How so? They clearly learned something by their losses and improved, just as any team should. They lost to T and SC early in the season, but came back to beat SC in their second meeting and played respectably in the final against Male (which beat T twice).

 

I don't think you can automatically throw out a team because they have a bad loss, and it doesn't make it a joke that they improved and won their bracket. People were ready to count out Ohio St in the CFP last year because of their loss to VT. Scoreboard numbers don't matter as much as Ws and Ls.

 

Any bracketed tournament isn't automatically going to produce the two best teams, and it doesn't mean a team that might be third, fourth, or fifth best overall that makes it to the final is a joke. It's just the way it works.

 

41-14 is respectable? Especially since seven of that fourteen occurred in the final minutes after the game was decided.

 

Lafayette did better than I expected, but much of that can be traced to all of the dropped passes (that occurred due to receiver/qb mistakes not defensive pressure) Male had.

 

Honestly, if it just happened by chance that the fourth best team made it to the finals that would be one thing. Looking at the tournament structure and knowing from the beginning that the two best teams won't make it to the finals is the grating part.

41-14 is respectable? Especially since seven of that fourteen occurred in the final minutes after the game was decided.

 

Lafayette did better than I expected, but much of that can be traced to all of the dropped passes (that occurred due to receiver/qb mistakes not defensive pressure) Male had.

 

Honestly, if it just happened by chance that the fourth best team made it to the finals that would be one thing. Looking at the tournament structure and knowing from the beginning that the two best teams won't make it to the finals is the grating part.

 

I suppose respectable can mean a lot of different things to different people. To me, it just means that it wasn't the embarrassing shutout that people predicted.

 

There was less than a two touchdown difference until nearly the end of the third quarter, when a couple of turnovers opened it up. It was a fun back-and-forth game to watch up until that point.

 

Let's face it, any bracket with Male, Trinity, and St. X in it is going to mean that the other side is facing an uphill battle. I don't know what you do to fix it, but calling it a joke is a little harsh.

 

Like I said - this type of tournament doesn't guarantee the two best -- just the last two standing.

I suppose respectable can mean a lot of different things to different people. To me, it just means that it wasn't the embarrassing shutout that people predicted.

 

There was less than a two touchdown difference until nearly the end of the third quarter, when a couple of turnovers opened it up. It was a fun back-and-forth game to watch up until that point.

 

Let's face it, any bracket with Male, Trinity, and St. X in it is going to mean that the other side is facing an uphill battle. I don't know what you do to fix it, but calling it a joke is a little harsh.

 

Like I said - this type of tournament doesn't guarantee the two best -- just the last two standing.

 

I never called it a joke, I just disagreed that the game was 'respectable'. To me respectable means that a team was in the game and had a chance to win it. I never felt that way about Lafayette as their only touchdown for 90% of the game came on an amazing scramble that you can't count on repeating. Otherwise their offense just couldn't deal with the Male defense.

 

I agree that this tournament doesn't guarantee that the two best play in the finals, no tournament can promise that.

 

As I said before the part that grates is that this tournament structure guarantees that the two best teams won't play in the finals.

I never called it a joke, I just disagreed that the game was 'respectable'. To me respectable means that a team was in the game and had a chance to win it. I never felt that way about Lafayette as their only touchdown for 90% of the game came on an amazing scramble that you can't count on repeating. Otherwise their offense just couldn't deal with the Male defense.

 

I agree that this tournament doesn't guarantee that the two best play in the finals, no tournament can promise that.

 

As I said before the part that grates is that this tournament structure guarantees that the two best teams won't play in the finals.

 

If competitive is your benchmark for respectable then so be it -- Lafayette was never a threat to pull ahead.

 

In reference to "calling it a joke", I mistakenly addressed you instead of All Tell who made the statement.

...much like Lafayette wasn't the second best team.

...much like Lafayette wasn't the second best team.

In this game they were.