2016 Running Football Thread

[bayonetbrant]

Joe McKnight was shot yesterday in a New Orleans suburb. He was a major recruiting score for Pete Carroll back at Southern Cal, leaving New Orleans to play in LA, but never really living up to the hype in the pros.

Apparently it was some form of road rage gone wrong, and McKnight was shot by another driver, and right now, early reports are it doesn't look good for the other driver.  He's in sheep dit.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18182683/joe-mcknight-former-usc-trojans-new-york-jets-rb-killed-louisiana

One of the most interesting pieces of the article was

As a 12-year-old USC fan in 2009 who was faced with losing his eyesight to cancer, Jake Olson was befriended by McKnight. Olson, whose courageous battle inspired the Trojans team that fall, is USC's long snapper this season as a redshirt freshman.

which I thought was exceedingly cool

[OJsDad]

Well, Ohio State made it into the playoffs, along with Alabama, Washington, and Clemson.  I'm still opposed to a team making the playoffs that don't win their conference nor their division.  For whatever reason, the committee thought they should have been in this year. 

I wonder with the poor showing that Sparty had last year, kept Penn State from making the playoffs this year, or if the committed was just hungry for another Alabama vs OSU matchup again.

[bayonetbrant]

I think that the overall resume for Penn St wasn't as good as Ohio St.

Ohio St's signature out-of-conference game was a big win at OU.  Penn St's signature out-of-conference game was a whiff against Pitt.

Head-to-head and conference championships (apparently) only matter if the teams are otherwise comparable.  I think Ohio St was far enough ahead of Penn St that the 'tiebreakers' weren't needed.

[OJsDad]

Head-to-head and conference championships (apparently) only matter if the teams are otherwise comparable.  I think Ohio St was far enough ahead of Penn St that the 'tiebreakers' weren't needed.

This makes the most sense. 

The Big 12 is scratching it's head and asking WTF committee.  But don't think there's a set formula that the committee has or wants.  I think they want to select whom they think are the 4 best teams.  I think some years it's going to be easier than others.

[Bison]

Well to be fair the Big XII didn't have a team worthy of consideration this year and continues to allow Texas to jack up expansion.  They need a couple of more schools and have a championship game.

It shouldn't matter if OSU was "deemed" a better team or not.  The fact is PSU won the conference title and beat OSU.   OSU should have won against PSU, but didn't.  They didn't play in their own conference's championship game as a result of that loss. 

If conference titles are meaningless, I'm not sure why we have them.  It's frankly a reason to shorten the regular season and have an actual playoff like the FCS.  Then the committee can do the right thing and let the conference champion in and teams they deem as better.

[bayonetbrant]

I think Bowlesby's questions are valid, but people are going to see it as "he's whining that OU didn't get in".

I don't think that's what he's doing. I think he's trying to understand what's going on, and he's asked some valid questions to help his teams plan future schedules

[OJsDad]

I think Bowlesby's questions are valid, but people are going to see it as "he's whining that OU didn't get in".

I don't think that's what he's doing. I think he's trying to understand what's going on, and he's asked some valid questions to help his teams plan future schedules

I don't think he's whining that OU didn't make.  I think he's still pissed that Baylor didn't make it in 2014.

But that what I meant earlier.  I don't think there's a set formula that the committee is using.  I think they're using different matrixes as guides.  At the end, they're wanting the four best teams playing.  Though I'm not sure that Michigan isn't better than OSU, even though the Buckeye beat them last week. 

Of course, I'm also wondering if the SEC want's Alabama to get another crack at Urban and the Buckeyes after the 2014 game. 

And course, there's some money issues involved in all of this. 

[MetalDog]

The 4 team playoff is a business agreement by the Power 5 conferences.  From the beginning, they knew one of their number wouldn't get in every year.  And it's my understanding that head to head and conference championships are only tie breakers in cases of comparable teams.  By placing OSU at 2 through the last few polls, they announced their intentions to leave PSU out, even if they won.  Unfair, absolutely, but, within the committee's purview.

And the Big XII is going to have a conference championship starting next year.

[Bison]

The problem with the Big XII is that many of the teams have weak out of conference schedules.  They play a couple of games against FCS teams rather than more stout competition.  However, I'd read somewhere that the Big XII committee has made it a point that no more than one FCS game is allow and that all teams increase one game against a power 5 conference.

[bayonetbrant]

However, I'd read somewhere that the Big XII committee has made it a point that no more than one FCS game is allow and that all teams increase one game against a power 5 conference.

They're moving everyone to that, but b/c a lot of schedules are already set up years in advance, they gave everyone until 2020 or something to get their schedules in gear.

The ACC has pushed folks generally into that direction, but we've also got the schedule deal w/ Notre Dame now, where they play 5 ACC games each season, so getting that "big" team is a little easier for us

[Bison]

Yeah having that Notre Dame deal is nice.  I'd really like to just see a Big XII expansion too.  However, that is at this point a few years off unless some schools (read Texas) change their opposition.

[bayonetbrant]

Houston, Memphis, Cincy, and you've not got your recruiting grounds expanded into some fertile SEC & Big 10/14/whatever territory

[Bison]

I'd like to see BYU considered too.  They have a rabid fanbase and have had some pretty good teams across different sports in the past.

[MetalDog]

Here's what I'd like to see, the Power 5 coming to consensus on 64 teams and then dividing into 4 conferences of two 8 team divisions.  At the end of the year, the four Conference Championship games would determine who plays in the 4 team playoff.  Easy squeezy.

[Bison]

Here's what I'd like to see, the Power 5 coming to consensus on 64 teams and then dividing into 4 conferences of two 8 team divisions.  At the end of the year, the four Conference Championship games would determine who plays in the 4 team playoff.  Easy squeezy.

Not a bad plan, but politics of telling some schools you don't make the cut would be a deal breaker.  Frankly many of the FBS level teams would be better served competing in a lower division.1