***2024-25 CFB Playoff/Bowl (Dec. 17-Jan. 20) Games Thread***

[FriendlySpartan]

In terms of FBS, the fact that everyone is paying players and can now legally be used to offset advantages in location, history/prestige are not good for the SEC. Plus losing Saban

The SEC brand is going to lose some value in this era imo. The days of so many kids from the south defaulting to a southern school and sitting in the bench until being an upperclassman are over imo

Which is probably why they’re in such a rush to get 4 autos

Agreed on a lot of this, however the saban thing is mostly due to him being able to have the under the table payments locked up. Still a good coach but when you hoard 5star talent that can’t transfer and you got them to come due to funding through the local churches you have a massive advantage. Same way dabo got clemson rolling, learned it from saban and got players paid.

Now that NIL doesn’t require under the table deals and that players can transfer once they realize how much BS they were fed during recruiting those programs are falling back to earth hard.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Agreed on a lot of this, however the saban thing is mostly due to him being able to have the under the table payments locked up. Still a good coach but when you hoard 5star talent that can’t transfer and you got them to come due to funding through the local churches you have a massive advantage. Same way dabo got clemson rolling, learned it from saban and got players paid.

Now that NIL doesn’t require under the table deals and that players can transfer once they realize how much BS they were fed during recruiting those programs are falling back to earth hard.

Partially agree.

No program exemplifies the SEC headwinds more than Bama. The ongoing transformation diminishes their advantages, and I agree Saban was only a piece of that. Very tough for a MSU type to compete with Bama when the moats were history, location, coaching, and willingness to illicitly pay players. Now, if donors like an Ishbia(s) type wanted a Bama recruit or underclassman backup, they can lure them

Saban did a lot for the SEC perception though. Big time programs, particularly in the south have been paying players for decades. He converted that to titles better than anyone in history imo. In the **** measuring of P5 conferences, the SEC got a lot of cred from winning the title, despite the rest of the conference being pretty similar to other P5.

 

[Gonzo]

Partially agree.

No program exemplifies the SEC headwinds more than Bama. The ongoing transformation diminishes their advantages, and I agree Saban was only a piece of that. Very tough for a MSU type to compete with Bama when the moats were history, location, coaching, and willingness to illicitly pay players. Now, if donors like an Ishbia(s) type wanted a Bama recruit or underclassman backup, they can lure them

Saban did a lot for the SEC perception though. Big time programs, particularly in the south have been paying players for decades. He converted that to titles better than anyone in history imo. In the **** measuring of P5 conferences, the SEC got a lot of cred from winning the title, despite the rest of the conference being pretty similar to other P5.

They had a lot of baked-in advantages for sure, but there's no denying that Saban was a hell of a football coach.

 

[FinalFourCy]

They had a lot of baked-in advantages for sure, but there's no denying that Saban was a hell of a football coach.

The best in modern college football imo

That doesn’t mean he’s winning titles if at Kansas or Indiana, although I think given enough time he’d have those programs top-25 annually

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Partially agree.

No program exemplifies the SEC headwinds more than Bama. The ongoing transformation diminishes their advantages, and I agree Saban was only a piece of that. Very tough for a MSU type to compete with Bama when the moats were history, location, coaching, and willingness to illicitly pay players. Now, if donors like an Ishbia(s) type wanted a Bama recruit or underclassman backup, they can lure them

Saban did a lot for the SEC perception though. Big time programs, particularly in the south have been paying players for decades. He converted that to titles better than anyone in history imo. In the **** measuring of P5 conferences, the SEC got a lot of cred from winning the title, despite the rest of the conference being pretty similar to other P5.

Michigan has problems with bama due to the illegal payments, now with NIL the Michigan money cannon can go brrr. Don’t think MSU ever gets major NIL for football, it all goes towards basketball from the mega donors.

Saban created that juggernaut that in a BCS (********) format could easily prop up the conference, some cracks with the 4 team and now with 12 the SEC will get exposed as having their top teams being on the same field or lower then the other conferences top teams.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Michigan has problems with bama due to the illegal payments, now with NIL the Michigan money cannon can go brrr. Don’t think MSU ever gets major NIL for football, it all goes towards basketball from the mega donors.

Saban created that juggernaut that in a BCS (********) format could easily prop up the conference, some cracks with the 4 team and now with 12 the SEC will get exposed as having their top teams being on the same field or lower then the other conferences top teams.

Agree with the state of Michigan dynamics, but the fact a MSU type can, if they want to, compete with Bama is more illustrative of the decay of SEC advantages. Just an example, not a prediction. Whereas Michigan has always been in the neighborhood of the Bama types

But since you brought up Michigan, the SEC doesn’t have the inherent wealth of the BIG. It may “mean more” in the SEC and they’d starve if NIL collectives accepted EBT, but the paradigm was always going to shift once the BIG embraced the coming player compensation era. I have to remind you that you once were blind to how close we were to that occurring

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Agree with the state of Michigan dynamics, but the fact a MSU type can, if they want to, compete with Bama is more illustrative of the decay of SEC advantages. Just an example, not a prediction. Whereas Michigan has always been in the neighborhood of the Bama types

But since you brought up Michigan, the SEC doesn’t have the inherent wealth of the BIG. It may “mean more” in the SEC and they’d starve if NIL collectives accepted EBT, but the paradigm was always going to shift once the BIG embraced the coming player compensation era. I have to remind you that you once were blind to how close we were to that occurring

NIL and being directly paid by the universities was different. I knew NIL was a game changer, my second thread in here was urging a collective to start for ISU about a year before it happened.

My argument was always the schools would fight and refuse to pay directly, the courts got involved and made that discussion moot.

Still not sure how that plays out long term and how the optics will work for that.

 

[t-noah]

No SEC in the Championship game. I guess Lane Kiffen's quotes about the mighty and powerful SEC did not age well. The SEC was the biggest fraud this season.

"It’s ridiculous, the difference of playing in the SEC and the ACC and Big 12… To think that you’re looking at schools and you’re talking about, like, Clemson’s schedule and who they played over Alabama,” said Kiffin. “It’s stupid. I’m not gonna name them. Take some of those teams that are up there that haven’t played anybody and put them down in the SEC, they’re .500 teams.”

SEC scheduled 8 conference games while the Big 12 went with a 9 game conference schedule.

I see Kiffen is still a whiner.

 

[BigJCy]

 

[Sigmapolis]

 

[madguy30]

I'm not sure what the point of this kind of twitter post is when the NFL and NCAA are so different.

 

[Clonehomer]

I'm not sure what the point of this kind of twitter post is when the NFL and NCAA are so different.

Are they though? For all the complaining about how ASU and BSU get a higher seed for winning their conference with a worse record, I sure haven’t seen the same hand wringing about the Vikings having to travel to the Rams tonight despite a better record. Why doesn’t the NFL seed 1-7 based on record? That’s what the talking heads are demanding from CFB, they should be doing the same for the NFL, right?

 

[madguy30]

Are they though? For all the complaining about how ASU and BSU get a higher seed for winning their conference with a worse record, I sure haven’t seen the same hand wringing about the Vikings having to travel to the Rams tonight despite a better record. Why doesn’t the NFL seed 1-7 based on record? That’s what the talking heads are demanding from CFB, they should be doing the same for the NFL, right?

Is there a committee that picks the NFL playoff teams or does it go by standings?

College football had some results based metrics but also went with the dart board approach.

 

[Clonehomer]

Is there a committee that picks the NFL playoff teams or does it go by standings?

College football had some results based metrics but also went with the dart board approach.

I’m just referring to the narrative that the conference champions shouldn’t get the top 4 seeds. But it’s the same in the NFL. The division winners get the top 4 seeds and the team tied for the second best record gets the 5 seed. Just like CFB where the third ranked team gets the 5 seed.

 

[BigJCy]

 

[Gonzo]

Weird, Bama fans said nobody would be watching without Alabama in the CFP.

 

[Mr Janny]

Weird, Bama fans said nobody would be watching without Alabama in the CFP.

The lesson that's going to be taken away from the first year of the expanded playoff is "More, more, more!"
And that's probably not the wrong takeaway. I'm sure there will be a line of diminishing returns, at some point, but we haven't hit it yet.
Consumers want this. No two ways about it.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

 

[NWICY]

THEEE Ohio St LOL it popped up on my feed before you posted, Thanks for posting it though! best one this year was was VandyPimp coming to life

 

[ClubCy]

I'm not sure what the point of this kind of twitter post is when the NFL and NCAA are so different.

It’s a sarcastic post.