College football has two issues in my opinion. The officiating is atrocious. The zebras are affecting the outcome of too many crucial games.
Secondly, Clemson. Did they deserve to be in the playoffs? Yes they did. They were clearly one of the top 4. Here’s my problem. They are pretty much a lock for the final 4 for the for seeable future. They don’t even have to be good enough. Why? Because they play in a cupcake schedule in a cupcake conference. When they play outside of the conference, they also play cupcakes. So they will be going undefeated for the foreseeable future. Guaranteeing them a spot in the playoffs. There are plenty of teams in the big ten, the SEC, the big 12 and maybe even a few in the AAC who could give them a game, if given a chance. Should Clemson be given the automatic birth every year? Even when they play a weaker schedule than Cincinnati?
For both NFL and College, I believe the officiating is no worse than it ever has been. (Ditto NBA and MLB, etc.)
What we have now is technology to examine in frame-by-frame high definition each play and scrutinize what used to be only real-time calls. In fact, now we have cameras – often from multiple angles – on practically every player on the field.
In my opinion, if we want to scrutinize every player and every call to that extent, we should automate all officiating and remove the human element from the game. (And I wonder if we would come to hate how that would play out.)
As for Clemson in general, they showed their worthiness for inclusion in the top-4 by beating Ohio State, and by hanging with LSU well into the 3rd quarter.
Moving forward, Clemson Athletics should beef up the schedule to avoid the powerpuff dilemma.
Dont we partially Base rankings on the strength of the opponent? Meaning doesn’t a team with a super puffy schedule have a harder time rising in the rankings than others?
Partially. But the ACC is always considered a power 5 conference. Even though they only have one power 5 team. Clemson will breeze through it’s weak assed schedule again and land in the playoffs.
Hopefully Florida State will turn it around and become an elite team again and give Clemson some real competition. But that is at least 3 seasons away.
Interestingly, Clemson is listed as the #1 preseason ranked team in early rankings. (USA Today, for instance.)
Looks like they’ll have a (marginally) tougher schedule next year, so maybe things will play out in a way that removes doubt, either to maintain that sort of ranking, or knock them off the pedestal.
Clemson starts off 2020 playing the mighty football powerhouse, the Akron Zips.
There other three non-conference games are The Citadel, South Carolina and Notre Dame. You can obviously write The Citadel off as a pansy opponent.
Their ACC schedule is Boston College, Louisville, NC State, Syracuse, Virginia, Florida State, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.
All in all, they should have zero difficulty maintaining an undefeated season through the ACC Championship Game. The only game that should even give them difficulty is Notre Dame, which is being played in Notre Dame this year.
Of course! If you’re gonna play an Ohio team, it should be Akron. I think that Clemson might still be a little sore from playing that other Ohio team. Hopefully they won’t have any crappy assed SEC zebras to help them out this time.
Florida State only gets one pansy opponent, Samford (played in Tallahassee).
Their other non-conference opponents are Boise State (played in Boise), West Virginia (played in Atlanta) and of course, the Gators (played in Tallahassee).
