8 30 15 Practice Notes

[McLoofus 35,182]

It's always something. The champ has been undefeated in only four times in the last ten years, and both participants in the national title game have been undefeated only three times (2005 Texas/USC, 2009 Bama/Texas, and 2010 Auburn/Oregon). As you would expect, only one undefeated team entered the CFP last season (FSU).

In other words, more likely than not, at least three teams in the playoff will have survived an upset during the season (early, middle, or late). Given that reality, there's nothing make-or-break about any particular game.

How often has a team playing in the most difficult division in football lost its very first game and gone 12-0 from there, much less 13- or 14-0?

You think OSU would've done what they did playing in the SECW? They went to double OT with Penn State. They beat Minnesota by a single touchdown. They had one win against a ranked team in the regular season.

We'll play 3 preseason top-20 teams before November. That doesn't include Louisville or Mississippi State. Or, of course, two preseason top-10s in UGA and bama that we'll also play.

I don't think there's a previous example of a team doing what Auburn would have to do to lose to Louisville Saturday and still control our own destiny for the playoffs.

[McLoofus 35,182]

It's always something. The champ has been undefeated in only four times in the last ten years, and both participants in the national title game have been undefeated only three times (2005 Texas/USC, 2009 Bama/Texas, and 2010 Auburn/Oregon). As you would expect, only one undefeated team entered the CFP last season (FSU).

In other words, more likely than not, at least three teams in the playoff will have survived an upset during the season (early, middle, or late). Given that reality, there's nothing make-or-break about any particular game.

This was actually one of the strongest arguments against the playoff, IMO. The thing that distinguished CFB from the NFL (and most every other sport) was that so much was riding on each and every game.

I'm still holding out hope that the playoff won't diminish the importance of all the individual games too much. But we'll see. Arguably, an 8-team playoff would be even worse from this perspective.

I don't think the playoff has diminished anything yet. I think it's much better now and should stay as is- btw, put on your seat belts now, b/c the ensuing playoff threadjack is going to get bumpy- but I don't think expanding to 8 is going to make any team think they can take any particular game off. That would still leave 128 teams with 12-13 games each to make a case for being one of the last 8 standing. Not to mention, teams will still be playing for a good seed.

[lost 452]

You know you are good on the OL when you have who we have likely to redshirt on the OL.

[AUbritt 611]

It's always something. The champ has been undefeated in only four times in the last ten years, and both participants in the national title game have been undefeated only three times (2005 Texas/USC, 2009 Bama/Texas, and 2010 Auburn/Oregon). As you would expect, only one undefeated team entered the CFP last season (FSU).

In other words, more likely than not, at least three teams in the playoff will have survived an upset during the season (early, middle, or late). Given that reality, there's nothing make-or-break about any particular game.

This was actually one of the strongest arguments against the playoff, IMO. The thing that distinguished CFB from the NFL (and most every other sport) was that so much was riding on each and every game.

I'm still holding out hope that the playoff won't diminish the importance of all the individual games too much. But we'll see. Arguably, an 8-team playoff would be even worse from this perspective.

I don't think the playoff has diminished anything yet. I think it's much better now and should stay as is- btw, put on your seat belts now, b/c the ensuing playoff threadjack is going to get bumpy- but I don't think expanding to 8 is going to make any team think they can take any particular game off. That would still leave 128 teams with 12-13 games each to make a case for being one of the last 8 standing. Not to mention, teams will still be playing for a good seed.

I don't think teams will consciously or in a calculated way take a game off, like in baseball, say, when you want to rest your starters and nothing rides on the outcome of a game.

And I agree -- I don't think the playoff has diminished the importance of the regular season to fans, yet (I'm more worried about it from the fan perspective).

I guess I think that the best possible ramification of the playoff system is that SOS gets magnified, so teams with really bad SOS don't get rewarded (like tOSU or Baylor). We can now switch over to the other thread and stop this threadjack.

[AUbritt 611]

You know you are good on the OL when you have who we have likely to redshirt on the OL.

Yep. I think word is out on JB at this point -- good players want to play for a good coach.

[lost 452]

Tomorrow they will announce the depth chart. I wonder if there will be any surprises. I would start a new thread if I could with this question... But I have to wait until I build some more posts back up......