Why do rankings determine college football status?

[USFsurfer06]

Serious question, why has the long standing tradition to determine the best team(s) in college football been based on subjective rankings rather than objective statistics (W/L, Points system, etc...)?

So much of what is wrong with this sport can be fixed so easily, which makes it so infuriating that no one will call it out; well the power schools know this but don't want to relinquish power or support a fair system that allows for the Cinderella stories that we love. Now that USF has been effectively relegated to the land of the "have nots" it is even more frustrating to see a sport I once loved reduced to a greedy power grab of the top 20 programs in the country and the TV companies that control them.

My solution, which I'm sure someone has already proposed on the board, would be to realign conferences to 8 geographically conferences of 16 teams. Each conference has 2 divisions of 8 teams. Each team plays the 7 in their division, 2 from the other division and 3 out of conference teams (no more fcs games).

The winners of each division plays in a  conference championship game. These 8 conference championships will essentially be a de facto start of the playoffs. The 8 conference champions then play in the playoffs (seeded appropriately). No at large bids, this leads to the biased system we currently have. 

This puts the importance on winning your division and conference.  Teams can celebrate milestones such as division, conference, or national champs. Takes bias and subjection completely out of the formula and lends to a merit based system. The fact that the playoffs are currently determined by a committee is absolutely absurd.

Again, I'm sure this has been said in one way or another and maybe doesn't require a separate thread but I just find the ranking system completely antiquated and subjectively biased and the fact thatb its lasted this long shows that the sport cannot evolve in the correct way without some kind of massive intervention to force the power brokers to relinquish power in some way.

Rant over, sorry the last month has completely shaken my interest and faith in collegiate sports and USF athletics specifically.

 

[puc86]

Just now, USFsurfer06 said:

Serious question, why has the long standing tradition to determine the best team(s) in college football been based on subjective rankings rather than objective statistics (W/L, Points system, etc...)?

So much of what is wrong with this sport can be fixed so easily, which makes it so infuriating that no one will call it out; well the power schools know this but don't want to relinquish power or support a fair system that allows for the Cinderella stories that we love. Now that USF has been effectively relegated to the land of the "have nots" it is even more frustrating to see a sport I once loved reduced to a greedy power grab of the top 20 programs in the country and the TV companies that control them.

My solution, which I'm sure someone has already proposed on the board, would be to realign conferences to 8 geographically conferences of 16 teams. Each conference has 2 divisions of 8 teams. Each team plays the 7 in their division, 2 from the other division and 3 out of conference teams (no more fcs games).

The winners of each division plays in a  conference championship game. These 8 conference championships will essentially be a de facto start of the playoffs. The 8 conference champions then play in the playoffs (seeded appropriately). No at large bids, this leads to the biased system we currently have. 

This puts the importance on winning your division and conference.  Teams can celebrate milestones such as division, conference, or national champs. Takes bias and subjection completely out of the formula and lends to a merit based system. The fact that the playoffs are currently determined by a committee is absolutely absurd.

Again, I'm sure this has been said in one way or another and maybe doesn't require a separate thread but I just find the ranking system completely antiquated and subjectively biased and the fact thatb its lasted this long shows that the sport cannot evolve in the correct way without some kind of massive intervention to force the power brokers to relinquish power in some way.

Rant over, sorry the last month has completely shaken my interest and faith in collegiate sports and USF athletics specifically.

 

Because no one is leaving the SEC or B10 because they make a lot more money than they would be thrown in their random regional affiliation, the only people ever interested in “fairness” are the people that aren’t making it in the current system but as such they lack the power to accomplish their ends. In short ya that would be great because we are in the AAC 2.0 but if we were in the SEC no one would have any interest in this plan.

[E.T.]

I wouldn't be shocked if some conference leave the ncaa.

[pascobull]

I think revenues alone determine status...Those who make money have status and those scraping by don't... Teams with "status" will never want a real playoff system...they want a bowl committee to pick status teams and shut out low revenue teams...

[Rocky Style]

26 minutes ago, E.T. said:

I wouldn't be shocked if some conference leave the ncaa.

I've heard this theory as well. That something like 50 teams will break off.

19 minutes ago, pascobull said:

I think revenues alone determine status...Those who make money have status and those scraping by don't... Teams with "status" will never want a real playoff system...they want a bowl committee to pick status teams and shut out low revenue teams...

Right the rankings are more about ratings and eyeballs.  The whole thing is a sham.

[Peatearpan]

1 hour ago, USFsurfer06 said:

Serious question, why has the long standing tradition to determine the best team(s) in college football been based on subjective rankings rather than objective statistics (W/L, Points system, etc...)?

So much of what is wrong with this sport can be fixed so easily, which makes it so infuriating that no one will call it out; well the power schools know this but don't want to relinquish power or support a fair system that allows for the Cinderella stories that we love. Now that USF has been effectively relegated to the land of the "have nots" it is even more frustrating to see a sport I once loved reduced to a greedy power grab of the top 20 programs in the country and the TV companies that control them.

My solution, which I'm sure someone has already proposed on the board, would be to realign conferences to 8 geographically conferences of 16 teams. Each conference has 2 divisions of 8 teams. Each team plays the 7 in their division, 2 from the other division and 3 out of conference teams (no more fcs games).

The winners of each division plays in a  conference championship game. These 8 conference championships will essentially be a de facto start of the playoffs. The 8 conference champions then play in the playoffs (seeded appropriately). No at large bids, this leads to the biased system we currently have. 

This puts the importance on winning your division and conference.  Teams can celebrate milestones such as division, conference, or national champs. Takes bias and subjection completely out of the formula and lends to a merit based system. The fact that the playoffs are currently determined by a committee is absolutely absurd.

Again, I'm sure this has been said in one way or another and maybe doesn't require a separate thread but I just find the ranking system completely antiquated and subjectively biased and the fact thatb its lasted this long shows that the sport cannot evolve in the correct way without some kind of massive intervention to force the power brokers to relinquish power in some way.

Rant over, sorry the last month has completely shaken my interest and faith in collegiate sports and USF athletics specifically.

 

Which two teams would you kick out?

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, pascobull said:

I think revenues alone determine status...Those who make money have status and those scraping by don't... Teams with "status" will never want a real playoff system...they want a bowl committee to pick status teams and shut out low revenue teams...

This