Cotton Bowl w/ Ohio State & Miami going for ~$60, go to 16 and 2 home games
for the first two rounds of the playoff. Highest ranked teams host please.
24 Replies
S
SMU Pony
7mo
1. Miami fans just made the trek to Texas for the A&M game last week (and many likely came through Dallas); hard to justify going back again 12 days later.
2. OSU fans were just here last year for the Cotton Bowl
3. AT&T Stadium is a total pain the ass to get to from pretty much anywhere in Dallas. Traffic is a ***** and there's no public transportation option. Parking is comically expensive and Ubers jack the rates up through the roof to get there on game days. I live 15 miles away; you could offer me a free ticket and I probably would still prefer to watch at home. So that puts a damper on local casual fans attending. There is almost zero buzz around Dallas for this game.
I feel like the 3-4 round playoff structure really wears on fans and their enthusiasm to travel to far-flung neutral sites.
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
potential national championship game. I think the suits that put this together thought that, say, 40k fans will show up from Big State U like they always do. But they didn't think that the people who show up year after year for bowl games aren't going to show up for three of them in one month. And it's not 40k different fans showing up each time.
(In response to this post by SMU Pony)
V
Vippie1
7mo
And frankly that is all that matters. The people in the stands are onlt tv prop extras these days.
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
And to be honest, I think we should already be looking at the semis at this point.
** Edited by reestuart at 12/29/2025, 8:30:49 AM
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
1:30 PST.
Instead, the pukes are trying to fit it in on a weeknight in a dome and working around the NFL schedule. Let's not.
(In response to this post by reestuart)
S
SMU Pony
7mo
...all the bowls would be wrapped up by New Year's Day. After that, either have a committee or BCS-like formula determine the top two teams who would then meet three weeks later on MLK Day at a neutral site for the national championship. This would make the bowls much more relevant as each one would provide additional data points and the big bowls would act as quasi playoff games.
(In response to this post by Maroon Baboon)
7mo
It was probably a better idea in the past when there was balance between a half dozen or so conferences. Still a good idea though.
(In response to this post by SMU Pony)
7mo
conference championship games, and play the championship at the Rose.
(In response to this post by Maroon Baboon)
7mo
earlier because it means Fall Practice will be starting some time in July depending on when the team's first game is scheduled. Remember the bylaws state that a team can start its Fall Practice 31 days prior to its first game and it is limited on the number of practices that can be held during that time. Given that not every DI-FBS school has a dome to protect players from the July heat and humidity, especially when in full pads, then the schools will be taking on a greater risk that an 18 or 19 year old could experience a heat stroke or heat exhaustion during practice.
The article is the most recent article I could find where a FR attending his first practice at a JUCO school died from a heat related illness. This issue isn't just a concern for NCAA DI (FBS and FCS) schools, but also DII, DIII, NAIA DI, NAIA DII, and JUCO schools.
Link:
Click Here
(In response to this post by reestuart)
7mo
it happened already with the FBS Week 0 games?
(In response to this post by VTHokie2000)
7mo
they compete in. So far the NCAA committee (names vary slightly depending on the division level) has limited the number of waivers it grants each year. There is a big difference between having an estimated 5-10 Week 0 games vs. hundreds/thousands of Week 0 games.
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
The Opt Out Bowls are a really embarrassing with players opting out and attendance and now it's effecting the second round of the playoffs for attendance as the article states. Start earlier and end earlier, in fact line it up with the first semester to be done with the playoffs by the end of the semester. Don't just do it because that's the way we have always done it. They need to adapt to the new rules of having a playoff and the portal.
(In response to this post by VTHokie2000)
7mo
waiver to 2 teams interested in playing a Week 0 game. So far, I have not found anything in any of the 3 NCAA bylaw manuals that properly identifies the criteria the NCAA committees use to approve/reject the waiver. All I am suggesting is that majority of the schools are reluctant to move up the start date of the regular season due to the liability issue because no school wants to deal with the death of a football player due to heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Right now, the number of heat related deaths is relatively very low. If more teams practice in July and the number goes up, then perceptually what impact will that have on the sport going forward?
** Edited by VTHokie2000 at 12/29/2025, 1:44:21 PM
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
to start with. Move the transfer window out as well.
** Edited by reestuart at 12/29/2025, 10:56:16 AM
(In response to this post by VTHokie2000)
7mo
which is a factor in how they determine when teams can start their Fall Practice. Now if you can figure out a way for schools to reduce their liability while starting Fall Practice in mid-July, then more schools may be willing to move up the start date of the regular season. Remember this issue isn't just a NCAA DI issue, but an issue for the entire NCAA when you consider the following:
NCAA DI-FBS schools could play NCAA DI-FCS schools that week/those weeks;
NCAA DI-FCS schools could play NCAA DII schools that week/those weeks; and
NCAA DII schools could play NCAA DIII schools that week/those weeks.
Another potential issue is if schools start practice in mid-July, then how long will it be before people want to start the regular season even earlier which would require teams to start Fall Practice the first week in July? I doubt Fall practices could start before July 1 because that would mean crossing over fiscal years, but maybe that is possible too.
(In response to this post by reestuart)
E
EDGEMAN
7mo
...played at the nicest NFL stadiums in the country, so FedEx would definitely be out...lol
(In response to this post by reestuart)
7mo
(In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
7mo
Align the Championship with the Academic year, and the Portal should too.
(In response to this post by reestuart)
7mo
game at Texas Tech. I agree with him. I think they could also have the season align as such that the semis could be played January 1. To do so, they'd have to get rid of conference championships, and I don't see the conferences letting go of those.
I just know that there's no reason the Cotton Bowl should be such an easy ticket.
** Edited by reestuart at 12/29/2025, 8:47:38 AM
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
a conference title game. No weeks off. People act outraged that JMU wasn’t competitive enough. But think about what they were asked to do. They played a title game on the east coast, then traveled to the west coast to play Oregon who was home resting for a week. Total joke. This will be even more important to do if we go to 16.
** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 12/28/2025, 11:07:47 PM
(In response to this post by Stech)
7mo
As a reminder, before the playoffs started I floated this model that replaced the conference champ games with a play-in weekend of 12 games.
It gives regular season more importance by determining the conf champs. It gives every conf a chance. It gives the P4+ND the chance to earn their way in with plenty of spots for the bubble teams. And it gives the top seeds a home game in round one of the playoffs. And Army v Navy still get a weekend to themselves.
** Edited by HokieAl at 12/29/2025, 9:28:14 AM
(In response to this post by Maroon Baboon)
7mo
I'm not a fan of the lame neutral sites conference championship games, but there needs to be a way of determining a conference champion. I'd recommend conferences scheduling a flex weekend in the final week. If there is no clear cut champion, have those two teams play, and assign the rest of the teams a game as well based on the interests of the conference.
** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 12/29/2025, 9:35:11 AM
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
7mo
Let conferences have their differences and be creative in how they solve for conference champions while also trying to get more at large teams.
(In response to this post by Maroon Baboon)