If Bama goes to the playoff AGAIN after sitting out the SECCG.....

[oxrageous]

According to CFN:
"Technically, Florida should be higher. Its two losses came to No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Georgia. It’s win over No. 12 Auburn is better than anything Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, Utah, Penn State and Oklahoma have done – and that’s the problem with all of this. A team shouldn’t be punished just because it had to play nasty teams, and others didn’t. With the combination of resume and eye-test – like the committee uses, Florida should’ve settled in around seven or so, and …"

I'd be mad as hell if we win out and don't get NY6 bowl.

UF should decline any bowl invitation they get. It's time to make a statement that non-championship seasons will not be tolerated.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

According to CFN:
"Technically, Florida should be higher. Its two losses came to No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Georgia. It’s win over No. 12 Auburn is better than anything Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oregon, Utah, Penn State and Oklahoma have done – and that’s the problem with all of this. A team shouldn’t be punished just because it had to play nasty teams, and others didn’t. With the combination of resume and eye-test – like the committee uses, Florida should’ve settled in around seven or so, and …"

I'd be mad as hell if we win out and don't get NY6 bowl.

Minnesota won’t stay undefeated forever. Penn St will lose again. Either Oregon or Utah have to lose again because they’ll eventually meet in the PAC-12 title game. Decent chance Oklahoma loses again.

People get too worked up over the playoff rankings when there’s still a month of football to go.

 

[GatorKen714]

I always thought the same teams being ranked where they are was because the sports media folks were lazy and didn't want to learn new players and coaches names and already had tear jerk stories pre-recorded that would be wasted.

 

[Oscar the G]

I don’t think they’d ever come out and state it. What I mean is those teams will have a perception advantage in a larger playoff system before game 1. It’s up to them to stay in the hunt but are you going to put a say... 11-1 Northwestern that didn’t win its championship over a 11-1 Bama? I think not. Those selection committee types are going to default to perceived talent and ability to win the playoff. I don’t think its a big deal at 4 teams but its definitely a big deal at 8. Additionally, media attention is a good point - I guarantee we see ND in there almost every year, no matter how many times they get blown out.

Isnt that the same as saying the SEC has a perception advantage? ND isnt being put in every year because of recruiting are they? It's all related though.

 

[Gator Fever]

The PAC 10 Champ is going to have at best one loss, Oregon or Utah. Oregon lost to AU (which will be a 3-4 loss team if uga and UA beat them). Utah lost USC (bad loss). Neither have what you would call a quality win. Alabama with one loss gets in over either, especially since UA will have to beat AU, which beat Oregon. UA's only loss will be a sqeaker to the #1 team while playing a one legged QB.

Either champion will have a better wins resume than Bama would.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

It's absurd the lengths that some are going to in their attempts to discredit everything this team(and staff) does.

We were in the LSU game until the end of the 3rd. The problem was our defense couldnt stop anyone, just like against the dwags. If we actually played some defense in big games, I think ppl would be a little less critical.

As to your take about bama having 2 weeks to prepare but digging themselves a hole, etc. Again, I'll say it really was almost solely on tua. He was dreadful and single handedly dug them that hole. But once he got the rust off, the bama offense was rolling and the defense was playing a heck of a lot better than LSUs. Im getting repetitive but I'd like to see those 2 teams play when both play 4 full quarters - I continue to contend bama would win.

Seems to me your angst over this issue has more to do with fans poopooing florida's performance against them which has nothing to do with the game in discussion. But just to fire you up, our defense is absolutely dreadful against good offense - its uncanny how bad grantham's pass rushing centered defense is against a team built to pass. Embarrassingly dreadful, and that is the reason ppl are down on the team. Other than georgia, our offense has shown up in big games, but out of 3 solid teams, our defense has been present only once. Grantham's scheme and personnel decisions are what is holding this team back. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Zambo]

My angst over the issue has nothing to do with any one team and how supposedly good they are or aren't. My angst is with a system that lets a team that doesn't win their division or conference sitting out championship week and then going to the playoff. Its a completely stupid system. If anyone thinks Bama belongs in the playoff, fine, but don't try to make the argument by convincing me they are a good team. Make the argument by constructing a system that avoids this BS scenario from playing out again.

 

[soflagator]

We were in the LSU game until the end of the 3rd. The problem was our defense couldnt stop anyone, just like against the dwags. If we actually played some defense in big games, I think ppl would be a little less critical.

As to your take about bama having 2 weeks to prepare but digging themselves a hole, etc. Again, I'll say it really was almost solely on tua. He was dreadful and single handedly dug them that hole. But once he got the rust off, the bama offense was rolling and the defense was playing a heck of a lot better than LSUs. Im getting repetitive but I'd like to see those 2 teams play when both play 4 full quarters - I continue to contend bama would win.

Seems to me your angst over this issue has more to do with fans poopooing florida's performance against them which has nothing to do with the game in discussion. But just to fire you up, our defense is absolutely dreadful against good offense - its uncanny how bad grantham's pass rushing centered defense is against a team built to pass. Embarrassingly dreadful, and that is the reason ppl are down on the team. Other than georgia, our offense has shown up in big games, but out of 3 solid teams, our defense has been present only once. Grantham's scheme and personnel decisions are what is holding this team back. Again, just my opinion.

To recap the game, when Trask is tackled with less than a minute to go(2 plays removed from Cleveland dropping a TD that he had in his hands), Fowler's quote in animated fashion was "and Lsu will survive". Maybe he and millions of others were watching a different game, because that's not how you describe a 4th quarter pull away.

As far as defense, Alabama gave up more points at home than we did on the road. So I'm still not sure how we can be crucified for not "playing some defense in a big game", while Saban and Co are given a pass and a "if only they'd played a full 4 quarters. And that's coming from a guy who despises TG. Do you really think it would be acceptable on here if we only played one half? Instead we went toe-to-toe for much of the 60 minutes and it's been dismissed as a terrible game. Now if you want to blame Tua, that's fine and probably fair. But doesn't that also mean that Mullen took a kid who'd never started on the road into DV at night and his guy didn't dig us a hole? Or focus on the fact that we scored more in DV than we have since 2001,which was what so many of us wanted after losing games 21-10 games most of the last decade.

I don't really care. I'll just continue to say there is a certain mindset that persists regarding the current staff and I really think perspective is skewed. Not saying you or anyone in particular, and it doesn't matter to me that we have differing views. But anyone who watched both of those game and came away saying "Alabama was close, Florida wasn't" has a pretty significant bias. It's impossible to conclude otherwise. As Zambo pointed out, any other team that had that performance Saturday would be considered an ok team that couldn't hang. Because it's Alabama, it's all these different reasons why it happened and how it wasn't indicative of who they really are.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

Hopefully Barn will slaughter UGAy this weekend, effectively ending any playoff hopes they would have. Doubt even an SEC Championship could get them in if that happens. That would be two bad losses.

This scenario brings up an interesting question. Say Ugly loses to Barn, but then beats LSU in the SECCG. What SEC gets selected for the playoff? For the sake of argument let’s assume the scenario includes undefeateds in OSU, Baylor, and Clemson and a one loss PAC 12 champ.

 

[Gatorraid81]

This scenario brings up an interesting question. Say Ugly loses to Barn, but then beats LSU in the SECCG. What SEC gets selected for the playoff? For the sake of argument let’s assume the scenario includes undefeateds in OSU, Baylor, and Clemson and a one loss PAC 12 champ.

I'm good with what ever scenario leaves the Dawgs out. If Barn beats them by a couple TD's, it may just end their chances no matter what they do the rest of the way.

 

[TheDouglas78]

But anyone who watched both of those game and came away saying "Alabama was close, Florida wasn't" has a pretty significant bias..

SoFla, honestly neither were close. LSU was by far the better team in both games. This might be the worst Bama defense in over a decade. Tua came out colder than Jason Garrett game plan. LSU could choose how they wanted to defeat either team. If LSU played either team again, I don't know if it would be close.

 

[Oscar the G]

My angst over the issue has nothing to do with any one team and how supposedly good they are or aren't. My angst is with a system that lets a team that doesn't win their division or conference sitting out championship week and then going to the playoff. Its a completely stupid system. If anyone thinks Bama belongs in the playoff, fine, but don't try to make the argument by convincing me they are a good team. Make the argument by constructing a system that avoids this BS scenario from playing out again.

There is just no system that fits the current setup of conferences. Cant make everyone happy.

 

[Zambo]

There is just no system that fits the current setup of conferences. Cant make everyone happy.

Of course the current system doesn't fit, which I why I'm suggesting making changes to the current system. By far the easiest way to make a change is to have the conferences change their rules so that the two best teams in the conference play in the CG, and then only invite conference game champions to the playoff.

 

[oxrageous]

I agree with Zambo. I don’t think the final four should necessarily be the “best”, it should be those teams that accomplished things like the conference championship. If you blow that, you don’t deserve to be in the playoff.

 

[Zambo]

I agree with Zambo.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I agree with Zambo. I don’t think the final four should necessarily be the “best”, it should be those teams that accomplished things like the conference championship. If you blow that, you don’t deserve to be in the playoff.

Damn I was agreeing with Zambo until this, now I know I'm wrong to agree with him.

 

[SGG]

We were in the LSU game until the end of the 3rd. The problem was our defense couldnt stop anyone, just like against the dwags. If we actually played some defense in big games, I think ppl would be a little less critical.

As to your take about bama having 2 weeks to prepare but digging themselves a hole, etc. Again, I'll say it really was almost solely on tua. He was dreadful and single handedly dug them that hole. But once he got the rust off, the bama offense was rolling and the defense was playing a heck of a lot better than LSUs. Im getting repetitive but I'd like to see those 2 teams play when both play 4 full quarters - I continue to contend bama would win.

Seems to me your angst over this issue has more to do with fans poopooing florida's performance against them which has nothing to do with the game in discussion. But just to fire you up, our defense is absolutely dreadful against good offense - its uncanny how bad grantham's pass rushing centered defense is against a team built to pass. Embarrassingly dreadful, and that is the reason ppl are down on the team. Other than georgia, our offense has shown up in big games, but out of 3 solid teams, our defense has been present only once. Grantham's scheme and personnel decisions are what is holding this team back. Again, just my opinion.

So if we’re doing the hypothetical game, as in “Healthy and no rust Tua, Bama likely wins” game, wouldn’t the same rule apply for our game vs LSU? Healthy Greenard and Zuniga and maybe the defense doesn’t shyt the bed for four quarters?

You could do this same hypothetical game for a bunch of games this year. Hell, could’ve done it last year for our game against UGay. What it CJ doesn’t go down early in that game? Does the pass defense improve enough for us to win? Then do we beat Mizzou the next week because of no UGay loss hangover?

The point I’m making is that Bama got one shot at LSU, and LSU had one shot at Bama. Injuries are part of the game, like it or not, and that’s just the way it is.

Tua’s play in the first half of that game had no effect on Bama’s defense being unable to stop Burrow and LSU’s offense. Sure, they played better in the second half, but they couldn’t make stops late when they mattered most with the game on the line.

 

[oxrageous]

If Tua doesn’t fumble the damn ball inside the LSU 10 without being touched on the opening drive Bama wins huge.

Bama wins 9 out of 10 games against LSU. It was classic LSU luck.

 

[soflagator]

SoFla, honestly neither were close. LSU was by far the better team in both games. This might be the worst Bama defense in over a decade. Tua came out colder than Jason Garrett game plan. LSU could choose how they wanted to defeat either team. If LSU played either team again, I don't know if it would be close.

I don’t necessarily agree, but am at least ok with the consistency. Either neither were close, or they were both highly contested. That’s subjective depending on your definition. But as I said, there’s just no way to watch the two games and pretend they weren’t very similar in nature.

 

[Oscar the G]

Of course the current system doesn't fit, which I why I'm suggesting making changes to the current system. By far the easiest way to make a change is to have the conferences change their rules so that the two best teams in the conference play in the CG, and then only invite conference game champions to the playoff.

Sounds good, but how many conference champs you gonna invite to the playoffs ?