UCF is undefeated, too. Should they get in? Their schedule is horrible. It's easy to go undefeated if you don't play anybody at all.

Notre Dame's schedule is obviously tougher than UCF's, that's not what I'm saying. But Notre Dame is going to get their asses beat in the first round of the playoffs by whoever they play. They are a pedestrian team compared to the other contenders. But national media people want to act like Southern Cal is still some powerhouse that makes ND's schedule legit!
[Edited on December 2, 2018 at 1:39 AM. Reason : but 4-loss Stanford was overrated #7 when ND beat them!]

12/2/2018 1:32:08 AM

I mean if we’re going down that rabbit hole...clemson hasn’t beat anybody either.

ND deserves to be in. As does clemson, obviously.

[Edited on December 2, 2018 at 9:44 AM. Reason : A]

12/2/2018 9:44:02 AM

^or they could just take four teams from the big ten east or sec west and have a playoff.

12/2/2018 11:26:46 AM

If only we could play "nobodies" like Wake Forest

12/2/2018 12:05:39 PM

Why would they take 4 big ten teams? To have a shit playoff to see who the most overrated team in the country is?

12/2/2018 12:37:35 PM

^I was just making the point that you have to count losses and not who played the toughest schedule. There have been years where there have been three top 15 caliber teams in the same division of the same mega conference.

12/2/2018 3:45:26 PM

Not in the big ten there hasn't. They always suck and are vastly overrated.

12/2/2018 4:40:56 PM

Satterfield to UL. Good hire for them imo.

12/3/2018 6:09:32 PM

I wonder if more and more players skipping the bowl games could impact a greater push for expanded playoffs. Use to just be top 10 type Guys but seems like more and more mid round types too skipping, and the trend will continue. Nobody is skipping the playoff games and the lower tier bowls people just watch for a football fix, but some of these generally fun to watch 2nd tier bowls will lose that if they all just turn into young player preview games or bad football. Maybe it won’t impact ratings or attendance but for example I’m far less interested in WVU v Syracuse now(not that I really was before but I would have tuned in but without Grier, eh).

Harmon and Pratt skipping the bowl are not the level of player that was skipping the bowls just a few years ago. If the trend becomes all the guys entering the draft sitting out because the perception is it’s a disadvantage to not start prepping plus injury risk these games are going to really take a hit.

12/8/2018 3:56:27 PM

I don't think players sitting out will have any effect on the explanation of playoffs. Playoffs might expand to 8 teams, but beyond that it will never happen, mainly because schools/conferences won't want to shorten the regular season (and lose that TV money.)

And I think you're underestimating the caliber of draft prospect that Harmon is. He's probably a top 3 WR right now.

Also think you're underestimating the ratings monster that is football. People watch even the most worthless of bowls.

12/8/2018 5:20:59 PM

Quote :

"People watch even the most worthless of bowls."

meh, I dunno how true this is. How many people are going to watch the Arizona Bowl aside from fans of Nevada or Arkansas State? Aside from their respective fanbases, how many viewers really care about Temple vs Duke, or Buffalo vs Troy? Hell, how many people care about our game aside from us and Aggie fans? There are way too many bowl games.

12/8/2018 6:06:40 PM

^^It has nothing to do with where Harmon is but the point being guys like him from an NC State weren’t sitting out bowl games a few years ago(how many top 3 wrs sat out bowl games before 2016?). It seems to be more a growing trend where the value of playing isn’t outweighing the value of preparing for the draft.

Expanding the playoffs to create more meaningful games is something I could see helping to push that expansion as a talking point for why it’s needed. I never said it was going to 64 teams. But I don’t see this trend stopping especially if there is combine and draft success from those sitting out.

As TT points out it’s too much as is, now you start to remove more and more talent games get a lot less interesting fast. Hell you can’t really even watch just for some conference bragging rights because how do you gauge us vs. the SEC with 2 of our best players out or Grier not playing. Even gambling on the games takes a hit as this hurts that too. I just see it as a potential big problem if this snowballs to many draft eligible players sitting.

12/8/2018 8:55:18 PM

You want players to not sit out? Pay them.

You want to expand the playoffs, which means adding more games? Pay the players.

That's really the only solution to every single complaint you have. There really isn't another option. If you expand the playoffs where you add 3-4 extra games onto the regular season and I can guarantee there will be players who won't play. Almost any team in the national championship of an 8 team playoff would be playing it's 16th game.

12/8/2018 9:20:36 PM

I’m not complaining you moron. When did I say they shouldn’t sit out?

I simply made the point that I wonder if more guys sitting would help push an expansion of the playoffs forward faster to create more meaningful games guys won’t sit out.

What am I missing here? You are the absolute worst.

12/8/2018 9:27:16 PM

Bama and Clemson will be playing 15 games this year, what's one extra game for some 18-22 year olds?

[Edited on December 8, 2018 at 9:30 PM. Reason : they'll miss too many classes!!1]

12/8/2018 9:28:50 PM

i feel like im in at least the 95th percentile of sports fans and I've pretty much checked out on all bowl games not involving my team since the playoffs

12/8/2018 11:10:33 PM

Quote :

"There are way too many bowl games."

I get why it feels like this is true. But Duke/UNC basketball got a 2.0 tv rating last March. Over 3 million viewers. http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/03/unc-duke-ratings-espn-season-high/

Meanwhile. Many mediocre bowls had more viewers than that. Army/SDSU had a better rating. USF/Texas Tech was better. In terms of viewers, bowls are doing fine. http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/01/college-football-bowl-ratings-increase/

12/9/2018 10:36:34 AM

I had a company Christmas party yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to watch, but I was glad to see that Army beat Navy for a 3rd year in a row after losing 14 straight to them from 2002 to 2015. It would be great to see a 4 game win streak by Army before hopefully some shorter win streaks in the series. Their coaching staff has done a great job turning that program around. They have now won back to back CIC Trophies.

12/9/2018 12:08:47 PM

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/25535754/shawndarrius-phillips-fiu-panthers-arrested-domestic-battery-count

Butch Davis still running a clean program I see.

12/14/2018 9:40:19 PM

I have met Butch Davis a few times and have to admit that he does not seem to be a scumbag, the total opposite in fact and seems like standup guy. He will readily admit that he got screwed at UNC, which isn’t surprising given that we found out much of what was going on in the athletic department was already well established well before he got there. Given that it took so long to arrest the player from the time the warrant was issued, and the fact that it was in Broward County instead of Miami-Dade County, I would not be surprised if the coaches at FIU didn’t know about it.

12/14/2018 10:54:28 PM

Butch Davis hired his old buddy John Blake, who was paid by an agent while he was on staff at UNC. That had nothing to do with the academic scandal. They vacated 2 seasons of wins because of shit he brought into the program, that was enough to warrant him getting fired (but UNC definitely tried to pin their institutional cheating on him.)

12/15/2018 12:26:24 AM

Quote :

"@tomfornelli According to @SportsInsights, there were 27,669 bets placed on the New Mexico Bowl. There were 7,168 bets placed on Kansas-Villanova."

Holy shit

12/15/2018 2:38:25 PM

Yet another reason why they will never get rid of pointless bowls.

12/15/2018 2:44:55 PM

Yup.

12/15/2018 3:00:46 PM

I'm 5-1 in my bowl picks so far. The Cajuns just didn't show up when I needed them to.

[Edited on December 16, 2018 at 4:05 AM. Reason : .]

12/16/2018 4:05:14 AM

I'm sure nobody will see this here first, but apparently 3 Clemson players got popped for PED including dexter lawrence

12/24/2018 5:13:51 PM

3 players testing positive makes me think there's about a 0% chance these were false positives. Welp, it was fun watching you in college Dexter Lawrence. Have fun getting drug tested like every week in the NFL now.

12/24/2018 5:56:02 PM

3 Bama players suspended for violating team rules.

12/25/2018 7:11:42 AM

And if you really needed more proof that bowl games are really just blatant cash grabs, the first responders bowl was cancelled today, not postponed.

BC is refunding fans who bought tickets through them (and giving them free tickets to any BC home game between now and December), but the people who bought tickets from the bowl itself (which is owned by ESPN) are shit out of luck.

12/26/2018 5:21:48 PM

Crazy that the game was cancelled. Sucks for the players and for people who basically skipped Christmas to travel for it.

12/26/2018 9:05:29 PM

9 interceptions in this Cheez-it Bowl.....TCU passed for 28 yards on 8-21 passing and 4 INTs and wins 10-7 in OT

12/27/2018 12:26:03 AM

Quote :

"And if you really needed more proof that bowl games are really just blatant cash grabs"

did anybody think they weren't that?

12/27/2018 6:25:55 AM

Well people still get upset that players skip these pointless games.

Also, the cheez-it bowl trophy is literally a bowl of cheez-it

12/27/2018 6:27:51 AM

Dexter Lawrence should have come to State we hide our drugs better

12/27/2018 11:12:52 PM

^^where are all these people that are upset? I see little outside of some crazy fans but most get why they skip the games and usually a player fans appreciation for their efforts over the years.

You just make things up or state the most obvious things.

12/28/2018 7:49:06 AM

I see plenty of it on other message boards.

12/28/2018 8:35:28 AM

There are people on this very website who disagree with players skipping bowl games.

12/28/2018 1:21:56 PM

my god auburn is murdering purdue

and you're gonna read this and think "hmm i bet the score is like 35-10". nah. it was 56-7. at halftime.

12/28/2018 4:40:05 PM

Hahaha fuck Michigan and the b1g

12/29/2018 3:16:19 PM

Fuck South Carolina too.

12/29/2018 3:59:42 PM

At least their fans don't think they should be playing for the national championship every year. I savor every single post season blowout handed to the most overrated conference in college football.

12/29/2018 4:32:06 PM

^ very true. I just felt like fuck South Carolina needed to be said.

12/29/2018 4:34:50 PM

oh look, Notre Dame is overrated again

12/29/2018 5:53:08 PM

I mean if we're gonna just get bama Clemson almost every year I don't really see why we need a playoff...




(The money of course...)

12/29/2018 6:25:56 PM

Quote :

"Notre Dame is going to get their asses beat in the first round of the playoffs by whoever they play. "

12/29/2018 7:25:49 PM

Regardless of this, it was the right call for them to be in the playoff. You can’t esclude an undefeated P5 team. And hell, Clemson’s resume is hardly impressive. Wins over TAMU and Cuse are their best. I think this result is more a testament to how great Clemson is that “lol ND is so overrated again”. Clemson is basically just Alabama at this point. And both those teams are far ahead of everybody else.



[Edited on December 29, 2018 at 7:27 PM. Reason : They were 2 TD dogs, it’s not like people expected them to win or anything ]

12/29/2018 7:26:48 PM

They're not a P5 team. And Clemson wasn't squeaking by mediocre teams all year. Georgia would've at least put up a fight.

[Edited on December 29, 2018 at 7:33 PM. Reason : Add another note ]

12/29/2018 7:32:19 PM

They are absolutely counted as a P5 team. I don’t like ND. But you can’t exclude them from the playoff this year.

[Edited on December 29, 2018 at 7:37 PM. Reason : A]

12/29/2018 7:37:20 PM

They don't play football in a conference, they're an Independent team, they are not in a power 5 conference for football.

12/29/2018 7:43:01 PM

Ok yes. Literally, they are not a power 5 conference member. When discussing ND, they are commonly grouped into the discussion. I think it’s fair to group them into that realm of teams when referring to level of play, strength of schedule, etc. Hell, they play at least 10 P5 teams/year.

12/29/2018 8:02:14 PM