American Sports Thread

[AZOffaly]

There needs to be an eight team playoff ASAP. This system has only marginally improved the old one.

I don't know Syf. I like this. It makes for very interesting games, and they truly all matter. If you allow 8 teams in, you'll have the 5 power conferences, plus at least one group of 5, and then 2 others. Losing two or 3 games mightn't eliminate you, and I think it should.

Like in all the scenarios we are painting above, there are a lot of mutually exclusive scenarios, which effectively equate to playoff games themselves.
The loser of Miami/Notre Dame is probably out.
The loser of Clemson/NC State is out.
The loser of Bedlam is out.

I like the 4 teams, but I agree it is very difficult and will appear unfair.

Another worry I have is in 8 teams, if you open the door that far, you'll have even more teams who feel aggrieved given 2 losses or 3 losses.

[magpie seanie]

Extend it to 6 with byes for #1 and #2. #3 v #6 and #4 v #5, winners play the following week against top two.

[AZOffaly]

Extend it to 6 with byes for #1 and #2. #3 v #6 and #4 v #5, winners play the following week against top two.

I know you could tweak it, but you don't want to make too many games meaningless. And no matter what number you land on, you will have teams on the edge who will be pissed off. The lower the bar, the more teams with a gripe.

[magpie seanie]

Extend it to 6 with byes for #1 and #2. #3 v #6 and #4 v #5, winners play the following week against top two.

I know you could tweak it, but you don't want to make too many games meaningless. And no matter what number you land on, you will have teams on the edge who will be pissed off. The lower the bar, the more teams with a gripe.

Yeah, I get what you're saying completely. What I like about the above is - if you're not clearly the best (#1 or #2) you can still get in and have a "prove it" game to make up for say 1 defeat/bad performance where you just had a bad day. If you've lost 2 or 3 then you can have no complaints.

[AZOffaly]

Extend it to 6 with byes for #1 and #2. #3 v #6 and #4 v #5, winners play the following week against top two.

I know you could tweak it, but you don't want to make too many games meaningless. And no matter what number you land on, you will have teams on the edge who will be pissed off. The lower the bar, the more teams with a gripe.

Yeah, I get what you're saying completely. What I like about the above is - if you're not clearly the best (#1 or #2) you can still get in and have a "prove it" game to make up for say 1 defeat/bad performance where you just had a bad day. If you've lost 2 or 3 then you can have no complaints.

I think the way it is now though, the prove it games are still there, but they are in conference or late season games. Now I appreciate that you could win that 'prove it game' (say Wisconsin beat Ohio State) and still miss out. That's shit, but that could happen the #7 team in your scenario.

College Football is great though. This weekend we have essentially 4 or 5 elimination games.

Oklahoma v Oklahoma State a.ka. Bedlam. This is the best of all things. A state rivalry, a conference rivalry and essentially a loser go home game. Whoever loses this is probably gone. Also Ohio State are probably the biggest Cowboys fans outside Okie State.

Clemson v NC State. A big ACC game, and if Clemson are beaten (NC State missed a chip shot to beat them last year) they are probably done. NC State might be done already at 6-2 but if they win this, and go on to win the ACC, they might sneak in if other stuff goes their way.

Virginia Tech v Miami. Another big ACC game, and maybe unbeaten Miami at risk, If Miami win, they will be 9-0 and in the ACC championship game, no matter what happens v Notre Dame. If they lose then Va Tech are right back in it at 8-1, with the tiebreaker, and also maybe in with a chance of sneaking in themselves.

Also out in the floundering PAC 12 we still have a 1 loss Washington, but 4 lower ranked teams are playing each other, with potentially big knock on impacts to Notre Dame. They've beaten #17 USC easily already, but if they go out and lose to #22 Arizona, then that win gets less and less sexy for ND. Then Stanford #21 plays #25 Washington State. If Stanford lose there, then any potential ND win in Stanford would be less significant too. Notre Dame's chances are all wrapped up in strength of schedule, and they always schedule well. But if USC, Michigan State, Stanford, Miami NC State all start to slide a bit, will ND be punished even if they keep winning?

The other one that might be being ignored at the moment, because we've written off the PAC 12 is Washington. They are at #12 and have games against ranked teams in Washington State, Stanford and if they get there, probably Arizona or USC in the PAC 12 title game. If the likes of Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Clemson/Miami, etc lose games, which can easily happen, then a 1 loss PAC 12 champion suddenly becomes relevant again, even if the conference seems out of it at the moment.

[Muck Savage]

8 team playoff would be great. Teams will feel less hard done by at 9 than a team at 5. A team at 4 or 5 could potentially win the whole thing out but a team at 8 or 9 has a very slim chance of winning out. So an 8 team playoff would give the middle teams, 3 - 6, a chance to go at it but still reward the No 1 team with an easier game. When it comes to the end of the regular season there won't be much difference between the teams at 4 and 5.

There are a lot of scenarios left to play out and I think a lot of the teams mentioned here will drop off over the next few weeks. The Pac 12 is a weak version of the SEC where teams destroy each others chances of having a Pac 12 rep in the last four. They will have a team in the Rose bowl but that is all the Pac 12 will get.

I think it will finish with Bama, Big 10 winner (Ohio), ACC winner (Clemson) and Big 12 (Oklahoma) winner or Georgia in the last four. Can't see ND coming through unbeaten. Georgia will get in if they run Bama close.  But all that could go out the window this weekend.

[AZOffaly]

8 team playoff would be great. Teams will feel less hard done by at 9 than a team at 5. A team at 4 or 5 could potentially win the whole thing out but a team at 8 or 9 has a very slim chance of winning out. So an 8 team playoff would give the middle teams, 3 - 6, a chance to go at it but still reward the No 1 team with an easier game. When it comes to the end of the regular season there won't be much difference between the teams at 4 and 5.

There are a lot of scenarios left to play out and I think a lot of the teams mentioned here will drop off over the next few weeks. The Pac 12 is a weak version of the SEC where teams destroy each others chances of having a Pac 12 rep in the last four. They will have a team in the Rose bowl but that is all the Pac 12 will get.

I think it will finish with Bama, Big 10 winner (Ohio), ACC winner (Clemson) and Big 12 (Oklahoma) winner or Georgia in the last four. Can't see ND coming through unbeaten. Georgia will get in if they run Bama close.  But all that could go out the window this weekend.

I guarantee you the #9 team will feel just as hard done by. It all depends on where the bar is. They won't feel hard done by if they are #9 for 4 spots, but if they are #9 for 8, you can imagine them saying what the f**k have that #8 team done that we haven't.

It's not all about the chance of winning it either. If 1 plays 8, they'll probably win handy enough anyway, but 8 will have a great money boost for playing in a big bowl game (as I'd assume they'd rope in big bowl games to make up the 6 games needed now, instead of the 2).

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Texans QB fear Deshaun Watson suffered a torn ACL in practice today. A non-contact injury. MRI coming to confirm.

Not good

[AZOffaly]

Texans QB fear Deshaun Watson suffered a torn ACL in practice today. A non-contact injury. MRI coming to confirm.

Not good

Brutal. Gallsman, did that trade go through?

[Oraisteach]

Well, there goes my rapidly fading season! And who do I play this week? AZ

[Therealdonald]

This has to be unprecedented. A team losing its two star players in one season. I always wondered though in a country with America's population, how it can only provide 32 adequately talented players to play 1 position. To go even further, there's possibly only 15 that can play the position at a high level. I don't understand how if we can train monkeys to use mobile phones, that more players can't be adequately trained to recognise defences and the reads that they are giving.

[magpie seanie]

Had Deshaun Watson in 3 of my 4 leagues this season (Montana the only one I didn't get him in). Just brutal. Hope the guy comes back next year and picks up where he left off.

[gallsman]

Texans QB fear Deshaun Watson suffered a torn ACL in practice today. A non-contact injury. MRI coming to confirm.

Not good

Brutal. Gallsman, did that trade go through?

It did! Bell sitting pretty on my bench resting up ahead of next week!

Do have to say that it's terrible for Watson. He'd been phenomenal and was a surefire MVP candidate. A cruel blow to both he and the Texans and hopefully he can come back from it.

[stew]

This has to be unprecedented. A team losing its two star players in one season. I always wondered though in a country with America's population, how it can only provide 32 adequately talented players to play 1 position. To go even further, there's possibly only 15 that can play the position at a high level. I don't understand how if we can train monkeys to use mobile phones, that more players can't be adequately trained to recognise defences and the reads that they are giving.

Plenty can read defences, most are not good enough to unhinge said defence.

[Syferus]

Non-contact cruciate makes me think of Bridgewater, who still isn't back fit enough to play a year and a bit later. For a dual threat QB like Watson this could be a massive blow.

Still can't get over how peak Cleveland Browns the botched CC on the email nullifying the trade for McCarron was.