24-team playoff concept
I put this together last night and based it off of the FCS model that uses 24 teams.
All conference champions get automatic bids, and just for filling purposes, I used the final CFP rankings.
This could work if the people in charge wanted it to. And you could still keep the bowl games, though they would be pretty much irrelevant and looked at as an NIT.
On December 13, one week after conference championships, the first round would begin. The winner of those first round games will advance and travel for a second round road game.
There will be 8 seeded teams who gets first round byes. Those seeds will host the second round games at their home stadiums. The second round games hosted by the seeded teams would be on December 20.
The top four seeds will be placed in the regional that is closest to them in the order of seeding.For example, the Orange, Peach, Fiesta and Cotton are the four quarterfinal bowls. Since Alabama is the 1 seed and the closest of those four to them is Atlanta, they'd go to the Peach. Pasadena is closest to the 2 Oregon, Miami to FSU and the 4 seed would be stuck with whatever is left which would be OSU to the Cotton Bowl.
After the quarterfinal bowls that will be played on December 27, the two semifinal bowls would be played on January 4th. The Rose and Sugar Bowl. After that, the national championship on Monday, January 12.
The first round games will be be hosted by the team with asterisk next to their name.
December 8th, 2014 at 2:59 PM ^
Way too many games.
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December 8th, 2014 at 6:05 PM ^
Don't know if it will happen but I know it shouldn't happen- these kids are unpaid and take way too many hits as it is for mega million dollar coaches. I don't want to detroy their bodies any further.
December 8th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^
I want to see eight teams, champions only, with all five major champions guaranteed a berth. I would throw the best indie into the pool of other conference champions.
I would love to see teams having to win their conference before thinking about being "national champions." It would make the regular season even more intense.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
I just don't see this happening. I think a 16 team playoff is as high as it gets.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:21 PM ^
wager it never gets higher than 8.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:29 PM ^
I would take that bet, since you said never. As long as there is college football, you can't win that bet.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
Yeah that's way too many. If you didn't have all this TCU/Baylor complaining, most people would be ok with four. I don't want to de-value the regular season. That's what makes college football so great.
December 8th, 2014 at 5:01 PM ^
I don't think the complaining ever ends about the first team left out. During March Madness, you have the bracketologists giving their last four in and first four out and the teams that get left out have a beef. Whether a team is at 5, 9, 17, 25, or 69 in the field, the first team out is going to complain.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
I think that's pretty neat!
December 8th, 2014 at 3:27 PM ^
Yeah about as much fun as watching some of the 1 vs. 16 seed games in teh NCAA BB tournament.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Terrible idea. Renders half the regular season, conference championship, and bowl games completely irrelevant. You know, the cornerstones of college football.
6 teams, #1 and #2 get BYEs. Anything more is involving teams that have no argument.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
so keen on the SEC being given a BYE in the first round every year?
Sure, let's let them rest up, heal up and have extra prep time every season. Fantastic idea.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
I agree that 6 is the right number, however the teams on the cusp will nearly always have a legitimate argument. Unfortunately, I think we'll see it bypass 6 teams and head straight for 8 teams. Regardless, I hope they institute home games for at least one round.
December 8th, 2014 at 4:22 PM ^
Eight would be OK . . . the P5 conference champs, 2 at large, and the highest rated non-P5 team. No more than this.
What makes college football so special is that every regular season game matters evry week. Any more than 8 dilutes that.
December 8th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
This would be best.
December 8th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
My ideal scenario is a 6-team playoff with byes for #1 and #2, #6 playing @ #3 and #5 playing @ #4. That's not because there are six stand-out teams this year (I've argued for this configuration for awhile), but because it makes it a lot better to be #1/#2 than #3/#4, a lot better to be #3/#4 than #5/#6, and a lot better to be #5/#6 than #7. In other words, every regular season game for top teams would matter... a lot... and the top teams would be rewarded.
Unfortunately, I think we'll always have a situation where the total number of teams is 2^x and x is a whole number. In other words, they wouldn't stop at 6 when they could easily go to 8 (and rake in those dollars), and they wouldn't stop at 12 when they could easily go to 16 (and rake in those dollars).
December 8th, 2014 at 3:13 PM ^
But I don't think advertisers and the others who run this poop we have now will ever allow us to dispense with the equivalent of 2003 Oklahoma or 2012 Alabama.
I wish they would either respect the conference championships or get rid of them.
NCAA is about money, and money is about meaningless football games involving teams that are household names. Feh.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
many games. OSU has played 13 to this point. Based on this if OSU (shudder) won it all, they'd play a total of 17 games if they won it all? Not happening.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:11 PM ^
even think they have enough quarterbacks to complete that many games.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^
Urban would just turn WR into a world beating qb.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
Good job making it, but not a fan. Your getting 3 and 4 lose teams into the playoff. The biggest I want to see is six.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
Nope, too many games. Keep it at 4.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:12 PM ^
You are always going to have the figure skating judges picking teams instead of having champs playing it out on the field.
Only people who like deciding things in the conference room rather than on the field like 4-team playoffs. Some computer polls have TCU #2 in the country right now. Where are they in the playoff?
December 8th, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^
. . . are always going to have the figure skating judges picking teams instead of having champs playing it out on the field.
Where is "East German Judge" when you need him?
December 8th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^
Only people who like deciding things in the conference room rather than on the field like 4-team playoffs
There are also those of us who want to keep the regular season as meaningful as possible.
I don't feel sympathy for Baylor or TCU. They each lost a game. Once you lose, it's no longer in your control. You haven't done everything possible at that point.
College football is one of the last remaining American sports where the national champion actually has to have been the best team all season long. The rest just reward a team that gets hot at the end of the season.
I can accept a four-team playoff because some years there's been a third team that got jobbed. But there's never been more than four teams with a legitimate claim at being #1. If any computer poll really claims that TCU is #2, I don't take that formula seriously.
December 8th, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^
You don't feel sympathy for Baylor or TCU because "they each lost a game". Yet so did Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State. So how the hell does your statement make any sense? Like I said, you are rooting for things to be decided in conference rooms rather than on the field.
An 8-team playoff doesn't do ANYTHING to "make the regular season less meaningless". 5-major conference champions + 3 at-large teams isn't going to somehow ruin the clusterfuck of stupidity that we are witnessing right now.
Right now the entire college football season is meaningless because of the bullshit way it ends.
December 8th, 2014 at 4:10 PM ^
You are basically begging every team to play the biggest pussy schedule they can possibly find. Because all you care about is making sure you don't lose.
Attitudes like this are how we got to everyone rusing to schedule SWNE Tuscaloosa State as their primary OOC opponent.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
You listed the Orange Bowl twice in your QF list.
Otherwise it's pretty close to what the FCS level does, as you said. I doubt this will come to fruition soon. They'll progressively add games I think, but it will take a long time, if ever, to reach 24.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
I don't think 24 would work. The FCS plays way less regular season games before their playoff. That could be 18 games. Imagine how many of our players would tear their ACLs in this format. Also, it's already difficult to get fans to travel to three neutral site games CCG, national semifinal, and national championship. With this you add yet another neutral site game.
December 8th, 2014 at 4:23 PM ^
in your hypothetical, our players would tear the same amount of ACL's because 12 games + 0 games = 12 games ;-)
December 8th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
I'm down with eight, but I think this is a hair much.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
Way too many games
December 8th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
I feel very strongly that the Miss St.-Wis/'Zona winner should be aired on ESPN, not the deuce.
Also, too many damn games (unless you take away a regular season game or two, which ain't happening).
December 8th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
Top out at 8. Prolly gonna end up with 6, top 2 byes.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
....thought and hard work you put into that, but we may see this playoff quickly jump to 8 teams and remain there for a very, very long time. It's just too many games and the President's hate seeing this sport cross two semesters as it is. Granted the money to be made is there.
From a die hard fan perspective under your scenario it would make it very difficult for me and I know many other fans to attend an extra 4-5 games. That's a lot of money to spend.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
cross two semesters? Hockey goes from early October to early April, half a calender year.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^
but for whatever reason this comes up every time college football talks playoffs or adding games. Hell, some of the olympic sports are non-stop training.
December 8th, 2014 at 5:13 PM ^
They hate it crossing semesters because a football game is hugely disruptive to a campus in a way that a basketball of a hockey game is not. Also, any plan that involves games during finals weeks (roughly the second two weeks of December) is a non starter.
December 8th, 2014 at 5:25 PM ^
You nailed a major point of contention (finals)! You also hit on another very good point about the number of people that attend football games compared to the other sports.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:07 PM ^
Also, way too many games. You know, because other people haven't said that enough yet.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Way too big. Being a borderline top 25 team should not give you the right to win a national championship.
I'm OK with the current setup. I could live with six or eight, but I don't want any more than that. Keep the regular season as meaningful as possible.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Besides that I think they may expand to 8 teams, but that would be it.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
As EVERY SINGLE PERSON has said previously "too many games."
December 8th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
I think this would be plausible if there wasn’t so much attention on D-1 Football. I think to some extent this works on the FCS level because there isn’t as much media attention and hoopla around it for the players and coaches. I can’t even imagine the drama and circus ESPN would have with 24 teams.
Also makes it difficult to repeat. You’d have to think those kids and staff would be drained from that long of playoff. I think 8 is as high as I’d want to see.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
Slice out the 16 teams in the first round. 8-team playoff with only the second round on sounds good.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:14 PM ^
ICE COLD, DR. PEPPER HERE!
December 8th, 2014 at 8:32 PM ^
when I realized I missed this topic the first time around.
The idea of WD as Larry Culpepper had me in stitches over here.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:12 PM ^
Its really not difficult.
Six teams. Five P5 champs + the next highest ranked team outside the P5 conference. Or create a sixth major conference and say bye, bye to the dregs of the FBS world.
If you win your conference, you get a shot at a national title. That way the conference schedule acts as its own playoff to whittle things down to one representative.
December 8th, 2014 at 3:15 PM ^
I'll reword it for you. Five Power 5 champions + Highest ranked Group of 5 champion (that's literally what they call it The Group of 5 lol)...
aka Boise St or BYU + 5 other teams every year probably...
Unless the B12 absorbs both of those schools...