Skip all conferences and randomly select 128 and play a planned out random schedule to get to a final 4 with a losers bracket play in. If not in the 128 you are relegated to fcs. This could be fun and mix up the home and away.
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There is only one MAC school in one year out of 12 shots on goal.
Someone show me the relevance and ROI of any/ all MAC schools’ collective monies doled out for what has been essentially a 12-year whiff that only appears likely to get worse over the next 12 years.
It’s an especially cruel metric when you combine the totality of dollars raised in what is at best a (near) zero sum game.
Just read the supposed details of the 24 selection 4 autos to the P4, 1 Auto to G6 and 19 at larges with no allocation to any conference. That seems good for B12 and ACC. May keep them together as they have. Better playoff access. Seems good for MAC as well, even though remote, if you have a big year like we did with Big Ben, you could get the Auto or even an at large.
19 is a lot of spots and if they are truly given to the best teams; that is fair in my opinion.
Now stabilizing the B12 and ACC is not good for Miami’s prospects to move up, so that is bad. The big ? Is still money, ACC schools may leave the ACC for more money, so I still expect realignment to continue. While tenuous, I think Miami is positioned ok.
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In all fairness, the G6 could have made their statement for more access the last two years. They failed miserably both on the field and in the ratings.
Pat Forde nails it!
The new playoff will not be 24 spots for 138 teams. Most years it will be 23 for 68 teams in the power conferences plus Notre Dame (33.8%) and one spot for the other 70 to fight over. As is the case with the junked-up, 76-team basketball tournaments that will debut in March, the goal is to further enable the power conferences. Not everyone. Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
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Historically it wouldn’t have been a crazy notion - the MAC definitely would’ve gotten auto bids in 98 (Marshall), 03 (Miami), 12 (NIU), and 16 (WMU), and maybe at-large for our title game losers in 08 (Ball State) or 13 (NIU). Getting 4-6 teams in less than 20 years isn’t bad, but the erosion of the MAC based on financial and demographic factors has killed whatever shot we have at realistically competing for it.
Agree we would have had many teams historically, but if the P4 limits P4 vs G6 matchups especially with their 10 P4 games, then the ability to rise in the polls to be in the top 24 becomes a challenge. It might be similar to the problems that are occurring in basketball scheduling and the rigged NET rankings. The greed of the Big10, SEC, and ESPN are destroying sports.
So just because the G6 schools only have one guaranteed spot, that doesn’t mean they CAN’T get more than one, right? I know it’s unlikely, but it is possible? Like Miami beating out Auburn for a spot in basketball?
Sure, and at 61 years old, with Stage 4 Metastatic Prostate Cancer, and being 5’4", it is possible I could dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim. Unlikely, but possible!
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I suppose if two go undefeated and both beat at least one P4 that had no more than two losses…
Maybe.
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I believe in you.
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Obviously there may be shenanigans with the rankings going forward but would JMU and Tulane both gotten into a 24 team field?
Tulane was 20, JMU was 24, but also UNT was next at 25, so I think two would have probably made it
They had two last year in a 12 team field, so it’s absolutely possible.
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It absolutely can happen, and would have many times during the CFP era based on historical rankings. The question is how often it will in the future given that the most competitive G5/6 schools have been absorbed into power conferences and the rise of advanced analytic rankings will assist power programs with worse W/L records.
https://x.com/bradentclark/status/2110798737861939510?s=46&t=oallIeFEhKH9sCOJPSKdyw
In one of the articles about the new 24 team playoff, I read something about all at large teams being required to have played 10 P4 teams in the regular season to be eligible. Seems like their way to guarantee there won’t be 2 G6 teams in again.
The reason 2 G6 teams got in last year was because the rules stated that the top 4 ranked conference champions, and the top ranked G6 champion got auto-bids to the playoff. And since Duke ended up winning the ACC championship game, but had a 7-5 record, the ACC champ wasn’t one of the top 4. James Madison was ranked higher.
The powers that be immediately changed that rule so that it won’t happen again.
Edit: the component of this new playoff alignment that I’m most concerned with is whether the G6 conferences will still be able to play their conference championship games. I realize that the P4 games are going away, but I hope they can work it out for the G6 to keep theirs.
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Sometimes I wish they’d be more subtle about how much they hate the smaller schools.
This only applies to P4 teams
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