CFP Championship Game: #8 Ohio State vs #7 Notre Dame -- 1/20/2025 (Atlanta) -- 7:30 PM [ESPN]

8

 

I watched about half of it. Which is far more than I watched most of the other playoff games.

Regarding the "care" part, Only the Gators hold my interest now. The greedy bastards that run the show have turned college football
into NFL light but with a lais-sez-faire (no regulation) bent.

I have no issue at all with paying players. My issue is a corrupt NCAA, corrupt media and corrupt University Presidents cabal. They allowed cheating for decades, by a few select programs, with the proper "political" connections. UF was not a part of that good ole boys club and came damn near an SMU style death penalty baCK IN THE 80'S.

They (the powers that launched this madness) lied about things from the very beginning. Who really benefits from all this chaos?
The nfl?, Major media players? Agents? The Universities? For those that say "players" I disagree. The corruption had gotten so rampant that the thieves in
charge HAD to begin paying the gladiator's.

Well it's just unregulated minor league NFL with unlimited Free Agency now. I actually used to love the sport. Now I can barely tolerate it.

Yeah I still watch, but it's tainted and corrupt now, ruined and despoiled by the money hoarders. BTW, whats it cost a working class family of 4 to travel from S or N Florida to catch a game? Or is the sport merely another recreation for the wealthy? Middle and working class families be damned?

So tee, in between a little football we can enjoy all the power plays, the political manipulations, and 2.5 hours of commercials included in what is now a 5 hour game.

(lol and people wondered why the NCAA was looking to reduce actual playing time...............forget the NCAA LIES)!

MORE COMMERCIALS BRO!!! That's the new game, more Ozempic and Chevy commercials, less football! And lets not forget the three hours of asinine
pundit talk before the game and the three hours after. LOL

Hey, I gotta idea, just have a 5 hour commercial telethon, and after 5 hours, pull one of two names out of a hat for the winner? Why play?? That gets in the way of commercials and profit.................... SMDH

 

Yeah I'm the same. I had it on but let the wife takeover the TV in the second quarter because who cares. Bunch of independent contractors playing football intermittently between commercials, which are clearly the product at this point.

I mostly keep up with UF football games but even that is less and less as the conversion to employees continues.

ND lost which is great, but I just checked the score this morning instead of staying up for a 5 hour commercial with some football breaks on a Monday night.

 

Guy has a point …

 

Turned out the way most of us imagined.

 

Ah, 16, just for the extra games. I really enjoyed the first round and think that holds real promise for the future. Think opening weekend of NCAA tourney. The higher seeds typically make it through, but occasionally there's an upset and it's generally one of the most entertaining weekends of the tournament.

The byes are what I don't get. That's such an NFL mentality/thing (revenue sharing, etc.) whereas the additional money from parking and concessions could be a real financial boost in an era when finances are more important than ever.

 

The commercials were absolutely mind numbing. I swear in one 20-minute period I watched 15 minutes of commercials. . . . and spend the rest of the night watching YT.

 

Oh, and the NFL is better. . . . Because it actually has rules for free agency, trades, etc. The comp here is UEFA and European Soccer. Independent teams sort of run by an overall agency, but one that holds no real power over them outside of barring them from its competitions. Thus, if they wanted to create a Super League they could, because there is no authority to stop them. Difference is the transfer system, where a fee is agreed between the teams and where players have to renegotiate a new contract with the new club before the transfer is approved.

 

There is nothing worse than a kickoff for a fair catch sandwiched by commercials.

 

It's insulting.

It truly is.

 

Is it wrong for my final takeaway from this being that the OSU QB's mom looked like W.C. Fields with wig on?

 

I like the games, but still have a problem with a team ranked 12-16 having the opportunity to win the national championship by virtue of pulling off a couple of 11th-hour upsets over teams that had been better over the first 3 months of the season.

Your reference to March madness underscores my objection to 16 teams being given a shot at the NC. Literally, this renders the regular season nearly meaningless.

I sense the underlying message that the only way to get back bowl games played by complete teams without massive sit-outs is to dangle the national championship carrot in front of everybody. And in my opinion, that’s a sad commentary on what this league has deteriorated into. Everybody has to be playing for the national championship or nobody gives a shit

 

So Coach Lou Holtz meets God in a dream. He asks, “Lord, will a service academy ever again win a national championship in football?“

“Yes,“ God says, “but not in your lifetime.”

Encouraged by this, Coach Holtz asks, “Will my Arkansas ever win another national championship in football?”

“Yes,” God says, “but not in your lifetime.”

Coach Holtz then asked one final question: “Lord, will my Notre Dame ever again win a national championship in football?”

After a long pause, God says, “Perhaps, Coach, but not in My lifetime.”

 

I remember UF beating Ole Miss to keep them out of the playoffs being quite the point of pride around here, which seems to go against the argument the regular season doesn't matter. In fact, the expansion may enhance the regular season. Case in point, a week 2 ND loss at home to Northern Illinois would have been season over for the past century, this year all the remaining games still mattered and got all the way to the title game. Just because our favorite team was all but eliminated in week 3 this year doesn't mean the regular season won't matter in the future.

 

Problem was the early drives put TV behind schedule in terms of breaks. ND went 10 minutes opening drive, no injuries or timeouts. Next drive by OSU took up rest of 1Q with no stops either. Usually a quarter has like 5 drives so there's at least chances for commercials between them. That forced ESPN to double up after scores on commercials to make up for it.

Blame NDs defense as much as ESPN, they only forced one incompletion from Will Howard in the first half, the game just moved too quickly as a result.

 

As I posted, I just don't care anymore. However...

I thought that 8 teams was the "sweet spot" in that I presumed that the NC team, who would have to win three games against increasingly tougher teams, would be in the field whereas the 9th and 10th teams could "represent" but not win the whole enchilada. Clemson fits this concept this year. But I also presumed that the 7th and 8th teams could get to the NC game but would not have enough "stuff" to win it all. This year said I was incorrect.

In an 8-team playoff, would OSU make it in at the expense of Indiana? I seriously doubt it. Indiana did what it had to do to be "blessed" with a spot whereas OSU fell short. And so, are we okay with anointing REALLY good teams who can turn the corner at the end or do we go back to "win better during the regular season"?

Sort of a conundrum...if I cared.

 

Well stated Gatorhead. Only thing you didn’t touch on is the incessant drama by the actors during pre game and play by play, about 9/10 of which is nonsense.
Actually, I guess you covered that under “asinine pundit talk”.

 

Let me express my frustration another way.

The US created a wonderful sport. American Football.
By almost any measure, the persons participating in the game enjoyed it.
Persons not playing, enjoyed it, to the point they would come watch, and pay for entrance.

Sure the sport evolved, became more popular, rules changed, playing gear changed, venues got bigger, the price of entry increased.

But the essence of the sport remained the same. A sport, a physical contest with a ball, where a score is kept.

Sure there were abuses in the early days. Colleges hired "pros" to tour and perform on the college playing circuit, and then of course, as in many sports in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the game was played with exceptional violence. One could even argue the "violence" (head busting, broken arms and legs, blood gushing from injury, spinal injuries) was what attracted the crowds.

Fast forward to today.
Let me start off with this premise: How many of you attend to "watch" the actual contest? Are there for the sport and the competition??
I have attended games with people that seemed oblivious to the actual contest.

How many of you are there to make a social butterfly appearance? How many of you are there for the spectacle? The food and drink? To show
off your latest "Crazy" football Halloween get up? To enjoy pre and post game festivities? To "celebrity watch"? To show off on social media?
Basicly for any reason other than the game itself?

So I'm going down this path because from my perspective the modern game has far less to do with the actual game these days than all the trappings of
human "constructs" - TV of course, the media circus, pod-casters, the gambling, the hype, the band, the air fly by, the give a ways, the Dr Pepper throw the football in the hole competition, the halftime show, the corporate sponsor crap for this and that and everything else, The Game Day crowd and on and on and on and of course the creme de la creme, to get ones drunken self on camera for 5 seconds!

Just my opinion, but you could throw all that bull-shit into the garbage incinerator. Speaking for myself I like that stuff a little but it's all a distraction, I'm there for the football and not for the parasites that latch themselves unto the game. That's why I enjoy, High School, Jr. High and Elementary Sports. Less B.S. and more "game".

You see, everyone wants a piece of the action in sports now. Merely going to a ball game and enjoying the contest do not seem to be enough for people anymore. Nope, folks want to wrap themselves in the cloak of the game and pretend they are "a part of it", and whats wrong with making a little do ray me, in the process?

Well that's the problem folks, everyone can't have everything to their own likeness, and every program can't win the National Championship every year.
I and YOU, spend hours on this site, and what do we do 99% of the time? Bitch and Moan. The product ain't good enough. Fire the Univ president right down to the cleaning staff after a loss.................

I guess College Football is just another amplifier of the reality of the human condition. For me the word flavor of the last 5 years to describe college football is greed and selfishness. Perhaps it's my age but to watch every aspect of College Football literally get flushed into the toilet has been difficult to behold. It was inevitable I suppose, everything humans touch will ultimately get despoiled, that is our bottom line nature, after all.

Rant Over.

 

8 teams is certainly enough to determine the best team but I don't think we are putting the toothpaste back in the tube to do that going from 12. So 16 is the likely result with no byes.

One thing that felt a little strange with the first round being home games, is that it means for the losers of those games (tennessee) they don't get another bowl game after that so so team/fan experience of going somewhere and getting a swag bag of Duke's Mayo or a case of Pop Tarts.

 

I watch for the competition, it's why I never thought the difficult schedule was a problem. Want to be the best, beat the best. Hopefully we will be competitive in every game in 25 with more wins than losses in those top tier matchups, couldn't give a rip about those first 2 games tbh.

If not for enjoying the OGT participation, I would start watching after a 3 hour delay to catch up to live in the 4th quarter. Commercials are out of control.