What a 12 team playoff would have looked like this year
CBS sports projected the 12 team playoff scenario based upon what was last proposed:
- The top four conference champions would get byes, meaning even a team like this year's Georgia squad that finished 12-1 would not be eligible for a bye since it lost in the SEC Championship Game.
- Teams ranked 5-8 would host teams ranked 9-12 in on-campus games in the first round.
- Quarterfinals would be played at bowl sites.
- The bracket would not take regular-season rematches into account when the teams are ranked, and there would not be reseeding in the quarterfinal or semifinal round.
This would yield the following bracket:
Not great, bob. As stated in the article: "there's a bit of irony in the fact that there would be a greater gripe with this 12-team bracket than the four-team format currently in-place."
December 8th, 2021 at 8:29 PM ^
For the first time in my life, I think 4 is the right number.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:43 PM ^
I still want 8. 6 seems to be the most competitive amount of actual legit teams every year but then you get two teams with an unfair bye. 8 for me gets any team that realistically has any shot at advancing forward to play. With us and Ohio St in the same division, we aren’t gonna make the playoffs in a four team format that often. That’s not saying we won’t beat OSU going forward, that’s just saying even if it’s 50/50 yearly one is sitting at home. Four isn’t enough for me and 12 is too much, I like 8.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:21 PM ^
Yeah I agree. Do we really need Pitt Utah and Ole Miss in a playoff? Seems like 8 is just right for getting relevant P5 champs in plus some worth at large bids. Would've been something like
(1) Alabama vs (8) Oklahoma State
(2) Michigan vs (7) Notre Dame
(3) Cincinnati vs (6) Ohio State
(4) Baylor vs (5) Georgia
Only downside is OSU still gets in with 8 teams but that'll happen
December 9th, 2021 at 10:20 AM ^
Seems like 8 is just right for getting relevant P5 champs in plus some worth at large bids.
so…Utah destroys Oregon twice and are a P5 champion but, according to you, they are somehow not as “relevant” as Baylor or the two OSU’s. Even ND has won fuck all. Don’t understand your criteria my dude
December 9th, 2021 at 12:23 PM ^
I mean it was just a quick swipe at a top 8. I didn't hold a CFP committee meeting. Utah is #10 presently, but you could put them at 8 instead of Okie State if you want. Their loss to SDSU isn't terrific but I guess it's alright. ACC Champ Pitt also has a bad loss to Western
December 8th, 2021 at 8:44 PM ^
Yeah, 8 should be the max, and 4 is much better than 12. Teams ranked beyond 8 haven't earned the right to play for a national championship.
And I've griped about CBS's 12-team model before, but from a money-perspective, I don't get why seeded 5-8 are rewarded with a campus game, but not teams seeded 1-4.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:26 PM ^
This is basically what I said in the thread about this very issue two days ago. Anything over 8 is ridiculous. The rivalry games and the conference championship games are all part of the playoff system and mean something. 8 gives the P5 winners an auto bid and leaves the committee 3 at large bids for non-conference P5 teams or deserving G5 teams.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/12-team-cfp-bracket
December 8th, 2021 at 8:31 PM ^
This would be a really dumb way to do a playoff. Repeating a bunch of games between in-conference teams is bad.
A better approach:
- auto bid for 5 conference winners
- 1 to 3 more at large
- guarantee no rematches of conference teams until semi-final or something like that
December 8th, 2021 at 8:35 PM ^
8 in my opinion is the way to go. 5 conf winners get automatic bid with a caveat that they can’t have, say 3-4 losses. That way, say a big 12 team that stinks automatically gets in, but still can with an at-large
December 8th, 2021 at 9:31 PM ^
The republic survived a 9-7 NFL team making it to the Super Bowl, I think it can stand an underdog conference champion or two, especially if there were some form of seeding.
It would make the conference games and championships more meaningful.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:27 AM ^
Personally, any proposal to make college football more like the NFL is going to get loud boos and jeers from me. NFL fans, stick to your bland league and please don't mess with this sport.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:51 PM ^
Agreed. In a sport with minimal games total, and therefore minimal sample size, why would you set-up as many rematches as possible? The wiser tack is to diversify the competition.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:37 AM ^
Exactly. Rematches blur or negate the precious few data points we have to decide champions.
If we have to expand, top 8 conference champions (or top 8 teams, at most one per conference) would work. Sure, some crappy 8-4 teams will make it, but that gives more incentive to get a higher seed. And the one-per-conference limit puts the onus on conferences to serve as an extension of the playoff and structure their season appropriately. "You get at most *one* playoff participant. You have an entire season to decide. Figure it out."
The best domino effect is that conferences then adjust their sizes and membership accordingly, instead of overloading one division/conference with bluebloods.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:23 PM ^
I would say no rematches until the finals. Would eliminate more than two teams from a conference in most instances.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:09 AM ^
They should do 8. Five major conference champs. Highest rated Gang of 5 champ. 2 At-large (Notre Dame could qualify here). No conference allowed more than 2 teams.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:06 AM ^
SEC will fight this to the death because they don't want auto-bids. Auto-bids make it harder for them to gaming the system and argue that their third place team should be in over the Pac 12 champion.
December 9th, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
Let them. B1G, B12, PAC-12, ACC will all fight to death for automatic qualifiers. Screw SEC.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:34 PM ^
yikes... bring on Georgia instead!
December 8th, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^
OSU would still have to come to play that game in Ann Arbor again. I would love to see it.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:12 PM ^
No they wouldn't. As stated, "quarterfinals would be played at bowl sites." Only those first round games would be on campus.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:06 PM ^
There is no way they would do that in a 12 team playoff. You will not be traveling south potentially 3 times if there really was a 12 team playofff.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:36 PM ^
C'mon. With a little bit of common sense re-seeding, this bracket could be greatly improved:
OSU changed to the 6-seed.
Notre Dame changed to the 7-seed.
MSU changed to the 9-seed.
OK State changed to the 10-seed.
Problem solved.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
Instead, they set up 3 regular season rematches in the 2nd round. Lovely.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:40 PM ^
Exactly whoever made those is tone deaf. Who would do a rematch of a blowout (OSU-MSU) then a guaranteed rematch with UM? It makes no sense. Of course, as presented, it looks like crap. But that is NOT a realistic representation of how a 12 team playoff would look. They are deliberately trying to make a12 team playoff look bad.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:50 AM ^
It looks like they ordered it based on the latest proposal (top four conference champions get byes), plus the committee's rankings. In order to get attractive matchups (i.e. no rematches), they would need to finagle the rankings -- or at least bring in an explicit organizing principle beyond 'quality of team'
December 9th, 2021 at 10:07 AM ^
I think the committee would have slightly different rankings if it were a 12-team playoff. One of the primary reasons we aren’t #1 is to avoid a Bama-Uga rematch in the semis. Here, just flip M/Bama and you avoid a lot of the rematches early on.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
I fully disagree about there being more gripe in a 12-team bracket than a 4.
In a 4 team tourney, the 5th team usually has a pretty decent argument. We've been in that situation before.
In a 12-team tourney, how much can the 13th team really complain? Every team beyond the 4 proportionally decreases the amount of complaining they can do.
Look at the NCAA bball tournament. Yes, there is the occasional team out of the bubble that has a gripe- other than that, you rarely hear anything because so many teams get in. It would be the same type of change with football. The more teams you add, the less the complaints can/should/will be.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:51 PM ^
I don't think there are many cases where the 5th team has a right to complain or claim that they might be the best team in the country. Notre Dame? The one great team they played beat them in their own house. The only teams that arguably should be in this year are Alabama, Michigan, and Cincinnati. The rest either didn't win a conference or lost multiple games.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:59 PM ^
I'm speaking in the history of the playoff. There have been more plenty of situations where the 5th team had a beef.
The 13th team in a 12 teamer? Na. Those complaints are substantially weaker due to the larger pool of teams.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:55 AM ^
The first team out always has a beef that they should be ahead of the #4 team. But rarely if ever do they have a claim on being the *best* team, which is the whole point of the playoff.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:52 PM ^
That's funny you bring that up. Also from the article:
Of note, No. 13 BYU would be left out of this format despite beating Pac-12 champion Utah and having an overall better record than the Utes
You're probably right a high percentage of the time, but shit happens
December 8th, 2021 at 9:14 PM ^
The gripe isn't about what teams are included/left out. The gripe is with the bracket/matchups. In that proposed bracket, Michigan would have to face the winner of MSU/Ohio St. Rematches = terrible.
December 8th, 2021 at 10:28 PM ^
There's almost always a bubble gripe in CBB, I don't understand this point. The strange thing about the CFP so far is how few first round games have been competitive relatively speaking... honestly it's hard to argue we even need 4 more often than the need for #5 to be in the picture.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:40 PM ^
12 is too many IMO
December 8th, 2021 at 9:18 PM ^
I've never really understood this perspective. Why do people want to watch less college football games that the majority of the time would be between the power programs? I would watch every one of these games in a playoff if I could. If I had my way, P5 programs wouldn't be allowed to schedule cupcake FCS games during the season and instead a bunch of those would be replaced with games people actually want to watch in the form of an expanded playoff.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:41 PM ^
Didn’t MGoBlog post some years ago that a math professor somewhere had calculated that a 6 team playoff would be the optimal? The 5 conference champions and one at-large or something?
December 8th, 2021 at 8:45 PM ^
I might go for that. It would encourage schools to level out their conferences & divisions too, instead of overstocking the SEC West while Pitt waltzes into the playoff.
Also that model would keep out Georgia, which, good. Sorry Georgia, you lost your playoff game on Saturday, see ya
December 8th, 2021 at 8:41 PM ^
Thanks, I hate it
Enough with the rematches. Your team won a big game? "Lol just kidding play them again now in some faceless NFL dome, and this time it counts"
I'll say it again -- it's strange to hear people who claim to love college football -- and love it more than any other sport -- complain that it would be better if only it were more like every other sport.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:42 PM ^
I love college football.
It would be better with 6 or 8 teams.
The current system is WAY better than what it used to be. I think getting it to 6 or 8 would be perfect.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:47 PM ^
OK, but acknowledge that 6 or 8 probably would have taken a lot of the thrill & stakes out of the OSU game ("first game of a possible rematch...")
December 8th, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
In the short term, sure- it may have diminished the game.
Overall, not just for Michigan, but for every team in college football, the system would be better. At the end of the day, that's what I care about most.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:58 PM ^
I disagree, and for me it's not about Michigan. To take the other side, Michigan should not have been in the playoff in 2018 or 2016 (JT 'spot' aside). They had a chance to play in and lost. OSU had a chance this year and lost. These games are so thrilling because the stakes are so high and it's the one time they can meet -- these are de facto playoff games, not dress rehearsals.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:02 PM ^
You have to think beyond just Michigan.
There are teams that do everything in their power and are left out simply because of bias towards the power conferences.
I know Cincy got in this season- that was more of a product of not being a strong 4. If OK State won, I could have easily seen them boot Cincy out of the 4 spot. UCF ran their schedule a few years back and didn't sniff the playoff.
I want to see those teams. 6 or 8 teams would still put a strong emphasis on the regular season- the amount of watering down would be minimal at best.
December 9th, 2021 at 1:01 AM ^
I agree, I think undefeated Cincinnati should be in. But if Oklahoma State would have won, I would have booted out Georgia, not Cincinnati.
In fact, I'd boot out Georgia now in favor of a different conference champ.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:11 PM ^
How so? OSU doesn't make the tourney in most 8 team formats.
December 8th, 2021 at 8:46 PM ^
If Georgia and Alabama play for the national championship, I won't watch. Can say that for a fact. The SEC will be beside itself with joy, but viewership will be depressed.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:03 PM ^
Agree. I could go for a 6 or 8 team playoff if it limited it to conference champions. Put the onus on conferences to definitively select *one* champion/participant. If it's an 8 team playoff with 3 SEC teams, GTFO
December 8th, 2021 at 8:45 PM ^
The SEC wants 12 in there because they feel they will get 3-4 in there every year. It’s always about them!
December 8th, 2021 at 8:48 PM ^
I don’t like. I think the committee should move slow on expansion. A 6 team concept would be cool. Top 2 teams get a 1st round bye, 3/5 and 4/6 play first round followed by 1v(4/6) and 2v(3/5). It would be really cool to see all power 5 champs represented plus 1 at large (in a perfect world). There’s no perfect solution, but just cranking it up to 12 doesn’t seem fitting at this time (Michigan bias this year).
December 8th, 2021 at 8:50 PM ^
I prefer eight.
I am not a fan of a bye week in sport like football with so much attrition.