Rhule doesn’t want to play a spring game to keep people from poaching his players. He also doesn’t want to play SEC games in the regular season, either.
If there’s one thing that the marriage of CFP Committee bullshit and soft schedules proved this year, it’s that you can be rewarded for a winning record against a soft schedule, because there’s no such thing as quality wins anymore…just quality losses.
Furthering the proof that the benefits of conference expansion was solely to line the pockets of conference heads and television execs, look no further than this…because one of the promises of the expansion was MORE quality OOC games, not fewer. Instead, we get teams running from competition and scheduling as Charmin soft a schedule just to make the CFP. And if they move to automatic bids, now you just have to strategically schedule just enough to fight for…fourth place. To hell with winning the conference or being the best, I’ll just take my two losses and coast into a beneficial playoff spot where I can cruise into the semis or finals.
Let’s call it the Indiana model of scheduling. Seemed to work for the Hoosiers and the Irish, right? Let the other teams beat the hell out of each other and coast into the playoffs while demanding respect from the national perspective. And if that doesn’t work, you’ll have pundits stump for you and call others “non ball knowers” when they argue that a teams two losses aren’t “quality enough” compared to your blowout wins over Whatsamatta U. And when you do lose, somehow it’s a better loss than others, even if it’s your only competitive game on the schedule.
Somehow, you go from former conference runner up to champions of narratives. Seems antithetical to the spirit of college football, through BCS to four team playoffs into 2023, but it’s now the new way to rebrand a program from always falling short to modern day kings of the college football world. Sounds like AAU or Pop Warner kiddie ball, but it’s now the way that the media can resurrect a team and ensure evenly distributed national attention that they like. Oddly, teams will reap the benefits of this, knowing full well what’s happening, and will think, “this is fine”.
Just ask Texas.
Wow. That’s quite a fall from the monster UN teams from the mid-90s. Those were physical and intimidating football teams that just dominated opponents. What they did to that Spurrier team in the bowl game was a war crime. Now they are afraid to play a spring game. I bet alot of their fans, when speaking amongst themselves, agree and are embarassed.
One man’s war crime is another man’s schadenboner…
Nebraska also picks up the revenue from an extra home game. All the P4 conferences are going to go this way. If the commissioners wanted to stop the cupcakes they would make a rule where the committee only counts P4 games. In the current situation I like the 2020 10 game all SEC model, the best 4 go to the playoff.
My optimal solution is to put each team in the conference is was a member of in 1982. Put the independents in a league of their own and play 10 games. Then have an 8 team playoff. Start the Saturday after Labor Day.
That’s how Josh Pate has presented his optimal model. It’s a good one, although I’d rather add one cupcake opponent for the purposes of youth development.
Josh Pate made a really good argument for a new CFP model
College football is really pissing me off.
Hey, don’t be knockin’ Whatsamatta U! My cousin’s girlfriend’s father’s best friend graduated from there. He says they’re on the verge of getting that coveted 32nd playoff spot by being the top Division 4 team in the country.
Is the goal to make College Football race to the bottom of the unwatchable scale below the WNBA? I spend 90% of my monies on likker and womens and waste the other 10% so buying a can of paint to watch dry on Saturday Afternoons might free up some funds – no more well whiskey for the floozies. Thanks for nothing WorldWide Leader
I always agreed with the good Senator that once the playoff model was born in college football that expansion was to follow, but I did not think things would change THIS rapidly.
If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am now. Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where’s the Tylenol?
Pathetic, get (totally!) rid of the cupcakes….
I think you missed the point of the post. We should go all cupcakes, all the time. I used to hope the SEC would adopt a nine game schedule. Hated watching cupcakes. Now I advocate for a six game conference schedule. With four guaranteed bids you don’t even want to make the conference championship game. The teams that benefit the most from “March Madness” tournament style football are those that underachieve until the tournament actually begins. Welcome your new insect overlords.
Nebraska fans (who love their football) should be embarrassed by Ruhle and his whining. They show up for their spring game and sell the place out in the regular season even though they are irrelevant now.
Who can blame the coach? The college football playoff committee has shown that strength of schedule doesn’t matter, so why not go with cupcakes.
I’m about to the point that I would rather work on my Honey Do list and yardwork on Saturdays. At least the wife would be happier, and the yard would be immaculate.
The game that I once loved is gone.
When ratings and home game attendance plummet the TV guys will step in and…make it worse.