Notice how many 10 and 11 wins teams there are. Its because the bottom of the SEC and Big 10 were largely non-competitive. We like to pretend that the "anyone can beat anyone in the SEC". Except that didn't happen this year. There was no upsets. Well there was ONE, single upset by a bottom half team over a ranked finisher (Florida upsetting the Sips). That's it.

In the Big 10, even worse. The bottom half there doesn't even push the top 3 into the 2nd half of games.

The big matchups largely didn't happen and everyone got to inflate their records by passing around the garbage at the bottom.

This is going to happen ALL the time in conferences this big and even more if they get bigger. AND more often as teams fire their coaches faster and faster because 30 programs see themselves as "playoff teams" with limited spots.

There's a very easy solution to this: in season flexible schedules. Everyone gets 3 permanent opponents (one in each month ideally). But all other games after third week of October need to be flexible.

The season is OVER and we are still a mystery because we haven't played enough good teams. But SO IS EVERYONE else, because THEY haven't either.

Small examples:
Ole Miss played only 2 real games both on the road. Would've LOVED to go on the road to Oxford instead of Missouri. Beating 8-4 Missouri with an injured QB, doesn't help us. Beating 10-2 Ole Miss would've given us a LOT of clarity on BOTH sides.

AND/OR

Georgia played 3 real games all three at home (UGA played only 3 (THREE!!!) total road games overall this year). Georgia could've been flexed to Kyle Field instead of South Carolina. Beating 4-8 South Carolina does nothing for us. Again, the winner of a Georgia @ A&M game gets a LOT of credit for the win and the loser at least gets clarity.

Played at G tech
Gtech has some wtf losses but that is not a bad team

Sq 17 said:

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Played at G tech
Gtech has some wtf losses but that is not a bad team

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Nope; it was a neutral site game with split tickets at the Falcon's home stadium.

Sq 17 said:

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Played at G tech
Gtech has some wtf losses but that is not a bad team

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Definitely DID NOT play at GT

I stand corrected watching it definitely looked like the field was G tech field

PascalsWager said:

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Notice how many 10 and 11 wins teams there are. Its because the bottom of the SEC and Big 10 were largely non-competitive. We like to pretend that the "anyone can beat anyone in the SEC". Except that didn't happen this year. There was no upsets. Well there was ONE, single upset by a bottom half team over a ranked finisher (Florida upsetting the Sips). That's it.

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To be fair, the sips are always upset

PascalsWager said:

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In the Big 10, even worse. The bottom half there doesn't even push the top 3 into the 2nd half of games.

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the SEC bottom feeders...like Arkansas, Auburn, and South Carolina...definitely pushed the top teams to the final gun

that is a big difference compared to the B1G

Other people's schedule being easy does not make someone else's schedule hard.

Sq 17 said:

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I stand corrected watching it definitely looked like the field was G tech field

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Not to pile on... but you think GA TECH's field would be a giant domed stadium that holds 70k+?

PascalsWager said:

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Notice how many 10 and 11 wins teams there are. Its because the bottom of the SEC and Big 10 were largely non-competitive. We like to pretend that the "anyone can beat anyone in the SEC". Except that didn't happen this year. There was no upsets. Well there was ONE, single upset by a bottom half team over a ranked finisher (Florida upsetting the Sips). That's it.

In the Big 10, even worse. The bottom half there doesn't even push the top 3 into the 2nd half of games.

The big matchups largely didn't happen and everyone got to inflate their records by passing around the garbage at the bottom.

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Will likely become the norm with NIL and the portal. Most schools just can't buy the players that some of the big schools can buy. Talent is going to be super concentrated among a few teams in each conference.

So, you want to expand the playoffs by contracting the regular season? You want to turn an entertainment event that people plan schedules and trips around and purchase tickets for, and create a we'll tell you in late October where your team will be for the next few weeks? Or does it change every week based on results, so all travel, ticketing, and other plans for teams and fans must be made with less than 7 days notice?

What you've described is club sports weekend tournaments. 1 or 2 days of pool play, then gold, silver, bronze, flight play at the end. But you want to stretch it over 5 weeks... And then do it again for rest of the field? Or are you going so far as to not even compartmentalize this to each conference?

Yeah, that fixes everything...

If you have been a fan of Texas A&M athletics for any amount of time...prepare yourself for a 7 or 8 seed against Bama or ND.

AgEng06 said:

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Sq 17 said:

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I stand corrected watching it definitely looked like the field was G tech field

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Not to pile on... but you think GA TECH's field would be a giant domed stadium that holds 70k+?

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Houston played in the Astrodome for years largely because county owned…

GT sold their home game for a few million dollars. It was still played in Atlanta, but under the dome. They should have never done that, of course.

This doesn't really fix the issue. It just pushes the logjam further down. Instead of a bunch of teams with 10-11 wins, you now have a bunch of 9-10 win teams.

Kinda goes back to the whole debate about "rankings" being all F'd up.

If you play the number 1 team and win, were they just overrated?

And afterward, after they've fallen to hypothetical #6, does that mean you beat the #1 team? Or do you have a win against the #6 team?

Do away with conferences and play completely random schedules every year. G5 and P4 stay separate. It's the best chance at having the best teams make the playoff. Will they be mostly former SEC teams? Probably.

NFL has 2 conferences, each with 4 divisions, each with 4 teams....32 teams total

Specific to football, a similar model could get established with 64 teams total, but maybe without the AFC/NFC type of split at the top.
Or hell, maybe keep it and have a collegiate Super Bowl equivalent.
Basketball and the other sports can track differently, if needed.

We're kinda close to the 64 count already, given the current P4 super conferences.
Divide up into 8 team divisions, keep it more regional, less B1G style from coast to coast.
(which kinda is a throwback to the old conference structure)
And at the end of the day, hold a 16 team playoff.

Then drop down and do it again across the smaller schools, and have their own separate (but similarly structured) road to it's own championship.

And drop down again and do it again, rinse and repeat.
Non-conference games, let people schedule whoever they want to.

Could be a terrible idea, but sure seems like something should happen differently.

It was perfectly set up before the last expansion. 4 regional conferences of 16, each with 4 divisions. Just needed PAC to expand.. likely by gutting the Big 12. Once one conference went beyond 16, we were stuck with this **** fest.

Heineken-Ashi said:

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It was perfectly set up before the last expansion. 4 regional conferences of 16, each with 4 divisions. Just needed PAC to expand.. likely by gutting the Big 12. Once one conference went beyond 16, we were stuck with this **** fest.

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So the Big 12 is to blame. Or really the Pac 12 for having no foresight and no balls.

Although t.u. still thought they ran the Big 12 (despite only winning it twice, during their whole time there)
So by extension, this is all t.u.'s fault.

It's crazy… the teams at the top beat the teams at the bottom.

But If you look at the SEC conference play only, SEC is .500. No one is really that good (Karl Ravech logic)

barstoolexpert said:

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It's crazy… the teams at the top beat the teams at the bottom.

But If you look at the SEC conference play only, SEC is .500. No one is really that good (Karl Ravech logic)

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Every game has a winner and a loser. Part of the SEC strategy has been four games against non-SEC teams with usually four home games maybe one P4 (though possibly home and home), one FCS, one Go5, and maybe a rivalry out of conference or just another team. Depending on how that went you then needed 2-3 wins to get a bowl which you turned into revenue opportunity similar to a home game even selling tickets to your own fans.

That led to the claim we had teams above the .500 level throughout the SEC!!!

Nice post!

Kind of goes along with my post/thread yesterday showing you could rank all the 1 loss teams in any order at the end of the day and justify it.

Politics and money will be deciding the rankings of those 5 teams is my guess.

Very little difference between our sked and Ole Miss, and nobody is talking about Ole Miss sked.

Indiana played 2 ranked teams, terrible non-con teams, and the win % of their other B1G opponents was abysmal.

TX Technical schedule is a joke.

HOWEVER, this is not unusual for top 10 teams, you become a top 10 team by winning all those games and not losing 1 or 2 to the great swath of teams that will finish 5-7 to 8-4, or in some cases 4-8.

Being 10-2 doesn't make you an elite 12-0 team that steamrolled all your opponents, many 10-2 teams or better could easily have 2-4 losses depending on a play here or there.

We play in the SEC and do NOT have to apologize for our schedule. There are enough common opponent games to draw conclusions. Not sure Technical or Indiana would have near their same record if they had to play our schedule IMHO.

The reason conf teams are terrible at the bottom is because the top reams beat them. I'm ready for the SEC vs Big 10 challenge. Match up like they do in BB based on previous years record.

jsc8116 said:

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If you have been a fan of Texas A&M athletics for any amount of time...prepare yourself for a 7 or 8 seed against Bama or ND.

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Agree. I don't see us getting the easier 6th seed. They've been looking all season for a reason to jump us. We should have been ranked above Indiana earlier in the season but they would never bump us up over them

jsc8116 said:

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If you have been a fan of Texas A&M athletics for any amount of time...prepare yourself for a 7 or 8 seed against Bama or ND.

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You nailed it

jsc8116 said:

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If you have been a fan of Texas A&M athletics for any amount of time...prepare yourself for a 7 or 8 seed against Bama or ND.

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And here we are.

TAMUallen said:

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Sq 17 said:

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Played at G tech
Gtech has some wtf losses but that is not a bad team

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Definitely DID NOT play at GT

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Only two miles away but this is technically correct

Tech has a contract to play one of their home games each season at the Benz dome. This year was Uga last was ND

If only the SEC played 9 conference games, this would be much clearer.