News Article: Alabama AD Greg Byrne to reassess scheduling after Tide CFP snub

[CB4]

Won't work with me.

I have zero interest in Notre Dame/Indiana or SMU/Penn State. I have mild interest in Ohio State/Tennessee and Texas/Clemson, but probably won't watch anyway.

Arizona State and Boise State having byes is a complete joke.

Yep. Kind of like polishing a pile of poop. No matter how good you want it to look, it is still crap nonetheless.

 

[denver]

If i were the conference winner of the PAC2 I'd be mad that I didnt get a bye......jk...

 

[Tidewater]

That will not help. He needs to cut back on the intraconference games. The SEC beat itself this year. No other conference knocked an SEC team out.

Yeah, so Bama lost to Vandy (SEC), UT (SEC), and Oklahoma (SEC) and we need to look at non-conference opponents?

 

[Snuffy Smith]

It is hard to take that seriously. I really don't care who wins this thing, but I will be very surprised if their ratings are good. I know some people will watch no matter what, which is how I used to be, but I wouldn't think most people would give a rip about some of these match-ups.
Edit- I am guessing that these folks are hoping that the favorites win and provide some good elite eight and final four match-ups so folks will tune in and forget about how it all started.

I really thought ESPN was pulling the strings on this deal but I am beginning to doubt that now that I see the way the selections and matchups have been handled. I hope they lose millions on this - maybe they will lose so much they finally fire Jesse Palmer and Heather Dimwitch.

 

[Snuffy Smith]

Yeah, so Bama lost to Vandy (SEC), UT (SEC), and Oklahoma (SEC) and we need to look at non-conference opponents?

I think that was more a generalization of the committee ignoring strength of schedule.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Can we also permanently ban Jason Autrey from Saban Field and BDS?

He (and a few others) nee to be banned from any and all football stadiums...

 

[Rocky Mtn Bob]

Still, we could have avoided all this by taking care of business in either Nashville or Norman. We didn’t, and now suffer the consequences of putting the decision into the hands of people who have never played or coached the game.

This.

 

[BamaNation]

Yeah, so Bama lost to Vandy (SEC), UT (SEC), and Oklahoma (SEC) and we need to look at non-conference opponents?

I'm pretty sure he was speaking prospectively to the future years where we play at least two P4 teams (2025: FSU, Wisconsin; 2026: WVU, FSU, plus AAC conf team USF).

You're right in that we toasted ourselves this year with in-conference losses. But one might argue that playing tough OOC P4 teams makes it harder to play tough SEC teams week in/out. That's how I'm interpreting his comments.

IOW, we're gonna not schedule tough OOC teams because SEC is already tough enough. Bad for UA fans, bad for college football in general, good for clearer path to CFP (if SOS & SOR & FPI don't matter).

And we're not going to give P4 OOC teams the opportunity to boost their resume' by playing (and possibly beating) Alabama when we don't get the same courtesy for beating top 15 teams.

 

[BhamToTexas]

I'm pretty sure he was speaking prospectively to the future years where we play at least two P4 teams (2025: FSU, Wisconsin; 2026: WVU, FSU, plus AAC conf team USF).

You're right in that we toasted ourselves this year with in-conference losses. But one might argue that playing tough OOC P4 teams makes it harder to play tough SEC teams week in/out. That's how I'm interpreting his comments.

IOW, we're gonna not schedule tough OOC teams because SEC is already tough enough. Bad for UA fans, bad for college football in general, good for clearer path to CFP (if SOS & SOR & FPI don't matter).

And we're not going to give P4 OOC teams the opportunity to boost their resume' by playing (and possibly beating) Alabama when we don't get the same courtesy for beating top 15 teams.

Exactly. It is about the totality of the schedule and how tough OOC games might impact the team for other games. The SEC schedule is tough enough. There is no point in quality OOC games anymore.

 

[JDCrimson]

The BCS had the best formula for picking a panel of NC candidates. However, the BCS formula wasn't made for TV because nobody wants to watch anything that humans don't have an opportunity to screwup...

 

[PA Tide Fan]

The BCS had the best formula for picking a panel of NC candidates. However, the BCS formula wasn't made for TV because nobody wants to watch anything that humans don't have an opportunity to screwup...

And because humans thought they were much smarter than computers. Humans have biases though while computers do not.

 

[AWRTR]

The BCS had the best formula for picking a panel of NC candidates. However, the BCS formula wasn't made for TV because nobody wants to watch anything that humans don't have an opportunity to screwup...

The BCS formula could have been easily expanded to give us a playoff bracket, but that would have been too smart.

 

[JDCrimson]

Well, computers carry the bias that was coded in the algorithm. But at the least the bias is consistently applied.

And because humans thought they were much smarter than computers. Humans have biases though while computers do not.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

Well, computers carry the bias that was coded in the algorithm. But at the least the bias is consistently applied.

Yes, you're correct. The computers have the bias toward strength of schedule which works the same from year to year regardless of team unless the program is changed. With AI being used in so many fields now one would think the powerful people in college football would be more receptive to using it.

 

[JDCrimson]

Agree, but how do they take an AI approach and turn it into an episode of Shark Tank?

Yes, you're correct. The computers have the bias toward strength of schedule which works the same from year to year regardless of team unless the program is changed. With AI being used in so many fields now one would think the powerful people in college football would be more receptive to using it.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

An interesting read here:

In Age Of AI, College Football Playoff Selection Entrusted To Humans

The College Football Playoff is an improvement over the BCS but a step back from analytics. As other sports embrace AI, is it time for college football to do the same?

www.forbes.com

 

[Snuffy Smith]

Now that there are 12 teams and not just 2 there is really no reason for the committee to exist other than to manipulate the results. There is also no reason to reward “conference champions” with an automatic bid or bye unless there is some alignment of strength between conferences. If they want to be more inclusive, move to 16 teams. If a conference champion cannot make that large a field they don’t deserve to play.

 

[foreveratidefan]

This is a good excuse to schedule a 4 year series with Rice.

 

[KrAzY3]

Yeah, so Bama lost to Vandy (SEC), UT (SEC), and Oklahoma (SEC) and we need to look at non-conference opponents?

Well, first off I reacted rather poorly to the initial news that Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC. If you just look at the way things played out, Texas would have received the Big 12 automatic spot, and Alabama wouldn't have lost to Oklahoma. So that alone is probably the difference in Alabama being out and Alabama playing a home playoff game.

Having said that, we can't change that now and there's really no way to fix the SoS issue. The only thing we can hope for is for people to understand it. In this case I'm not sure a lot of people understand the point both Saban and Byrne made. It isn't simply you don't schedule Ohio State because you might lose, it's you don't schedule them because you are making things more difficult with no tangible reward. The difficulty is not entirely in the possibility of losing, it's in the attrition that happens from games like that.

A lot of people seem to think of SoS as being linear in difficulty. It's not, there's a reason Oklahoma with the #1 SoS had 6 losses (Sagarin), and every single team in the top 45 SoS has multiple losses! It's not just the difficulty of a particular games, or a few games, it's the grind. The higher the SoS the exponentially more difficult it becomes. Years ago, Saban said you can only get the team "up" for so many games a year. Basically the team's best possible output can only be achieved so many times.

So for instance you can take what they said at face value and go alright well may be Ohio State might be a problem in the future, but Wisconsin wasn't really the problem. Really? Alabama had to go to Wisconsin for the third game of the year and play a dangerous Big 10 team. Did they have a good year, no but they were still a dangerous team and it was still a game you can't overlook. They only lost to Oregon by 3 for instance, the same score Boise State had against them so just imagine Alabama traveled to Boise State to play them and you can get a rough estimation of the preparation and disruption involved.

If Alabama were to play another team like Mercer at home for example, it's a completely different equation. Alabama gets to stay at home, their routine is less disrupted, the game would take less of a physical toll, they can get their backups in sooner, they can use a more vanilla gameplan, the opponents learn less from the game, they'll be better rested, etc, etc, etc...

The Wisconsin game comes with a price. For instance if I'm Vanderbilt and I'm watching that game, I'm going you know... the running backs actually had a decent day against Alabama. Mellusi ran for 6 yards a carry, Yacamelli ran for 4.9, so I'm thinking you know I think we can succeed on the ground.

Alabama can cover their weakness and keep their team fresh by playing entirely cupcakes in their OOC schedule. I think this is a horrible thing for college football, to punish SoS but if there's no reward for playing strong out of conference opponents then why do it?

 

[Cruiser]

Vandy was going to do what they do and we knew(or should have known) what they were going to do.
Not much different than what Pavia, Stowers and the O.C. did at New Mexico State to embarrass the barn.