What a true college football playoff would look like this year
December 18th, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
No, no, no, no, not another one.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
I really like this. It would force every top four team to beat a quality opponent to advance. That would go a long way to improving Clemson's SOS.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
Another festivus grievance... people talking about Clemson's SoS. They cannot help who their conference is or that they are that much better than the rest of the ACC.
Clemson played Charlotte, Texas A & M, and South Carolina OOC this year. 2 SEC teams, one of which who beat Georgia. Charlotte is in a bowl.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Dabo, is that you?
December 18th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
They also scheduled Wofford.
In their defense, A&M was ranked no. 12 when they played, but they knew that their SEC schedule was dog shit.
Yes, Clemson is a good team, but it is bad for football when the good teams avoid playing other good teams.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
I don't think that people are blaming Clemson for their SoS. They are simply pointing out that Clemson hasn't played anybody and therefore have a worse resume than LSU or OSU. It's really hard to argue against that.
Your contention that they played two SEC teams is like Western Michigan (the Fighting PJ Fleck's) claiming a CFP position back in 2016 when they were undefeated and had beaten two B1G teams (Northwestern and Illinois).
December 18th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
Yeah, I don't blame Clemson, but they still do deserve to be punished for their overall schedule. South Carolina and A&M is a very reasonable OOC schedule. It's the fact that their conference is so down.
December 18th, 2019 at 1:34 PM ^
Your contention that they played two SEC teams
You're just being silly right now.
Texas A&M and SC are legit OOC. Yes, SC had a down year but they beat UGA.
December 18th, 2019 at 2:03 PM ^
can't they schedule home and home with tougher teams, i.e. Michigan? I think so. Me thinks they limit tough competition till the playoffs.
December 18th, 2019 at 2:11 PM ^
Another festivus grievance...
You know what to do with that Festivus pole.
December 18th, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
Yeah... beat dumb asses who parrot groupthink over the fucking head with it.
December 18th, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
Ignore the facts. They get in the way of the narrative here on this blog.
Michigan football has the highest most difficult hurdles to get over year after year.
We play in the toughest conference. We play service academies in OOC games. All our opponents pay their players. All of our players are so busy studying they don't have time to practice football. And they keep changing the time of the game. And all the referees cheat against us.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
Would be pretty cool, but good luck convincing any team to play up to 4 more games a year.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:43 AM ^
5 more games.
Appalachian State and Boise State will end up playing 5 more games each under this format.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:51 AM ^
Yep, you're right. In this format Michigan would, too. Cool idea but just not seeing how it's feasible. You can't reduce the regular season by one for all teams as only the top teams would make it, so teams that made it to the finals could play up to 17 games.
December 18th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
Everyone from the NFL to high school do it but D1 football can’t. Something has to be done or the same teams will be in the CFP every year. Someone on this blog posted that OSU, Bama, Clemson, and Oklahoma have been in the CFP 70% of the time. Today’s recruiting is all the evidence you need that college football is going to a 4-6 team race.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I think this would be such a fun format for fans. Would the coaches and players like this? I can't say, but to think about all of these good match ups and the possibility of an upset is exciting.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:06 PM ^
It would be fun, but I think its unworkable... because of the VENUE... stadiums would get, what, a one week notice ? And look at OSU, they'd be playing a game at horseshoe during a time in December thats never been played there before, in snow.
It won't work unless there are fixed venues in warm weather locations, past the first week. So the above example, OSU gets a bye but would have to play at a fixed neutral warm weather site, or a regional dome like Ford Field.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:19 PM ^
Why? OSU earned the right to host a home game in this format. They should get to play their game at whatever toilet facility they prefer...
I'm not fan of these subjective formats, but I do hope we end up with some format that puts first round games at the campus. Even if that campus is in the world's largest truck stop, Ann Arbor, Madison, Happy Valley, Squaw Valley, or Boise, MT.
Bama doesn't want a playoff game in Boise? Then do better through the season to earn that home game yourself.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:28 PM ^
Pretty sure Boise is in Idaho
December 18th, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
He said Joe Montanya
December 18th, 2019 at 1:02 PM ^
You geography majors are such dorks. What you gonna say next? Ya' gonna tell Bluto the Germans didn't bomb Pearl Harbor?
(What a dumb mistake... :) )
December 18th, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
+1 to you for taking it in stride and not getting outwardly offended on a internet message board!
December 18th, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^
stadiums would get, what, a one week notice ? And look at OSU, they'd be playing a game at horseshoe during a time in December thats never been played there before, in snow
One week venue notice seems to work in the NFL for wild card week. And the NFL plays outside in some pretty cold/snowy places in Dec or Jan.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
If nothing else, that would be hella fun to watch
December 18th, 2019 at 11:45 AM ^
This is what a "true" college football playoff looks like:
16 teams.
All D1 has to do is go to 9 conference games and two OOC. An 11 game schedule with a bracket like the above is manageable.
Make lessor bowls the game sites to keep the NCAA money train rolling.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:46 AM ^
That is an absurd amount of games.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:49 AM ^
Sounds great until teams start sitting their players late in the regular season. You can only dilute the regular season so much.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:50 AM ^
This would be crack to a college football fan.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
MOAR of this please. K, thanks. Utah-USC rematch; historic Michigan-Boise tilt; Ohio-ND second round; Baylor and the Ducks. The third tier matchups here are thrilling.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
This is ridiculous. Teams could potentially play 18 games.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
thanks DUVAL...\...I like this visual... push it enough and circulate it and it will accelerate the idea into reality, because this hits home, and makes one associate with March Madness.
But...a few things.. for one, I don't know how the venues could possibly be planned in advance. When it comes to hoops, they know months ahead of time the venue, date and times... Instead, this model would give a weeks notice ? Won't work.
And I think there are too many teams.... there is a hazard here because a team could lose several games and take it easy and still get in.... I'd rather see 12 teams... the top 4 get a bye... or at most ten teams., because ten encompasses a decent amount without diluting and including pretenders.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
Some of this is pretty much the standard NCAA form. 20 to 30 percent of teams make the playoff, near 50-50 split between conference champions and at large teams.
However, the NCAA generally doesn't seed like that. Not top to bottom, at least--they tend to create "bands" and seed geographically. What I would actually expect is that they would seed 1 to 8, throw 9-16 into a single band and 17-24 into another band.
And also...what in the world is going on in the graphic underneath the bracket graphic? Is that a manhole cover??
December 18th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
No thanks. The best way to go is and always has been 8 teams.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Aw what the hell, why not go all the way and do the 64-team March Madness style bracket, complete with autobids for the low major (FCS) schools?
In fact, just out of boredom the other night I put together a mockup based on Sagarin's rankings. We wound up with Austin Peay in the first round, then the winner of Kansas St-Cal for a spot in the Sweet 16.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:08 PM ^
December 18th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
Ah, but for osu/lsu it does?
Well, they're already going to the CFP, so this doesn't help them at ALL!
December 18th, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
A playoff system that has Florida Atlantic in it is a joke. Stop at 8.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:13 PM ^
I think this is awesome. I also think no team would go for it. Way too many games.
way forward is the oft mentioned 8 teams, the five P5 champs, two at large, and the highest ranked non-P5 (as long as they are ranked in the top 20)
December 18th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
Sigh.
FAU and Miami (NTM) don't need to be playing for a National Championship, and neither do UM and ND.
4 is fine.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^
Sign me up. Make seasons 10 games with 2 OOC
December 18th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Just because we suck doesn’t mean we have to keep adjusting these bullshit playoff formats..... 4 teams is more than enough. 8 is too much but I’d be ok with it. This however is ridiculous. Would completely destroy the regular season the greatest regular season in all sports. So no thank you!
December 18th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
Just take the top 8 and I'd be good.
But I'll admit this does look fun.
December 18th, 2019 at 2:45 PM ^
Disagree that it looks "fun." To me it looks bad. Imagine a scenario where say the 16th seed wins it all, that wouldn't be fun, it would mean the regular season meant nothing and the best team in the country did not win the NC. Right now, every single year of the current format, there was zero debate whatsoever that the best team won the NC. That's awesome. Because we didn't let an undeserving team have a chance to knock off a superior team, We rewarded excellence, we didn't reward merely being good.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:53 PM ^
This is ridiculous.
An "undeserving team have a chance to knock off a superior team". To quote the great Ric Flair "to be the man, you've got to beat the man" and if a team in a playoff format loses to a lower seeded team they were just not superior.
Apologism for this current 4 team format is ridiculous. Nobody thought a six seed Fab Five Michigan that made a run to the final against Duke in the NCAA tournament was rewarded for "merely being good".
December 18th, 2019 at 12:53 PM ^
24 teams is simply too many. 8 teams is perfect... Power 5 champions and the next 3 highest ranked teams. It only adds 1 week to the current schedule, is at most 1 additional game for the teams involved, and honors the conference champions while giving non-Power 5 teams a shot.
December 18th, 2019 at 1:24 PM ^
But the power 5 conferences have conference championship games. These effectively become play-in games with the weird possible outcome (likely?) that a loser of a "play-in" game could still get into the playoffs. With this model it is theoretically possible to play the same team 3 times in a season. (for example, if OSU and Wisky advanced to the finals, they would have played in regular season, in the B1G championship game and for a third time in the NC game).
Go to 16. This can be done in the same number of weeks as the 8 team model you proposed if you utilize the conference championship game week. The 16 teams include the top 2 from each P5 + 6 others (can't be lower than 3rd in your conference and still make it). Set games using one of the following models.:
- Eliminate the conference championship games with straight up 1 v. 16, 2 v. 15....
- If you want to keep the conference championship games then the 6 other teams also play during conference championship week. With the 8 winners going on to a seeded bracket. (This has a weird possible outcome where the first round games could be far from traditional seeding. Ie could be 1 v 2 in the first round)
2019 Participants
Top 2 from each conference:
B1G - Ohio State & Wisconsin
SEC – LSU & Georgia
ACC – Clemson & UVA (not on your 8, lowest ranked team in at #23)
PAC 12 – Utah (not on your 8) & Oregon
Big 12 – Oklahoma & Baylor
At large (chosen by ranking from pool of highest ranked p5 conference team not in conference top 2 and teams not in a P5 conference):
Florida, Penn State, Notre Dame, Memphis, Boise State, Cincinnati
Ranked higher that UVA, but not included because ranked lower than 3rd place team in conference.
Auburn, Alabama, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Appalachian State, USC
December 18th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
This is a shitty idea
December 18th, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
I mean, expanding to 8 probably gets it done. 22 teams don't deserve a shot at the playoffs. 5 P5 conference winners, 1 G5 conference winner, and 2 at large. ND fired into the sun.