The problem from my view is the drop off in caliber of teams this year. Taking the 24 team bracket, there are about 18 teams that can play each other, have a good game and everyone is happy, when those teams run into #'s 3-6...it is not pretty. If they run into 1 or 2, it looks like an Alabama non-conference game. Not sure who the #2 is, but there are a few teams for that bill...I think it is a debate between the bunnies and JMU. Kennesaw is going to be there if they can keep their program pushing on. I think discounting JMU is a huge mistake, I don't want them in the Bison half of the bracket, home game or not...
I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant - B.Aud
We all live in stories... It seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories... The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. Through that argument you change your mind sometimes... That's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison... Somebody else controls the story. - S. Rushdie
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant - B.Aud
We all live in stories... It seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories... The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. Through that argument you change your mind sometimes... That's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison... Somebody else controls the story. - S. Rushdie
I have the honor to be Your Obedient Servant - B.Aud
We all live in stories... It seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories... The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. Through that argument you change your mind sometimes... That's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison... Somebody else controls the story. - S. Rushdie
Not to say the committee can't do a better job, but this is objectively pretty difficult, because by whatever metric you use, there are going to be teams that have amazing metrics, but can't actually back that up on the field against stiff competition.
Is it wins? Well, winning in the Southland is a lot different then winning in the MVFC or the CAA.
Strength of Schedule? There are probably 100+ FBS teams that would lose on any given Saturday to NDSU. But maybe only 50-75 that would be truely threatened by the rest of the top ten in FCS.
Defensive, or Offensive stats?
A computerized system similar to Sagarin? Though those also have their issues.
It sure as hell ain't easy. And, throw in the fact that any given Saturday a team that *should* be in the NC can have a bad day, lose a few key players to injury or simply run into a scheme that they can't overcome within the time alotted to the game. The Committee could get it perfect... and at some point you'd still have a blow out 'uninteresting' game because a team that shouldn't have gotten to say, the field of sixteen or the field of 8 does.
But that's tournaments.
I don't think the expanded field leads to a more lopsided bracket. If anything it has led to a less lopsided bracket. With a 16 team field they only seeded the top 4 so all you were guaranteed to get was the #1 and #4 on the top side of the bracket and the #2 and #3 on the bottom side. You could have the 4 best unseeded teams in that format all on one side or the other.
I've never understood the disdain for the 24 team field over say a 16 team field. Since they've gone to the 20 team field in 2010 (when 5 teams were seeded) the lowest seed to win the tournament was EWU in 2010 as the #5. Only 2 of the 16 teams who've played in the championship game since then, SHSU in 2012 (which was a 20 team/5 seed field - they would've likely been seeded if they went to 8 seeds) and YSU in 2016, have been unseeded. The top 8 are where the title contenders are at and a 24 team field is actually better for those teams in that they know, amongst those 8, they will be balanced with 4 on each half of the bracket and they all get byes so they can avoid the punchless crowds of Thanksgiving weekend.
Is it really that big of a deal to let a few extra mediocre teams into the field to play on Thanksgiving weekend? At least it filters out some of the chaff before you get into the matchups with the seeded teams and for some teams, as crazy as it may sound to us, just making the playoffs is a big deal so why not throw them a participation ribbon when they have a good season by their standards.
In a perfect world we would get the entire field seeded but I like the 24 team/8 seed field over the 16 team/4 seed field. I also greatly prefer the break between the semis and the title game whereas with the 16 team format when everything was done before Christmas one of the teams playing in the title game would only have 6 days between their semi and the championship. Can you imagine the ticket/travel disaster for us NDSU fans if that was the case now?