4 Team Playoff impact on future realignment

[SUinNYC]

I already posted on another thread that I don't see ND joining a conference unless they are locked out of a playoff somehow. (Which I don't think is likely to happen. If they got special treatment from the BCS, there's no reason to believe that they won't get it from this new system too.)

If powers that be decide on a conference champ only system (my preference), I think Clemson or FSU are much less likely to consider leaving the ACC for the SEC or BIG XII (I don't think this was ever happening anyway). The road to the Football Final Four is much easier in the ACC.

I think it will be interesting to see how the payouts work. Depending on how it they play out, it could either cause another round of moves or stabilize things for a long, long time. This is what I hope happens. Stability, followed by a playoff expansion to 8 teams. Don't forget that not that long ago, the BB tourney was only 32 teams. Now it's 68 and there's talk of expansion.

 

[WoadBlue]

I already posted on another thread that I don't see ND joining a conference unless they are locked out of a playoff somehow. (Which I don't think is likely to happen. If they got special treatment from the BCS, there's no reason to believe that they won't get it from this new system too.)

If powers that be decide on a conference champ only system (my preference), I think Clemson or FSU are much less likely to consider leaving the ACC for the SEC or BIG XII (I don't think this was ever happening anyway). The road to the Football Final Four is much easier in the ACC.

I think it will be interesting to see how the payouts work. Depending on how it they play out, it could either cause another round of moves or stabilize things for a long, long time. This is what I hope happens. Stability, followed by a playoff expansion to 8 teams. Don't forget that not that long ago, the BB tourney was only 32 teams. Now it's 68 and there's talk of expansion.

A 4 team playoff cannot last long. There are more teams each year that can make a case that they belonged among the Top 4 than can make a case they belonged Top 2. And in order to keep the SEC to 1 team out of 4, the Pac and Big Ten will demand that a 4 team playoff be Conference champs only. The SEC then will want an 8 team playoff so it can have 2, even 3, teams.

The harsh reality is playoffs kill bowls, eventually, but usually rather quickly. That is true of D3 and D2 and high schools. Before too long, there will be no more interest in running bowls save that they are part of the playoffs. No bowls outside playoffs will mean that there will be powerful sentiment to have 16 in the playoffs. That will take 4 weeks to complete.

 

[ImperialOrange]

How can there be a 4 team "champions only" playoff when there are currently 5 power conferences in play?

 

[TDTOrange]

How can there be a 4 team "champions only" playoff when there are currently 5 power conferences in play?

There's still going to be a ranking/selection of some sort. The question is, will teams need to be a conference champion to be eligible to be selected for the football final 4. It seems unlikely that this will come to pass where all 4 will need to be a conference champion, but these are details they're still working out.

One thing they've made clear is that there is no longer a designation between BCS and non-BCS conferences as they're eliminating auto-qualifiers altogether.