The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

The official student news site of Athens Drive High School

ATHENS ORACLE

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College Football Playoffs

After every season in college football, teams have gone on to compete in “bowl games”. A bowl game is a matchup between two teams who contended to play in that matchup all year long. Starting this year, the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) has cut many of Bowl Games and added a college football playoff.

The format is the best four teams will play in a playoff. The committee will have to make the decision of which four teams deserve to play in the postseason. So, the best four teams will participate in the playoff but many factors go into the decision of choosing the top four. The selection committee will make their decision based on the team’s strength of schedule, results against common opponents and head to head results.

Many things make the college playoff system unique. Under the new system this means every game counts. The selection committee meets every week, but will not place out their first list until Tuesday Oct. 28. After that, there will be five weeks left, leaving the committee to distribute five updated rankings the rest of the season. Each member of the committee will list their top 25 teams in no particular order. If a team is listed by at least three of the members, it will remain in the discussion for the postseason. From there the committee makes a seeding ballot of the top six and vote on their order. This process will repeat until the top 25 are seeded.

Peyton Elder, senior at Athens Drive, weighed in on the debate whether the new system should stay in place or not.

“I really enjoyed watching Bowl Games, but I am very interested in how the playoffs will work. I love football and am excited for this new format,” said Elder.

In order to compensate for both sides of fans needs, the NCAA has left six bowl games. They are classified as the “Allstate Sugar Bowl,” “Rose Bowl,” “AT&T Cotton Bowl,” “Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl,” “Fed-Ex Orange Bowl” and “Fiesta Bowl.” These six games will take place on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, allowing these days to be jam-packed with football. The championship game will be on a Monday, as always.

Each bowl game has its qualifications. The “ Rose Bowl” will consist of the best team from the Big Ten conference versus the best team from the Pac-12. The best team from Big 12 conference will play the best team from the SEC in the “Sugar Bowl”. The ACC’s best team will face either the Big Ten’s or SEC’s best team, or either Notre Dame considering they are a stand alone football team. The other three bowls have looser restrictions. Displaced conference champions will be able to participate, as with top seeded teams that did not win their conference.

More perks to the playoff system include universal access, meaning all teams have a fair shot at making the playoffs. Before this, each bowl game had certain requirements with certain conference restrictions. Now, any team from any conference can make it to the final, which is a great way to promote scholarships and applicants. Also, more revenue will be produced from the playoffs. Since the new format is making history, independent institutions and conferences will be able to promote their teams being able to make the playoffs. This promotion is something some schools have never been able to do, so now they can attract a more broad fan base and can increase ticket sales to their games.

“You kidding me? Playoffs?!? I just hope we can win one game!” said Jim Mora, former Indianapolis Colts head coach in his infamous quote. College football teams across the country will try to make the new playoff system a success for their school, but they must remember to take it one game at a time.

 

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