2020 Buckeyes Football

Ohio said:

I'm not interested in logical extremes. We are where we are right now, and OSU would have been better off playing and losing to Illinois than simply not playing. That is fucking stupid. And for the record, the CFP committee disagrees. If OSU lost a game they'd 100% be out of the playoff.

No other conference has a minimum games requirement. The CFP doesn't have a minimum game requirement. Only the laughably incompetent Big Ten.

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I actually think the minimum requirement for games is smart. As @Rich indicated, the potential for teams taking an anti-competitive approach significantly increase without a minimum number of games. For example, without a minimum requirement Northwestern could just stop playing right now to ensure they got to the Big10 title game.

Also, since OSU hadn’t hit the Big10 threshold for testing in terms of automatically postponing a game, it had to have been the school’s decision to call it, right? Isn’t this almost like a school cancelling a game because it had too many injuries and thought they could lose? It’s not a direct parallel because injuries aren’t contagious, but it’s similar.

It was the school’s decision to cancel, not the conference.

Ohio said:

I'm not interested in logical extremes. We are where we are right now, and OSU would have been better off playing and losing to Illinois than simply not playing. That is fucking stupid. And for the record, the CFP committee disagrees. If OSU lost a game they'd 100% be out of the playoff.

No other conference has a minimum games requirement. The CFP doesn't have a minimum game requirement. Only the laughably incompetent Big Ten.

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That's not fucking stupid. That's the point of COMPETING.

Playing should always be better than not playing. That's like, the basis of sport. Those who play > those who don't.

Not only that, but you're trying to incentivize good Covid practices. The minimum game requirement is there to try and make teams understand the need to correctly follow protocols. I'm doubting Ohio State was doing as well as they claim they were.

Tell me how it would be far for Ohio State to just shut down for the rest of the season and claim the division championship? How is that fair?

Address this point: Why would it be good policy to encourage Indian to, instead of playing and losing by 7 last week, cancel last weeks game? What you're advocating for is that Indiana should have been rewarded for cancelling last week and avoiding OSU altogether. After all, that had have put OSU on path to be 6-0 and Indiana 7-0, giving them the division title. That somehow more fair than the minimum game requirement?

What should really be happening right now is the NCAA and these conferences should all call an emergency meeting and fucking just expand the playoffs to at least 8 teams this season. Kinda like the NFL is gonna expand the playoffs if too many games get cancelled.

But the NCAA won't do that because change is to scary.

Rich said:

That's not fucking stupid. That's the point of COMPETING.

Playing should always be better than not playing. That's like, the basis of sport. Those who play > those who don't.

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We'll just never agree on that I guess. But I'm looking through the lens of trying to make the Playoff and win a National Championship, where being 5-0 is undoubtedly better than being 5-1. Losing a game kills you whereas not playing a game has little to no impact.

And the Big Ten went the complete opposite way. Again, very on brand for a conference that has actively been hurting its own Playoff chances since the CFP was birthed.

Really disappointed in the Ohio State administration. They should have let the kids play.

Oregon losing eliminated the PAC 12. Northwestern is on the verge of losing to Michigan State which would eliminate every other Big 10 team. The Big 12 was already out. Ohio State is still sitting pretty unless the committee really wants to slip Cincy in. If Bama wins out, it’s tough to argue for a 2nd SEC team. Florida would have lost a 2nd game and A&M got drubbed by 28 when they played Bama earlier in the year. A tight Clemson win over ND in the ACC title game would open the door for 2 ACC teams, but would they really risk setting up the potential for a 3rd game between those two?

Worst case scenario would be a close Florida win over Bama and a close Clemson win over ND on championship weekend along with Cincy and BYU running the table. Even then, you are either putting a non power 5 school with zero wins over a power 5 opponent in or stacking the playoffs with teams from only 2 conferences and setting up replays of games we’ve already seen.

Akron330 said:

Really disappointed in the Ohio State administration. They should have let the kids play.

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My guess it wasn't that simple. They probably have gone thru the contact tracing and come up that there is too many connections between the team to know if the chains were broken. My guess is they weren't prepared with separations between groups with in the protocols to stop the spread. They were probably too reliant on testing and it failed them.

This was a move to be able to play the rest of the games this season. There is a 21 day sit out period in the big 10. If it spreads further within the team, they might not be able to field a team for michigan and michigan state. They might have played the illinois game but could have been at the cost of further games.

A win over a full Wisconsin team in the last week might look better than a win over Northwestern in the Championship game.

No new positives today per Nevadabuck

Michigan is going all virtual. Not pausing all activities, but not a good sign.

Hopefully, if they cancel the last week, someone else does so we can get a 6th game.

col63onel said:

Michigan is going all virtual. Not pausing all activities, but not a good sign.

Hopefully, if they cancel the last week, someone else does so we can get a 6th game.

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Judging by all the other cancellations, I'd say there's a good chance someone else will be cancelling that week.

Ohio said:

We'll just never agree on that I guess. But I'm looking through the lens of trying to make the Playoff and win a National Championship, where being 5-0 is undoubtedly better than being 5-1. Losing a game kills you whereas not playing a game has little to no impact.

And the Big Ten went the complete opposite way. Again, very on brand for a conference that has actively been hurting its own Playoff chances since the CFP was birthed.

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This is the backwardsness of the CFP. By only allowing 4 teams in, it's very anti-competition. It doesn't reward teams who go out and play tough schedules and lose. So long as your in power 5 conference, you are absolutely incentivized to avoid competition out of conference at all costs. So, essentially, take 4 bye weeks and schedule cupcakes.

That's wrong. It's stupid. And it's why the system needs a drastic overhaul. Playing a tough schedule should matter. Losing a game shouldn't eliminate you.

My blood boils every time someone out there lauds the college system because of its uniqueness in that "every week is a playoff!" Bullshit. It's not for teams like Cincinnati. They're eliminated by virtue of not being in one of the special conferences.

Rich said:

This is the backwardsness of the CFP. By only allowing 4 teams in, it's very anti-competition. It doesn't reward teams who go out and play tough schedules and lose. So long as your in power 5 conference, you are absolutely incentivized to avoid competition out of conference at all costs. So, essentially, take 4 bye weeks and schedule cupcakes.

That's wrong. It's stupid. And it's why the system needs a drastic overhaul. Playing a tough schedule should matter. Losing a game shouldn't eliminate you.

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Yeah, we are on the same page here. I completely agree and I've been beating this same drum for years now.

But, the system is the system. And instead of doing everything they can to benefit from it (SEC, ACC) the Big 10 has been consistently doing the opposite. Even if you ignore this season:

-9 game conference schedule instead of 8
-Laughably lopsided divisions
-Powerhouse OOC scheduling

At least one of those three things has prevented a Big 10 team from making the playoff multiple times. Meanwhile the SEC & ACC play their 4 cupcakes and laugh in our faces with guaranteed playoff spots every single year.

And then when you look at what the Big 10 did to itself this season...I mean, woof. The leadership in this conference is a disgrace and consistently fails its institutions.