2024 Postseason Discussion

[Ghost Of The Year]

Thank God those dog of first round games are over. Now we can get on to real playoff games. I just hope those four winners from the first round aren't beaten down from this weekend and that makes the second round a repeat performance of the first.

[DamnYanks2]

Between all 4 playoff games. I don't think I watched more then 45 minutes combined. Yesterday was *** Indiana and SMU didn't even look like top 25 teams. Let alone playoff teams.

I think Boise St Notre dame and Arizona St give us more of the same. Hope I'm wrong.
But at least Oregon and Ohio st should be good.

[superjames1992]

Quote: Originally Posted by DamnYanks2

Between all 4 playoff games. I don't think I watched more then 45 minutes combined. Yesterday was *** Indiana and SMU didn't even look like top 25 teams. Let alone playoff teams. I think Boise St Notre dame and Arizona St give us more of the same. Hope I'm wrong. But at least Oregon and Ohio st should be good.

If Indiana and SMU didn’t look like top 25 teams, Tennessee didn’t even look like a top 50 team. Theirs was the most complete and embarrassing beatdown, IMO (their margin of loss was slightly better then SMU’s, but SMU was much closer in yardage…it’s just hard to overcome two pick-sixes; also, Ohio State could’ve easily poured on more points in the fourth quarter if they wanted to). Defensively, SMU actually played reasonably well. Tennessee did nothing well.

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by superjames1992

If Indiana and SMU didn’t look like top 25 teams, Tennessee didn’t even look like a top 50 team. Theirs was the most complete and embarrassing beatdown, IMO (their margin of loss was slightly better then SMU’s, but SMU was much closer in yardage…it’s just hard to overcome two pick-sixes; also, Ohio State could’ve easily poured on more points in the fourth quarter if they wanted to). Defensively, SMU actually played reasonably well. Tennessee did nothing well.

SMU looked like the better team for much of the first half outside of 2-3 plays. Unfortunately for them, those 2-3 plays were disastrous.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[sherrane]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year

Thank God those dog of first round games are over. Now we can get on to real playoff games. I just hope those four winners from the first round aren't beaten down from this weekend and that makes the second round a repeat performance of the first.

There have been a lot of unrealistic expectations. This is the 11th year of the playoffs. In the first 30 games (3 games per season for 10 years), only 10 games (one third) have been settled by 10 points or less. 10 other games were settled by 22 points or more. That means the other 10 games were settled by 11 -- 21 points. The games this past weekend were settled by 10, 14, 25, and 28 points, which is fairly close to historical performances. Also, the historical average margin of victory is 18.3 points per game and this weekend's differential was 20. Now keep in mind the first 30 playoff games were all between the top 4 teams. Given that format, we'd likely see Texas and either Penn State, Notre Dame, or Ohio State in rather than Boise State and Arizona State. Given that we had games that matched at least 6 teams that wouldn't have made the playoffs in the past, the games this past Saturday were about what I expected.


Ran an EA Sports College Football 25 simulation on the December 10 patch where I took the average of a best of 7.

Texas 37, Clemson 32. Texas won 38-24. Texas +1, Clemson -8.
Ohio State 44, Tennessee 29. Ohio State won 42-17. Ohio State -2, Tennessee -12.
Penn State 33, SMU 23. Penn State won 38-10. Penn State - 5, SMU -13
Notre Dame 41, Indiana 22. Notre Dame won 27-17. Notre Dame -14, Indiana -5.



We know this game is more offensive than real life football but the Margin of Victories were fairly accurate. Texas by 5, won by 14. Ohio State by 15, won by 25. Penn State by 10, won by 28. Notre Dame by 19, won by 10.


The playoffs have been a lot closer in the past two seasons, which may have mislead us into believing we were going to get treated to some great games:
December 31, 2022 had TCU over Michigan 51-45 and Georgia over Ohio State 42-41 before Georgia over TCU 65-7 on January 9, 2023. January 1, 2024 saw Michigan over Alabama 27-20 in OT while Washington took down Texas 37-31. Michigan then beat Washington 34-13 on January 8. The championship games were disappointing after very close semifinals.


But what about the first 2 playoffs? First year we saw Oregon over Florida State 59-20 in the Rose, Ohio State over Alabama 42-35 in the Sugar before Ohio State beat Oregon in the championship 42-20. That's an average margin of 22.6 points per game in the three games. Every game this weekend was a closer game than the Rose was. The championship game was similar to the Ohio State -- Tennessee or Penn State -- SMU game.


Second year saw Clemson then beat Oklahoma 37-17 in the Orange. Alabama over Michigan State 38-0 in the Cotton. Alabama 45-40 over Clemson in the championship. That's an average margin of 21 points per game in the three games. Nobody was beaten down this weekend like Michigan State was and Clemson had a fairly easy time with Oklahoma.

[sherrane]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

I simply disagree. The playoffs are not necessary. We can agree to disagree. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Congratulations, you are the first person who I've ever heard this from. Most people I know are so happy we have finally gotten away from the mythical national championship. I guess sports writers aren't since they have lost the power to dictate who the best teams are. Taking this power away from them is unquestionably a step in the right direction. All you needed to come to this realization is a social media account. Up until about 9:00 PM on Saturday I had a flood of "Alabama and Ole Miss should have made it over Indiana and SMU". Then Ohio State opened a can on ol' Rocky Top and the chest pounding ended abruptly. I thought it was funny as hell.

[superjames1992]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

SMU looked like the better team for much of the first half outside of 2-3 plays. Unfortunately for them, those 2-3 plays were disastrous. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

At times I thought Jennings had money on the Nittany Lions. 😂