PDB26

Don’t get me wrong, I believe the SEC has significant influence over the CFP entity that is owned by all ten conferences and Notre Dame, but that influence comes from the perception of the SEC and the fear that Greg Sankey can burn the system down. So, I’m trying to understand the assertion regarding ESPN. The CFP committee members are bought and paid for by ESPN? Or, because ESPN bought the rights to broadcast, including the weekly rankings shows, then they get to influence the committee members some other way? Or the committee members—all except the chairman without direct ties to the SEC—are on the take for the SEC?

The easiest counterfactual is Mendoza gets strip sacked on the play before the Sarratt touchdown against Iowa and Penn State’s defense hangs on. I think IU would still be in. Maybe the big drama is a weird Texas vs. IU debate for the final at large. I don’t think either ND or Vandy go ahead of IU.

Except that isn't true for every sport or league, and it’s not even true for the CFP considering there are five conference champions that don’t automatically qualify. From a philosophical standpoint, you play the games for the sake of competition and the opportunity to win. Practically, now, we have a college football season for people to make money and be entertained and to select a field of teams for a twelve-team playoff. My position on automatic qualifiers would be the same if Notre Dame was in a conference. I don’t care for this qualifier that ND has secured, although I can understand why the agreement was made between the CFP stakeholders, and I’d be fine with ND not having one while others do. It’s a shame to think IU’s first conference championship since before Americans walked on the moon would be rendered pointless if it didn’t come with an automatic qualifier to the college football playoff attached.

Well, infinitesimal progress has been made on retroactively awarding ND a spot in the 2025 playoff and vacating Michigan’s 2023 national championship. Same here. I was far more disappointed in the program’s decision to skip the bowl game.

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.