Will a mid-major ever win the national championship?

[Jack the Cat]

Will they ever get a chance? I've done it in NCAA video games before, but even then it takes a few years. Also, Big East teams do not count as mid-major in my eyes even if their conference is a notch below.

If TCU had gone undefeated last year, they could have been in the discussion, and unlike Utah they would have had a legit non-conference road win to point at. Theres no way they go to the title game though. Maybe they finish 5th after the regular season.

[redbuck]

Yes but by that time they won't be mid majors anymore.

The general field of leagues is narrowing. Good teams aren't that much better anymore. If a lower league team could ever play a decent schedule (Utah 2004) it's possible.

[gridiron]

They may still be considered mid majors when they win, the major/midmajor split is not based on anything except which conferences get rated for bowls.

[redbuck]

Yes. The way the BCS works, we change it every year with regard only to the previous year's situation. We don't remember 2 or more years ago. We want to make it perfect for how it worked last year. So if we end up with 2 mid major powerhouses in a row, we may see a softened BCS give benefit to the second one, and possibly a title. I have having to see Big Ten teams have to defend against cheap MAC offenses. It's fun to watch them but in a way almost seems like cheating.

[ATLFalcons]

I have to say no. The BCS may change every year, but it can be biased against mid-majors, look at TCU from last year they did beat Oklahoma, but they lost against SMU. Mid-majors don't have the money, exposure, or talent that some of these teams from the Big 10, Pac 10, and SEC have. Which means that the BCS won't judge them even if they have a quality win against a big team.

[tdk1984]

Yes, but it would be much easier if the BCS were scrapped in favor of a playoff. Also, it would be very possible to have a playoff system while leaving the bowls intact.

[gridiron]

A playoff system that didn't consider the mid majors would not work. But the concept of Midmajor changes. I remember Joe Paterno's Penn St. winning a bowl game when the pundits said they couldn't do it because they didn't play a tough enopugh schedule. Great upset and it put Penn St. on the map, but 11-0 didn't impress a lot of voters that year. They basically considered Penn St. a midmajor up to that point.

[Jack the Cat]

I still don't agree with a playoff system, because if you accept too many teams. One possibility is doing a tournament that includes all of the conference champions, and Notre Dame. I believe there are 11 conferences so that would be 12 teams. If Notre Dame is not ranked in the top 15, than another team can substitute as an at-large.

I still perfer just keeping the bowls as it is, and taking the top 2 teams after the bowls and having them play another game, but that keeps the mid-majors out still so if we ever wanted to give the mid-majors a chance I say the 12 team tournament.

How that would work is the bottom 8 teams would play first, with the top 4 getting a bye. A problem would come in though, if say Oklahoma and Texas were both in the top 5 like they have been some years. So meh.

[ATLFalcons]

I think the BCS is too heavily relied on. In College Basketball teams get snubbed for the Tourney and they get over it. In football we don't even let humans determine our Top 25, that is something that needs to be revised. A mid-major could win a national championship if we went to the old fashioned ways.

[Jack the Cat]

I think the BCS is too heavily relied on. In College Basketball teams get snubbed for the Tourney and they get over it. In football we don't even let humans determine our Top 25, that is something that needs to be revised. A mid-major could win a national championship if we went to the old fashioned ways.

In college basketball they let 65 friggin teams in. The teams who do complain are retarded, and whats even worse is with George Mason, a team who didn't deserve to be anywhere near a championship trophy making the final 4 there will probably end up being close to 100 teams being let in before long.

I am sorry but Cincinatti, Florida St., and Michigan but teams that finish in the middle of their conference standings don't deserve the right to play for a championship. Even as a Gators fan, I think it's dumb that Florida, a team that didn't even win their division was able to get red hot for a few weeks a voila national title, forget the fact Tennessee, and South Carolina sweeped them, and that teams like Arkansas and Alabama made them look silly in Febuary. And i'm saying that as a fan of the team.

Sorry for the rant, it's just when anybody talks of college basketballs system like it's a good one I feel like I have to let off steam.

[tdk1984]

There's talk about the tournament soon expanding to 128 teams...

[Jack the Cat]

See, I don't see why college basketball keeps shooting themselves like that. I know they feel like "Oh no they only watch us in March and America loves upsets so lets give them more teams" but serious if they have Duke playing the number 32 seed than honestly there will be no point in watching.

What they should do is first off no conference tournaments, unless there are multiple divisions, in the case of multiple divisions than 1 championship game. Aside from that regular seasons champs automatically advance in giving us 29 teams. Then there are 6 more teams who will each play play-in games to gain spots to the tournament.

That way you don't have the Big East and ACC sending 17 teams combined, but the better conferences still get the chance to send in multiple teams.

It would be so much better because winning a conferences regular season title will actually mean something, and there wont be dumb conference tournaments. I really hate those because even before the NCAA tournament, your already rendering the regular season meaningless. It screws over teams from low level conferences who dominate the regular season, and then lose and gives teams like Wake Forest and South Carolina last year chances to make a last stab. It's dumb as hell, and the NCAA's solution is not to get rid of this dumb shit but "ADD 64 MORE TEAMS LOL". Yeah, fuck that, if the nations 128th best team has a shot at winning the national title than that is a crock of shit because college football only has 119 teams total. Thats like letting Temple have a shot at the national championship.

[redbuck]

College football has an 11-game season with games whose specific magic comes from the fact that they are vital wins to a team in conquest of a national championship. Make it so that a 6-5 or even an 8-3 team can win the title, all the glory of some of the great rivalries and loud crowds is lost.

[Jack the Cat]

Exactly, and i'm not sure if you would have 5 loss teams winning the title but the one year the Nebraska made the title game after not winning the Big 12 North there was an uproar. If we had even a 16 team tournament there would be the chance for a team that finished 2nd or 3rd in their conference to take home the national title which wouldn't be fair.

Tennessee won the regular season SEC Title in basketball, but nobody is going to remember that because of Florida's run, even though the Gators were a loss to Kentucky away from finishing 3rd in the SEC East.

[BaldEagle]

Of all the mid-majors, Southern Miss always plays a schedule that would be hard to argue against a BCS bid. This year our OOC games include road games with Florida and Virginia Tech and a home game with NC State. Our in conference games include road games against last year's top east team (Central Florida) and top west team (Tulsa). If we were to run the tables this year, I think the voters would be hard pressed to keep us out of the top 5, but I doubt we'd get a chance at a #2 spot. Even if we did, our chances in the big game would be almost zero.

I know... I'm dreaming.

[OswaldTheOsprey]

Of all the mid-majors, Southern Miss always plays a schedule that would be hard to argue against a BCS bid. This year our OOC games include road games with Florida and Virginia Tech and a home game with NC State. Our in conference games include road games against last year's top east team (Central Florida) and top west team (Tulsa). If we were to run the tables this year, I think the voters would be hard pressed to keep us out of the top 5, but I doubt we'd get a chance at a #2 spot. Even if we did, our chances in the big game would be almost zero.

I know... I'm dreaming.

Your USM Golden Eagles are tough, plenty tough. They
absolutely own my UAB Blazers! Six in a row, I think.

Southern Miss has never, going way back to the 1930s,
been afraid to take on the Big Boys.

OswaldTheOsprey:cool:

[mojorisin71]

I say yes, but not anytime soon. Until we abolish the BCS (what's wrong with humans picking the postseason teams?), this will always be a problem.

I still say that if Fresno State had beaten USC last year and not choked away their season, they would have been in the hunt for a BCS bid.