Vote for Auburn in this playoff poll

[auee90 0]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation...t?event_id=1879

[WAR EAGLE!!! 0]

I am not sure that Auburn would make it into an 8 team playoff right now. If you had to have a team from the Big East, I am almost positive they would not.

I guess the brackets would come down to something like this based on the polls:

1. USC

8. N. Dame

4. Penn State

5. Virginia Tech

3. LSU

6. Ohio State

2. Texas

7. Oregon

So as you see, there would be MAJOR problems with the 8 team play off scenario. First major problem I see is that the PAC-10 gets 2 births where the SEC and ACC only have 1 a piece.

I am a fan of just a plus one bowl game. I think that this year it should be between LSU, if they win the SEC Championship game, Texas, Penn St. and USC. If LSU loses the Championship game then Va Tech should go, if they win the ACC.

My point is that a playoff would not solve everything. How would the teams be selected? Are you telling me that Ohio State and N. Dame are better 2 loss teams than Auburn or even UGA or Miami? Not sure. I do know that there would still be people complaining as they are today because teams get left out.

What do you guys think?

[AUloggerhead 2,234]

I am not sure that Auburn would make it into an 8 team playoff right now. If you had to have a team from the Big East, I am almost positive they would not.

I guess the brackets would come down to something like this based on the polls:

1. USC

8. N. Dame

4. Penn State

5. Virginia Tech

3. LSU

6. Ohio State

2. Texas

7. Oregon

So as you see, there would be MAJOR problems with the 8 team play off scenario. First major problem I see is that the PAC-10 gets 2 births where  the SEC and ACC only have 1 a piece.

I am a fan of just a plus one bowl game. I think that this year it should be between LSU, if they win the SEC Championship game, Texas, Penn St. and USC. If LSU loses the Championship game then Va Tech should go, if they win the ACC.

My point is that a playoff would not solve everything. How would the teams be selected? Are you telling me that Ohio State and N. Dame are better 2 loss teams than Auburn or even UGA or Miami? Not sure. I do know that there would still be people complaining as they are today because teams get left out.

What do you guys think?

201974[/snapback]

I'm thinking you're jumping the gun before the Conference Championship games are played out. LSU is by no means guaranteed a win next Saturday. Texas & Va Tech are going to be huge favorites but anything can happen, especially the way UT played against TAMU.

[auee90 0]

Hey, I'm just trying to get more support for AU . With no Big East team worthy, I left ND off the list. They lost to 6-loss Michigan State and USC. We lost to 4-loss Ga. Tech and LSU. I give the nod to us.

Yeah, after the conference championships, things may change a bit. If FSU somehow beats Va. Tech (no way, I know, FSU is terrible) and/or Georgia beats LSU, then AU can make the cut without help or bias. Even if USC loses or Texas loses, they are still in the playoff, and probably in the Rose Bowl for that matter.

A playoff selection committee (or use the BCS as the selection committee... taking the top 8 teams) would still be much better than what we've got. The winner will be determined on the field. Yeah, teams will get left out. Just like in the NCAA basketball final 65. There are teams "on the bubble". But the argument follows that they are the least likely candidates to win and continue on, so should be left out. A line must be drawn. The line the BCS draws right now is too harsh. 2 teams.

I'd be happy with a 4 team playoff. Right now, that would be USC vs. LSU and Penn. St. vs. Texas, with the winners of those game playing for the true championship in a bowl somewhere (vs. MNC we have now). We could even have a consolation game of the losers to determine third place in another bowl.

[saniflush 0]

The bottom line is there is no “perfect“ formula. Although anything would be better than what we have in place at this point. A plus one would be a step in the right direction. A however many team playoff would be best IMO. There will always be someone on “the bubble”. If you say you are taking four teams you may have two that are undefeated and five that have one loss. Which two of those five teams do you take? What a playoff does is ENSURE that an undefeated team does not get left out. That is all! There will always be jockeying for position and there will always be the media darlings but the bottom line is that if you win all your games there would be no way for you to be left out…..If you lose one game you may get left out and you have no gripe because you didn’t do what you needed to do.

[KunzelTiger 0]

If there was an 8 team playoff I would not be complaining if we weren't in the field of 8. We didn't win our conference, we didn't win our division, we didn't beat GT. We're playing great football and would go far in the playoff but we just didn't do what we had to do to make the post season. Only 8 teams in the MLB make the playoffs and no one complains if they don't make it. IMO thats how i see it

[auee90 0]

I'm not saying we absolutely deserve to be in an 8-team playoff. We would be on the bubble for sure. And MLB is very straightforward in how it works. There's the three division winners and one wild card team based on W-L record. And then there are rules for a tiebreaker should there be more than one team with the same record. The same goes for the NFL, with many more teams involved (what is it, 6 per conference, with the top two teams getting byes and two wild cards?).

[Ryan Sanders 123]

I am just sort of pissed off again.

Notre Dame is the reason.

They have the same record as we do, except we have a tougher schedule. They got beat by USC, we got beat by LSU. They got beat by Michigan St., we got beat by Georgia Tech (which looks a lot better than MSU).

I heard someone on ESPN today say that Auburn deserved to go ahead of Notre Dame, but then the guy he was arguing with said that if it wasn't for Reggie Bush's push to Matt Leinart, then Notre Dame would have beaten them. -- Uhh, they weren't the only team that pushed USC.. Fresno St. Hehe.

Now.. Ohio St. is a different story IMO. I think they deserve it just as much as Auburn (both with same records). I could go on and on, but most have already probably quit reading. heh.

[KunzelTiger 0]

I'm not saying we absolutely deserve to be in an 8-team playoff. We would be on the bubble for sure. And MLB is very straightforward in how it works. There's the three division winners and one wild card team based on W-L record. And then there are rules for a tiebreaker should there be more than one team with the same record. The same goes for the NFL, with many more teams involved (what is it, 6 per conference, with the top two teams getting byes and two wild cards?).

BUT, each division is different. Just look at the NL east vs. the NL west this past year. In the NL east no one was under .500 while in the NL west one team was BARELY over .500. so can we honestly say that the team that won the NL west and went to the playoffs was better than the 3 from the east that didn't? No, and did anyone from the Marlins/Phillies/Mets complain? No.

Bubble teams have the same opportunity to make it as every other team. They just didn't get it done on the field.

[auee90 0]

I think we are agreeing here, but saying it differently. They aren't complaining because the rules of making the playoffs are set in stone. They are known before the season starts. They are rules, not polls. That's really my point. Heck, even to determine who gets home field advantage is set by rules (although rarely used, thus obscure); which is how only a couple of players on the Yankees and none on the Red Sox knew after the Sox lost the next to last game that the Yankees clinched the division. The Sox went on to win the last game, exactly tying the Yankees in record. But the Yankees won the season series 10-9, providing the tie breaker to win the division. The Angels also had the same record, but won the season series with the Yankees, securing home field advantage over the Yankees. Sorry for the side bar.

If there were clear cut rules for determining the 4 or 8 teams for the playoffs, then teams wouldn't complain. But that's not trivial either. It would be hard to make it the winners of all the conferences, because they are not at the same level of competition. So there would have to be a selection committee, as is done in NCAA basketball, or polls, human and/or computer, similar or the same as what we have now. There still might be complaining, but it would be the fairest thing D-Ia college football as ever seen.