bacon1431

July 11th, 2012 at 12:22 PM ^

I'm hoping college football becomes like European football in that it becomes a big deal to have the best record in the regular season. Maybe we get something like the President's Trophy in hockey - reward the team with the best record at the end of the regular season. Then have a playoff and it's treated like a domestic cup. I would like a bigger playoff than four teams, but I also want the sanctity of the regular season preserved so that every game still matters. Maybe we already have a similar system in that we have conference champions, which are still coveted but not as prestigious as the national championship (sort of like the FA Cup). Debatable. Oh well. Any way you cut it, someone will have something to complain about and it will probably be legitimate.

Joined: 07/26/2008

MGoPoints: 25285

LSAClassOf2000

July 11th, 2012 at 12:37 PM ^

"But on the other, there are expected to be no provisions guaranteeing a highly ranked champion from a non-traditional power conference will make a top-tier bowl."

This is probably what compelled Craig Thompson to broach the possibility of an eventual eight-team playoff, and it makes me think that there will likely be lingering mistrust when the selection scheme for whatever committee is set for the new system.

I don't know that they would rush to alter the format as quickly as Thompson thinks, of course - one big unknown from the television end is what the revenue from the single semifinal round will typically be (no one really knows yet), and I am sure they'll want data on this first before they make a decision on how worth their while the reopening of the debate on expansion would be.

One thing that might concern me is that a larger playoff would slightly devalue the regular season as well as increase the potential for the very controversies that they are supposedly trying to avoid in the new system.

In an odd way, for the MWC anyway, it is rather a shame that such a system has not existed to this point, for if everything else stayed the same, they would have been able to feature Boise State a few times in the last decade in an actual playoff format. It seems to me that Thompson is talking about getting his access simply by expanding the playoffs when, given how long it took to get this far, it might be far simpler for Colarado State to just step it up.

Joined: 01/07/2011

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BlueNation

July 11th, 2012 at 7:04 PM ^

But only because ANY playoff is better than NO playoff. However, I also said that I thought there should be AT LEAST an 8 team playoff. I'd rather see 16 teams, though. That way the "little guys" who always seem to complain, have the shot they want. The #1 and #2 teams in the country would be the #1 seeds for each side of the bracket and #3 and #4 would be the 2 seeds and so on and so forth...

Joined: 02/21/2012

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