CFP is Boring

Submitted by Catchafire on December 3rd, 2018 at 4:46 PM

I apologize for the added threads on this topic, but anyone else just bored of the CFP format?  The redundancy of teams selected and the limitation of teams selected has clipped any interest I have in it.  Do people seriously care to see another Bama/Clemson championship or any championship involving Bama???

The last 10 years of college football has been dry. 

Gulogulo37

December 4th, 2018 at 1:59 AM ^

A few in the media like Feldman and Hinton keep talking about expanding to 8 but don't mention logistics. They'd have to play home games. Think of how unfair it'd be having Big Ten teams traveling to literally the opposite sides of the country (LA, New Orleans, Miami) for up to 3 games.

In regards to the OP, I'm tired of the matchups too, but I don't think it's the playoffs fault. It's because Clemson (helped by a weak ACC) and Alabama have been so dominant. Texas is down, USC is down, Michigan is still climbing its way back. Having said that, the playoffs do make it nearly impossible for a program as good as Alabama NOT to get in. Alabama would not have been in a BCS-style championship game last year. It'll be a lot more fun when Michigan crashes the party.

MonkeyMan

December 3rd, 2018 at 7:21 PM ^

I would propose, as an alternative, a truly exciting concept that I got from watching the "Masked Singer". You have a teams selected by the coaches or AP poll- then add a "mystery team" whose identity cannot be revealed until after the game is played. They are given strange uniforms and wear tinted glass on their helmets so you can't see who the players are.

A team of coaches then must decide who is the "mystery team"

 

 

Dunno about how good it will be, but it sure beats the shit we have in front of us now

bluepalooza

December 3rd, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^

Bring on 12 team playoff.  Top four get a bye. Reduce regular season by 1 game.  Eliminate Divisions in P5's and increase cross over games.  Can you imagine if NW would have beat OSU or Pitt beat Clemson?  Sorry, a 8-4 team in a weak division should not be conferance champ if they happen to catch a much better team at the right time.  Don't get me wrong, I like Northwestern and I think Pat Fitzgerald is a good coach.  I just think a team that loses all three non-conference games (Akron, Duke, ND) can play for a championship.

UNCWolverine

December 3rd, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^

nope, byes are aburd. How much more does Oklahoma deserve the 4 over OSU? Very marginally close right? The selections are also mostly arbitrary and subjective. So to allow the #4 a bye while making #5 play an extra game is a terrible idea. 

8 team playoff, higher ranked team gets one quarterfinal home game. That's the correct solution.

Longballs Dong…

December 3rd, 2018 at 5:39 PM ^

Why?  Do you really think Alabama and Clemson won't win those too?  This argument isn't that we need more teams, it's that Alabama and Clemson are too dominant right now.  You pretty much have your 8+ team playoff if you count the conf championships.  If you go to 8+ teams, I suspect the desire to play conf championships is removed so now you have Alabama and Georgia playing in the playoff instead of the SEC championship.  Is that really any more interesting?  Or if you think there will still be conf championships, is it really interesting to watch UGA and Alabama play in the conf championship and then again in the playoff?  That would just add one pointless game and make the 2nd game important.  Everyone is just numb since OSU beat us again.      

mp2

December 3rd, 2018 at 9:16 PM ^

I have this feeling too. It seems too easy to hoard talent at a few schools. At this point it's almost like the chicken and the egg. Did the team get good and all the five stars go there or did all the five star kids go there and make the team good? Either way it's tough to get into that group of hoarders. Clemson, Alabama, OSU, and probably Georgia too.

Michrider41

December 3rd, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^

Ole Miss got rejected from the hoarders.  They paid big cash for Treadwell, the bong lineman and a certain 5 star QB.  Bama shut them down.  Frieze didn’t have any leverage on Saban.  Smart does, he knows everything that went on at Bama so they can’t go after him.  Good move by Georgia bringing him on.  FSU, Florida and Miami need to get back in the game to dilute the talent pool. 

JHumich

December 4th, 2018 at 5:59 AM ^

1. There are a dozen teams that could have beaten Saturday's Alabama

2. More football

3. Great players that catch fire

4. Cinderella runs

5. Multi-game weekends at one venue

6. More conference champs = continue to punish Notre Dame

7. Less stars whose last college game "doesn't count"

8. More teams with more practice so player development advantage doesn't exacerbate gap at the top

9. Rematches of The Game in the same season. Possibly twice (!!) if B1G goes to "best two" divisionless format

Detroit Dan

December 3rd, 2018 at 6:14 PM ^

I agree that the playoff should have 8 teams.  That would presumably have put Michigan in this year, so it would more interesting for us (as opposed to playing low ranked Florida).  Also, Ohio State and Oklahoma both deserve bids, as does Washington.  UCF would also gets its chance, along with Georgia so we could see how good the SEC really is.

Alabama v UCF

Clemson v Michigan

ND v Ohio State

Oklahoma v Georgia

Seems much more interesting than what we actually have.

Dizzy

December 3rd, 2018 at 8:11 PM ^

That would be an awesome line up of games. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't happened yet. There's a ton of money incentive for all parties involved.

As a fan, it would also make the season more exciting for most teams. No more "the season's over" feelings after a loss. Plus, teams could have something to celebrate even if they don't win a championship that year, similar to raising a final 4 banner.

I'll bet it would help even up the recruiting playing field, too, because more schools can sell recruits on making playoff runs. This, plus legally paying players, would hopefully limit the absurd advantage schools like Alabama and Ohio State have in recruiting, generally making college football more competitive both within and across conferences.

Durham Blue

December 3rd, 2018 at 5:38 PM ^

Not sure if this is coincidence and/or just my opinion, man, but Michigan's BCS era matchups seemed to be more intriguing than the shit we've gotten over the past 5 years.  Florida twice, South Carolina, Kansas State and FSU.  FSU was by far the most intriguing matchup.

Chitown Kev

December 3rd, 2018 at 6:28 PM ^

OK...

actually, Oklahoma would be in the Fiesta or...if you really want to go old, old skool, Orange Bowl and they would probably be matched up against the best team in Florida...so..

Orange Bowl- Oklahoma v. UCF...

Since the SWC no longer exists, let's say you go with the two runners up from the Big 12 and the SEC so...Texas v. Georgia in the Cotton...or if you want to go with a Big 12 runner up v. an at-large...Texas v. Michigan or Georgia 

Fiesta only became a B12 bowl in the BCS era

DMill2782

December 3rd, 2018 at 4:52 PM ^

D-1 college football has the worst postseason in sports. Every other version of football on Earth has a real playoff. Just because you're doing something different, doesn't mean you're doing it right. Typically, it's a sign that you are stupid and can't figure out the proper way to do it. 

TrueBlue2003

December 3rd, 2018 at 5:17 PM ^

While it's true that the postseason is bad, it directly creates the best regular season in American sports.  By far.  And that's the idea.  There would be a tradeoff if the playoff were expanded. 

Might not be totally ruined by an 8-team playoff, but 16 teams?  The Game would mean basically nothing, frequently.

DTOW

December 3rd, 2018 at 5:30 PM ^

Biggest myth in sports. Expanding the CFP to 8 teams would not dilute the regular season in anyway, especially if you have autobids associated with the P5. 

1. Conference Championships become significantly more meaningful than they are now. 

2. it would finally allow the Committee to hold conferences accountable for crappy OOC scheduling. 

3. There is no delution of the regular season because you’re not talking about letting 3 loss teams into the playoff even at 8 teams. For instance, this year you’d be adding in an undefeated team, a 1 loss team, and 2 two loss teams. 

4. You’d be able to have the first round matchups played at the higher seeds home field which puts additional emphasis on the regular season. 

5. You’d finally get matchups of teams that you typically don’t see and force teams to play out of their comfort zone. Who wouldn’t love to see an SEC team finally have to come north of the Mason-Dixon Line and play a meaningful cold weather game? Wouldn’t you love Michigan to perform and get a chance to play a team like Georgia in Ann Arbor and see how they react to December weather?

TrueBlue2003

December 3rd, 2018 at 7:14 PM ^

For the record, I said going to 8 probably wouldn't kill the regular season...much.  Your assertions are incorrect though.

1. Depends which conference title game.  The SEC game this year would have been rendered a lot less meaningful because both teams would have already been in. Stakes would be identical in the Big12, B1G ten and ACC games. Sure, the PAC12 game would have mattered but does anyone really care about which PAC12 team is going to get destroyed by Bama?  Not really. Certainly not worth the tradeoff of diminishing the SEC title game which was a quarterfinal under the current system but would have become essentially an exhibition game with a field of 8.

2. No. No. No.  Absolutely not, dude!  If you get an auto-bid for winning your conference, it makes your OOC schedule much less meaningful.  The committee literally can't hold conference champs accountable for non-conference scheduling.  It's possible that because teams can still get in with a conference title, some would schedule more appealing opponents but 1) those games would only be scheduled because they would have become meaningless which is exactly the kind of dilution I'm talking about.  An opening weekend game against ND wouldn't matter at all, whereas this year, it did matter a lot. It was a virtual CFP elimination game. Big stakes.

3. You're absolutely are letting 3-loss (and 4-loss and maybe even 5-loss teams in) if you give auto-bids. Auto-bids have a major affect on the regular season. Any team clinching a division title before their last game would be playing meaningless games until their conference title game.  Rest guys up, keep them healthy for the game that gets you in.  Again, imagine if OSU had lost to Maryland this year (inches away from happening).  The stakes on The Game would have been absolutely nothing.  OSU couldn't have kept M out of the playoff by knocking them out of at-large position, and M would still be in the title game with only the need to beat Northwestern to ensure they'd go. 

Why wouldn't they rest guys against OSU in prep for the title game? If "tradition" is your answer, it's a bad one.  Because after one QB gets hurt in a meaningless game and kills a teams chance of winning the playoff, you won't see "pride" being the reason coaches play their best players in meaningless games.

4. Yes, this is something that would be really fun and does make the 8-team scenario fine in my book (but again, 16 would be a disaster to the regular season).

5. This isn't really a new point, it's the same as #4. I think rewarding the top four partially mitigates the effect of allowing four more teams in, but to your comment about it being fun to to see a warm weather team play in December:  Well, M would have to finish in the top 4 to host a game in an 8-team playoff.  And at that point, no, I think I'd rather they already be in the semi like they currently would be. Let that 5-8 ranked SEC team stay home and put M through to the semis to reward them for the stellar regular season.

BlueWolverine02

December 3rd, 2018 at 11:31 PM ^

Disagree with your first point.  No guarantee a loser UGA would have gotten a wild card spot.  While I do think it is likely, we would have had an argument why we should get in over them.

OSU won the conference and still didn't get in.  I think it's fair to say that the stakes would have been higher if they were playing for a playoff spot.

I also think you are overstating the chances of a team resting their players.  Playoffs don't happen right away, plenty of time to rest them.  Now keeping guys healthy is another matter. 

TrueBlue2003

December 3rd, 2018 at 6:30 PM ^

That's what they said about the Rose Bowl, and lo...

Imagine the 2016 game (or the 2006 game as well) with both teams having already clinched a spot in the playoff.

Why wouldn't it become like the NFL where you're resting your best guys/partially injured players? Is there any chance Wilton Speight gives it a go in 2016 when there's a certain playoff game M would be in the following week?

bacon1431

December 3rd, 2018 at 6:19 PM ^

Don't think that's even close to being true. Is Duke-UNC a diluted rivalry because there's a regular season title and a conference title and 68 teams get in the tournament? Nope. 

My ideal is a 16 or 24 team playoff. Shrink conferences back to 10-11 teams, no conference title games, round robin conference schedule, auto bids for power conference champs, top 3-4 Group of 5 (or whatever equivalent after conferences are shrunk) get auto bids as well, the rest at large selections. Still whining about who gets in and gets left out but if you don't win your conference, you can't complain. 

Won't happen, but I think that'd be the most entertaining. 

FauxMo

December 3rd, 2018 at 4:55 PM ^

CFP Rules:

Top 4 teams get in.

Unless they lose three games, Clemson and Bama are top 4 teams. 

UCF can win 100 straight games but is not a top ten team. 

2-loss SEC teams are not automatically eliminated.

2-loss teams from any other conference are automatically eliminated.