Is Alabama ruining CFB?

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

Well they have been cheating since Saban showed up so just ding them up, take schollies and NT away for all the years they played with ineligible players which is every year. Then others will have a better shot.

SEC- you aint cheatin’ then you aint tryin’

Bama has cheating down to an art form.

 

[cidhawkeye]

Only way they could change it would be to cap the number of 4 and 5 star recruits a team could sign.

That wouldn't work. Saban would just call the ranking services and tell them to make the 6'3" 210# 4.3 wide receiver a two star. He called one of the draft analysts because he gave one of his underclassmen too good of a draft grade. Told the guy “Nick Saban was frustrated with me because he thought I had [Leatherwood] too high. [Saban] wanted [Leatherwood] to come back. "

 

[hawkfeever]

Don't you think they get bored at some point? Like okay we won titles, we got money, we can do whatever we want. What's left? Don't you get bored or complacent at some point? A coordinator leaves and another ex-head coach pops in to take over the role.

 

[hawkfeever]

Boosters are going to be allowed to pay players starting next year in Florida and over the next several years in other states. That should help the parity conversation, Alabama is a rich school but not rich enough to sign a class composed entirely of kids in the top 100 recruits like they are used to though.

And imagine what Iowa won't be able to do compared to many other schools. There will have to be some sort of salary ranges by position in place across all teams or this just gets insane with the haves and have nots. You go where the money is. It ain't in Iowa City as there is not enough people or $ to get the top dogs.

 

[obfuscating]

There is such a massive chasm between AL and the rest of the field.

There is no parity and its boring.

How do others feel/think?

THE CFP has ruined the game. It needs to be more like FCS where you have a true playoff.

 

[kceasthawk]

Boosters are going to be allowed to pay players starting next year in Florida and over the next several years in other states. That should help the parity conversation, Alabama is a rich school but not rich enough to sign a class composed entirely of kids in the top 100 recruits like they are used to though.

Don't see the boosters paying players as beneficial to Iowa. I know we have some alums with $$, but certainly not like some schools. I'm sure this has to be tied to the pay for likeness deal. I haven't heard anything about boosters just being able to start paying players whatever they want?????

 

[carrierhawk]

There is such a massive chasm between AL and the rest of the field.

There is no parity and its boring.

How do others feel/think?

I for one think all the other schools need to get better. Alabama is very good, how do all the others catch them?

 

[fezzador]

I for one think all the other schools need to get better. Alabama is very good, how do all the others catch them?

Tell recruits that their team will have less positional competition and that Tuscaloosa is a crappy college town.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

The current structure of the P5 system really does create the opportunity to catch the top handful of programs because its designed to get keep them in place. The only way to catch up is find a sugar daddy like Oregon or more or less openly cheat like Baylor, Auburn or USC, accepting the inevitable punishment as a cost of doing business.

The only real way to create parity is to more evenly distribute the existing market of HS talent. The rich would still get the cream of the crop but the developmental programs, like Iowa, would start the developmental process with a better level of talent. That would greatly benefit programs, like our beloved Hawks, that are frequently just a play or two away from occasional to perennial top 15 status.

But, it would be good for college athletics in general. The odds makers would be spinning their algorithms to near infinity for the first few years of that format. A team that was routinely playing, admittedly preferred status, walk-ons and winning? I think the viewing public would love a new environment to devour.

 

[HawkLogic]

A massive chasm? This year perhaps. Last year LSU was easily the best team in CFB. Alabama didn't even make the playoff. The year before, Alabama was blown out 44-16 in the national title game.

Yes, but it has been same cast of players in every National championship for last 10 years...Alabama, LSU, OHSU, Oklahoma, Clemson. It isn't a level playing field and it is boring.

 

[59DAWG]

THE CFP has ruined the game. It needs to be more like FCS where you have a true playoff.

Doesn't the FCS play-offs end up with the same schools and champions every year? One of the Dakotas, James Madison, etc. It use to be Georgia Southern every year.

 

[STPGopherfan]

And ND. They already pounded Clemson

Did Clemson have Trevor Lawrence?

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

People who make excuses and hate winning/success ruin everything. Alabama is greed, and greed is beautiful. Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of evolutionary spirits.

View embedded media

Trust me.....it's not worth it.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Doesn't the FCS play-offs end up with the same schools and champions every year? One of the Dakotas, James Madison, etc. It use to be Georgia Southern every year.

Well, aside from the run that North Dakota State is on, no.....

Usually dominance in the FCS is more like what you'd see in high school where there's a dominant class or group of classes that have mini-runs, and you usually get a few back to back or 3 pets before someone else comes along with their own dominant class.

What NDSU is doing is far different from what Alabama has done to college football.

These are the other schools to win national titles since 1999 (I included that year because GSU went back to back):

Georgia Southern x2
Montana
Western Kentucky
Delaware
James Madison x2
Appalachian State x3
Richmond
Villanova
Eastern Washington


For a fair comparison, these are the other schools to win FBS titles (aside from Bama....because f*** Alabama):

Florida State x2
Oklahoma
Miami
Ohio State x2
LSU x3
USC
Texas
Florida x2
Auburn
Clemson x2

So there are actually more champions that have been crowned at the FBS level, but also more multiple champions.

However, where the real issue is at, especially when it comes to opportunities, is in the championship matchups.

7 different schools have faced North Dakota State in their 8 FCS title games.

And since the CFP began in 2014, there have been 6 different programs filling out one of the 14 spots available.

 

[CEIABall]

Don't you think they get bored at some point? Like okay we won titles, we got money, we can do whatever we want. What's left? Don't you get bored or complacent at some point? A coordinator leaves and another ex-head coach pops in to take over the role.

Well why don't we and all the other mere mortal college programs get bored of trying? When you are on the outside looking in at the elites the best you can hope for is to:
1. Beat your rivals as much as possible
2. Get as good a bowl game as possible and hopefully win them
3. Send some guys to the NFL to enjoy watching them play
By those 3 measures we have an incredible program, just short of the elites. But unfortunately the gap is wide because even in a dream season where we sneak into the CFP after winning the B10 there will always be at least 1 or 2 true death star teams waiting to blow us up. So why don't we fans get bored? I guess because the 3 things listed above are pretty fun and we don't have much else to do?

 

[83Hawk]

Get better.

Somebody should tell Kirk. All the Hawks have to do to challenge for a national title is “get better.” Easy.

 

[robchawk]

Don't agree. Gives more teams a chance to get in and can market it as such. If playoff is expanded, Iowa would have a better chance at getting in and you don't think that would not help recruiting a little bit? I think it will cause more of a divide between say the top 25 and the rest over time. And the way it is with the transfer portal deal now, those at the top can cherry pick some adds as needed from the lesser crowd. They get developed at the lesser teams and get noticed as being great players and get called up to the bigs for their last year or two.

expanding from 2-4 got us to this point. it has ruined the bowls not in the playoff, given espn way too much power, they own like all of the bowls save 1 or 2, they were the driving force behind getting this college season played--it was for money and nothing else trust me. they influence who is chosen by partnering with the sec and acc and in a smaller way big 12.
and all of this has made for a spending frenzy to try and keep up,

 

[cidhawkeye]

Somebody should tell Kirk. All the Hawks have to do to challenge for a national title is “get better.” Easy.

So they can challenge for a title without getting better? Looking forward to that happening.

Nice cherry pick...

 

[hawkeyebob62]

20, 30 AND 40 years ago the NCAA had teeth. They enforced rules. Now? A school slut takes the investigator out for drinks and, voila, investigation "compromised"! Or, use the "all students were allowed to take the course, so it's not academic fraud!" (no mention whether or not ALL students had the same burden/chance of passing the course).

The NCAA has not only lost their stones, they also became partisan. Note what happened with O$U and PSU. Now, look what's happening to other schools outside the B1G. Christ, in 2012, the 2 member schools calling for banishment of PSU--not death penalty, actual banishment--were U$C, and Miami/FL. Kind of a rich irony, no? While this year, L$U is pretty much slam-dunk guilty--oaky, practically admitting--there were cover-ups of sexual assaults by players. The result? Self-imposed bowl ban! (This year team was 4-6). And who can forget what happened to Notre Dame?

And $EC being in lock-step with ESecPN isn't going to help the B1G cause. Not to mention the B1G Commissioner making fans yearn for the days of Jim Delany...less than a year after he had retired.

As someone else said, expanding the playoff won't be the be-all/end-all. And it will hurt more bowls and the communities that host them.

Anyone notice the recent that NCAA Head Sponge Mark Emmert says P5 pulling away from NCAA is a bad thing? Of course he feels that. Without P5, he has no reason to have a job. And with some in Congress calling for a sports commission that will all but render the NCAA moot, things won't get better any time soon.

 

[elipse]

The sad thing is - we could basically pick the 4 teams that will be in next year’s playoffs right now.

 

[83Hawk]

So they can challenge for a title without getting better? Looking forward to that happening.

Nice cherry pick...

Not a cherry pick. Your statement to “get better” is ridiculous. Like it is an easy thing to do. Just flip a switch! You think teams aren’t already trying to get better?

 

[JayIrwin95]

I will be honest I don't have delusions of a national title and therefore it doesn't bother me. I want wests titles and Big 10 titles first. And that means my focus is on Wisconsin and Ohio State. What should he asked is does the CFB play into the creation of these 3 super programs, Alabama, Ohio State, and Clemson. Seems like the SEC ACC and Big 10 are all losing ground to their super team and then its basically the rest of the country fighting for 1 spot.

 

[fezzador]

Not a cherry pick. Your statement to “get better” is ridiculous. Like it is an easy thing to do. Just flip a switch! You think teams aren’t already trying to get better?

That is true, but what also seems to be the case is that programs like USC, Texas, and Georgia aren’t trying hard enough. They all have resources that even Alabama doesn’t have but none are going all-out to challenge the Bama dynasty. UGA has at least reached the playoffs but can’t get over the hump. I’m starting to think that Kirby isn’t the answer.

 

[The Deplorable Sleeping Dog]

There have been 28 playoff spots in the 7 years of playoff ball. Bammy 6, Domers 2, tOSU 4, Clemson 6, LSU 1, Sooners 4, Georgia 1, Washington 1, Sparty 1, Oregon 1 and FSU 1. In the last 5 seasons we've had: Clemson 5/5, Bammy in 4/5, Oklahoma 3/5, Brutus 3/5, ND 2/5, Washington, LSU and Georgia 1/5 each.

The title game has seen Alabama 4/5, Clemson 3/5, OSU 1/5 and Georgia 1/5, LSU 1/5.

Next year's way too early prediction is 1. Clemson; 2. Alabama; 3. Oklahoma; 4. Georgia; 5. tOSU. Since Bammy and Georgia will most likely have to play with the winner or both going to the playoffs next season doesn't seem to provide much opportunity for a diverse playoff next season.

 

[Michael1969]

I'd blame the CFP itself more than I'd blame any particular program. The ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2 & ABC) broadcasts all but 4 of the 40-plus bowl games. Yet, they devote all of their attention to the 2 CFP semifinal games. They focus on the CFP so much that if you're not in the CFP, you're not important. Often times I think they use those other bowl games they televise as promotional tools for the CFP games.

Then add in the fact that all but for one season, at least half of the teams in the CFP were in the CFP the year before, those programs are going to be talked about more. We're in an era where it's playoffs or nothing, or simply be happy the team you're a fan of was able to accomplish what they did.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Well why don't we and all the other mere mortal college programs get bored of trying? When you are on the outside looking in at the elites the best you can hope for is to:
1. Beat your rivals as much as possible
2. Get as good a bowl game as possible and hopefully win them
3. Send some guys to the NFL to enjoy watching them play
By those 3 measures we have an incredible program, just short of the elites. But unfortunately the gap is wide because even in a dream season where we sneak into the CFP after winning the B10 there will always be at least 1 or 2 true death star teams waiting to blow us up. So why don't we fans get bored? I guess because the 3 things listed above are pretty fun and we don't have much else to do?

I don't get bored because I simply don't give a crap about the NC. It's such a massive longshot for teams like Iowa that it's essentially unobtainium. I'm not saying it can't happen, but the odds are incredibly slim. Unfortunately, even the B1G is massively lopsided now with tOSU dominating the recruiting and the results. If Iowa was in the same division as tOSU, it would be hard to get excited about the season simply because of the disparity between programs. Iowa could win such a division, but it would be really, really rare. We don't have the depth to run that guantlet and beat tOSU with any regularity.

The NC is the elite party that only the uber "wealthy" get invited to. Teams like Iowa may stumble into an invite every now and then, but they'll almost certainly be immediately snubbed as a non-member.

That being said, I'll keep going to Hawkeye games, root for my team and ignore the NC like I have since I got into college football in the 70's. The rest is a big "don't care" for me. I'm astounded at how many fans of lower tier teams get worked up about the NC...but I'm also astounded at people who get worked up about the UK royalty too.

 

[bman546]

Most of the ideas to "fix" the system or create parity will have disastrous unintended consequences. Don't like a team dominating, then don't watch, and/or root against Alabama. Having a dominant team comes and goes... Saban is 69 years old. If nothing else, ride it out.... Then, after Saban retires, you'll start bitching about Dabo etc...

 

[Bonnell20]

Are they paying under the table in bitcoin yet? I hear it is hard to trace.

Someone in the SEC has definitely figured out how to do this.

 

[obfuscating]

no conference should get 2 into the CFP, ever.

 

[cidhawkeye]

Not a cherry pick. Your statement to “get better” is ridiculous. Like it is an easy thing to do. Just flip a switch! You think teams aren’t already trying to get better?

I missed where I said ‘it was easy’ or put out a plan on how to get better. You pick two words out of a post. Pretty much the definition of cherry pick

 

[wolve1972]

Alabama is definitely king of the hill but some act like they are invincible which is hog wash. Keep in mind, they didn't even make the playoffs last year and got steamrolled two years ago by Clemson 44-16. Even Saban hinted after the NC game that this could have been his best and most talented team - although he didn't come right out and say it. Many are labeling Clemson as the preseason NC favorites next year. Alabama is losing a ton of superstars to the NFL this year. Yes, I know they reload but it will take time to get the flow going again.

Oklahoma should be right in the thick of things next year along with OSU. But OSU needs to figure out that HORRIBLE pass defense which was exposed all year especially by Alabama and even Indiana. Their DC/DB coach - Kerry Coombs - will be under fire next year. The one ray of hope for all of the other B1G, ACC and SEC teams is that Alabama, OSU, and Clemson will all be breaking in new QBs but you can bet that all of them will be very talented.

In essence, it's the same familiar faces. The key is controlling your conference and all of those teams do exactly that. Maybe an 8-team playoff to give others a chance ?

 

[Titanhawk2]

THE CFP has ruined the game. It needs to be more like FCS where you have a true playoff.

Really? 8 of the last 9 championships have been won by NDSU. How has a 24 team playoff kept the same team out of winning? And it is almost always #1, #2, or #3 in the finals

 

[cidhawkeye]

Really? 8 of the last 9 championships have been won by NDSU. How has a 24 team playoff kept the same team out of winning? And it is almost always #1, #2, or #3 in the finals

With 3 different coaches.

 

[cidhawkeye]

Saban loses an OL coach and hires a former NFL HC. Looks like ‘get better’ is how he rolls.

 

[obfuscating]

Really? 8 of the last 9 championships have been won by NDSU. How has a 24 team playoff kept the same team out of winning? And it is almost always #1, #2, or #3 in the finals

At least putting teams into the playoffs will quell some of the voices. Still end up with the winners - but now you can say (with conviction) "you had your chance" small fry.

 

[bdg8]

Saban loses an OL coach and hires a former NFL HC. Looks like ‘get better’ is how he rolls.

It’s nuts. They add 2 former NFL head coaches and one is not even a coordinator