Playoffs

[SoonerAlum]

I'm not a big conspiracy theorist until it comes to college football. Does anyone else find it odd that the chairman of the football playoff selection committee is the AD from Arkansas? An SEC AD in charge of the selection process for the National Championship...makes me more than a little suspicious.


Of course, SEC honks will tell you that the Chairman has no vote and it works well for Basketball and... My response it the basketball committee is picking, what is it now, nearly 70 teams. The football committee is picking 4. All 14 SEC teams could be selected in basketball and they'd still have to play their way into a championship game. A chairman, by position, sets agendas, gavels down or up proposals, etc. WAY too much SEC influence in the selection process.

Why not pick the AD of Western Kentucky, for example, to be the chair? Why an SEC AD?

Am I making too much of this?

 

[KansasSooner]

This has been talked about in a thread on the main CFB forum. I'll wait and see what happens the first year before I make any judgments.

 

[sooner78wakeboard]

Good point....perhaps some AD from a Division II university, or perhaps a mathematician from MIT. Someone who has absolutely no influence from their division.

 

[SoonerAlum]

This has been talked about in a thread on the main CFB forum. I'll wait and see what happens the first year before I make any judgments.

I understand it's been talked about on the main board but I like to get the opinions of people I respect, not a flock of SEC homers telling me why I'm an idiot. From what I've seen this group has, for the most part, the ability to be objective and I prefer to talk to people who will give me an honest opinion, not the party line.

My big concern is the same one I have always had allowing coaches to have a say in the BCS polling. We are talking millions of dollars for each University based on their conferences appearance in the big bowl games. And yet we acted surprised when Big XII coaches voted their conference high and other conferences low. We were outraged when SEC coaches vote their teams high and OU low.

It is financially in Arkansas best interest to have two SEC teams, even if neither is Arkansas, in the playoffs. Why did the powers that be think that appointing a stakeholder to the committee was a good idea?

It goes back to my whole "conferences making their own TV deals is a BAD idea" thing. And for this I blame OU. By suing the NCAA back in the 1984, it opened the door for ESPN and CBS to honk the SEC horn 24/7, influencing voters (not to mention the voters on network's staff) to boost the SEC, thereby increasing the value of the contract that ESPN has and putting the networks in a position of creating news instead of reporting it.

The second you put someone in a decision making position who has a vested interest, financial or otherwise, you open the whole process up to question. Why do that?

 

[KansasSooner]

Because until the NCAA steps in and takes over like they did with basketball for Div I the major conferences are going to do whatever they want to get the most money they can.

 

[SoonerAlum]

Fair enough

Because until the NCAA steps in and takes over like they did with basketball for Div I the major conferences are going to do whatever they want to get the most money they can.

Fair enough, I get that. No one ever said that college football should be looking out for the health of the sport, just try to make as much money for your conference as you can.

So why do the rest of the major conferences allow the SEC to do whatever the hell they want?

And does no one realize that the anti-trust lawsuit that OU so successfully filed against the NCAA can be filed against the major conferences? If they are doing everything they can to stifle fair competition, all the while raking in the big bucks, the conferences are BEGGING Congress to intervene. While it would appear that Congress is rather incompetent at running the country, we all know they love to look like they are doing something and this would be just up their alley.

 

[KansasSooner]

Just like the BCS the CFP is a lawsuit just begging to happen.

 

[WVUDAD]

I'm not a big conspiracy theorist until it comes to college football. Does anyone else find it odd that the chairman of the football playoff selection committee is the AD from Arkansas? An SEC AD in charge of the selection process for the National Championship...makes me more than a little suspicious.


Of course, SEC honks will tell you that the Chairman has no vote and it works well for Basketball and... My response it the basketball committee is picking, what is it now, nearly 70 teams. The football committee is picking 4. All 14 SEC teams could be selected in basketball and they'd still have to play their way into a championship game. A chairman, by position, sets agendas, gavels down or up proposals, etc. WAY too much SEC influence in the selection process.

Why not pick the AD of Western Kentucky, for example, to be the chair? Why an SEC AD?

Am I making too much of this?

I have the same fears, by not tying the four spots to being a league champion in any way, will they try to put four SEC teams in the "playoff" As to basketball, the conference champions are guaranteed a spot, the committee is selecting only the at large teams, a little over half the field, I would have no problem with a real playoff of 16 teams, all the league champions, plus 6 at large teams, people will say the MAC or Sunbelt champions dont belong, well, to me they belong in a championship playoff more than a two loss SEC team that didnt even win their half of the league.....

 

[SoonerAlum]

Agree, WVUDad. It's not really surprising that Miles, Saban, Richt and the rest have been solidly behind "the best four teams" proposal because, with ESPN and CBS in their pockets, it will be very easy to campaign to have a two loss LSU ranked #4 over a one loss Oregon. When you own two of the major media outlets, you have some pretty heavy artillery in your corner.

 

[td2play]

Don't see a lot of representation from the Big XII on this committee. One guy and he is from WVU. looks like it is stacked with PAC 12, B1G, and SEC members. And what is up with allowing someone who is the current athletic director at a university Pat Haden to be on the committee? Don't think there is a conflict of interest there? Supposed there is something like a few years back when it was down to LSU and USC to see who played in the NCG. Don't think Haden is going to be voting for his university? This system is going to suck large! You would think if they were going to have a committee with ties to schools they would have let one member from each school be represented.

 

[WVUDAD]

Until it is tied at least partially to conference champions, it is a joke. There has never been a national champion, and this farce will not change that.