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RXB
11-16-2013, 05:53 PM
Right now, the conferences hold their championship games between the leaders of two divisions. My feeling is: if the second-place team in one division has a superior conference record to the first-place team in the other division, the former should get the second spot in the championship game.

The prime current example is in the ACC, where Clemson (7-1 ACC) is clearly the second best team after Florida St. And yet, one of five mediocre teams (Ga Tech/Duke/Miami/UNC/Va Tech) from the other division will instead get the second berth. There's a good chance that the ACC championship will include a team with a 5-3 conference record instead of 7-1 Clemson. (Only the winner of today's Miami-Duke contest will have fewer than three conference losses among the Coastal division squads, and that team will still only be 4-2 with two remaining conference games.)

cj
11-16-2013, 05:56 PM
Right now, the conferences hold their championship games between the leaders of two divisions. My feeling is: if the second-place team in one division has a superior conference record to the first-place team in the other division, the former should get the second spot in the championship game.

The prime current example is in the ACC, where Clemson (7-1 ACC) is clearly the second best team after Florida St. And yet, one of five mediocre teams (Ga Tech/Duke/Miami/UNC/Va Tech) from the other division will instead get the second berth. There's a good chance that the ACC championship will include a team with a 5-3 conference record instead of 7-1 Clemson. (Only the winner of today's Miami-Duke contest will have fewer than three conference losses among the Coastal division squads, and that team will still only be 4-2 with two remaining conference games.)

While I understand your argument, that would make the FSU / Clemson regular season game pretty much meaningless. And college football loves to promote the "every game counts" above all other sports, so it might be a tough sell.

RXB
11-16-2013, 06:10 PM
While I understand your argument, that would make the FSU / Clemson regular season game pretty much meaningless. And college football loves to promote the "every game counts" above all other sports, so it might be a tough sell.

National championship hopes were decided by that game so I don't think it was meaningless.

cj
11-16-2013, 09:22 PM
National championship hopes were decided by that game so I don't think it was meaningless.

It would be meaningless for the conference title. There is no telling how it would turn out nationally, just depends how things play out the rest of the year.

If you are going to do it your way, there can't be divisions. Not really sure how that can work with conferences having 12, 14, and even 16 teams.

RXB
11-16-2013, 10:31 PM
There could still be divisions. It just prevents a weaker division winner from getting a championship game berth over a second-place team from the other division that has a superior record. If the tiebreaker goes to the division winner, even if it lost head-to-head against that second-place finisher, that's still a pretty nice reward/advantage.

RXB
11-16-2013, 10:56 PM
I checked the Big 12 records back in the fifteen seasons when there were two divisions. Once a team went to the championship game despite a 4-4 conference record and two others went with 5-3 records. Those three teams lost their respective championship games 42-3, 70-3 and 62-21. Those are the kinds of fiascoes that ought never to happen.

The records of the second-place finishers in the other division those years was 7-1, 6-2, 7-1. Who belonged, really, in the conference championship game?

cj
11-17-2013, 12:02 PM
I checked the Big 12 records back in the fifteen seasons when there were two divisions. Once a team went to the championship game despite a 4-4 conference record and two others went with 5-3 records. Those three teams lost their respective championship games 42-3, 70-3 and 62-21. Those are the kinds of fiascoes that ought never to happen.

The records of the second-place finishers in the other division those years was 7-1, 6-2, 7-1. Who belonged, really, in the conference championship game?

You could say this about every sport. Winning the division takes some precedence, regardless of record. Even in the NFL, teams have gotten in at 8-8 or 7-9 while 11-5 teams stayed home.

If you do it your way, there is zero reason for divisions. Divisions help determine scheduling, and without them, teams may very well have a scheduling advantage. This happened in the Big 10 for years.

wiffleball whizz
11-17-2013, 12:08 PM
I've seen some big upsets it the conf championships through the years...remember k state drilling Nebraska and Oklahoma as 15 point dogs...also in the ACC....tons of big teams went down at arrowhead