The 12 team playoff - How it might have looked this season - thoughts and conversation.

Waters down championship games and The Game.  We were hobbling to the finish line at the end.

A longer season is going to mean more injuries. The buffoonery with the selection committee, where they dropped FSU after winning because of injuries they already had when they had been ranked 4, is going to have to get fixed.

I really don't think the committee should be ranking anyone based on their opinions of what might happen in the future. "Existing body of work by the team this season" is the only rational metric.

The expanded playoff really ought to kill the conference championship games, but schools are too addicted to the revenue to ever do it.

Conference Championship Games will really, now, often become a meaningless game. I know every now and then an Iowa-type could play themselves into the playoff with a win over a Michigan/OSU. But that notion most likely goes away as conference divisions are likely to get more balanced.

I wish the CGs were done away with  with the inclusion of 8 more teams to the playoff.

Still dumb that the quarters are at bowl sites. Shouldnt be asking fans to travel to three different major games in consecutive weeks.

Games should be homesites through and including the semis and then the title game should always be at the Rose Bowl. But then some bowl execs wouldnt make money so we cant have that

Given the recent OSU transfers and retention, I have a hard time seeing them get through the season and then this gauntlet with solid game plans and execution week in and week out. This new playoff format is going to require scheming up great game plans in a week's notice and also really good in game coaching/adjustments to win the playoffs week in and week out. it will be difficult for anyone, I just wonder if all the money they are spending is really going to pay off. Next year's post season will be fascinating.

Generally glad it's a 12 team playoff.  So tired of hearing about teams that think they should've been in it, or teams like Auburn or UCF (lol) that go undefeated and think they should have been in it.  

Also, appreciate the work you put into the post but for me personally, just don't care.  We won. Everyone else can suck it and OSU can spend 5B dollars hiring the best mercenaries money can buy.  It may or may not pay off and I hope it doesn't.

PSU, Oregon, Mississippi, and Missouri, each with 2 conference losses, had no right to a playoff opportunity. 
 

Just imagine if Penn State would’ve somehow won the whole thing.  Would anyone really think the new playoff format had produced a deserving champion?

I think FSU would have been the 3-seed if there was a 12 team playoff, they were only 5th so the committee could include the SEC champion 

For one I am thrilled that Michigan was able to win a title before expanding to the 12 team format.  Granted, Michigan was simply the best team this year and they proved it but adding 1-2 extra rounds of playoffs lessens the chances that the best team ultimately wins.

I worry about the expanded playoff as it is definitely more of a money grab than anything else. I know we have NIL set up but we don't have a solid system to compensate the players and we have a money grab before us that means more wear and tear on the players. The longer season is going to mean that teams will have to go easier on players during the season (like Michigan did for much of this season) or that guys will be more prone to injuries later in the season and might be missing due to injury (e.g. Jordan Travis). 

We as Michigan fans root for the program, but also we root for Zak Zinter, Blake Corum, guys who give it their all but have missed chances to show out in the playoffs due to injury (Blake was lucky to be able to come back and show out). These programs stand on the backs of these guys, we need a better system for them.

Who's to say that we don't see another FSU situation play out. A team with plenty of stars but injuries to some key players might see some opt outs if they're playing a healthy, strong opponent. Why should those guys risk injury in a game they're likely to use? Just because it's the playoff? I think we're going to see the product dilute a bit. I am not saying that I'm complaining about more college football. I think it'll be exciting to watch. I just don't know if it will be all we want it to be.

I'm looking forward to the new playoff because I feel like in my lifetime we have finished #5-12 reasonably often but other than 1997 and the last 3 years finishing in the top 4 has not happened at all.

I'm glad the playoff didn't happen that way this year. While I obviously think we're the best team in the country, we don't win 100% of games against any playoff team. Even if we beat team X 99% of the time, there's still that every 100 games. Georgia was down this year so we should beat them, but it sure as hell isn't a 100% chance and as things stand, there's a 100% chance we're 2023 National Champions :)

I'm a natural pessimist, but I feel like 12 teams is going to be much less satisfying than any other era. The regular season is almost meaningless as long as you don't play a schedule that will saddle you with more than two losses, which is the norm for every college powerhouse anyway. Instead, it feels like we're giving more mulligans to super teams stacked with talent. I expect we're going to a see lot more 2 loss Alabama and Georgia champions than we will see undefeated or one loss Michigans and Oregons. Continued realignment will force change quickly anyway

Rematches are boring.

Still would have won.

I’m excited for the expansion and happy as hell Michigan got one before things get even harder. In my opinion the most annoying thing about college football has always been the talk of “UGa would have beat M this year!” Expansion provides opportunity and I hope it quiets that talk down once people realize that there are realistically 6-10 teams that could win these top games. Alabama almost did and could have beat us, Ohio state could have beat us, , hell Penn state had a chance. They didnt, but on an alternate weekend they could have. How often does the overall 1 seed win the entire dance in March madness? This should help spread the parody to 10 teams instead of 4.

They have to kill the conference championship games but they won’t of course because of money.