**2025/2026 Bowl Games Thread**

[The Tin Man]

And by more I dont mean...Just make it 48 teams dumbfuckery

 

[CurdMan]

I want 24 teams or higher-stakes regular season games. You're the ones wanting 7-5 teams to get a shot via play-in games.

Intellectual dishonesty here. This years matchups would be:

Title: OSU vs IU
3 vs 6: Oregon vs Iowa
4 vs 5: Michigan vs USC

All teams with at least 8 wins.

The real question going forward is how many of these teams really want to play the conference title game?

 

[cloudhawk]

Conference title games seem redundant and punative but need them due to unbalanced conference schedules I suppose.

 

[douglasbader]

Don't make me dig up gold of you insisting that no one would ever demand things you're now demanding, Ess!!!!

RATT. Also, I learned to just live with it.

 

[Gushawk]

I’m fine with 16 with no play in, but damn that would’ve hurt this year, especially with the godawful ISU loss.

 

[BillyBob]

Is there any way teams could perform better in the regular season, to increase their chances of entry to a competitive playoff tournament?

 

[cloudhawk]

Is there any way teams could perform better in the regular season, to increase their chances of entry to a competitive playoff tournament?

Are all of your pretend scenarios played against the same teams for comparison

 

[Thrawn II]

Intellectual dishonesty here. This years matchups would be:

Title: OSU vs IU
3 vs 6: Oregon vs Iowa
4 vs 5: Michigan vs USC

All teams with at least 8 wins.

The real question going forward is how many of these teams really want to play the conference title game?

my bad. Petiti's last proposal was for seven auto-bids for the B10/SEC without play-in games, so the 7-5 teams (last year's 7th-place Big Ten teams) would be in directly, not via a play-in.

 

[The Incredible Hawk]

Shut the fuck up already. I don't like all of this either, but it is what it is. Get on board with stuff that might help Iowa, or stick with watching Drake if you want the purity of the sport.

Drake was a playoff team this year.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Drake was a playoff team this year.

 

[douglasbader]

ACC now is a Duke win away from being left completely out of the CFP.

In (9) - Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Alabama and Notre Dame.

Texas Tech / BYU winner is in (10). North Texas / Tulane AAC winner is in (11). ACC Champ Virginia is in, if not, then James Madison will be the (likely) conference champ of the Sun Belt and in (12) and the ACC will be left out completely.

Vandy, Miami, Utah, and Big XII runner up will be 10-2 teams left out.

 

[douglasbader]

ESPN just declares though that if BYU wins and Alabama loses next week, that Alabama will be out. I would really doubt that the committee would drop Alabama out, but whatever.

 

[CurdMan]

ESPN just declares though that if BYU wins and Alabama loses next week, that Alabama will be out. I would really doubt that the committee would drop Alabama out, but whatever.

Would really be unfortunate for the Proctor family.

You still betting on Texas as Iowas opponent in Tampa?

 

[douglasbader]

Would really be unfortunate for the Proctor family.

You still betting on Texas as Iowas opponent in Tampa?

I'm not sure anymore how the selection process works as it seems barely tied to the conferences at this point and they can horse trade to get the best matchups. Either way, I think Texas is on to bigger and better things.

One site has Michigan vs. Vandy in the Citrus and the Gator Bowl is Texas vs. Miami. They also have Illinois vs. Tennessee in the Reliaquest and then Iowa vs. Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Honestly, if given the choice, I would rather play in the Las Vegas Bowl vs. Utah than another fucking game against Tennessee.

I still think it is Iowa in the Reliaquest though. They haven't been there in a while and Illinois has.

 

[Thrawn II]

ESPN just declares though that if BYU wins and Alabama loses next week, that Alabama will be out. I would really doubt that the committee would drop Alabama out, but whatever.

They wouldn't be dropping Alabama. Alabama right now is basically like a basketball #11 seed in BracketMatrix that loses their spot if BYU is a bid thief and knocks Texas Tech into an at-large spot.

 

[Thrawn II]

The sort-of odd thing is that apparently they are weighing Oklahoma's head-to-head win as a tiebreaker over Alabama, but if Alabama and BYU both win and move the cut line to Notre Dame/Miami, the head-to-head does not matter.

 

[douglasbader]

They wouldn't be dropping Alabama. Alabama right now is basically like a basketball #11 seed in BracketMatrix that loses their spot if BYU is a bid thief and knocks Texas Tech into an at-large spot.

I get that, but that is what I'm saying I guess that I don't see that happening. I see Texas Tech being out.

This week's rankings should tell a lot. Georgia will be #3 and wouldn't be shocked to see them move Oregon and Ole Miss ahead of Texas Tech and drop them from #5 to #7. If they do something like that, basically signals that the Big XII Championship is a play in game.

 

[douglasbader]

By the way, I'm perfectly fine if they fuck over Alabama again and drop them out.

 

[Thrawn II]

I get that, but that is what I'm saying I guess that I don't see that happening. I see Texas Tech being out.

This week's rankings should tell a lot. Georgia will be #3 and wouldn't be shocked to see them move Oregon and Ole Miss ahead of Texas Tech and drop them from #5 to #7. If they do something like that, basically signals that the Big XII Championship is a play in game.

If you aren't punishing for conference championship games you can't drop Texas Tech out.

 

[Thrawn II]

The committee has been slightly higher on Tech/BYU (and Utah as their quality wins) than the AP so I really don't see that.

 

[Herbie2]

I get that, but that is what I'm saying I guess that I don't see that happening. I see Texas Tech being out.

This week's rankings should tell a lot. Georgia will be #3 and wouldn't be shocked to see them move Oregon and Ole Miss ahead of Texas Tech and drop them from #5 to #7. If they do something like that, basically signals that the Big XII Championship is a play in game.

Do they penalize Ole Miss for not having their head coach?

 

[douglasbader]

Do they penalize Ole Miss for not having their head coach?

Maybe, but with only 1 loss they can't drop them out under any circumstance.

 

[Thrawn II]

It seems pretty straightforward other than the hilarious/nightmare scenario if Duke beats UVA and you have to decide if James Madison should replace Duke.

American
UVA/Duke/Dukes
OSU
Indiana
Georgia
Oregon
T Tech
Ole Miss
A&M
Oklahoma

Notre Dame and Alabama are in conditionally. Bama is the team at risk if BYU wins and then Notre Dame moves to the at-risk spot if BYU and Bama win.

Dropping Texas Tech from top 5 to almost out makes no sense even for if you're in the "they make it up as they go along" camp.

 

[Herbie2]

Notre Dame up 29 w/ 2:00 left and throwing the ball to try and make a statement to the committee w/ a bigger margin of victory.

 

[douglasbader]

#19-#23 all lost this week. Decent shot that Iowa is ranked on Tuesday. North Texas, James Madison, Houston and maybe Missouri along with Iowa are most likely to move into the rankings.

 

[douglasbader]

Notre Dame up 29 w/ 2:00 left and throwing the ball to try and make a statement to the committee w/ a bigger margin of victory.

Freeman looked fucking livid when they gave up that TD to Stanford with 4 minutes left.

 

[douglasbader]

Oh look, a QB slid in a meaningless game and got his fucking bell rung in a meaningless game where they should be kneeling down all because the head coach of Notre Dame is worried the committee might drop them a spot if they don't put up 50 points.

Fucking stupid.

 

[Herbie2]

Freeman looked fucking livid when they gave up that TD to Stanford with 4 minutes left.

Maybe he joined me in taking ND -31.5

 

[douglasbader]

I would drop Notre Dame for this stupid display.

 

[douglasbader]

Lol, at least Marcus Freeman looked like he just mouthed "I'm sorry" to Frank Reich at midfield.

 

[Kerky]

So, if they were to expand to 16 teams, do they essentially keep the same format except for having the current top 4 byes actually host a 1st round game?

 

[champion_thedrinker]

So, if they were to expand to 16 teams, do they essentially keep the same format except for having the current top 4 byes actually host a 1st round game?

That's why you go to 24 so you can keep the first round byes.

 

[BBK]

16 is enough

 

[cloudhawk]

Fuck the bye

 

[Stu Beagle]

16 with first two rounds on campus

but my guess is they do something that makes less sense and also leave group of 5 out all together.

 

[BBK]

I want 16. 1st two rounds on campus. 2 spots reserved for non-P4 schools

 

[L. Wade Childress]

Why don’t they just make the entire plane out of playoff spots

 

[gable_guy]

Gonna need to move this to main board

 

[kenos]

24.

No non-con for BCS. Get right to conference play and let what happens happen.

First three rounds on campus.

24 lines up well with the top 25 rankings, and opens up more TV money for those first two rounds than for games against the Charleston Southerns and Northen Illinois of the world.

 

[Verbal]

Jesus Christ

 

[champion_thedrinker]

 

[BillyBob]

24.

No non-con for BCS. Get right to conference play and let what happens happen.

First three rounds on campus.

24 lines up well with the top 25 rankings, and opens up more TV money for those first two rounds than for games against the Charleston Southerns and Northen Illinois of the world.

but then #25 would be left out!!!!!!1

 

[CurdMan]

24.

No non-con for BCS. Get right to conference play and let what happens happen.

First three rounds on campus.

24 lines up well with the top 25 rankings, and opens up more TV money for those first two rounds than for games against the Charleston Southerns and Northen Illinois of the world.

FCS playoffs is 24 teams plus they play 12 regular season games. No one should be surprised when we end up with this format.

 

[Fair and Balanced]

Eliminate the regular season and have a 128 team playoff. At the end we can all sob together as they play “One Shining Moment” over a montage of all the great memories we had the joy of experiencing together.

 

[Fair and Balanced]

2 spots reserved for non-P4 schools

Why?

 

[BBK]

Why?

I'm of the opinion that the NCAA basketball tournament is the greatest sporting event in our fine country every year. Having a couple mid/low majors in the tournament works to replicate that, while making the selection process inclusive to every D1 program

 

[newsbreaker]

I honestly don’t understand why people don’t like this. There were meaningful games all over on Saturday, with actual implications for good teams. Conference Championship Saturday means less in the SEC and B10, but the B12, ACC, and at least two G5 games mean more than ever, and you’re trading the P2 games being meaningful for a first round that’s terrific.

 

[BVHawk95]

I honestly don’t understand why people don’t like this. There were meaningful games all over on Saturday, with actual implications for good teams. Conference Championship Saturday means less in the SEC and B10, but the B12, ACC, and at least two G5 games mean more than ever, and you’re trading the P2 games being meaningful for a first round that’s terrific.

That was always the case before, and you listed one reason as to why it's worse.

Why the fuck does CCG week have to mean less? Why is it okay that teams that were in consideration against one another for the CCG had 3 or fewer common conference opponents? That's fucking stupid.

Maybe we shouldn't have created superconferences with teams that have almost zero connection to each other beside the size of their checkbook.

 

[Wanderer]

That was always the case before, and you listed one reason as to why it's worse.

Why the fuck does CCG week have to mean less? Why is it okay that teams that were in consideration against one another for the CCG had 3 or fewer common conference opponents? That's fucking stupid.

Maybe we shouldn't have created superconferences with teams that have almost zero connection to each other beside the size of their checkbook.

 

[The Full Monte]

An old acquaintance suggested this would be the perfect year to finally put Iowa and Iowa State in a bowl game together in a group text this morning.

I hope he stubs his toe badly this evening