HoustonAg2106 said:
Gyles Marrett said:
Ragoo said:
What is completely stupid and it happened for sure in 2016 is a playoff team losing and finishing outside the top 4.
TOSU went into the playoff as the #2 seed and finished ranked 6th.
That is completely asinine.
That was exactly the point of the whole question but there's too much ignorance around here to realize it. Duh, obviously you'd like to end the regular season 4 instead of 5 and be in the playoffs. But I guarantee you there would be a lot of the brainiacs in here saying it's a no brainer choice that would be a lot happier with the state of the program if they finished 5th and beat the dog crap out of whoever in a big bowl so they could pound their chest saying we should have been in the playoff than they would be if we were the 4 seed in the playoffs and got completely crushed and finished ranked 6 or 7 because of it. Obviously the goal is to win it all but if you don't I'd rather finish ranked 3rd or 4th than 6th or 7th because a playoff blowout. You end the season winning and ranked higher yet there's others saying the obvious answer is to finish with a loss and ranked lower. I think there's fair arguments both ways but it's not as clear cut as some make it out to be.
It's not about what is going to make people on here happier because they get to brag at work and to friends, it's about what is better for the team and the program...
Maybe it's just going to take some time for some people to get used to this idea of what the playoffs mean, but this would be like Notre Dame saying they wish they didn't make the BCS national championship game and get rolled by Alabama in 2012 to finish 4th when they could have just rolled Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl and finished 2nd....who on earth would say that? Making the playoffs is one game away from the national championship, playing in a non-playoff bowl will be forgotten the very next year regardless of who wins.
Decent example, but look at Ou 2015 versus A&M 2012 for an example on the opposite end. I'd rather A&M have gotten into a playoff(if they had one in 2012), but had we got blown out, that season wouldn't have had the same luster or momentum that it ended up having with the cotton bowl win.
So there are actually arguments supporting both situations described the OP being the best for that particular team. In 2012, sure, I'd love to have had a chance at the playoffs, but if you told me we could have sacrificed our Cotton Bowl win for a guaranteed playoff loss, I wouldn't take it.
The OPs scenario is with the benefit of hindsight, and IMHO, there are countless examples of a team being better off with a bowl win than if they had been blown out in a playoff instead.