American Sports Thread

[Carmen Stateside]

NFC looking very tight this year! Vikings Saints Rams and Eagles all legitimate contenders for Super bowl. 
Interesting to see how the Eagles get on in a tough one in Seattle tonight.  Wentz has been great so far and very entertaining to watch.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Dirty hit from Gronk today.

Looking at a suspension but you never know with the Pats.

[Declan]

Eagles all legitimate contenders for Super bowl. 
Interesting to see how the Eagles get on in a tough one in Seattle tonight.  Wentz has been great so far and very entertaining to watch.

Have had great fun watching my other team in Green this year but haven't watched last nights game yet only saw result - Maybe a truer reflection of their abilities?

[TabClear]

A committee of experts rank the top 25 teams in the nation, with the top four at the end of the season advancing to the semi-finals of the national championship. No one else has a shot at the national title now.

Cheers. Can understand the controversy now, nothing like introducing subjectivity into sports titles.

[AZOffaly]

I think the controversy is really only because they try to play a clever media game. They have this criteria that they constantly trip themselves up over. Their job is to put the 4 best teams in the playoff, and to be fair they probably have done that in this instance. But the criteria they supposedly use to decide who is best is a complete balls, because they ignore it if their eyes tell them team A is better than team B, even if team A has played a poor schedule, has no conference championship etc.  To be honest, I think they should have no ranking at all until maybe the last couple of weeks because they end up contradicting themselves when they are asked 'why is A above B in this ranking?' etc. They leave hostages to fortune all over the place.

Like consider this, even if you knew nothing about College Football. Last week, they said team A & team B were very close. Very little between them. They also said that they will value conference championships.

Now fast forward a week. Nothing has changed EXCEPT
- Team B won a game against a team ranked ahead of them (in the top 4).
- Team B won the conference championship.
- Team A didn't play at all because it didn't make the conference championship game (Different conference)
- Team A watched the team that beat them lose the conference championship game.

So, taking what they said last week at face value, and then looking at what happened this week, who is ranked higher? A or B?

[stew]

I think the controversy is really only because they try to play a clever media game. They have this criteria that they constantly trip themselves up over. Their job is to put the 4 best teams in the playoff, and to be fair they probably have done that in this instance. But the criteria they supposedly use to decide who is best is a complete balls, because they ignore it if their eyes tell them team A is better than team B, even if team A has played a poor schedule, has no conference championship etc.  To be honest, I think they should have no ranking at all until maybe the last couple of weeks because they end up contradicting themselves when they are asked 'why is A above B in this ranking?' etc. They leave hostages to fortune all over the place.

Like consider this, even if you knew nothing about College Football. Last week, they said team A & team B were very close. Very little between them. They also said that they will value conference championships.

Now fast forward a week. Nothing has changed EXCEPT
- Team B won a game against a team ranked ahead of them (in the top 4).
- Team B won the conference championship.
- Team A didn't play at all because it didn't make the conference championship game (Different conference)
- Team A watched the team that beat them lose the conference championship game.

So, taking what they said last week at face value, and then looking at what happened this week, who is ranked higher? A or B?

They should go to a top eight, that would take the guess work out of it all but of course they want controversy, it puts bums on seats and is good for the brand.

[TabClear]

I think the controversy is really only because they try to play a clever media game. They have this criteria that they constantly trip themselves up over. Their job is to put the 4 best teams in the playoff, and to be fair they probably have done that in this instance. But the criteria they supposedly use to decide who is best is a complete balls, because they ignore it if their eyes tell them team A is better than team B, even if team A has played a poor schedule, has no conference championship etc.  To be honest, I think they should have no ranking at all until maybe the last couple of weeks because they end up contradicting themselves when they are asked 'why is A above B in this ranking?' etc. They leave hostages to fortune all over the place.

Like consider this, even if you knew nothing about College Football. Last week, they said team A & team B were very close. Very little between them. They also said that they will value conference championships.

Now fast forward a week. Nothing has changed EXCEPT
- Team B won a game against a team ranked ahead of them (in the top 4).
- Team B won the conference championship.
- Team A didn't play at all because it didn't make the conference championship game (Different conference)
- Team A watched the team that beat them lose the conference championship game.

So, taking what they said last week at face value, and then looking at what happened this week, who is ranked higher? A or B?

At the risk of looking like a complete clown surely the only possible movement is that B increases its seeding relative to A?

[gallsman]

That's the point. A is Alabama. B is Ohio State. Bama are in playoff, Ohio State aren't.

[TabClear]

That's the point. A is Alabama. B is Ohio State. Bama are in playoff, Ohio State aren't.

Lol, clear as mud then. I think I'll concentrate on the NFL.

[lurganblue]

NFC looking very tight this year! Vikings Saints Rams and Eagles all legitimate contenders for Super bowl. 
Interesting to see how the Eagles get on in a tough one in Seattle tonight.  Wentz has been great so far and very entertaining to watch.

Massive win for the Saints against their division rivals last night.  I only got seeing the 1st quarter but what a rookie year Kamara is having.

[AZOffaly]

That's the point. A is Alabama. B is Ohio State. Bama are in playoff, Ohio State aren't.

Lol, clear as mud then. I think I'll concentrate on the NFL.

But that's it. I think any reasonable person would come to the same conclusion you did.

However, apparently what they really should have said before last weekend was "Team A is a good bit ahead of Team B in our minds, and if Team B wants to jump over them, they are going to have to absolutely hammer the opposition in their conference championship game'.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

McAdoo and Jerry Resse fired - good riddance

[Syferus]

McAdoo and Jerry Resse fired - good riddance

Awful nice of the twāts to pretty much run Eli out of town on their way out too.

Malzahn got a big extension from Auburn to close down any rumours of him leaving. All in all he's built two championship level teams in his tenure and he's going to have Stidham and probably at least one of their star RBs back next year so there's plenty of reason to believe they can contend. It was their defence that really surprised me this season, Malzahn never really had a top class unit on that side of the ball until now.

Jimo Fisher arriving in College Station will only put the SEC West even farther ahead of every other division in college football.

[Puckoon]

I think the controversy is really only because they try to play a clever media game. They have this criteria that they constantly trip themselves up over. Their job is to put the 4 best teams in the playoff, and to be fair they probably have done that in this instance. But the criteria they supposedly use to decide who is best is a complete balls, because they ignore it if their eyes tell them team A is better than team B, even if team A has played a poor schedule, has no conference championship etc.  To be honest, I think they should have no ranking at all until maybe the last couple of weeks because they end up contradicting themselves when they are asked 'why is A above B in this ranking?' etc. They leave hostages to fortune all over the place.

Like consider this, even if you knew nothing about College Football. Last week, they said team A & team B were very close. Very little between them. They also said that they will value conference championships.

Now fast forward a week. Nothing has changed EXCEPT
- Team B won a game against a team ranked ahead of them (in the top 4).
- Team B won the conference championship.
- Team A didn't play at all because it didn't make the conference championship game (Different conference)
- Team A watched the team that beat them lose the conference championship game.

So, taking what they said last week at face value, and then looking at what happened this week, who is ranked higher? A or B?

They should go to a top eight, that would take the guess work out of it all but of course they want controversy, it puts bums on seats and is good for the brand.

I agree - and can't see the logic for not going to 8. I don't know that the controversy outweighs 2 more games and 4 more teams and the revenue they would generate. Not to mention the bigger shot at the Cinderella story!

[TabClear]

I think the controversy is really only because they try to play a clever media game. They have this criteria that they constantly trip themselves up over. Their job is to put the 4 best teams in the playoff, and to be fair they probably have done that in this instance. But the criteria they supposedly use to decide who is best is a complete balls, because they ignore it if their eyes tell them team A is better than team B, even if team A has played a poor schedule, has no conference championship etc.  To be honest, I think they should have no ranking at all until maybe the last couple of weeks because they end up contradicting themselves when they are asked 'why is A above B in this ranking?' etc. They leave hostages to fortune all over the place.

Like consider this, even if you knew nothing about College Football. Last week, they said team A & team B were very close. Very little between them. They also said that they will value conference championships.

Now fast forward a week. Nothing has changed EXCEPT
- Team B won a game against a team ranked ahead of them (in the top 4).
- Team B won the conference championship.
- Team A didn't play at all because it didn't make the conference championship game (Different conference)
- Team A watched the team that beat them lose the conference championship game.

So, taking what they said last week at face value, and then looking at what happened this week, who is ranked higher? A or B?

They should go to a top eight, that would take the guess work out of it all but of course they want controversy, it puts bums on seats and is good for the brand.

I agree - and can't see the logic for not going to 8. I don't know that the controversy outweighs 2 more games and 4 more teams and the revenue they would generate. Not to mention the bigger shot at the Cinderella story!

That's the bigger issue for me.  A big part of sports appeal is the possibility of the Buster Douglas, Wimbledon fa cup, Denmark in the euros etc etc. To put this in the hands of a committee is just wrong