PDB26

I think the kid from Texas a 300 pounder. They have a couple high end edge guys in the class, too.

Furthermore, there should not be any automatic qualifiers.

I never said it wasn’t potentially advantageous, but the committee can and does do what it wants. All the stakeholders of the CFP, the P4, G6, and now Notre Dame, have some provision that guarantees an automatic berth if a certain condition is met. Still, the provision is only triggered by ND being in the top 12 and it can be avoided by making them 13—it’s that simple. I’m not saying there will be some tinfoil ESPN conspiracy to keep ND out, I’m only saying a ND team with a marginal resume, like the 2025 team, risks being in the drop zone regardless of an agreement to give ND an automatic qualifier of its own. It’s very easy to see how different ND’s ranking might have been relative to Miami if the committee was operating with this provision in mind.

Wow, this could be a challenge, but I’ll give it a shot. The committee puts Notre Dame at 10, and then ND plays Ohio State if they beat A&M.

You don’t think the committee would have found a way to get ND to 13 if that absurd outcome was likely?

It’s nonsense to think that ESPN doesn’t want the eyeballs that Notre Dame brings—both supporters and the haters hoping to get a dose of schadenfreude of an ND loss in a meaningful game—especially when the alternative is what we got in the last two games yesterday.

Man, we’re down by 17 with 45:00 minutes to play. I guess we’ll just go home now.

Eh, two of those teams were Boise State and Arizona State. Oregon got buzz-sawed the same way that Tennessee did by Ohio State, and Georgia never looked rusty against ND. I’m not sure the byes had much to do with it, at least not based on one year’s worth of results.

He and his staff have proven to be good evaluators on portal guys. Still, everyone is bound to miss on portal guys—whether it’s the evaluation or market forces—and those misses are a killer.

Couldn’t have said it better.

Twelve is the right number. I never said the conference champion qualifier was correct. It should be the top-12 ranked teams. I think you dilute the playoff unnecessarily by expanding to sixteen just to get every marginal contender from p4 conferences qualified.

I really think they got it right with 12. And think, despite everything else that happened, we’re—likely—an ACC tiebreaker away from ND being in the playoff alongside conference champion Miami and conference champion Tulane.

ND will have to own that one for a while. Far more disappointing to me than being the first team out of the playoff.

With all due respect, guy is just a temu @temptation

I said different, not improving!

Back when they were both (technically) independents! Better times with more independents.

Nothing against @23andCounting, but that’s hardly surprising. There is no reason to believe Georgia isn’t better now than they were in September. The problem is that Alabama is also looking like a different team. Still, I like the Tide against fake Baker and the boys from Norman in the dysfunctional offense bowl. The winner of that one is in for a rough ride against IU’s defense.

I think the program and athletic department accept the risk, as they accepted the financial penalty I’ve been describing. I think the team was upset with how the process played out because the committee booted it from the start by putting and keeping Notre Dame and Miami in the wrong order until a week in which neither team played. The players made the wrong decision to skip the bowl game, and the staff made the wrong decision to support them or to go along with it.

I mean, they looked terrible and undisciplined against FSU and bad on offense in all three losses. Not disqualifying, but I’m not sure how to spin it otherwise.

Well, they accepted an arrangement where they voluntarily took in—at most— half as much as what schools like Northwestern were getting for at least a decade and probably longer, so I’m not sure it’s the money that is the motivating factor. I know a lot was made about the playoff money last year, but the Big Ten brought in 40 million by my count and I don’t know how they calculated those distributions either. I think it’s mostly about having flexibility at a time where more realignment is just on the other side of this tunnel. SC joining the Big Ten minimizes that value some in that ND would be a logical addition and not risk losing that rivalry. They could still play an east coast game or three in the non-conference and the conference schedule is national anyway, now. I think they like knowing that they’re on at noon at the earliest on the West coast when they play at home, but that’s about it with the tv deal. You, me, and everyone else can like it or dislike it, but they value the flexibility most. Time is running out on college football as we knew it, and once ND is in a league we’re that much closer to the super league arrangement and a division with the G5 anyway.

The committee made a mess of things this time around. I’d rather take the top 12 by a computer poll, but it makes no sense to have a committee if they can’t or won’t resolve the exact type of weirdness that can result from computer polls—like ND being way ahead of Miami in the first rankings despite a head to head loss and having the same record. At the very least, they should have moved Miami ahead of ND after the final week of the season just like they moved Alabama. It’s kind of like refs swallowing their whistles on PI all game only to flag a guy for a textbook case on a decisive play right at the end.

The biggest downside of Notre Dame’s independence for about the last 15 years had been that the value of the NBC deal was dwarfed by the Big Ten media payouts. Now the value is comparable, and the only real financial upside is if ND can make a run in the playoff. ND is on tv regardless, CBS and ESPN want the eyeballs when they’re on the road, and I’m not even sure there’s an appreciable recruiting advantage considering the amount of times big programs are on tv.

16 is going to happen. It would be best to take the top 12, but 12 is the number.