{"id":200360,"date":"2025-12-08T21:39:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=200360"},"modified":"2025-12-08T21:39:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T02:39:30","slug":"random-thoughts-cfb-playoff-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/12\/08\/random-thoughts-cfb-playoff-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: CFB playoff madness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s basketball season, football keeps making headlines, especially at the college level, so this week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around the college game, plus a bit of high school, the NFL and a non-football note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notre Dame\/CFP rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So after getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff selection committee, Notre Dame said thanks but no thanks to any bowl invitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now, I\u2019m kind of stuck between \u201cgood for them\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s not a great look for them\u201d and I think both are correct to some degree. It makes sense why the school is upset \u2013 they were seemingly on a path to a playoff spot and had the rug yanked out at the last second. Notre Dame is a big television draw and no doubt, ESPN was counting on that viewership for a non-playoff game, which apparently was going to be the Pop Tarts Bowl vs. BYU. On the other hand, it projects a \u201ctaking my ball and leaving\u201d vibe and it cheats any players that had one game remaining of the final game experience. There\u2019s also the missed extra practices, but that probably isn\u2019t a huge deal in this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do agree with Notre Dame on this point \u2013 what is the point of the weekly rankings show? Obviously, it\u2019s all television drama and money, but they have a point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too many teams<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said all of that, who else isn\u2019t a fan of the 12 team field? Who else think 12 teams is too many and is clunky?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all due respect to these schools and what they did to get to this point, does anyone think James Madison or Tulane will actually win a playoff game, much less compete for a national championship? I don\u2019t say that to belittle these schools, but it\u2019s a valid question. There have been years when even four teams seemed like too many. Now it\u2019s 12?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 12 team format is indeed clunky, although I will admit I like first round games being played on a campus. Otherwise, it feels weird. Some teams wait about two weeks to play their first playoff game while others wait nearly a month. A national championship game six weeks away? Clunky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flag planting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we stop with the flag planting please? Apparently, there was a scuffle or near scuffle after Friday\u2019s Conference USA Championship Game over \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 flag planting, or attempted flag planting. Please stop with this practice. It serves zero purpose other than to start a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recruiting rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like I\u2019m on a roll today. I have to chuckle each year when I see or hear the term \u201crecruiting rankings.\u201d I\u2019m talking about college football of course. Here\u2019s the thing \u2013 those rankings were basically meaningless before the transfer portal became a thing and they\u2019re completely meaningless now. Do some people not realize this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While watching the St. Henry\/Hillsdale state championship football game, I heard the announcers point out that nine of 10 football-playing MAC schools have won a football state championship at one point or another. Name one other conference that can boast that claim. I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domination II<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

None of the seven state championship games were that close. The closest one was in Division I, 28-14. Some people thought Glenville-Shelby would be close and some even thought Shelby would win. It turns out the Whippets never had a chance, losing 45-7. Regardless, I\u2019m surprised we didn\u2019t see more competitive games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domed championships?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been the case now for more than several years, I heard and saw complaints about the OHSAA state championship games being played in Canton\/northeast Ohio. The most common theme was \u201cplay them at Ohio Stadium.\u201d There\u2019s just one problem \u2013 Ohio State has no interest in hosting the championship games. Yes, they did it before, as recently as 2015. They most likely won\u2019t be doing it again. Can\u2019t make them do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a suggestion and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not the first to bring it up \u2013 if the championship games are going to be played in northeast Ohio, why not play them at the Cleveland Browns new domed stadium, once it\u2019s built and if they\u2019re willing? I get it \u2013 football is an outdoor sport, but after seeing fans freeze in frigid conditions Thursday night, Friday and Saturday makes playing the games in a dome seem like a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public vs. private<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re keeping track, public schools won six of the seven OHSAA footall state championships. The only private school winner was Columbus Bishop Watterson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analytics vs. common sense<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cleveland Browns scored against Tennessee to make it 31-23. Conventional wisdom says you kick the extra point right? Not the Browns \u2013 they go for two and fail. Now they have to go for two if they score again, which they did, and failed again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll admit, I\u2019m not a huge fan of analytics. I\u2019m a fan of common sense, which says the success rate for a couple of extra points is about double or more the success rate for a pair of two point tries. Why make things more difficult than they have to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very good<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know who has a really good basketball pep band? Lincolnview. For a small school, they have a big pep band and they sounded great last Friday night when the basketball team hosted USV. Well done Lancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have thoughts or comments on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports While it\u2019s basketball season, football keeps making headlines, especially at the college level, so this week\u2019s edition of Random Thoughts centers around the college game, plus a bit of high school, the NFL and a non-football note. Notre Dame\/CFP rankings So after getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff selection committee, Notre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 22:05:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200361,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200360\/revisions\/200361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}