CJHawkeyes
11-19-2008, 02:04 PM
I often see playoff opponents ask, "why should Team A have to beat Team B a second time in a playoff in order to win the national title?" For starters, this argument assigns greater meaning to each game than it actually has. Team A beating Team B during the regular season is about posting the best possible regular season in order to qualify for a hypothetical playoff and gain the best possible seed. It is not about Team A proving its superiority over Team B. In fact, it may be that Team A did not have to beat Team B the first time to make the playoffs and that is true no matter the size of the playoff. Case in point: 2008 LSU. The Tigers lost to Kentucky and Arkansas en route to winning the national title. They did not have to beat these teams the first time in order to win the national title and did not even face the possibility of playing these teams a second time to do so. Yet, if a playoff required LSU to beat Virginia Tech a second time, this is apparently unfair to LSU? Why? Why is it if a higher ranked team beats a lower ranked team, they shouldn't have to beat that team a second time, but if a higher ranked team loses to a lower ranked team, it is alright if they never beat that team?