The I-AA BCS....

[putter]

After reading Coulson's article on I-AA.org and his comments regarding Coastal and SCSU..." Both Coastal Carolina and South Carolina State thought they had cases for playoff inclusion last season after 10-1 and 9-2 campaigns.." and noting that Cal Poly was left out also I have a question. Do you think that I-AA's version of the BCS is that the top conferences will get less deserving teams in the playoffs over these teams just because of conference affiliation?

[blur2005]

Well, at least 16 teams are included when some may feel excluded, instead of just two, when a few teams might have a case for the two spots.

[Coastal89]

2003 Florida Atlantic got in as an Independent at 9-2 and thet got their a$$ kicked by D-II Valdosta St. 45-17.

[eaglesrthe1]

There have been a few times that I could say that there has been a deserving team left off. Notably Elon- 99, Woff- 02, Cal Poly-04. CCU and SCSU wouldn't be on that list IMO. I doubt that anyone not directly affiliated with the program felt that CCU was short changed last year.

[Lapper]

There have been a few times that I could say that there has been a deserving team left off. Notably Elon- 99, Woff- 02, Cal Poly-04. CCU and SCSU wouldn't be on that list IMO. I doubt that anyone not directly affiliated with the program felt that CCU was short changed last year.


I don't think they should have. :deadhorse

[Hansel]

FAU's 03 schedule

2003 Schedule and Results (11-3)

8/28/2003 Middle Tennessee 20-19
9/6/2003 Valdosta State 17-45
9/13/2003 Central Florida 29-33
9/20/2003 Youngstown State 13-6
9/27/2003 Illinois State 28-10
10/4/2003 Texas State - San Marcos 27-14
10/11/2003 Nicholls State 31-23
10/18/2003 Northern Colorado 21-19
11/1/2003 Gardner-Webb 31-26
11/15/2003 Siena 51-3
11/22/2003 Florida Int'l 32-23
11/29/2003 Bethune-Cookman 32-24
12/6/2003 Northern Arizona 48-25
12/13/2003 Colgate 24-36

[JALMOND]

If the playoffs were skewed in I-AA as they are in I-A, last year Northern Iowa of the Gateway and Portland State of the Big Sky would have been in the playoffs with four losses, definitely over any teams from the MEAC and the Ohio Valley (and maybe over Lafayette), much like I-A will find somewhere to send a Pac-10 team with five losses to a bowl.

[WhereDoITypeMyUsername?]

That's the point I'd make. Teams from tough conferences who appear to be less-deserving by virtue of having a few more in-conference losses aren't the problem... it's autobids or at-larges going to teams who play in total cream-puff conferences and have records of like 10-1 or 9-2, with those one or two losses coming when they got their asses kicked when they played Elon or Weber State or some of the other perennial doormats of the hardcore conferences.

There's no system that's 100% all the time, and that in my opinion is a weakness of the autobid system.

[kardplayer]

There's no system that's 100% all the time, and that in my opinion is a weakness of the autobid system.

I think you have to have Autobids - its the only fair way to ensure that all the conferences are represented in the playoffs. There are, of course, at least two sides to this.

1. Sometimes, no one seems to deserve a bid from the conference, but they are forced to get one anyway. In I-A, this is the Big East getting a BCS bid. (Notice the way I deftly avoid getting anyone here mad about shorting their conference). In NCAA hoops, its many of our conferences getting basketball bids despite having no chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

2. Other times, there is a team has a great season, but would get snubbed if there were no Autobid. Think Utah last year - as a smaller school, they had no chance of getting a bid to the Championship game, despite putting together a "miracle" season. I would argue this is the Patriot League circa 1998 (before they started winning first round games on a fairly regular basis)...

Without autobids, you'd have no miracle runs, just the same bunch of schools fighting each other every year and that would get boring pretty quickly. There'd be no "Hoosiers" and no Jim Valvano/NC State. There'd be no Hampton scaring William and Mary last year. I don't see how that would be better...

[Chi Panther]

The auto-bid system is good. I definately like it with the Southland Conference this year.

UNI DID get snubbed last year...but it wasn't becuz some auto-bid team took their place. I would argue its more of the selection committees THEORY of taking the best teams with 3 or less losses. Just maybe one of the 8 best at-large teams has 4 losses.

:bang:

[89Hen]

Do you think that I-AA's version of the BCS is that the top conferences will get less deserving teams in the playoffs over these teams just because of conference affiliation?
No. Going 10-1 vs 8-3 would be better if you played the same 11 teams, or 11 teams of the same quality, but they don't. I think few people would argue that a 10-0 Robert Morris in 2000 was a better team than 8-3 AppSt who ended up making it to the semis and losing by 3 to Montana.