College Sports (Football)

#26      
Dan
#27      
Navy_illini
I think this is a good move I would like to see a little larger expansion. Here is why

A. Now like college basketball I want a tough non conference schedule to prepare me. Yes you can play 3 cupcakes but that doesn’t help SOS. A 4 maybe 5 loss team can make it. (This will increase ratings)

B. Conferences are too large now so there isn’t really a conference champion with unbalanced schedules.

C. It stops penalizing teams who lost the conference championship game. Some years it was better to be 3rd place and know a team above you could drop

D If it was expanded more get rid of bowl games that players sit out for. Now the top players are more likely to play

This adds a week to the season and the most deserving team should win. There will be years like basketball the best doesn’t win it

One of my major concerns is a home game in December could be really cold but the NFL plays in cold climate outdoors.
 
#28      
Illini2010-11
lstewart53x3 said:
Connelly wrote an article for ESPN a few weeks ago highlighting his concerns with the 24 team playoff (which btw, has anyone seen Connelly and @ChiefGritty in the same room?) and yes, he’s concerned with regular season tv ratings:


It’s hard to argue with him. If each regular season game has less impact on postseason play, less people are likely to tune into each game.
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At the same time, teams will be obligated to schedule less cupcakes on their schedule. We are likely to see even more compelling early season non-conference games.

I am certain that the proposed expansion was one consideration for Illinois going out and scheduling ND.

I personally think the concern of regular season ratings dropping is grossly exaggerated. There will still be a lot of people gambling on the games, etc.
 
#29      
lstewart53x3
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2119830483823731001

collegefootballplayoff.com

CFP to Expand to 24 Teams Starting with the 2027-28 College Football Season; Announces Exclusive Media Rights Agreement with ESPN to Televise New CFP Games through the 2021-32 Season - College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee today, November 9, unanimously approved Playoff expansion to 24 teams, beginning with the 2027-28 col...
collegefootballplayoff.com collegefootballplayoff.com
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One ramification of this:

9-3 effectively becomes the new 6-6.
 
#30      
OnlyOrange
Illini2010-11 said:
At the same time, teams will be obligated to schedule less cupcakes on their schedule. We are likely to see even more compelling early season non-conference games.

I am certain that the proposed expansion was one consideration for Illinois going out and scheduling ND.

I personally think the concern of regular season ratings dropping is grossly exaggerated. There will still be a lot of people gambling on the games, etc.
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I don't necessarily agree this will be the outcome though. Why schedule more tough OOC games knowing you may lose, if you have a chance to lose 3 games in the conference schedule and could then be on the outside looking in with 4 losses? Might as well schedule cupcakes and get the easy wins.

You could be right on the question of ratings, I'm not sure I care much about the ratings of games like Texas - Ohio State, etc. even though I've been posting about it. Just thought it'd be a data point for why the networks may care.
 
#32      
lstewart53x3
OnlyOrange said:
I don't necessarily agree this will be the outcome though. Why schedule more tough OOC games knowing you may lose, if you have a chance to lose 3 games in the conference schedule and could then be on the outside looking in with 4 losses? Might as well schedule cupcakes and get the easy wins.

You could be right on the question of ratings, I'm not sure I care much about the ratings of games like Texas - Ohio State, etc. even though I've been posting about it. Just thought it'd be a data point for why the networks may care.
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Well, I can’t speak for every program, but Bret flat out said during his last press conference that we wouldn’t have scheduled Notre Dame without the 24 team playoff.

My guess at the idea behind it is, in the new system, strength of schedule / quality of wins and losses will be heavily weighted in making the field / seeding, so similar to basketball, a win against a strong program like Notre Dame can help you a lot, but a loss won’t hurt you all that much, creating incentive to schedule strong OOC opponents.
 
#33      
ChiefGritty
lstewart53x3 said:
Connelly wrote an article for ESPN a few weeks ago highlighting his concerns with the 24 team playoff (which btw, has anyone seen Connelly and @ChiefGritty in the same room?) and yes, he’s concerned with regular season tv ratings:


It’s hard to argue with him. If each regular season game has less impact on postseason play, less people are likely to tune into each game.
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Haha, I've actually had my disagreements with Connelly over the years on multiple sports, and I have quibbles with some particulars of that article, but this is the money quote:

"The entire college football industry is built around the TV ratings pulled by huge games (most of them in the regular season) played in front of huge crowds. Voluntarily making those games less important, while also rapidly raising ticket prices and pressure on donors to donate, is playing with fire."

fuddrules said:
Just curious, do you feel that way now watching Illinois basketball games or other marquee basketball games?
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I absolutely watch less non-Illini regular season college basketball than I do non-Illini college football. The regular season matters less, everyone knows this!

Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2119817732552015904
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So the four P4 conference championship games, and the associated TV revenue, go off the board, and 12 more playoff games are added at a price of $340 total per season.

Honestly, is this even that remunerative for the sport? The existing 11-game TV contract for the 12 team playoff was for $1.3B per year. Obviously the later rounds are the more lucrative ones, but only adding 26% to the bottom line for more than doubling the inventory (AND losing the conference title revenue) seems pretty tepid to me.

Homecoming 2019 said:
I mean it feels wrong to say this, but this is very good news for Illinois football
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Winning the Reliaquest Bowl on New Year's Day and getting blown out in Tuscaloosa on December 13th are EXACTLY the same in terms of how close to a national championship you are, the only difference is the former is much more fun and builds much more community for Illini fans.
 
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#35      
Homecoming 2019
ChiefGritty said:
Haha, I've actually had my disagreements with Connelly over the years on multiple sports, and I have quibbles with some particulars of that article, but this is the money quote:

"The entire college football industry is built around the TV ratings pulled by huge games (most of them in the regular season) played in front of huge crowds. Voluntarily making those games less important, while also rapidly raising ticket prices and pressure on donors to donate, is playing with fire."


I absolutely watch less non-Illini regular season college basketball than I do non-Illini college football. The regular season matters less, everyone knows this!


So the four P4 conference championship games, and the associated TV revenue, go off the board, and 12 more playoff games are added at a price of $340 total per season.

Honestly, is this even that remunerative for the sport? The existing 11-game TV contract for the 12 team playoff was for $1.3B per year. Obviously the later rounds are the more lucrative ones, but only adding 26% to the bottom line for more than doubling the inventory (AND losing the conference title revenue) seems pretty tepid to me.


Winning the Reliaquest Bowl on New Year's Day and getting blown out in Tuscaloosa on December 13th are EXACTLY the same in terms of how close to a national championship you are, the only difference is the former is much more fun and builds much more community for Illini fans.
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Completely disagree on the last point. Like winning a few games in the NIT vs making the ncaa tournament. I've never met someone who wouldn't choose the latter.
 
#36      
Illini in Italy
lstewart53x3 said:
Well, I can’t speak for every program, but Bret flat out said during his last press conference that we wouldn’t have scheduled Notre Dame without the 24 team playoff.

My guess at the idea behind it is, in the new system, strength of schedule / quality of wins and losses will be heavily weighted in making the field / seeding, so similar to basketball, a win against a strong program like Notre Dame can help you a lot, but a loss won’t hurt you all that much, creating incentive to schedule strong OOC opponents.
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Playing a little 3D chess here, might ND scheduling the current Illini program give them a big boost in strength of schedule over many in their current cupcake slate? Hmmm?

Think Matthew Mcconaughey GIF by First We Feast
 
#37      
ChiefGritty
Homecoming 2019 said:
Completely disagree on the last point. Like winning a few games in the NIT vs making the ncaa tournament. I've never met someone who wouldn't choose the latter.
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The NIT has never (at least since the 1950's or whatever) had the understood cache and meaning of a NYD bowl game.

The college football that became a cultural and financial juggernaut just ultimately wasn't about the national title race in the same way or to the same degree the NFL is about the Super Bowl race.

That weird patchwork provinciality of the sport is a hard thing to explain to a Zoomer or a foreigner, but it was real and provided unique advantages (while creating very real frustrations as well of course. It's not like anyone ever did anything but hate split national championships).

This is the final nail in that coffin, this is now purely a sport where the one champion at the end is the singular national narrative, and even we dedicated fans are already well into the process of forgetting what that old competitive structure even felt like. It was its own thing, there's not really a comparison for it.

Letting go of that opportunity to be a unique offering in the sports world, crunchy, strange, tucked into geographies the big city entertainment industries don't penetrate and with big, surprising and unpredictable stakes is a big, big mistake for the long term strength and health of the game.
 
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#41      
wma500
Illini in Italy said:
Playing a little 3D chess here, might ND scheduling the current Illini program give them a big boost in strength of schedule over many in their current cupcake slate? Hmmm?

Think Matthew Mcconaughey GIF by First We Feast
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ND is replacing Purdue with Illinois.

I don't pretend to know the math behind the SOS, but sure, mathematically it boosts ND's SOS by some level. But it's 1 of 12 games, and at current, it's the difference between a 3-6 Purdue and 6-3 Illinois. Put more directly, I'd guess yes, but not by much.
 
#42      
Homecoming 2019
ChiefGritty said:
The NIT has never (at least since the 1950's or whatever) had the understood cache and meaning of a NYD bowl game.

The college football that became a cultural and financial juggernaut just ultimately wasn't about the national title race in the same way or to the same degree the NFL is about the Super Bowl race.

That weird patchwork provinciality of the sport is a hard thing to explain to a Zoomer or a foreigner, but it was real and provided unique advantages (while creating very real frustrations as well of course. It's not like anyone ever did anything but hate split national championships).

This is the final nail in that coffin, this is now purely a sport where the one champion at the end is the singular national narrative, and even we dedicated fans are already well into the process of forgetting what that old competitive structure even felt like. It was its own thing, there's not really a comparison for it.

Letting go of that opportunity to be a unique offering in the sports world, crunchy, strange, tucked into geographies the big city entertainment industries don't penetrate and with big, surprising and unpredictable stakes is a big, big mistake for the long term strength and health of the game.
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Sure if we go back a decade plus, yesterday vs today, this benefits Illinois football.
 
#43      
ChiefGritty
Homecoming 2019 said:
Sure if we go back a decade plus, yesterday vs today, this benefits Illinois football.
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Explain what you mean by that though.

You are no closer to a national championship if the road loss to an elite team that keeps you out of the final 8 happens in late December vs mid October.

Spreading the concept of being "not eliminated" from the national championship to more teams for longer is a total illusion, it doesn't change the competitive landscape at all.

This is the mechanism by which the whole American sports industry aspires to feed us ever-bigger quantities of ever-thinner gruel at an ever-higher price. It's flim-flam.
 
#46      
Illini2010-11
ChiefGritty said:
Explain what you mean by that though.

You are no closer to a national championship if the road loss to an elite team that keeps you out of the final 8 happens in late December vs mid October.

Spreading the concept of being "not eliminated" from the national championship to more teams for longer is a total illusion, it doesn't change the competitive landscape at all.

This is the mechanism by which the whole American sports industry aspires to feed us ever-bigger quantities of ever-thinner gruel at an ever-higher price. It's flim-flam.
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I simply can't buy this argument. Making the CFP, by nature, gives you at least a marginal chance of competing for a natty.

In addition, it can be used in recruiting and to get more NIL dollars to come in. Don't get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the Illini play in marquis non-CFP bowl games, but I want to see a December game where the outcome truly matters.

If an expansion gives the Illini a better shot of getting a seat at the table, then it benefits them. I know you said there was no real difference between winning non-CFP NYD bowl game and losing in first round of CFP, but I see a huge difference. One will have a ton of opt outs and the other will likely be fielding the best roster.
 
#48      
Curbelo Fanboy
ChiefGritty said:
The NIT has never (at least since the 1950's or whatever) had the understood cache and meaning of a NYD bowl game.

The college football that became a cultural and financial juggernaut just ultimately wasn't about the national title race in the same way or to the same degree the NFL is about the Super Bowl race.

That weird patchwork provinciality of the sport is a hard thing to explain to a Zoomer or a foreigner, but it was real and provided unique advantages (while creating very real frustrations as well of course. It's not like anyone ever did anything but hate split national championships).

This is the final nail in that coffin, this is now purely a sport where the one champion at the end is the singular national narrative, and even we dedicated fans are already well into the process of forgetting what that old competitive structure even felt like. It was its own thing, there's not really a comparison for it.

Letting go of that opportunity to be a unique offering in the sports world, crunchy, strange, tucked into geographies the big city entertainment industries don't penetrate and with big, surprising and unpredictable stakes is a big, big mistake for the long term strength and health of the game.
Click to expand...
The only comparative for the old college football structure (pre BCS & CFP) is the English Premiere League soccer where they play the league schedule & then that's it. No playoff, high point team is the champion. Not sure what they do if there is a tie but there is no playoff per se. But they have a long season and I presume a balanced schedule. College ball of course never had that. It was just the patchwork of leagues & while you had a voted champion you had 20 plus teams that got to the end & felt like winners cause they had a good or great year & then won their bowl game.
 
#49      
purcy51
#50      
Point-Illinois
Illini2010-11 said:
but I want to see a December game where the outcome truly matters.
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I went to one on Dec 30th last year when we beat Tennessee in their home state at a non-CFP bowl.

Tell any of the players that played that game the outcome didn’t matter, or the Illini fans celebrating on Broadway that night.

What Gritty is getting at is that we once decided what matters…the rivalries, bowl associations, and clear cut conferences.

Now, we’re being told what matters, and to many, it’s not in the best interest of the sport. (Though it’s making lots of money, near term anyway)

I’ll celebrate Illinois if we make the playoffs or ever get a chance for the Natty just like everyone else…but if it comes at the degradation of the overall sport, we better do it quickly.
 
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