Urban Meyer Explains Why An 8-Team College-Football Playoff Won't Work, And He Makes A Good Point

big dog cowboy

THE BIG DOG
Staff member
Messages
101,816
Reaction score
112,659
CowboysZone ULTIMATE Fan
Urban Meyer Explains Why An 8-Team College-Football Playoff Won't Work, And He Makes A Good Point
biz-insider-65x27_102440.gif

By Cork Gaines

Urban_Meyer_Explains_Why_An-7d4cb25048477fa33979ad32d6233e54

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Urban Meyer says there are not enough scholarships for an eight-team playoff. Everybody loves the college-football playoff, but many fans don't think it went far enough — and feel the perfect tournament would include eight teams instead of four.


Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer says it can't happen, and he makes a strong case.

ESPN set television ratings records with the two semifinal college-football playoff games on New Year's Day, showing that the network's $7.3 billion investment is already paying off. With so much demand, it would seem like it would just be a matter of time before the playoff is expanded from three games to seven.

But Meyer emphatically disagrees.

Meyer was a guest on "The Dan Patrick Show" and was asked about expanding the playoff to eight teams.

"You can't do that," Meyer told Patrick. "You better give us 110 scholarships then ... when [it moved to] 85 scholarships there were 12 games. Now there's 15 and the last three they added aren't against smaller [schools]. They're heavyweight prizefights. You just can't do it."

In other words, Meyer's biggest concern is the health of the players and asking them to do too much over the course of a lengthened season. If the schools had more scholarships and bigger rosters, those same players could then get more rest during the season. But that is not happening with just 85 scholarships available to each team.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/urban-meyer-explains-why-8-204039424.html
 

joseephuss

Well-Known Member
Messages
28,041
Reaction score
6,920
The Superbowl participants play 19 games and their rosters including their practice squad is far less than 85 players. This doesn't even include the pre-season games where a player or two is sometimes lost due to injury.
 

jterrell

Penguinite
Messages
33,871
Reaction score
15,969
Again, this is a horsespit argument.

You don't need additional scholly players at 120 schools for 2/4 schools to play 1 additional game.

So, no, it isn't a good point.

Right now you have the top 8 schools play 4 non-CFB bowl games and then 3 CFB games.
The 8 team model would have 7 CFB games....
The bottom 4 teams in that 8 team bracket would need an upset to play 1 additional game 2 upsets to get the title.

The teams ranked 5-8 COULD potentially play 2 extra games but every coach in America and every player on those teams would kill for that outside chance.
Just ask TCU how tough it would be to play another game Monday night....
 

trickblue

Not Old School...Old Testament...
Messages
31,439
Reaction score
3,961
FCS (Used be called D-II) has been doing a 16 team playoff system successfully for dozens of years...
 

jterrell

Penguinite
Messages
33,871
Reaction score
15,969
I can also promise you if OSU had finished 5th or 6th and a B1G team not made the 4 team playoff he'd be arguing for a larger format.

If you are going to say there are a P5 and then say conference championships matter you really have to take the P5 champs as automatic qualifiers.
Then you get 3 at large spots to cover great teams who finish 2nd or are outside the P5.
 

joseephuss

Well-Known Member
Messages
28,041
Reaction score
6,920
FCS (Used be called D-II) has been doing a 16 team playoff system successfully for dozens of years...

They also have a lower scholarship limit of only 63 and on average have smaller rosters when you count walk-ons.
 

Rockport

AmberBeer
Messages
46,580
Reaction score
46,004
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
85 players for a 15 game season sounds plenty to me. The NFL plays more games with just 54.
 

DFWJC

Well-Known Member
Messages
59,981
Reaction score
48,728
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
I wonder if Meyer would have said this if his team had been left out of the final 4 mix?
 

Future

Intramural Legend
Messages
27,566
Reaction score
14,714
The bigger problem with switching to an 8 team playoff is that you're going to have the same problem as we had with the 4, only a lot worse. There are so many 2 and 3 loss teams ranked from roughly 6-12 that all could make a claim, there's going to be 4-5 teams every year who feel they got jobbed.
 

big dog cowboy

THE BIG DOG
Staff member
Messages
101,816
Reaction score
112,659
CowboysZone ULTIMATE Fan
The bigger problem with switching to an 8 team playoff is that you're going to have the same problem as we had with the 4, only a lot worse. There are so many 2 and 3 loss teams ranked from roughly 6-12 that all could make a claim, there's going to be 4-5 teams every year who feel they got jobbed.

I have heard that augument with the NCAA basketball tourney for decades and I say the same thing every time. Squeeking into the postseason and winning in the postseason is two different things. If it's borderline that you get in, more than likely you won't win even if you make it. And you can forget about winning the championship because that simply won't happen.
 

JoeyBoy718

Well-Known Member
Messages
12,715
Reaction score
12,709
I have heard that augument with the NCAA basketball tourney for decades and I say the same thing every time. Squeeking into the postseason and winning in the postseason is two different things. If it's borderline that you get in, more than likely you won't win even if you make it. And you can forget about winning the championship because that simply won't happen.

I think squeaking into the playoffs would be very different than in NCAA basketball. The #65 team in the country doesn't stand a chance of beating the #1 team. But the #8 team in football can usually go toe-to-toe with the #1 team. So the problem is, you have 5-10 teams who think they should be the #8 team.

Yes, expanding to 8 teams will most likely give every team who earned it during the regular season to make the playoffs. This season, for example, the argument was for 6 teams fighting for 4 playoff spots. If 8 teams made the playoffs, then TCU and Baylor would have gotten in. But that doesn't mean whoever would have made it in spots 7 and 8 (maybe Georgia Tech and Michigan State) wouldn't have had a chance to upset some teams and make/win the championship.
 

Rogah

Well-Known Member
Messages
6,473
Reaction score
793
If he was being honest, he would admit the following:

1) Only 2 teams would stand to play that many games
2) Any team good enough to make the finals is certainly playing some cupcakes along the way, with plenty of opportunity to rest starters. Gee, Urban, does Kent State, Rutgers, South Dakota, Wyoming, Florida Atlantic, Western Carolina, Wake Foreest and The Citadel really count as legit games? (Those were all opponents of this year's Final-4).
 

jimmy40

Well-Known Member
Messages
16,866
Reaction score
1,888
thank God Harbaugh went to Michigan or Urban was going to be in the playoff every year with ease.
 

big dog cowboy

THE BIG DOG
Staff member
Messages
101,816
Reaction score
112,659
CowboysZone ULTIMATE Fan
thank God Harbaugh went to Michigan or Urban was going to be in the playoff every year with ease.

Urban is going to build a beast. They will be better next year and probably better then that in 2016. Harbaugh or not, we will be seeing OSU play playoff football in January for a long time.
 

jterrell

Penguinite
Messages
33,871
Reaction score
15,969
Urban is going to build a beast. They will be better next year and probably better then that in 2016. Harbaugh or not, we will be seeing OSU play playoff football in January for a long time.

people at florida thought that too.
we will see how long meyer sticks.
 

Doc50

Original Fan
Messages
3,142
Reaction score
3,430
Urban Meyer Explains Why An 8-Team College-Football Playoff Won't Work, And He Makes A Good Point
biz-insider-65x27_102440.gif

By Cork Gaines

Urban_Meyer_Explains_Why_An-7d4cb25048477fa33979ad32d6233e54

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Urban Meyer says there are not enough scholarships for an eight-team playoff. Everybody loves the college-football playoff, but many fans don't think it went far enough — and feel the perfect tournament would include eight teams instead of four.


Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer says it can't happen, and he makes a strong case.

ESPN set television ratings records with the two semifinal college-football playoff games on New Year's Day, showing that the network's $7.3 billion investment is already paying off. With so much demand, it would seem like it would just be a matter of time before the playoff is expanded from three games to seven.

But Meyer emphatically disagrees.

Meyer was a guest on "The Dan Patrick Show" and was asked about expanding the playoff to eight teams.

"You can't do that," Meyer told Patrick. "You better give us 110 scholarships then ... when [it moved to] 85 scholarships there were 12 games. Now there's 15 and the last three they added aren't against smaller [schools]. They're heavyweight prizefights. You just can't do it."

In other words, Meyer's biggest concern is the health of the players and asking them to do too much over the course of a lengthened season. If the schools had more scholarships and bigger rosters, those same players could then get more rest during the season. But that is not happening with just 85 scholarships available to each team.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/urban-meyer-explains-why-8-204039424.html

It's just that he doesn't want to do that, because he already has a short road to the final 4, and a small tournament (2 games).

My gosh, he already has over 100 players on the sideline, and he can certainly rest his elite players against the inevitable cream puffs; but no, he would want to pad their stats to make his program look better.

This is just self-preserving BS, and it's the very reason the playoffs need 8 teams. The logistics wouldn't be difficult, and it would include a second tier of bowl rotations played a week earlier, like the Bluebonnet, Liberty, Poinsettia, etc, generating some increased interest and additional revenue.

The 5 power conference reps, and 3 at-large -- I can't think of a single good reason to oppose this.
 
Top