.

Back in the 1960s, conferences were a much looser affiliation of schools. There were no conference title games, no mega revenue streams, and no ESPN. Until the end of the Dodd era, Tech played on national TV as much as anyone, maybe save Bama and Notre Dame. There was absolutely no way to predict the future for what it is now.
Frankly, in the early 2000s, when the ACC added Va Tech and Miami, many people believed it would be the dominant league in football. The big problem with that is the ineptitude of Swofford and the unwillingness of Tobacco Road.
You can sit and stew over a decision made almost 60 years ago, and subsequently blame the parties involved with those decisions. That is nothing but hindsight, and conjecture as to what woulda/coulda been.
All I know is the man won a national title, won numerous major bowls, and made Tech a national name. Criticize him all you want.

 

[77GTFan]

I believe Dodd overreacted to recruiting number issues. He always had a huge number of players - players redshirting, playing freshman football, etc. some really great Atlanta area players signed with Tech only to be buried on depth charts when I was a kid. My Dad had coached David Seawell at Roosevelt, Class of ‘60, QB. He spent five years at Tech and only played freshman ball and held for extra points. Dodd felt the large numbers helped him be prepared for academic attrition. Also, we can only speculate how much he was trying to intuit how integration would change the football landscape of the South. But, he thought he was right and that we could be a Southern Notre Dame as an independent.

He was very wrong, in hindsight. The NCAA crackdown on scholarship numbers for all schools, the successful navigation of integrating Southern teams, the explosion of television that catered to conferences - all of these forces hurt the program. Atlanta becoming a pro sports city was a factor.

Many say that had we stayed we would have been a Vandy in SEC football. I disagree. As an SEC member we outperformed Tulane, Vandy, Miss State and Kentucky. I do not believe that would have changed. I think we could have had our times where we would have competed well against Tennessee, Ole Miss, Florida and Auburn. We would have been fine against newcomers like South Carolina and Arkansas. Money, coaching, exposure, recruiting - it would all have been better if we had stayed in the SEC.

 

[rocky top buzz]

The only way playoffs expand is 12. SEC commish said as much. They want to be able to get 5-6 teams in. 7 of the top 10 revenue programs (once OU and UTX join) are in the SEC and those fans aren't spending all that money to watch Cincinnati in the playoffs. Until the B1G/ACC/PAC12 alliance tells espn to give all teams the same money as they give the SEC, the gap will only continue to widen.

 

[boozinbuzz]

Expanding the playoffs isn't going to help anything. The playoffs we have right now are non-competitive and don't do well ratings wise. They need to address the imbalance between the factories and the others first.

The answer to a successful football product is easily found in the NFL: a competitive league where no handful of teams dominates every year and the outcome of the game isn't a given. There are 6 NFL playoff games this weekend and they are all must see for sports fans, even the viewer who doesn't follow the NFL likes watching a compelling game. They are spread across multiple networks who are throwing money at the NFL to carry the games. The ratings are going to be outstanding.

The NCAAF playoff product on the other hand is games with double digit spreads that are over by halftime and the ratings are declining every year.

Sidebar 1: The Dodd debate is interesting. Probably deserves yet another thread about it but I like the debate. But its like arguing about should JFK have invaded Cuba, old history. The most recent shift in NCAAF that has us where we are is the conference realignment, the TV dollars that came with it, NIL, and transfer portal. Anything older than that is kind of ancient history.

Sidebar 2: I don't get the ESPN hate in that they promote the SEC for every playoff spot. The playoff and championship game ratings are going down every year. ESPN likes to make money and I don't think they would have picked the Bama/Ugag matchup that was another ratings disaster. Their perfect world would be a rotation of Midwest/SEC/West coast teams battling it out every year in close contests. Good games get eyeballs that raise ad rates that bring in the dough. Cash rules the world!

 

[manjano mdudu]

To get into any playoff, you should earn your way in and not get there through a back door. Pick the best teams, be that 4, 8, or 12. Seed them and may the best team win. Conference titles should be irrelevant to this discussion and would only put in the mix a periodic team that will get crushed and has no business being there.
Recruit, develop, coach, and win your spot in the finals on the field. Participation trophies are for t-ball.

 

[daBuzz]

Expanding the playoffs isn't going to help anything. The playoffs we have right now are non-competitive and don't do well ratings wise.

Yeah, I stopped reading after your first 2 sentences. 22 million people watched the final game alone.
The semifinals took a ratings hit because Cincy and Michigan both sucked and everybody knew it.

 

[GT flunkout]

These are the same arguments made along every step of the way. Some of you are either old and senile or young and naive. I’m 51. I grew up watching journalism majors for liberal art schools picking the national champion year after year. Teams were literally given Nattys by having a bigger media presence near their school (cough, cough Notre Dame / cough, cough Colorado getting the entire west coast media vote). Oh, and those New Years Day bowl games that some of you love were jokes. Hey, let’s watch a rigged system of the #1 play #9 and then carry their coach off the field. It was a joke and a money grab from the bowl mafia.

Once the BCS killed the bowl mafia these same posts were made. The BCS lasted 15 years. Now, we are 8 years into the 4 team playoff and even if expansion isn’t passed now it’s not going to go away and will be here soon. Then it will expand again. And again. So, all these posts about conference champions or 6 or 8 team playoffs are just laughable. These are the same arguments we’ve heard since the BCS killed the bowl mafia. In case you haven’t noticed the fans have spoken already about what they want - bowl games are bleeding attendance and playoff games are sold out.

Lol at comparing the weedeater Independence Bowl to the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Peach, Orange, Cotton, etc. These bowls never hurt for attendance playoffs or not. BCS certainly didn't kill them.

Or acting like one mafia didn't just replace another mafia with the committee. Yes, you're right, money will always win out. You think the "fans" want Alabama-Georgia rematches? Ok.

 

[flushed 01]

It depends on whether they tried. If they didn't try then they would be like Vandy, if they did try, maybe more like Mississippi State or Kentucky. If we hadn't made it into the ACC we might be similar to Tulane today.

We are

 

[B]

Yeah, I stopped reading after your first 2 sentences. 22 million people watched the final game alone.
The semifinals took a ratings hit because Cincy and Michigan both sucked and everybody knew it.

Given that everybody knew that Cincy and Michigan sucked and nobody watched, how does it help when you add another 2-4 teams on a par with them (or even worse)?. This year, like most, the final game participants were a foregone conclusion. People aren't going to watch a #1 Bama or Uga pummel a hapless #8 Baylor, Oklahoma State or Wake Forest (oustide the bama or Uga fans).

 

[daBuzz]

Given that everybody knew that Cincy and Michigan sucked and nobody watched, how does it help when you add another 2-4 teams on a par with them (or even worse)?. This year, like most, the final game participants were a foregone conclusion. People aren't going to watch a #1 Bama or Uga pummel a hapless #8 Baylor, Oklahoma State or Wake Forest (oustide the bama or Uga fans).

Your premise is faulty to start with. Just because the viewership was down this year, as compared to the previous year, it was still higher than pretty much every other bowl game and the ratings were still some of the highest watched shows on that day.

I heard the same argument when they expanded it from the BCS's 2 teams to the current 4 teams. Yet, viewership actually went up over the 3 games instead of down. If you expand it to 8 teams, it will go up again.

 

[manjano mdudu]

Viewership and interest will go up if the teams earn their way in and weak ones aren't bestowed a slot because of association with a lousy conference. The current 4-team structure likely has the best team in it each year and determines the champ without extending the season significantly, a very important issue when attrition in a league that cannot bring in free agents is considered, on top of the somewhat relevant point that these are for the most part unpaid young people. Creating a 16 or 17 game season in a college format brings along a lot of issues.
No doubt the current format is creating an enormous talent divide in the game as top players continue to pour into the few schools that have playoff chances, but as a few conferences continue to hold off approving a 12-team format out of bitterness and jealousy, the old axiom of cutting your nose off to spite your face remains quite real.

 

[OptionJacket]

Lol at comparing the weedeater Independence Bowl to the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Peach, Orange, Cotton, etc. These bowls never hurt for attendance playoffs or not. BCS certainly didn't kill them.

Or acting like one mafia didn't just replace another mafia with the committee. Yes, you're right, money will always win out. You think the "fans" want Alabama-Georgia rematches? Ok.

Oh, I totally agree one mafia replaced the other. It will always be that way when everyone is chasing the money. But look at the numbers. The 2 semi final playoff games were 17.2 and 16.6. The Natty game was 22. The Rose was 16.6 (same as Bama/Cincy and was the marquee game on New Years Day), the Sugar was 9.8, Fiesta was 8, the Peach was 7.6. These are the only numbers that matter. When the Sugar Bowl is half the viewers of the playoff games that speaks louder than anything else and the mafia sees dollars being wasted. The Rose Bowl has done well lately because they either ARE a playoff game game or they had Ohio State fall into their lap. I agree the system has been corrupt and will continue to be corrupt. I just find it funny that folks actually believe it won’t expand or that only conference champs should get in. Conference championships mean absolutely zero. Seriously, no one cares about winning a conference because every sport at every level except D1 football has a playoff so there are bigger goals than a worthless conference title. GT won the ACC conference in hoops last year and it felt good for about a day. It did nothing for our seeding and we got bounced like a low level SoCon team. I’m sure Michigan, Bama, and Pitt are out wearing their conference championship gear as we speak.

 

[ramblinwise1]

Yeah, I stopped reading after your first 2 sentences. 22 million people watched the final game alone.
The semifinals took a ratings hit because Cincy and Michigan both sucked and everybody knew it.

Overall though the ratings are down from previous years. The best rated championship game had over 30 million viewers. All is not well with college football TV.

National championship TV ratings revealed to be second-lowest since start of Playoff

The game was shown on multiple ESPN channels.

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

Oh, I totally agree one mafia replaced the other. It will always be that way when everyone is chasing the money. But look at the numbers. The 2 semi final playoff games were 17.2 and 16.6. The Natty game was 22. The Rose was 16.6 (same as Bama/Cincy and was the marquee game on New Years Day), the Sugar was 9.8, Fiesta was 8, the Peach was 7.6. These are the only numbers that matter. When the Sugar Bowl is half the viewers of the playoff games that speaks louder than anything else and the mafia sees dollars being wasted. The Rose Bowl has done well lately because they either ARE a playoff game game or they had Ohio State fall into their lap. I agree the system has been corrupt and will continue to be corrupt. I just find it funny that folks actually believe it won’t expand or that only conference champs should get in. Conference championships mean absolutely zero. Seriously, no one cares about winning a conference because every sport at every level except D1 football has a playoff so there are bigger goals than a worthless conference title. GT won the ACC conference in hoops last year and it felt good for about a day. It did nothing for our seeding and we got bounced like a low level SoCon team. I’m sure Michigan, Bama, and Pitt are out wearing their conference championship gear as we speak.

If conference champs are meaningless, why not disband all the conferences and make everyone an independent?

 

[Tampa Jacket]

Yeah, I stopped reading after your first 2 sentences. 22 million people watched the final game alone.
The semifinals took a ratings hit because Cincy and Michigan both sucked and everybody knew it.

Michigan and Cincinnati only “suck” because the NCAA won’t enforce rules against Bama and Georgia. Bama and Georgia play by a different set of rules. Look what happened to Ole Miss when they didn’t stay in their lane and embarrassed Georgia. Nothing is changing until that gets fixed.

 

[OptionJacket]

If conference champs are meaningless, why not disband all the conferences and make everyone an independent?

I’d be for it. GT could build a killer schedule due to everyone wanting to be seen in the Atlanta recruiting market.

I also have no problem with conferences. It’s possible to have conferences and still have a legit national playoff. It happens in every other sport. The problem these days is everyone has irrational hatred of success. Which is why every discussion about a playoff system comes down to bashing the SEC. The truth is the SEC is successful because they invest the money to be. The same thing happens in every other sport but no one brings it up. Should UVA be a villain because they dominate lacrosse? They dominate because they invest their dollars into being good.

Every sport at every level (college and high school) has their versions of Bama/UGA/Clemson types. It’s where they invest their energy and money. And there is nothing wrong with it. Think to your own hometown area. You know the teams that dominate 8n football, soccer, lacrosse, hoops, baseball, etc. And they are probably good year after year. GT puts their money and energy elsewhere other than sports. And it shows on the field.