Chapter 128 Embark on the Journey
Like the NFL, the NCAA also has playoffs, but NCAA football and basketball are slightly different. Basketball’s playoffs are almost the same as those of professional leagues, while football is an invitation-only bowl game. ——
In North America, many large stadiums are bowl-shaped, so they are called "bowl games".
So, how does the invitation system work?
Based on NCAA rankings and internal rankings of each league.
There are many NCAA divisional leagues and teams, but there are only twelve games in the regular season, nearly half of which are against opponents within the league. Therefore, teams in different leagues may not be able to compete against each other for more than ten years, which also makes the entire North American rankings impossible to simply refer to. Achievements.
In a season, there may be more than one team that has a complete victory, and there may be seven or eight teams that only lose one game. Therefore, the league is based on two authoritative lists and a computer list calculated using six methods. Referring to team record, schedule strength, game performance and other data, the NCAA national rankings for each season are finally obtained.
Then, invitations to the playoffs will be issued based on the national rankings and the different results of each league.
In 2006, the NCAA went through major reforms and readjusted the playoff system, officially dividing the playoffs into two parts, the bowl game and the National Championship game.
First, bowl games.
In 2016, the NCAA had a total of forty bowl games at different levels, that is, 80 teams participated in the playoffs; among them, there were six top bowl games in the Division I league, namely the Sugar Bowl, the Festive Bowl, and the Rose Bowl. , orange bowl, cotton bowl, peach bowl.
Each bowl game has its own tradition. For example, the Sugar Bowl belongs to the Southeastern Conference, so the champion of the Southeastern Conference often plays against another team; the Festive Bowl belongs to the Big 12 Conference, and the Rose Bowl belongs to the Pac-12 Conference and the Big Ten Conference. conference, and the Orange Bowl is the Atlantic Coast Conference.
And so on and so forth.
Second, the National Championship Game.
According to the NCAA rankings, the top four teams will participate in the National Championship Game, which will be played in two rounds of knockout rounds, the first round of semi-finals and the second round of finals, and finally the national champion will be determined.
Among them, the semifinals are bowl games. This year, the Festive Bowl and Peach Bowl were chosen as the venues.
In other words, the winner of the Festive Bowl and the winner of the Peach Bowl will advance to the finals of the National Championship Game to start the competition for the final national championship in the 2016 season.
This year, the Festivus Bowl pits Atlantic Coast Conference champion Clemson against Big Ten champion Ohio State, a matchup between the nation's No. 2 and No. 3 teams.
The Peach Bowl pits the Southeastern Conference champion University of Alabama against the Big 12 Conference champion University of Washington. This is a head-on collision between the No. 1 team in the country and the No. 4 team in the country.
Because the above four teams advance to the National Championship, the bowl game is equivalent to the semifinals of the National Championship. Naturally, the quotas for other bowl games also need to be adjusted accordingly.
Like the orange bowl.
It was originally supposed to be a showdown between the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and the Big Ten Conference champion, but because the two champions both went to the Festivus Bowl to compete for the National Championship finals, it was replaced by the runner-up of the two conferences, the University of Michigan and Florida State University competing for this session. Bowl championship.
Judging from the NCAA rankings, the University of Michigan is sixth and Florida State University is eleventh, but they are still invited to compete in the Orange Bowl.
The same goes for other bowl games.
Different bowl games have different traditions. For example, a bowl game tends to invite teams from a specific league to participate. As a result, the first and second-ranked teams in that league go to the National Championship and other bowl games respectively, then they can still invite the third-ranked team. team to participate, even if the team’s NCAA ranking may not be high.
To put it simply, the decision on invitations to bowl games rests with the organizers, and the NCAA rankings are only used as a reference.
Therefore, it is often seen that the ninth-ranked team in the NCAA misses the Division I bowl game and can only participate in the Division II bowl game; instead, the team ranked sixteenth in the NCAA appears in the Division I bowl game. superior.
This year, it's the same.
The most surprising and shocking thing is——
Louisville Cardinals, team led by Lamar Jackson.
Once ranked third in the NCAA during the season, Jackson was undoubtedly the favorite for this year's Heisman Award; but he faltered at the end of the season and lost two consecutive games that he could not lose, although Jackson recovered in the end. Drum, ended the season with two consecutive victories, but their final NCAA ranking still slipped to fifteenth. Logically speaking, despite this, the Louisville Cardinals with Jackson should also be the focus of the conversation, but the reality is different.
The Louisville Cardinals not only missed the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, but also lost all their glory to rivals Clemson University and Florida State University in the same league, and were eventually reduced to participating in the Citrus Bowl.
A tangerine bowl, not an orange bowl.
In the Citrus Bowl, Jackson faced another strong defensive team, the Louisiana State Tigers, who came close to stopping Levi for the first time this season.
The Louisiana State Tigers' season was full of ups and downs. Although they had outstanding strength, they always lacked a little luck. In the end, they were unable to find the password to their rise. They were ranked 19th in the NCAA, so they were not invited to the six major bowl games. Heading to compete in the Citrus Bowl.
Jackson was a little confused about this.
Obviously, Jackson did not expect that his season would fall into this situation. He could only participate in the Citrus Bowl, while Levi and Watson embarked on the journey to the National Championship Game, and the initiative to compete for the Heisman Award was no longer in his hands. in hand.
In a daze, Levi's words still ring in his ears:
Wait until he advances to the United States Championship.
Jackson is still thinking that he not only wants to defeat Levi in the National Championship Game, but also wins the Heisman Award, but now he is not even qualified to stand in front of Levi for a duel.
It turns out that the clown is himself.
How did things develop to this point?
However, the nightmare is still not over.
In the Citrus Bowl, Louisiana State University was united and high-spirited, once again showing its top defensive strength, suppressing Jackson so hard throughout the game that the rising star of tomorrow completely lost himself.
"29:9".
The Louisiana State Tigers ended the season with a bowl game championship, while Jackson, who made a sensation at the beginning of the season, had no results and ended the season in a gloomy and lonely manner, which can be called an anticlimax.
But does anyone care?
No, there isn't.
After losing the game, Jackson thought that reporters would surround him again, and then discuss Levi and Watson over and over again, which was annoying; but looking at the interview team with two or three kittens in the player tunnel, Jackson I feel a little disappointed, is this normal?
So, what about people?
"Levi, are you ready to participate in the draft?"
"Levi, who do you think is the Crimson Tide's biggest opponent in this year's National Championship?"
"Levi, do you think this year's U.S. Championship finals will be a repeat of last year?"
Bustling, chattering, and countless microphones surrounded Levi, so much so that Levi was blocked at the door of the bus and couldn't get out.
Looking around, Levi was amazed, "There are so many people."
The second update today.
(End of this chapter)