College Football 2007-2008

[nakia]

Not really. There are lots of pretty good teams that aren't in the top 25 in the polls. And any team that lost their season opener to an unranked team (other than just possibly a traditional rival) is going to fall out of the rankings. The only 0-1 team that's ranked at all this week is Tennessee and they played a higher ranked team, were on the road, and were in the game for quite a while.

I mean, there are 120 teams in I-A, err, Division I Bowl Subdivision. Quite a few of the 95 unranked teams are okay. Unless you think App State is a top-20 I-A team -- and I'll grant they're good, but not that good -- then Michigan should drop out of the rankings if they lose their first game to them at home.

Point taken. Michigan would have dropped out of the top 25 if they had been beaten by, say, Mississippi State.

In a somewhat related note, would/could/should a team like App State move to I-A? I am not sure how that happens or even if the NCAA would allow it. The last team I remember doing that was Marshall (which, coincidentally, was also in the Southern Conference and routinely won the I-AA championship).

 

[Dimwhit]

In a somewhat related note, would/could/should a team like App State move to I-A? I am not sure how that happens or even if the NCAA would allow it. The last team I remember doing that was Marshall (which, coincidentally, was also in the Southern Conference and routinely won the I-AA championship).

Boise State moved from 1-AA to 1-A eleven years ago. There's another new 1-A team this year (don't know if they came up from 1-AA though. Happens often enough that it's not unreasonable for App State to do the same.

 

[drothgery]

In a somewhat related note, would/could/should a team like App State move to I-A? I am not sure how that happens or even if the NCAA would allow it. The last team I remember doing that was Marshall (which, coincidentally, was also in the Southern Conference and routinely won the I-AA championship).

Until recently, it wasn't all that difficult (Western Kentucky just did; UConn was probably the most notable after Marshall, and really, in the long run is probably more notable than Marshall though they've had less early success -- the Big East isn't the MAC or C-USA). But they don't have a big enough stadium to meet I-A attendance guidelines even if they sell out every game (though most of the MAC, WAC, C-USA, and Sun Belt don't actually sell enough tickets there, and neither does Duke), and they'd be the sixth I-A school (the 4 ACC schools and East Carolina) in a state that, by national averages, has about enough people to support 2 or 3, and that doesn't really support non-ACC sports. My understanding is that they've talked about it, but for various reasons (it'd be expensive, they probably wouldn't get much help from the NC state government, and it's more fun to be the big fish in a small pond than yet another mid-major) they've declined to move up.

 

[drothgery]

Boise State moved from 1-AA to 1-A eleven years ago. There's another new 1-A team this year (don't know if they came up from 1-AA though. Happens often enough that it's not unreasonable for App State to do the same.

Western Kentucky. Also worth noting here is that it seems like the NCAA just put a moratorium on schools changing divisions and/or chaning between subdivisions of division I for schools not already in-process.

 

[nakia]

Western Kentucky. Also worth noting here is that it seems like the NCAA just put a moratorium on schools changing divisions and/or chaning between subdivisions of division I for schools not already in-process.

Is this a prelude to the Div 1-A playoff, you think?

 

[drothgery]

Is this a prelude to the Div 1-A playoff, you think?

I'd like to think so, but probably not. I'd guess there are two possible routes to a I-A playoff.

The most likely is a slow slide to a true playoff from the BCS system. This would mean implementing a "plus-one" game in the only rational fashion (a 4-team mini-playoff) in the next round of BCS agreements. Then 5 or ten years later, after seeing that a 4-team playoff isn't the end of the world, and still leaves deserving title contenders out, expanding to 8 teams, and then all the way out to the sixteen that's the minimum I-A really needs.*

The other possiblity is that some organization decides to set up a playoff with the champions of the five 'mid-major' conferences and the best other teams that they can get (if set up right, they could probably get the runner-ups from the Big East and Pac 10 -- as those conferences have bad bowl deals, and the #3 teams from the other BCS conferences), and that eventually public pressure would force big-name schools into the playoffs rather than the bowls.

* There are 120 teams in I-A; if 10% of the teams aren't playoff worthy, there's somthing wrong. Nearly 20% of division I makes the basketball playoffs (65 of 339 teams). MLB's 8 of 30 teams (a little over 25%) is the lowest percentage of playoff teams in American pro sports.

 

[Dimwhit]

The other possiblity is that some organization decides to set up a playoff with the champions of the five 'mid-major' conferences and the best other teams that they can get (if set up right, they could probably get the runner-ups from the Big East and Pac 10 -- as those conferences have bad bowl deals, and the #3 teams from the other BCS conferences), and that eventually public pressure would force big-name schools into the playoffs rather than the bowls.

Man, that would be GREAT! I'd love to see the non-BCS conference give the BCS the bird and have their own playoffs. Sure, no Fiesta Bowl for the occasional Boise State/Utah, but it would be exciting. I don't care what anyone says, there's some fun football in the WAC/MAC/C-USA/etc. I'd love to see a mid-major playoff.

 

[nakia]

Man, that would be GREAT! I'd love to see the non-BCS conference give the BCS the bird and have their own playoffs. Sure, no Fiesta Bowl for the occasional Boise State/Utah, but it would be exciting. I don't care what anyone says, there's some fun football in the WAC/MAC/C-USA/etc. I'd love to see a mid-major playoff.

I think this is a cool idea, but I can see some of the major conference schools not buying in, even if they are #3 school in the conference. Would South Carolina, say, want to take the risk of getting beaten by Central Michigan on a national stage? Just look at what happened to Oklahoma?

 

[drothgery]

I think this is a cool idea, but I can see some of the major conference schools not buying in, even if they are #3 school in the conference. Would South Carolina, say, want to take the risk of getting beaten by Central Michigan on a national stage? Just look at what happened to Oklahoma?

My guess is that if the 'non-BCS playoffs' offered more money than second and third tier bowls (my guess is that it could offer more than the Big East and Pac 10's second tier bowl, and more than everyone else's third-tier bowl, but nothing close to BCS money -- so if a mid-major champ got a BCS invite, they'd still take it), then South Carolina or Nebraska would take it.

 

[Crothian]

Looks like the defenses gave up in this Louisville game. Almost 50 points scored in the first quarter!!