4 Team Playoff Officially Approved
In this format the #1 seed plays the #4, #2 plays #3, winners advance to championship game
EDIT: As stated in the article, the playoffs are not set to begin until 2014, so this season and next will still use the current BCS system.
I'm pissed that the deal is through 2025. Hope they are willing to break that so they can go to an 8 or 16 team playoff eventually.
16 teams seems like a logistical impossibility. Football isn't basketball. I was originally up for an 8 team playoff but have changed my mind. I like the idea of four teams so you don't have dilution of conference play and conference championship games might have some meaning. In basketball, the NCAA tourney, for me at least, has made the conference championships less important unless you need a win to get into the big dance.
Just my .02.
I hope it doesn't get anywhere near 16 teams. The thought of the 20th ranked team whining about how they can't play for a national championship annoys the hell out of me already.
The "N + 1" team or "N + 2" team will always bitch, but as we have seen in prior threads, four teams generally includes most teams in the NC conversation. I really don't care about teams from second level conferences. Run the B1G or SEC or Big 12 gauntlet and then get back about your 11-1 season.
Today's meeting had representatives from 11 conferences and ND. So who really thinks that a playoff format that qualifies 1/3 of that number is stable for more than a couple years? Another round of playoffs brings 4 more games - eventually the money wins out and the field expands to 8, especially given the 6 (?!) sites that will rotate as semifinal sites under this proposed system. Funny number, isn't that? It would exactly cover an 8 team playoff for quarter & semifinals.
Top two get byes.
we have to be fair. It needs to be 144 teams. We have to let in the top teams in D2 as well.
This way no one will bitch who got in and who was left out. The playoffs can start in September.
Works for me. I would prefer eight, but I could live with six.
To see the dilemma you have with only four, you have to look way, way back to . . . gee, you only have to look back to last year.
Alabama, LSU, OK ST would probably be consensus picks, but who is the 4th team? B1G Champion Wisconsin? Pac 12 Champion Oregon? #4 ranked Stanford? You are leaving out some teams with real merit. This is not just leaving out the "65th team" in the NCAA Basketball tournament.
Six or Eight ensures that all the major conference champions are typically represented, as well as a couple of at-larges with merit.
Oh well. Four it is for now. Better then Alabama-LSU.
"You don't have a dilution of conference play?" "Conference championship games might have some meaning?" When a bad joke like last season can happen with two teams, conference championship games already don't mean anything. Under the proposed "system," all they are is another chance for a team to lose and get passed over by a second-place team.
I would go to eight teams. I would also count conference championship weekend as the play-in round, and make a pool out of smaller conference champions, the highest-ranked indie, and possibly a team like Alabama last year, and make them play "play-in games" the same week as conference championships.
That would only take one week longer than the current system, and it would create a de facto sixteen-team playoff. Since the FCS had a twenty-team playoff last season, no argument about "logistics" or the "extra strain put on student-athletes" can be taken as remotely serious.
Football would have a true champion, and the NCAA would make even more money. Everybody would win here. Except, of course, the bowls, who are obviously still using their payola to pull a lot of strings behind the scenes.
To rebut, basically, every one of your points/complaints, spend some time this fall checking out the playoffs in each of the other divisions of college football.
The rational opposition to such a system comes from college presidents and faculty who fear a substantial disruption to their campuses in the period around finals. A 16 team playoff would almost mandate on-campus games in early to mid December, the moment in the fall semester that presidents and faculty believe should remain relatively free of distractions on their campuses. They are substantially opposed to the flood of media, television infrastructure, and fans that an on campus playoff at the D1 level would bring as disruptive to the central academic missions of the university.
At the lower levels, this is much less of a concern because the attention from media and fans is not even comparable. Those playoffs aren't substantially disruptive because far fewer people care.
But there may be something to be said for the argument that players at this level are faster/harder-hitting and that perhaps it's more physically difficult to get through a season if it's that long. Given what we're learning about the long-term consequences of this sport, I think we have to be cautious about how much we can ask players to play.
Dratted double post
goes to 16 under any curcumstances whatsoever. I'd be ok with 8, because it makes sense that you could have the 4 qualterfinals be the 4 Major Bowls, but that's it.
I think beyond 4 is pushing it. At the end of the day, we have to remember that these are student-athletes, who are not getting paid a dime for their services (I don't want to get into the whole "should athletes be getting paid?" argument, thats a whole other can of worms). Its hard enough to ask these kids to play and practice nearly every day for 12 games, as well as stay on top of all their classes. Add in a conference championship game, then at least 2 playoff games to get to a national title, and now these kids are playing a minimum of 15 games to get to a national championship.
I'm always a fan of more football, but at some point, the expense for the kids is just too high. Maybe the amount of games won't matter too much down in SEC country, where most of the schools don't give a shit about their academics anyway. But I think most players around the country would start voicing real concerns with playing an 8-16 team playoff.
More than Four could never work in College Football.
It would be like asking the FCS teams to settle their championship by having a playoff that includes 16+ teams. That would never work. Wait . . . what?
You do realize that DIII has an extensive playoff format and their players are also student athletes, but aren't even being compensated with a free education, right? They manage just fine.
I'm so sick of this argument. I used to sway back and forth: not anymore.
The "kids" get to become local celebrities. They get a free education, often at a place they never would have sniffed otherwise. They get free room and board and meal plans. So what if they aren't being paid in cash? They are being paid in opportunity. If they don't like it, then don't go to school. Or join the CFL. Or don't play football.
As others have already pointed out: FCS, D2 and D3 football players do the same shit for none of the same level of exposure, opportunities and gifts. Acting like D1 football players have it rough is PC sports nonsense.
I'm happy with four teams. Make the regular season mean something. Don't dilute it like basketball has done. Besides, it's not very practical to have an eight- or sixteen-team playoff. How many games can we realistically ask these guys to play? They've got a 12-game regular season, plus conference title games, plus the playoffs. You'd be asking college players to play basically an NFL schedule, without the benefit of practice squads and midyear free agent signings to shore up depth.
IMO, the absolute maximum number of games should be 14, with some byes thrown in. I don't want the playoffs to be a battle of attrition. Scrap the conference-title games (which are just a cheap money grab anyway) and keep the playoff at four teams.
You just beat me.
I hope that they allow other teams outside the SEC to participate. A guy can dream, right?
2025? What the hell.
Better than the BCS, but this still doesn't solve that much.
Don't worry, contracts these days don't mean much. That can and will be changed a few times before 2025.
Better than the BCS, but this still doesn't solve that much.What is it you want to be solved?
Welp, gonna jump on this thread I guess.
So they said that the 4 team is the best option and that 6 and 8 are too big. What is gonna be their explanation when they agree to a larger play-off for the next agreement?
I actually agree that 6 or 8 is too much, unless they got rid of conference championship games, but I don't like that as much.
As it stands, almost all teams with a shot at the national title will play 12 games, plus a conference championship game, a semi-final game and a final, making 15 games altogether. That's a lot of football (and travel) for students. Add in another week for them and they'd be playing near non-stop from the start of the season through January.
I like 4. If you're the 5th best team, you don't get a chance, sorry. We don't need college kids playing as many football games as the pros.
I get what you're saying, but now that the conferences are getting bigger, that wouldn't be that fair because the schedules are so different, and you could miss the other best team in your conference and still win. Plus, it's an extra game for every conference and it's fun.
If you got rid of conference title games (which would be 12 games or however many conference there are) just for an extra round of the playoffs, you'd take away a big game for a lot of schools just so the top schools could play an extra one.
If we could scrap the Big Ten CG, then we could go back to having a single division, with the OSU game being at the end of the season again (with the right to advance to the playoffs possibly at stake), with no possible rematch. I'd love that. I'd take that over the present setup in a heartbeat.
If other conferences have gotten too big, hey, that's their fault. If multiple teams share the conference title, good for them. I don't see that as a big problem.
that a team in contention will play three postseason games, I'd rather play a Big Ten team for the first round. Even if we're talking about replacing a very good team (say, number four Missouri) with a good team (number eleven Wisconsin), I'd rather keep things interesting within the conference, and play one of the other nine teams we've played forever, plus our shiny new additions.
Well, they SHOULD get rid of conference championship games...too often you have a undefeated Alabama playing a 3 loss S. Carolina team or something like that. That game is unecessary.
My dream would be to get rid of conference championship games. Mandate that no conference can be more than 10 teams, play all 9 teams in your conference (and 3 non-conference games). Have an 8-team playoff...I don't care if it's seeded by committee or BCS standings (but not conference winners). Keep the bowls.
This would mean the majority of college football would play 13 games. Some just 12...although, I'd give them the option to schedule a scrimmage with each other if they choose to do so. Rank the non-bowl teams and start at the top giving the top non-bowl teams first pick on whether or not they want to host a scrimmage.
You'd have 4 teams play 14 games and 2 teams play 15 games.
That's actually less than what happens now (and will be happening).
It just makes too much sense. I don't care if you have 12 conferences of 10...and CFB is oversaturated with teams as it is now (I'd prefer 6 to 8 conferences of 10 teams)...just use that format and call it a day.
Your plan makes sense, but it's a wholesale change, and requires far more regulation (telling conference how many teams they can have) than would be possible, especially with the history some conferences have. I'm thinking more of a feasible system based on what we already know won't change (or can reasonably predict won't change).
EDIT: Also, very rarely does an undefeated Alabama play a 3-loss South Carolina in champpionship games. LSU played 2-loss UGA this year, 1-loss Wisconsin played 2-loss MSU (1-loss in conference), and had USC not been on bowl ban, you would have had 2-loss Oregon (1-loss in conference) play 1-loss USC. That's all pretty typical, and they all have pretty big implications.
The primary function of conference championship games is to generate revenue, which is important for the schools given that bowls aren't as lucrative as they once were. But if the playoffs are as profitable as people suggest, that changes everything. Then, the conference-title money becomes less important and that game can be dropped.
Who should leave the SEC, Big Ten and Pac 12? More importantly, what are the presidents of Big Ten schools going to say when you say, "alright, we need to throw out two schools your school has been associated with for a century and have $500m in lost CIC money this fiscal year because of it"? I doubt you could convince MSC that Michigan would be better off without Northwestern and Purdue (or insert other non-elite football school here) in the Big Ten and the CIC.
only adds one more round. Everybody plays 12 games in the season, only 2 teams from each conference play in the championship game. Playoffs begin, 8 teams play in the first round. All of those 8 teams would have been in a bowl game any way, so at that point, there are no additional games added. From the 4 surviving winners, 2 will only play one more game, So in the end, 2 teams played 1 extra game and 2 teams played 2 extra games. I think all the players on those 4 teams would be more than happy to play those extra games for a shot at a National Championship.
I'm not talking about the teams who lose in the first round. But keep in mind that almost all of the 8 teams would be teams who played in a conference champ game (especially the ones who are likely to win). That means that before your 8 team tourney starts, most of the teams have played 13 games. The two teams that play in the final will have played 16 games. That's too many.
Saying the the players would be happy to play another game to win a title is irrelevent. They'd play 20 if if meant they got a title. It doesn't mean it's the best thing for them on a yearly basis.
dude highschool kids play 14-15 games to win it all...college kids can play 16
every other collegiate division.
Of course, it helps that at lower divisions, the games aren't as hard-hitting. There aren't too many future NFL guys in the D-II ranks. I'd imagine that FBS players generally suffer more serious injuries than FCS/D-II/D-III players, owing to the fact that they're going up against bigger, faster opponents, making those collisions more impactful.
If FBS college teams are going to play 16 games to win it all, the postseason could be a battle of attrition - only without the benefit of practice squads to shore up depth, à la the NFL.
But high school kids never have to travel across country and shack up in hotel rooms for half of those games. They ride in a bus across town, maybe across the state, and are home that night. And not only is high school a lot less depanding academically than college, high school football is a lot less demanding than college football. All that is involved is far form equal.
The problem isn't the individual game, it's everything that's involved in it.
Maybe in MI but not in FL. Two out of state games.
http://www.bradenton.com/2012/03/02/3912734/coach-joe-kinnan-announced-thursday.html
Laste year only one out of state...
"Scheduling FCA and Skyline means Manatee won’t get a rematch with New Jersey power Don Bosco Prep, which beat the Hurricanes last fall in Bradenton en route being named the nation’s prep football champion by MaxPreps and USA Today."
Here's an idea, why not get rid of non conference games altogether, and have everyone play an 8 game conference schedule, after which the top 16 teams play in a playoff, and the rest are free to schedule games against the remaining teams. This way you can keep it at the same number of games.
I really like Brian's system, but I'll take it.
Starting the 2014 season... as in we still have 2 more years of the BCS? I thought it would only be one. Unless they mean the 2013-14 season, 2014 being when the playoffs would be held... someone care to clarify?
According to wiki they've already scheduled the BCS games for January 2014 which would lead me to believe we're talking about the 2015 games. They really shouldn't call it just "2014" - football is a split year sport since we've got games going 10 days in January.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series
It's really not that confusing. I've never seen a football season written as "2011-2012" and I've never been confused. And for most teams, it's not a split year sport, just the teams who make it to a January bowl game, which is a small percentage of the teams.