SEC no longer granted automatic spot in Championship Game; hilarity ensues

[Brian Fein]

Right. I agree.  But they'd be right.  In that system, they were the best regular season teams.

But they were NOT the best teams, as demonstrated last weekend.  Regardless of the system.

[Dave Gray]

But they were NOT the best teams, as demonstrated last weekend.  Regardless of the system.

Is that fair?

If the Giants played the Patriots 10 times, do they still win?  I mean, BEST means nothing -- it's really BEST WITHIN WHATEVER SYSTEM. 

The way the NFL was set up, the Giants peaked at the right time and beat the Pats.  Good for them.  Had the season ended and we had to pick a winner, it would've undoubtedly been the Patriots.

You work within the guidelines of whatever championship you have.

--

TCU could very well stomp OSU or Oregon and we'll never know.  But in the system that we have, they were put out early, because of a loss to Baylor.  It's just the system you have.

[Spider-Dan]

The only way that you arrive at the conclusion that Alabama was "the best regular season team" (when they have the same record as many other teams) is to presume that the teams Alabama played were better than the teams that the other 1-loss teams played.

i.e. the SEC is better than the other conferences

[Brian Fein]

When the system is "team A beat Team B in a game head to head" that's fine.

When the system is "these two teams never played each other but Team A looks better than Team B" then that leaves room for opinion and speculation.

[Dave Gray]

When the system is "team A beat Team B in a game head to head" that's fine.

When the system is "these two teams never played each other but Team A looks better than Team B" then that leaves room for opinion and speculation.

That's always the case, though.  The Giants didn't play every team in the league when they won the Super Bowl.

Look, I'm pro-playoffs, but I don't think that it justifies shit-talking previous champions awarded, considering that the decisions were just, based on the info that they had.

[Tenshot13]

Guys, you're missing the point here...a guy pooped himself on TV.

[CF DolFan]

That's always the case, though.  The Giants didn't play every team in the league when they won the Super Bowl.

Look, I'm pro-playoffs, but I don't think that it justifies shit-talking previous champions awarded, considering that the decisions were just, based on the info that they had.

This is what I believe as well.  You can knock the system but not the teams.

[Spider-Dan]

That's always the case, though.  The Giants didn't play every team in the league when they won the Super Bowl.

But every team that the Giants did not beat either a) finished with a record so bad that they did not qualify for the playoffs or b) lost in the playoffs before the Giants did.

Imagine a version of the NFL where there are only two divisions per conference, East and West.
Imagine that each team plays two games against each of its 7 division opponents, one interdivisional game and one interconference game and two more games against basically any pro team you can find, including AFL and CFL teams.
Now imagine that instead of having playoffs, the media simply voted on which two teams should play in the Super Bowl (not necessarily one from each conference).

A narrative would quickly develop on which division was the "power" division, and because most games are divisional matches, there is no real way to dispel this narrative.  This is the college football system under which the SEC has excelled.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

While I tend to agree with spider, the sample size is too small.   If over the next few years this result repeats with sec getting knocked out round 1 the case will be stronger.  If the sec wins it in playoff 3 out of 4 then this was afluke.

I do like playoffs better.  But just because a team wins a game doesn't mean it is the stronger team just that they were better on that day.

the 07 giants ere not a stronger team than nep

and in 85 under a bcs system the super bowl woud have been bears and fish, and that would have a much better game than pats bears

[Spider-Dan]

I'm not saying that a single-elimination playoff bracket is perfect.  Far from it.  (and 4 teams is too few IMO)

My issue is with the presumed superiority of a conference.  People talk about the SEC streak of championship game appearances as if it has great significance, but all that it means is that the SEC practically always got the benefit of the doubt under the BCS.  The epitome of this nonsense was the LSU-Alabama title game in 2011, where a team that didn't even win its own conference was playing for the national title Because SEC.