Or Bama vs Western Carolina. I understand playing cupcakes, I just don't think it should be allowed this late in the season. We've done it in the past too, so I'm not just criticizing the gumps, even though they probably do it more than anyone. Its seems like W. Carolina is the permanent game 11 opponent for them. That said, there's really no way to prevent it but it's kinda working against Bama this year. They probably wish they were playing a more competitive opponent since they don't really have any quality wins. Pure speculation on my part, but I would be willing to be (pun intended) that they win at a +/- 65% clip.
I really do think they should extend the season by a few weeks and allow for 3 byes for each team. I think that fix some of the cupcake issues, its essentially a pre-season game for your backups and a stat packer for your Heisman hopeful for the elite teams.
I’m genuinely asking here. What’s the difference if the cupcake is later in the season versus earlier?
None technically, but for a team with a loss on the outside looking in having a quality opponent over a cupcake late is more desirable in this situation. Usually in Bamas case this is just a glorified bye week, but now it hurts them.
I would say early it's treated like a preseason game in the pros, later it's treated like an extra bye week but the starters play into the 2nd quarter... Imo no reason to play rent a wins once you get into conference play but a lot of teams do...
Its also for the same reason a loss later in the year is worse than one earlier in the season. Scheduling a cupcake later in the year prevents that from happening.
This too, although it's beginning to be a detriment for some teams with the selection committee... If there are 2 teams battling for the last spot in the playoffs, team a beating the breaks off directional u gets less credit than team b beating a quality conference opponent...
