College Football Playoff First Round

[nelsonmuntz]

I expect a change so that we won’t see 2 G-5 teams again, unless one of them qualifies as an at large. Tulane beat the ACC champion and won the fifth best conference in a year where it had a number of scalps. They deserved their chance. And this was one year — last year the G-5 representative played a competitive football game.

It is going to keep getting worse. What is Ohio State's payroll? What is JMU's? This isn't like 10 years ago where the major programs were at least pretending to not be paying their players. 10 years ago, a kid might go to JMU over riding the bench for a SEC team. Very few kids are going to do that now when the money is 3x or 4x to be the #4 left cornerback on Mississippi State compared to being the starting left cornerback on JMU.

The P4 are even having a hard time competing with each other. You are going to see some matchups within the major conferences where the lower team is never going to win another game, ever.

What is the point of Tulane vs. anyone? There is not some combination of factors that will enable Tulane to beat a Top 15 team. Although, I guess you could make the same argument about a lot of college football. What is the point of most of these games?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

41-10, it looked a lot worse and 51-34 is a bit of a respectable score when Oregon looked like they were gonna put up 80.

That Oregon game had all the benchmarks of the networks making a call down to the field to ease up on JMU.

 

[ScottVib]

I would see today's miserable showings by the G5s as an argument against a 16 team field. If BYU and ND were the 11 & 12, is anyone else even in the conversation for 13-16 if no G5s?

They would’ve talked about Texas.

 

[FightOnCT]

There has to be a tiering of teams by athletic budget. James Madison is no longer playing the same sport as Oregon. I think a G5 team should not be eligible for the playoffs unless they are spending a minimum of $10 million a year in player compensation, or something like it.

We are already seeing unholy blowouts within Big 10 and SEC conference games, and that will only get worse. Same goes for Big 12 and ACC. Programs like BCU are not even pretending to try to compete.

I’ll bite: JMU did not leave the FCS to be relegated back into a lower tier. And requiring a spending budget to make the playoffs is only gonna turn the sport further into a money grab/pit.

You’ve been very anti-P4 for UConn specifically. Not trying to poke a bear here but I’m a bit surprised this is your take honestly.

 

[DW1361]

Just remember that in the end, JMU lost to Oregon by a similar score to what USC did, and better than Minnesota and Rutgers... on the road...

... I'm tired of the system finding reasons for schools not to compete...

Not sure this is one of your strongest arguments for inclusion of G5 schools. JMU lost that game by halftime (being nice here). The final score was not indicative of just how bad of a whooping they took. I think had you stopped with USC you might have had some case, but by adding Minnesota and Rutgers, I think you actually support just why JMU didn’t belong.

The only reason I paid any attention to the playoffs this year was due to the inclusion of Tulane, Miami and JMU. I love to watch the underdog, but the two G5 schools were clearly unable to compete. These lopsided games are okay for basketball, because a bad game can be easily switched off to watch a more competitive game. This isn’t the case in football and is why I feel G5 schools should no longer be included. The gap is just too great and it just isn’t a fun watch.

I don’t think it is the powerful system looking for reasons to exclude the G5. Clearly, these schools proved they can’t compete.

 

[storrsroars]

They would’ve talked about Texas.

So have a 13 team field, lol.

 

[Scoe]

Just have a receiving votes tournament whoever wins that plays the 25th ranked team then you have a bunch of play in games to make it into a field of 16.

 

[Hoophound]

These G5 schools are fine. It’s just that the top 5 or so are dominant. There aren’t many remaining P4 teams that would have done much better. There’s a huge difference between a top 5 team and a top 20 team.

 

[uconnbaseball]

Those games reminded me a bit of the Fiesta bowl against OU, seeing the mismatch on TV doesn’t do it any justice seeing it in person. UConn kept the score somewhat respectable due to the pick 6 and special teams play. Had we scored an offensive touchdown we would’ve had a tease but OU could’ve scored a TD whenever it wanted to. In person I carefully watched the line and we got 0 pressure on Landry Jones, Demarco Murray looked massive and bigger then our linebackers.

What would’ve been 20 yard runs for Todman during the season were 5-7 yard runs at best, felt like the holes would be closed in half a second when there even was a hole.

Both games I saw yesterday were worse. UConn at least limited Murray on the ground and moved the ball just fine (drops killed us). They slowed down Todman, but no more than we slowed down Murray. Our OL protected Frazier well.

Specials, coaching, and running game, and defense were about even. With that said, the passing edge in their favor was catastrophic.

 

[DW1361]

These G5 schools are fine. It’s just that the top 5 or so are dominant. There aren’t many remaining P4 teams that would have done much better. There’s a huge difference between a top 5 team and a top 20 team.

Looking over who both Tulane and JMU played in 2025, I don’t see how they even belonged in the top 20. Notre Dame perhaps should have been somewhere 18-25, but ended up over rated as well. Time to dig our heads out of the sand. The separation between the P4 and the G5 is growing and how long before there is justification for the P4 football to break away? Would it be the worst thing for the G5 to have their own playoff?

 

[Hoophound]

Both games I saw yesterday were worse. UConn at least limited Murray on the ground and moved the ball just fine (drops killed us). They slowed down Todman, but no more than we slowed down Murray. Our OL protected Frazier well.

Specials, coaching, and running game, and defense were about even. With that said, the passing edge in their favor was catastrophic.

Frazer had also regressed at that point. He really lost his mental edge by then. He was very unsure of himself.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The committee (or whatever label you care to put on the powers that be who created this playoff) could have easily avoided a lot of this if they had a little more foresight and a bit less arrogance when they first created the rules.

If within the initial rules they capped G-5 at one automatic qualifier (their arrogance led them to believe this could never be a possibility), we wouldn't have the mess we've seen with complaints that ND got bumped, that Miami or Bama weren't deserving or that G-5 schools don't belong. Now we'll have a full offseason listening to how G-5 schools never should have been there to begin with.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I also believe the committee intentionally matched Tulane with a team that had already seen them, to help ensure blowouts in both games and it wouldn't surprise me if Ole Miss and Oregon were instructed to keep their foot on the gas well after the outcome had already been decided.

I personally believe that it would take a once in a century set of events for a G-5 school to run through the playoffs and win the title. That said, I also personally believe that they should not be able to exclude all G-5 schools from the playoffs, especially if they do so to add a fourth or fifth place school from a P-2.

 

[UConnDan97]

Not sure this is one of your strongest arguments for inclusion of G5 schools. JMU lost that game by halftime (being nice here). The final score was not indicative of just how bad of a whooping they took. I think had you stopped with USC you might have had some case, but by adding Minnesota and Rutgers, I think you actually support just why JMU didn’t belong.

The only reason I paid any attention to the playoffs this year was due to the inclusion of Tulane, Miami and JMU. I love to watch the underdog, but the two G5 schools were clearly unable to compete. These lopsided games are okay for basketball, because a bad game can be easily switched off to watch a more competitive game. This isn’t the case in football and is why I feel G5 schools should no longer be included. The gap is just too great and it just isn’t a fun watch.

I don’t think it is the powerful system looking for reasons to exclude the G5. Clearly, these schools proved they can’t compete.

My point is that Minnesota can't compete either. Rutgers can't compete either.

I'm tired of the G5 label meaning more than it should. The reality is that there are only about 6 or 7 schools that can legit win the championship (Texas A&M proved that). So if that's the case, they shouldn't get worked up about who team #12 is. They should be happy that they get an easier game than against Notre Dame or Vanderbilt...

 

[UConnDan97]

These G5 schools are fine. It’s just that the top 5 or so are dominant. There aren’t many remaining P4 teams that would have done much better. There’s a huge difference between a top 5 team and a top 20 team.

^^^^THIS!!!

 

[FightOnCT]

Looking over who both Tulane and JMU played in 2025, I don’t see how they even belonged in the top 20. Notre Dame perhaps should have been somewhere 18-25, but ended up over rated as well. Time to dig our heads out of the sand. The separation between the P4 and the G5 is growing and how long before there is justification for the P4 football to break away? Would it be the worst thing for the G5 to have their own playoff?

There is a separation, which is why people here mostly want to get into a P4. G5 playoffs would undermine that goal for more revenue/long term stability.