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FiveHourMarathon  Listen to Pierre  2yr ago (text post)   1898 thread views

MONDAY MORNING MOTTErBack SPORTS THREAD

I know there are some other sports fans on here, and I thought a discussion thread might be fun, and Monday is the natural day coming after the weekend football (both varieties) games and without a side thread scheduled. What's going on with your favorite teams/players/etc? What fun media controversies in the microcosm of sports can tell us something about the broader world? What culture war bullshit do you want to discuss in a sporting context?

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I really wish FBS college football could be set up with 3 "eastern" and 3 "western" (the dividing line would likely be a good bit east of the Mississippi because of population trends) 20 team conferences in tiers. Then use bowl games for the championship playoffs (top two teams from the top eastern conference vs top teams from the top western conference) and promotion/relegation games within the geographic tiers. It would make every bowl game meaningful, keeps teams honest during the regular season (each conference plays 10 games within the conference with one tune up game, homecoming and an end of the year rivalry game allowed outside of the conference). In the top conferences only the 10 conference game record determines eligibility for the playoffs, and makes the championship more likely to be the best 4 teams in the nation (because the top conferences played 10 games within the conference, and the weak teams in the conference can eventually be relegated, and there is a path allowing any team in the BCS system eventually reach the championship through purely on the field performance).

I'm not a fan of ESPN picking the schools that go into national superconferences based on the school's ratings.

I also support the promotion/relegation idea but it will definitely never happen. Regarding the playoff though, I think that ESPN does play an outsized role in deciding the future of the sport, particularly in regards to the conference realignment as of late. But I just don’t see evidence that they are influencing the playoff committee at all. Ohio State is probably the single biggest viewership draw and they have been left out more than once despite being one-loss conference champions. On the other hand Clemson is a smaller viewership draw compared to other giants of the sport and they have made it 6? times. There really haven’t been any controversial selections that would greatly increase viewership

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