[Matt Hayes] The SEC willingly flushed its conference championship game that last year had better ratings than all eight first round CFP games of the brief, 12-team era.

[u/CrashB111]

https://x.com/MattHayesCFB/status/2111056779366785054

[u/YoungKeys]

Conferences are too large for conference championship games now. It’s time to get rid of them imo

[u/mind-blowin → u/YoungKeys]

It’s true, the teams that make it are usually the result of scheduling and convoluted tiebreakers and not really because of results. Big game James made it for Penn St a couple years ago solely because he didn’t have to play any of the top Big Ten teams.

[u/boy-detective → u/mind-blowin]

It was fun to gaslight Penn State fans into thinking that Franklin was a mid-to-submid coach. Who knew they would believe it?

[u/livefreeordont → u/boy-detective]

I thought all the Penn staters believed he was a good coach who couldn’t win the big games and then lost the locker room in his last season. Is that not what happened?

[u/boy-detective → u/livefreeordont]

The “lost the locker room” part was funny too given the way players reacted once he was fired and how many voted with their feet to follow him.

[u/Manning_bear_pig → u/boy-detective]

Wtf are we doing here. I'm not a Penn State or a Virginia Tech fan at all, but Franklin is clearly way beyond a "mid-to-submid coach".

[u/boy-detective → u/Manning_bear_pig]

That’s what made it gaslighting.

[u/Balogunned → u/boy-detective]

Best part is that they hired the mid to sub mid coach to replace him.

[u/Unhappy-List-2354 → u/mind-blowin]

Agreed.

But don’t do James Worthy dirty like that. 

🤪

[u/Betaworldpeach → u/mind-blowin]

It helps when there are so few

[u/CDawg___ → u/YoungKeys]

what the fuck would you know about it lmao

[u/Calithrand → u/CDawg___]

Dude, Notre Dame wins their conference championship every single year!

[u/P1mpathinor → u/Calithrand]

Not every year; in 2020 they lost to Clemson.

[u/voiceOfThePoople → u/CDawg___]

I mean we have functioning brains and follow the sport, does one really need to be in a conference to see all the flaws of expansion? 

[u/UncleMalcolm → u/YoungKeys]

This is one of two major points that the “championship games are historic traditions!!!” people are missing.

The championship games used to filter your league down to two teams who met some objective criteria to get there…and the teams they beat out, they played head to head. The SEC had a 4-way tie for 2 spots last year, and one of the four didn’t play any of the others. Two of them only played one of the other three. The ACC, as has been well documented, ran into an even dumber situation.

The other knock on title games: I’m well under 40, and I’m older than the oldest conference championship game. I can actively remember when the ACC and B1G added them. They’re simply not as important with a 12 team field…with a 24 team field they’re obviously complete overkill.

[u/152is2after150 → u/UncleMalcolm]

All relevant fans can remember when the ACC didn't have a CCG. Fuck gen z/gen alpha

[u/Branduil → u/UncleMalcolm]

Conferences becoming so big that they couldn't just do round-robin schedules was the first step down this dark path we're on.

[u/AlphaBravo95 → u/YoungKeys]

It seems like the end of the road is when the sec and b10 canabalize the acc and then make a super conference and divide back up into 5 divisions based on geographic regions and we are back where we started

[u/Individual-Toe-6306 → u/AlphaBravo95]

I mean this isnt the worst outcome

[u/Kdcjg → u/AlphaBravo95]

Yeah I can’t wait until big 10 creates an Atlantic division and a pacific division.

[u/Balogunned → u/Kdcjg]

The acc and the pac divisions inside the B1G

[u/HotDawgConnoisseur → u/AlphaBravo95]

Wonder if they’ll just make it the minor league for the NFL

[u/therealwillhepburn → u/HotDawgConnoisseur]

They won’t. The NFL wants the free development league they’ve always had without having to do anything about it.

[u/Calithrand → u/HotDawgConnoisseur]

They already think they are. Remember a few years ago when people (by which I mean, Alabama homers) kept going on about how Alabama might just be so mighty as to beat an NFL team?

[u/Happy_Background_879 → u/[deleted]]

He is 100% correct. Conference records can no longer choose the two worthy CCG teams

[u/Revolver_Oshawott_ → u/YoungKeys]

I would rather shrink the conferences but that makes too much sense

[u/sushirolldeleter → u/YoungKeys]

Oh of course you’d say that

[u/Happy_Background_879 → u/sushirolldeleter]

It's true though. Comparing conference records for a matchup makes way less sense now when the schedules wildly diverge.

[u/titusnick270 → u/YoungKeys]

This is facts. If we did divisions id be fine with it though

[u/HarambeTooSoon → u/titusnick270]

Leaders and Legends

Cringe. 

[u/DickBottalico → u/HarambeTooSoon]

Not nearly as cringe as using B1G instead of typing Big Ten. It’s ridiculous. It’s a logo, not an abbreviation.

[u/HarambeTooSoon → u/DickBottalico]

B16*

[u/CheaterSaysWhat → u/HarambeTooSoon]

That shit was so funny I still can’t believe it got approved 

[u/23Hotsoup23 → u/titusnick270]

We could call them leaders and legends

[u/y0ufailedthiscity → u/titusnick270]

Legends and Leaders perhaps?

[u/titusnick270 → u/y0ufailedthiscity]

Great name! How’d you come with that?

[u/jdper → u/YoungKeys]

\checks flair** fork found in kitchen

[u/purpscurp93 → u/YoungKeys]

Uh. Worst take ever. With larger conferences crowning a champion means a lot more when you don't play half the teams there. This is what everyone in the non sec and big10 conferences play for. But yes. The Notre Dame fan has the best perspective on this

[u/tyedge → u/purpscurp93]

The selection process for these games is an indecipherable clown show without divisions.

If we’d kept divisions or used a pod system to ensure schedule parity I would agree.

[u/michigan_matt → u/purpscurp93]

What if you took all the teams in the Big Ten that are east of he Mississippi, only had them play each other. Then took all the teams west of it, had them play only each other. And then in like early January, they got to meet and play each other? I think that would be all roses.

[u/MediumStrange → u/michigan_matt]

Poor Iowa and Minnesota 😔

[u/justanothersurly → u/MediumStrange]

I don’t get it? They’d be on different sides

[u/MediumStrange → u/justanothersurly]

They'd be split apart :'(

[u/Ranger_Nietzsche → u/MediumStrange]

Seriously you can't divide the quadrangle of hate

[u/Calithrand → u/justanothersurly]

Clearly, he meant poor Iowa and Nebraska ;)

[u/Calithrand → u/michigan_matt]

I see what you did there! But I'm salty now, that you didn't give an invite to the rest of the old Pac-10!

[u/Dynamite_McGhee → u/purpscurp93]

Both SEC title games in the 12 team CFP era were regular season rematches and every team made the CFP regardless of the outcome.

[u/Fletch71011 → u/purpscurp93]

Duke won the ACC last year despite probably not being a top 5 team in the conference. Miami ended up 2nd in the entire country and didn't make the conference championship.

Ya, they're meaningless.

[u/purpscurp93 → u/Fletch71011]

That is what makes them great is they give the little guy a chance. Win your conference was the name of the game. But again wouldn't expect a ND can to understand that

[u/SmoothBrain3333 → u/purpscurp93]

I would say you have the worst take ever. Why would it mean more when you don’t play half the teams. It just makes it way harder to determine who should be in the championship game. Schedules are so imbalanced and you are relying on tiebreakers every year to determine the participants. Playoffs and national titles are what teams are playing for now.

[u/purpscurp93 → u/SmoothBrain3333]

Because a team might play a soft schedule in the conference. Or a team might have gotten the other best team on the road. Like I said for most teams in the NCAA (non sec ND or big10) the conference championship was the real championship, and you take that away from them. especially big12 schools in this scenario

[u/ed_mcc → u/YoungKeys]

Notre Dame ahh take