Expanded College Football Playoff coming | Syracusefan.com

Expanded College Football Playoff coming

orangepassion

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I hate byes. I'm a 2-4-8-16 guy. 8 teams with auto bids to the power conference champs and one to the the highest ranked Group of 5 teams would be good. But if you are going to have 10 conferences, why not 16 with auto bids to all the conferences? FCS has a 24 teams playoff, DII 28 teams and DIII 32 teams.
 
Hope not.

Teams ranked 5-8 won'thave a prayer vs 1-4. As is there are only 2-3 worthy teams every year and most years the extra 2 games are stupid with the BCS system being better.
 
dumb to increase the 4 team format...
You KNOW at the end of the conference playoffs who the top
teams are...and you get you're #1 from that group of top 4.
If a team can get into a playoff with 2 or 3 losses, what does the regular
season mean?
just more watered down excrement for sportsfans to consume.
 
Hope not.

Teams ranked 5-8 won'thave a prayer vs 1-4. As is there are only 2-3 worthy teams every year and most years the extra 2 games are stupid with the BCS system being better.

I think you're right for the first couple years, then recruiting will smooth it out. One of the issues with the current 4 setup is that the high end recruits are going to the 4-6 teams that make it consistently to the playoffs. Coaching and school has something to do with it, but getting the extra exposure and the being on the main stage each year is something 99% of other schools can't provide. Expanding the playoffs allows other schools to sell their ability to get to the playoffs.
 
Either 5 P5 conference winners and best G5 to make 6 or best G5 + 2 to make it 8.
 
IMO six teams is the best answer. The playoffs with only 4 has been relatively boring games. I can't imagine how bad the 7 seeds or higher would look. Most games would be slaughters.

Six allows access for all while keeping it exclusive. Why do we want more at large births? That is who is most likely to be chosen.

Also you would need to eliminate CCGs (which are now like an extra round of playoffs). Do we want to really take those away? If you keep them it will make them meaningless in an 8 team playoff.

Look at the past few years. Why would we want these teams in a playoff? Why are they deserving?

2020
7. Florida - they just lost to Bama in the SEC CG and had THREE losses. Do we really need 3 SEC teams?
8. Cincy - you can argue they deserve to make it.

2019
7. Baylor - another CCG loser
8. Wisconsin - another CCG loser and 3 loss team

2018
7. Michigan - they likely were worthy
8. UCF - they definitely belonged

2017
7. Auburn - CCG loser and 3 loss team
8. USC - they ended the year strong and likely were worthy

2016
7. Oklahoma - they likely were worthy
8. Wisconsin - CCG loser and 3 loss team

So 4 of 10 are three loss teams. Are people really wanting to see these teams? Five of ten are CCG losers. They had their shot already. Only 2 of 10 are G5 schools. So we are seeing 2nd tier P5 teams get those 7-8 seeds. What is the point, we know they aren't good enough already. If you go past 8 teams it gets even worse.
 
Let's look at last year:

AAC: Cincinnati 9-0 #8 (per the committee)
ACC Clemson 10-1 #2
B10 Ohio State 6-0 #3
B12 Oklahoma 8-2 #6
C-USA Alabama-Birmingham UR, (unranked) 6-3
MAC Ball State 6-1 UR (but #23 in the writer's and coaches polls)
MWC San Jose State 7-1 #24
PAC-12 Oregon 4-2 #25
SEC Alabama 11-0 #1
Sun Belt Coastal Carolina 11-0 #12, (CCG canceled so I went with the higher ranked team).

Highest ranked teams with didn't win a conference:
#4 Notre Dame 10-1
#5 Texas A&M 8-1
#7 Florida 8-3
#9 Georgia 7-2
#10 Iowa State 8-3
#11 Indiana 8-1

Eight team playoff with auto-bids to the Power 5 champions and the highest rated team from the Group of 5 plus the two highest ranked of the remaining teams:

Oregon at Alabama
Coastal Carolina at Clemson
Oklahoma at Ohio State
Texas A&M at Notre Dame

Sixteen team playoff with auto bids to all ten conference champions plus the six highest ranked teams that didn't win a conference title:

Alabama-Birmingham at Alabama
Ball State at Clemson
Oregon at Ohio State
San Jose State at Notre Dame
Coastal Carolina at Texas A&M
Indiana at Oklahoma
Iowa State at Cincinnati
Georgia at Florida

Comment: Yes, Alabama would win anyway. That could be a reason for not having a playoff at all. The 8 team format match-ups look more interesting than the 16 team format. Either looks more interesting than 90% of the bowl games, (and you could still keep the best bowls games if you did the preliminary rounds in December and had the championship game in a bowl. I don't see why you'd have to get rid of the conference championship games. They should all be done on Thanksgiving weekend. Also, I think everybody should have to win the same number of playoff games so I don't want byes.

The bottom line for me is that the whole reason for having divisions in sports is to give everyone a shot at a championship. that means that any team that keeps beating who is in front of them until there's no one left to play should be a champion. That means you have to have a way to open things up to the "Group of Five." if you can move them back to FCS, from which most of them came, fine, but that would be harder to do than to include them in the playoff. And if if you are going to have a conference in FBS, their champion should get to play foe the title, which would happen with the 16 team format.
 
To even out the sport and reduce the tiering that has made things boring as hell, they need to expand the playoffs. They also need to find a way to address talent dispersal. Maybe the transfer portal along with an extra year of eligibility that we stumbled on would help?
 
I think you're right for the first couple years, then recruiting will smooth it out. One of the issues with the current 4 setup is that the high end recruits are going to the 4-6 teams that make it consistently to the playoffs. Coaching and school has something to do with it, but getting the extra exposure and the being on the main stage each year is something 99% of other schools can't provide. Expanding the playoffs allows other schools to sell their ability to get to the playoffs.


Good take.

Its way too much football though and with a CCG will have NCAA teams playing more games than NFL teams.

If you do this you have to drop a game and go down to 11 IMO.
 
Having only four teams has been boring. Alabama, Clemson, Osu and 1 other media darling.
Any playoff with more than 8 teams is ridiculous for football. You can't play that many games in a season to accommodate a 12 to 13 regular game season, which all the not-haves (SU included) need.

The 5 conference champions + 3 others. If you win your conference you are guaranteed to be no lower than a 5 seed. So when 12-0 OSU loses to a 9-3 Minnesota team in their conference championship game, they pay the price for not winning in prime time.

The other three consist of the best G5 ( how to determine that is debatable), and 2 others ( again debatable and could include another G5 team).
 
IMO I rather see an expanded season than an expanded playoff. Wouldn't you rather see 14 SU games with a 4 team playoff vs 12 SU games and a 16 team playoff? If all the P5s are playing 10 conference games, 2 P5 OOC games, and 2 cupcake games that will give you a lot more football and a lot more interesting matchups. Instead of watching the 1-5 seeds beat up on the 12-16 seeds week 1 and then watching the 1 & 2 seeds beat up seeds 7 & 8 week 2. Remember an expanded playoff means home games in the early rounds. Those top seeds would win easily at home against the 5th best team let alone the 15th best team.
 
the Kaiser model has always been 6.

2 byes
3 v 6
4 v 5

that should cover all confs and a wild card.

if its 2 SEC, 2 Big10s, an ACC and a bevo...so be it.
 
Having only four teams has been boring.
While it's not necessarily the perfect format, I think the 4-team playoff has been an incredible improvement over everything that came before it. It results in exponentially more regular season games down the stretch having important value. Two playoff title games have been decided in the last couple seconds (Clemson vs Bama, and Bama vs. Georgia)

I think 8 is probably the sweet spot. I wouldn't go more than that. The college football regular season is the best thing in sports, in my opinion. Don't water it down like college basketballs.
 
the Kaiser model has always been 6.

2 byes
3 v 6
4 v 5

that should cover all confs and a wild card.

if its 2 SEC, 2 Big10s, an ACC and a bevo...so be it.

It's the next best step. If the 3 loses to the 6, they have lost all rights to bitch about not getting the bye.

It's not like they're the team that gets stuck playing a meaningless Sugar Bowl against Western Michigan.
 
The day this happens College Football's Regular season just becomes like every other sport and less relevant. Can't wait for the first time Michigan vs Ohio St or LSU-Alabama, or Auburn-Alabama has the teams or a team "resting multiple starters" as they don't want to risk them to injury as they get ready for the playoff.

Those regular-season games and the outcomes become less relevant.
 
The day this happens College Football's Regular season just becomes like every other sport and less relevant. Can't wait for the first time Michigan vs Ohio St or LSU-Alabama, or Auburn-Alabama has the teams or a team "resting multiple starters" as they don't want to risk them to injury as they get ready for the playoff.

Those regular-season games and the outcomes become less relevant.

Under the current system, if you aren't Alabama or Clemson, if you lose a game, the rest of your season become irrelevant, (to the national championship: you still have rivalries and you want your team to win every game). If we we tie it to winning your conference, then far more teams will remain relevant for a lot longer than they do now.

Here's the algebra:
The number of games with a direct bearing on who gets into a two game playoff is 'A'.
The number of games with a direct bearing on who gets into a four game playoff is 'B'.
The number of games with a direct bearing on who gets into an eight game playoff is 'C'.
The number of games with a direct bearing on who gets into a sixteen game playoff is 'D'.

I don't know what numbers A, B, C and D represent, (it will change from season to season). But I know that D > C > B > A

The pros have a problem with making their regular season irrelevant when half the league makes the playoffs. they've destroyed their pennant races. But in a 130 team division with 10 conferences, the tipping point is way above 2, 4, 8 or even 16. By giving auto-bids to conference champions, it gives the colleges the pennant races the pros have sacrificed.
 
While it's not necessarily the perfect format, I think the 4-team playoff has been an incredible improvement over everything that came before it. It results in exponentially more regular season games down the stretch having important value. Two playoff title games have been decided in the last couple seconds (Clemson vs Bama, and Bama vs. Georgia)

I think 8 is probably the sweet spot. I wouldn't go more than that. The college football regular season is the best thing in sports, in my opinion. Don't water it down like college basketballs.

i'm on the planet where there is zero playoff and it's delightfully unscientific, frantic, unfair and makes the regular season a car chase or there is a larger playoff where it's actually a playoff. Anything that is in between those goalposts (for me anyway) haven't worked.

I do miss two games going on New Years Day that have national championship implications. It was absurd in hindsight. Our nuanced free world can't handle this anymore because everything has to be a completion and everyone has to have certainty on result.
 
i'm on the planet where there is zero playoff and it's delightfully unscientific, frantic, unfair and makes the regular season a car chase or there is a larger playoff where it's actually a playoff. Anything that is in between those goalposts (for me anyway) haven't worked.

I do miss two games going on New Years Day that have national championship implications. It was absurd in hindsight. Our nuanced free world can't handle this anymore because everything has to be a completion and everyone has to have certainty on result.
We have two games back-to-back every year on or around New Years Day that have national championship implications... CFP semifinal games.
 
Under the current system, if you aren't Alabama or Clemson, if you lose a game, the rest of your season become irrelevant
Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Georgia, etc. have all made the playoff over the past few years with 1 regular-season loss.
 

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