I think for the FLEX spots, it could be interesting to separate into P4 and G5. Would be good to force teams to play 1 if not 2 G5 schools.
I also am wondering whether there should be extra points for getting a bye/home game in the CFP. For a bye it does seem like those teams should get 2 points, effectively the same as if they had won the first round game.
Maybe 1 point for Heisman runner-up/consensus All-American? That would make it enticing to pick up lower-level teams with star players. I'm also curious how you plan to do lineups for bowl season/awards season in general.
Interestingly, so do Washington fans. They think their passing offense is much better than anything we have faced this year (which is true). We'll see if that outweighs a Michigan advantage in pretty much everything else.
Honestly just ditch the conference championship. Play an extra game if the NCAA allows it, or even just get an extra week of rest. Have a very simple set of tiebreakers to determine the autobid (I'm talking the most obvious of head to head scenarios) and past that just give it to the highest ranked team.
The most sensible reason would be FSU wanting to get away from ESPN. It is still incredible to me that 12-0 FSU, while they were winning their championship game to reach 13-0, had to listen to ESPN say they still wouldn't deserve the playoffs.
I could see a lot of voters ranking them 1 in that scenario.
Of course, I prefer the scenario where Michigan wins out, Washington beats Texas, and FSU beats Georgia. We can debate whether FSU or Washington deserve #2.
Worst part is OSU only wanted him as an LB, even though he was explicitly looking for a place to play RB. He only got converted to RB after injuries last year.
Of course, those probabilities are inflated since they all depend on FSU being one of the playoff teams and only one of Bama/Texas. Since Bama and Texas are both tougher opponents than FSU in terms of win probability, everyone's probability will decrease a bit.
I also imagine there is some impact now that the playoff matchups are set. Texas' odds are probably higher since they got the Washington matchup, while Michigan and Bama decrease by virtue of playing each other.
Both coaches were deserving, but I think this was a pretty clear decision. Iowa is having an unprecedented level of success compared to how dismal their offense is, and Phil Parker deserves a lot of credit for that. Sherrone is an incredibly impressive coach overall, but I'm not sure his stint at head coach should affect an assistant coach award.
To be clear, the main reason I'd rather play FSU is that FSU simply deserves to be there. It's the playoff, all 4 teams are going to be tough. I'm just curious what Bama actually looks like since I've seen a lot more of Washington and Texas this season.
I was thinking the same thing about the FSU defense. It is a crying shame that ESPN spun up the narrative about Jordan Travis' injury, because that defense has been balling out. With a month of prep to get Rodemaker in sync with the wide receivers, they could easily drag you into an Iowa/Penn State type game, and take the lead with some deep shots.
I did not expect to see the 8-bit Big Band on MGoBlog today! Excellent choice by Seth. They consistently surprise me (in a good way) with how they choose to arrange their songs. For example, the Yoshi's Island Athletic Theme in a Dixieland style.
Last Saturday's win still feels weird to me. I think I've realized why - this is a team that should compete for a national championship, not just compete with Ohio State. Ohio State did everything they could, both on and off the field to stop us, and it still wasn't enough. Our real goals are still ahead of us. Next step, Iowa!
I hadn't read last years article yet, so I started with that one. Even Ramzy has some weird takes:
Michigan's third and fourth cornerbacks are both atrocious. Dayt had every opportunity to humiliate them, demoralize them and bring down the rest of the team with them. Day should have had C.J. Stroud pick on that scab until it bled.
Who does he think our third and fourth cornerbacks were? DJ Turner, the second round draft pick? Gemon Green, a starter who was coming back from injury? Did he really just underrate Mike Sainristil? I know he wasn't talking about Will Johnson, and those 4 were the only cornerbacks who got snaps in 2022.
Makes sense. Michigan basically won the quarterfinals against Ohio State, Georgia still has to play theirs against Bama. If Michigan and Georgia win their conferences, Georgia will go back to being the favorite.
Assuming Georgia would take the sugar bowl anyway, I'd rather be #2 playing a #3 Washington/Oregon team in the Rose bowl. No need to give Georgia more bullshit motivation about how everyone doubts the poor 2 time defending champions.
You may have already found this by now, but sounds like he had a leg injury from practice this week. They taped it up and took him out of the game for the last quarter.
Any chance of a win #MI T-Shirt in the MGoStore? Would love to support MGoBlog after your excellent coverage of a challenging year. (I'll do so anyway, but that would be a great shirt)
I was thinking the same thing. If Oregon and Washington are both 12-1 and 1-1 to each other, are their resumes really that different? Oregon would have the conference championship and better eye test, so they would make the CFP team if there was only 1 slot for a 1-loss team. However, if there's 2 slots, I think those two would be the most deserving.
Arguably there is only 1 combination of championship game results that gets Ohio State in:
Georgia beats Alabama (ensure there is only 1 SEC team)
Michigan beats Iowa (we may be in with a loss, but I can't imagine 2 conference losers from the same conference making the playoffs)
Washington beats Oregon (ensure there is only 1 PAC 12 team)
After all the comments about Michigan's weak SOS, Georgia's is somehow even worse. All the arguments about Michigan needing to be undefeated should apply to Georgia as well.
I agree with you that Georgia is going to get the job done, and I'm kind of hoping they do. I don't want an Alabama upset to screw up the rankings and spoil a Big 10 vs. Pac 12 Rose Bowl.
That said, it would be excellent if the SEC finally got left out.
The FOX highlights just aren't the same - I love your videos and I was looking forward to watching this one (many times over). If you do find somewhere else to host your highlights, definitely let us know!
I will not be listening to Urban Meyer, but the 11W study was pretty good. Interesting to see what Maryland was doing with their safeties to clog up our run game. I can't say there's much new info compared to UFR though.
1. How often does our pass rush get home? McCord and the OL are a lot more vulnerable than the receiving corps. The best way to stop OSU is to force sacks and throwaways, don't Even give MHJ a chance to make a pass.
2. Agreed on Treveyon Henderson. If we have to play the run game straight up we are in trouble.
3. Good play calling early. We have to keep it close enough for our run game to take over late. That means successful pass plays in the first place, none of this conservative run-run-run or run-run-pass into 3 and out.
My concern is that SP+ and FEI aren't designed to handle the outlier that is the big ten this year. Are the top 4 defenses really all in the big ten, or are the offenses in the west just that bad? Is Michigan really that good, or is it a product of an unusually easy schedule? I know Michigan has dominated in a lot of games, but that makes it tough to tell how legit the competition was.
Not a great trend that JJ's worst games have been with Sherrone Moore as head coach. Hopefully that is just a coincidence, not an indictment of the play calling.
May not have been malicious intent, but that was 100% targeting by the letter of the rule. And for good reason - it was dangerous and took Roman out, which is the whole point of the rule. These refs need to be investigated.
My understanding was that Tennessee did just capitulate like this. That's why they got away with such minimal punishment for their violations earlier this year.
Of course, their conference also didn't undermine them during the NCAA investigation process.
We keep hearing that the MSU matchup needs to be protected because it draws good viewership. Can we finally get rid of that stupid argument? The "huge rivalry game" had the same rank as Indiana and Nebraska (even in absolute numbers, Nebraska performed better and Indiana was slightly worse). It's pretty clear that people watched Michigan MSU recently because both teams were good, but it's not some incredible draw.
St Johns has to be incredibly frustrated right now. Michigan is getting offensive reboards, making clutch threes, and playing aggressively on defense. First time in a while I've seen that style of play from this team.
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Excellent list! May I add ND 2019 and PSU 2022?
I'd like to kick the tires on Jay as a coordinator. He seems ready to take another step up, he's been good at every position he's coached.
I like it! Hopefully I can convince my friends to try it out in 2024. Should make for a nice incentive to follow other leagues.
I think for the FLEX spots, it could be interesting to separate into P4 and G5. Would be good to force teams to play 1 if not 2 G5 schools.
I also am wondering whether there should be extra points for getting a bye/home game in the CFP. For a bye it does seem like those teams should get 2 points, effectively the same as if they had won the first round game.
Maybe 1 point for Heisman runner-up/consensus All-American? That would make it enticing to pick up lower-level teams with star players. I'm also curious how you plan to do lineups for bowl season/awards season in general.
I'm hoping for a Rose Bowl or NCG Corum jersey myself. I see the Chinese knockoffs but nothing official like the MDen, unfortunately.
I also feel way too confident.
Interestingly, so do Washington fans. They think their passing offense is much better than anything we have faced this year (which is true). We'll see if that outweighs a Michigan advantage in pretty much everything else.
Honestly just ditch the conference championship. Play an extra game if the NCAA allows it, or even just get an extra week of rest. Have a very simple set of tiebreakers to determine the autobid (I'm talking the most obvious of head to head scenarios) and past that just give it to the highest ranked team.
The most sensible reason would be FSU wanting to get away from ESPN. It is still incredible to me that 12-0 FSU, while they were winning their championship game to reach 13-0, had to listen to ESPN say they still wouldn't deserve the playoffs.
I could see a lot of voters ranking them 1 in that scenario.
Of course, I prefer the scenario where Michigan wins out, Washington beats Texas, and FSU beats Georgia. We can debate whether FSU or Washington deserve #2.
Worst part is OSU only wanted him as an LB, even though he was explicitly looking for a place to play RB. He only got converted to RB after injuries last year.
Of course, those probabilities are inflated since they all depend on FSU being one of the playoff teams and only one of Bama/Texas. Since Bama and Texas are both tougher opponents than FSU in terms of win probability, everyone's probability will decrease a bit.
I also imagine there is some impact now that the playoff matchups are set. Texas' odds are probably higher since they got the Washington matchup, while Michigan and Bama decrease by virtue of playing each other.
Both coaches were deserving, but I think this was a pretty clear decision. Iowa is having an unprecedented level of success compared to how dismal their offense is, and Phil Parker deserves a lot of credit for that. Sherrone is an incredibly impressive coach overall, but I'm not sure his stint at head coach should affect an assistant coach award.
To be clear, the main reason I'd rather play FSU is that FSU simply deserves to be there. It's the playoff, all 4 teams are going to be tough. I'm just curious what Bama actually looks like since I've seen a lot more of Washington and Texas this season.
Orji did look pretty good against OSU :)
In all seriousness, I'd love to see JJ fully healthy and locked in on Jan 1. Time to finally add play action to the offense?
I was thinking the same thing about the FSU defense. It is a crying shame that ESPN spun up the narrative about Jordan Travis' injury, because that defense has been balling out. With a month of prep to get Rodemaker in sync with the wide receivers, they could easily drag you into an Iowa/Penn State type game, and take the lead with some deep shots.
I'll take a ferocious carnivore over algae any day.
I did not expect to see the 8-bit Big Band on MGoBlog today! Excellent choice by Seth. They consistently surprise me (in a good way) with how they choose to arrange their songs. For example, the Yoshi's Island Athletic Theme in a Dixieland style.
Last Saturday's win still feels weird to me. I think I've realized why - this is a team that should compete for a national championship, not just compete with Ohio State. Ohio State did everything they could, both on and off the field to stop us, and it still wasn't enough. Our real goals are still ahead of us. Next step, Iowa!
I hadn't read last years article yet, so I started with that one. Even Ramzy has some weird takes:
Who does he think our third and fourth cornerbacks were? DJ Turner, the second round draft pick? Gemon Green, a starter who was coming back from injury? Did he really just underrate Mike Sainristil? I know he wasn't talking about Will Johnson, and those 4 were the only cornerbacks who got snaps in 2022.
Nah, we want to pave over the next 3 teams with our run game so that we win a national title and JJ comes back.
Makes sense. Michigan basically won the quarterfinals against Ohio State, Georgia still has to play theirs against Bama. If Michigan and Georgia win their conferences, Georgia will go back to being the favorite.
Assuming Georgia would take the sugar bowl anyway, I'd rather be #2 playing a #3 Washington/Oregon team in the Rose bowl. No need to give Georgia more bullshit motivation about how everyone doubts the poor 2 time defending champions.
You may have already found this by now, but sounds like he had a leg injury from practice this week. They taped it up and took him out of the game for the last quarter.
Any chance of a…
Go Blue!
Any chance of a win #MI T-Shirt in the MGoStore? Would love to support MGoBlog after your excellent coverage of a challenging year. (I'll do so anyway, but that would be a great shirt)
I was thinking the same thing. If Oregon and Washington are both 12-1 and 1-1 to each other, are their resumes really that different? Oregon would have the conference championship and better eye test, so they would make the CFP team if there was only 1 slot for a 1-loss team. However, if there's 2 slots, I think those two would be the most deserving.
Arguably there is only 1 combination of championship game results that gets Ohio State in:
Georgia beats Alabama (ensure there is only 1 SEC team)
Michigan beats Iowa (we may be in with a loss, but I can't imagine 2 conference losers from the same conference making the playoffs)
Washington beats Oregon (ensure there is only 1 PAC 12 team)
Louisville beats FSU (no ACC team)
The real OSU beats Texas (no Pac 12 team)
They lost to Kentucky today - already screwed themselves, no need for the committee to help
After all the comments about Michigan's weak SOS, Georgia's is somehow even worse. All the arguments about Michigan needing to be undefeated should apply to Georgia as well.
I agree with you that Georgia is going to get the job done, and I'm kind of hoping they do. I don't want an Alabama upset to screw up the rankings and spoil a Big 10 vs. Pac 12 Rose Bowl.
That said, it would be excellent if the SEC finally got left out.
The FOX highlights just aren't the same - I love your videos and I was looking forward to watching this one (many times over). If you do find somewhere else to host your highlights, definitely let us know!
Looked like both of OSU's catches hit the ground. Getting absolutely fucked here
Didn't the Lions play there yesterday? I doubt there was enough time to get that done.
I will not be listening to Urban Meyer, but the 11W study was pretty good. Interesting to see what Maryland was doing with their safeties to clog up our run game. I can't say there's much new info compared to UFR though.
Especially a TE they gave away for nothing.
1. How often does our pass rush get home? McCord and the OL are a lot more vulnerable than the receiving corps. The best way to stop OSU is to force sacks and throwaways, don't Even give MHJ a chance to make a pass.
2. Agreed on Treveyon Henderson. If we have to play the run game straight up we are in trouble.
3. Good play calling early. We have to keep it close enough for our run game to take over late. That means successful pass plays in the first place, none of this conservative run-run-run or run-run-pass into 3 and out.
My concern is that SP+ and FEI aren't designed to handle the outlier that is the big ten this year. Are the top 4 defenses really all in the big ten, or are the offenses in the west just that bad? Is Michigan really that good, or is it a product of an unusually easy schedule? I know Michigan has dominated in a lot of games, but that makes it tough to tell how legit the competition was.
6 TDs and a 2 pt would get him the all time points record though
Not a great trend that JJ's worst games have been with Sherrone Moore as head coach. Hopefully that is just a coincidence, not an indictment of the play calling.
That one sure looked short
If that is targeting after the Roman Wilson play, these refs deserve to be fired into the sun
Fucking hell can we put them away?
What the fuck are these Maryland chumps talking about?
Yep, we clearly stole their "run around in the backfield for 10 seconds and get sacked" sign.
May not have been malicious intent, but that was 100% targeting by the letter of the rule. And for good reason - it was dangerous and took Roman out, which is the whole point of the rule. These refs need to be investigated.
We're going to get shafted by the refs for the next 3 games.
Fuck you Maryland. You don't have to roll over but don't fucking head hunt us.
My understanding was that Tennessee did just capitulate like this. That's why they got away with such minimal punishment for their violations earlier this year.
Of course, their conference also didn't undermine them during the NCAA investigation process.
Why do you say that? Seems like this sets them up for a merger along with their next TV deal.
38-14. Less of a blowout than we would expect since the starters rest early, but we get another Orji in the endzone.
We keep hearing that the MSU matchup needs to be protected because it draws good viewership. Can we finally get rid of that stupid argument? The "huge rivalry game" had the same rank as Indiana and Nebraska (even in absolute numbers, Nebraska performed better and Indiana was slightly worse). It's pretty clear that people watched Michigan MSU recently because both teams were good, but it's not some incredible draw.
St Johns has to be incredibly frustrated right now. Michigan is getting offensive reboards, making clutch threes, and playing aggressively on defense. First time in a while I've seen that style of play from this team.
First one, I convinced myself I'd rather not call the ticky tack fouls like that
Second one was ridiculous