GrantNKY

I mean the answer is kind of simple, but some people won’t like it. The Group of 5 needs their own playoff.

This is way more important than anything in all honesty. Look at which conferences have lucrative TV deals and which ones don’t. No team outside of the SEC, Big 10, or ACC has won a title since Texas in 2005. Those conferences are the only ones with great TV deals with their own networks. The Pac 12 has a network, but no one even knows how to get the Pac 12 network so it doesn’t even really count. The Big 12 has nothing, but Texas has the Longhorn network which they hold over the rest of the conference from getting a TV deal. An overall governing body of the sport can tell Texas to kick rocks, the Big 12 can’t. Get everyone in on equal tv deals. Lower the number of scholarship players and increase the number of full scholarship athletes for non revenue generating sports. The conferences will still hold a huge role because I don’t think anyone wants to get rid of conferences, there just needs to be uniformity to level the playing field. But we’ll never get uniformity when the sport is divided so much that 5 parties and I guess you could expand it out to 10 parties, are in a position where they can’t worry about the rest of the sport. The SEC is always going to look out for the SEC, as they should. We need to eliminate that for the betterment of the sport. Every other sport in the world has a governing body looking out for everyone. Hell even college basketball, while not having an official governing body for the sport at least is more regulated by the NCAA so the playing field is more level. College football is my favorite sport, but how it’s run is so backwards to how every other sport in the world.

I agree that college football isn’t perfect. I also want to see the playoff expanded. I don’t believe expanding the playoff is necessarily going to fix the issues. If you want to spread out the talent and increase the parity in the sport this is what has to happen: 1) There needs to be a central governing body for the sport. No longer should each conference get to dictate its own rules. The way the sport is structured right now, the conferences only look out for their own best interests which is what they are paid to do. Take that power away from the conferences. There needs to be an FBS commissioner that makes decisions for the good of the sport as a whole. 2) Reduce the number of scholarship athletes in FBS football. 85 is way too many scholarship athletes. 3) One free transfer rule. Which is already happening. Players should be more empowered to leave if there is a better opportunity for them elsewhere. 4) Expand the playoffs. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think this solely fixes the issues of the sport but if the other changes happen first, it would assist the efforts to increase parity.

If anyone is complaining about not being able to get Penei Sewell because we have won 2 games in a row now that we weren’t expecting to win, you don’t deserve to root for this team. End of discussion. There are other great players in this draft.

Welcome everyone to the 2020 College Football Playoff Contest. For this contest we will be picking the playoff games and the national championship game against the spread. The contest will be in 2 parts (Semi-finals and the national championship. To be eligible you must submit an entry to both contests. The spreads we have decided upon are based on your answers in the prediction threads for each game. To enter the contest simply pick each game against the spread. Example: If you believe Clemson wins by more than the spread simply submit Clemson, if you believe Ohio State will win or lose by less than the spread, submit Ohio State. Correct answers for each semi final game will be worth 3 points. All entries will be accepted up until 2:30 ET January 1st. Only one entry per member. The second part of the contest will be posted January 2nd the day following the semi finals. The prize for the overall winner will be selected by the staff here at BGP. Best of luck! The spreads for each game: Alabama -23.5 Clemson -10.5 Format for submissions: Winner Against the Spread Game 1 Winner Against the Spread Game 2

The same can be said for both of those 2 teams. Lamar is starting to play close to his MVP level last year. Baker, as much as I hate him, has the Browns looking tough and nobody is stopping that running attack. All healthy, the Steelers are probably the best team of the 3, but Baker and Lamar are way better than Ben now. Ben just looks lost right now.

The coaches poll, aka the Sports and Information Directors Poll. Obviously this time Dabo went out of his way to take it upon himself to rank OSU 11th, but 99% of the time the coaches don’t even look at the forms to fill them out.

I mean you know I hate the Steelers. I’m going to try to discredit them every chance I get haha Thats why I asked you though. Despite being 11-0, the last 3 games basically confirm what I was thinking when I watched the first 11 games. Just kind of skating by and don’t really appear to be an elite team despite winning their first 11 games. That’s the traditional Steelers brand of football though so I get it, but still they are light years behind the best teams in the league and these past 3 games kind of confirm that. Do still believe they are better than the Ravens and the Browns? I don’t think I do.

They are still one of the 6-7 best teams in the league. It just seemed like they were playing with fire and that 11-0 record was a little fraudulent. They never looked capable of beating the Chiefs in my eyes.

@TheDeuce I don’t know how you feel, but the Steelers just really aren’t that good especially now with all the injuries. Of course good is relative to the rest of the league, but did you ever feel, even when they were 11-0, that they could compete with KC?

In all honesty, I’m not sure when I’ve ever seen a Bengals defense look this good in a game. Got turnovers, d line getting consistent pressure, dbs playing really well. Just makes you feel good.

What a great night! Who Dey!!

It’s not any different. I mean Day called out all 3 playoff teams, but the point is the same. Really upset that Demario McCall posted that video.

To be fair, if our guys weren’t already going in to this game flat out you know what before Dabos comments, they didn’t deserve to win anyways. This game is what they’ve wanted ever since the season ended last year. Everything during the season was to get to this spot, to line up against Clemson again. Now they have their shot.

I mean if anyone has a right to be cocky towards Ohio State, it’s Dabo. He’s 3-0 against us so I mean he has kind of earned the right to talk down about OSU. Even Saban can’t really do that. I thought it was kind of funny because nobody thinks he actually believes that. I don’t usually buy in to that kind of bulletin board material, but hey I’ll take anything I can get right now. I hope he keeps talking. Haha

Maybe it’s just me, but I love the look of these smaller stadiums more than that a lot of major NFL stadiums. Just feels like you’re more on top of the action and there’s not a bad seat in the house. Looking forward to catching a game there someday.

So you agree Dabo is a little immature trying to get a rise out of people by ranking OSU 11th in his coaches poll vote this week? Haha

OSU bringing the house would go against what OSU has done all year and their defensive philosophy in general. Which is why it’s probably a good idea because they would be looks that Clemson hasn’t seen on tape from OSU. As far as Olave, as long as he has no complications from Covid he will be able to play in the game. Knowing the Ohio State insiders, we’ll have no idea if Olave is playing until we see him on the field for warmups. As far as the protocols he’ll be able to play. But you’ve seen it yourself with guys like Xavier Thomas, covid is tricky and can affect everyone differently. Hopefully he’s fine and doesn’t have any symptoms and can start practicing again after Christmas.

That’s a good point about methodical drives. OSU in the first quarter last week went on an insanely long drive that chewed up 8 minutes of the clock. I’m not sure what the over/under is set at but I’ll say this: if the under hits, Ohio State wins. If the over hits Clemson wins. I’m excited but also nervous as hell not going to lie. Last year I was really confident we would win. 2016 I was confident because Clemson hadn’t really become the power that they are now. I honestly haven’t felt this way about a game since the Sugar Bowl against Bama. My heart wants to tell me that it’s a good feeling because of how it worked out the last time I felt this way. My brain sounds like Lee Corso yelling not so fast.

That’s possible. I still think ND will be able to score some points though. Nobody will be able to stop the Bama offense though. Also come on RTS, your Irish are the deserving 4th team in the playoff.

Came here to post this thought as well. OSU has got to keep Lawrence in the pocket. Just no other way around it. You keep Lawrence in the pocket then we should be able to get pressure on him to slow down those slow developing routes downfield Clemson loves to run and have also been the Achilles heel for Ohio State on defense this season. We’re going to have to play nearly flawless to win this game. But I do think we’re capable of that. Day and Wilson have to put together the perfect game plan on offense. They are going to have to utilize Fields legs deliberately to win this game. Definitely don’t want to just run QB power 20 times a game like we did with JT, but need to mix in 10-12 designed runs with Fields to keep the safeties honest. I honestly don’t know what to expect.

I genuinely feel ND is better than they showed last Saturday. I also feel the Alabama defense is somewhat vulnerable. Don’t get me wrong Alabama is hands down the best team and that offense is going to score a ton of points. I just think ND will be able to keep it interesting for a half. I’ll take Bama 48 ND 28.

As a fan of one of the teams in the playoff obviously it’s hard for me to not be excited about the playoffs. Is it simply, in your eyes, these same teams that make it difficult to get excited or is it something else?

I think this all depends on who you’re selling to. I think a lot of schools and fans would greatly buy a 16 team playoff. We all know that it’s extremely unlikely that a team outside of the top 4 could win a championship in any year. But the most valuable currency in college football is hope. Hope sells and despite it being shallow hope, an 8 or 16 team playoff would be bought by a ton of schools around the country.

I feel we missed JSN a ton as well. They tried to get Fleming going early to at least take some relief off of Garrett Wilson, but Fleming and Fields looked way out of sync. Jameson Williams is supremely talented and I hate to put this label on the kid, but he reminds me of John Ross on the Bengals. On Fields second pick Williams just made the complete wrong decision. That’s an easy completion if he runs the right route. Just doesn’t seem like Williams quite has the understanding of the offense. Obviously if we had Olave I feel like that’s a completely different game. But JSN would have been able to take way more heat off of Wilson if he was able play. Missing 2 of the top 3 receivers is tough. Then having to get young guys involved without the best receivers coach in the sport on the sideline able to coach them up, just leads to the passing game struggles we saw on Saturday. On that same token, that gives me some confidence for the Clemson game because that won’t be the case against them. My frustration heading in to the matchup against Clemson is this team hasn’t had the opportunity to have everyone together in a long time. I’m very curious to see the game plan Day puts together, but the in game adjustments are what I’m really looking forward to. Ohio State didn’t need to throw a single pass against Northwestern it took Day way too long to realize that. Even though it’s against Day’s nature, I think we see a major increase in the run game with Fields against Clemson. Because of the knee injury to Fields last year and OSU not needing Fields legs to get through the schedule this year, we haven’t really seen that wrinkle. I’d say more than a few phone calls to Chip Kelly and Urban Meyer are in Ryan Days schedule the next 12 days.