Give your idea(s) for a real CFP playoff.
I’ve got a couple to start.
Idea number 1. Each D1 conference champion goes plus 6 at large teams who will be the six highest ranked non conference champions in the AP poll. Regular season is cut to 9 games plus a conference title game.
Idea number 2. Have a computer rank the teams and take the top 16. Same 9 game season plus title game.
To sell this to the money grabbers at ESPN and elsewhere, you still have rinky dink bowls for those left out and the bigger bowls get the the semis and finals. All in all there will be 15 playoff games folded into the current bowl structure. How many bowls were sellouts last year? Not sure it would happen for a 1 vs 16 game but I bet attendance would go up.
Also, I would start the season early September and it ends 9 weeks later followed by conference title game. Playoff qualifiers then get a bye week and the playoffs start.
Next year would look like this:
Sep. 8 Opening games
Nov. 3 Last game
Nov. 10 Conf. Championship games
Nov. 17 Bye week
Nov. 24 Round 1
Dec. 1 Quarter Finals
Dec. 8 Semi-finals
Dec. 15 Bye week
Dec. 22 Championship Game!
The only way to make it a real playoff is to take the 5-P5 Conference Champions and 3 at large so 8 total. If a G5 Champion is ranked high enough it can be an at large. The committee should only be there for seeding and picking the at large teams. This should not be a subjective process. This committee was put together to protect the almighty dollar, TV ratings and Notre Dame. I don’t buy into this “resume” or “eye test” garbage. This works for every other division of college football and the National Felons League. In a perfect world you’d have conference champions from P5 and G5 but we know they’ll never do that. So what if you have a 2 or 3 loss conference champion make it, they won enough games to win their conference. This system now disregards the conference championships. Last year Penn St beats, Ohio St and wins the Big 10 yet Ohio St gets in and Penn St doesn’t? That’s a flawed system.
It will not be a legit championship until every conference is represented so for me it would have to be, the 10 champions and 6 additional at large.
The top seeds play at home for the first two rounds, then use the current bowls for the final four. Teams that are beaten in the playoff can receive invites to the lower tier bowl games. The rest of the bowls function as normal.
That’s the best you can hope for short term. 16 teams and all conferences represented would be the way to do it but it’s not going to happen. The system now is a joke.
The power brokers know what we want and you’re right that we won’t get it unless we fans hurt them in their pocket books. I wonder if anyone besides me is mad enough about it to just not watch the ‘playoffs’. I would record and watch later, maybe. But honestly, if my team isn’t involved, my interest goes way down.
My playoff scenario is based off bowl game agreements.
The Rose Bowl : Pac-12 Champion vs Big Ten Champion
The Sugar Bowl : Big 12 Champion vs SEC Champion
The Orange Bowl : ACC Champion vs AAC Champion
The Fiesta Bowl : Either MWC Champion vs at-large bid or at-large vs at-large.
The Cotton Bowl : Semi Finals location
The Peach Bowl : Semi Finals location
National Championship game : Cities place bids to host title game.
The four bowl games are played and based on the results of those games rankings are made to rank the teams 1-4. Also Notre Dame does not get special treatment in this scenario. They either join a conference or hope for the at large bid in the Fiesta Bowl.
10 Conference Champs are IN.
6 At Large…they should have to have played in their Championship Game. If you cannot win your division (regardless of strength) you are out.
Troy crushed LSU this year. And LSU is supposed to be better this year.
12 game regular season. Heck, the big conferences have long since figured out that academics and athletics are separate things. And only 16 teams go beyond 13 games.
While you are at it, create an NIT for Championship Game Losers not attending the NCAA CFP…8 to 16 teams.
Then either other playoffs (like CFI) or Bowl Games.
I say cut the FBS to 8 10 team conferences with no conference championship game. Get rid of all this mega conference on their own TV deal BS, everyone is on the same TV deal negotiated by the NCAA, I’m tired of TV money running the show, if you’re a big name team you make enough on licensing anyways. I would love for conferences to be more regional which would feed into rivalries. No need for the 49 extra teams, put them in a separate division, does anyone really watch the Sunbelt anyways? Each conference champion makes it into the 8 team playoff, simple as that, 4 games, 2 games, then the championship. You can keep 6 major bowls as the playoff and move the championship game around kinda like the super bowl. You could keep other bowls if you want but honestly most people don’t really care about the GoDaddy.com bowl and it’s gotten way out of control and over saturated so I’m kinda whatever on it.
Mike Leach had it right recently; take 16 teams (10 conference champs and 6 at large) and there you go. CFB would make a lot more money and each of the conferences would make a lot more money.
It really is odd that the P5 wants to keep it to 4 teams because there’s so much more money to be had for everyone with an expanded playoffs.
As will the G5 probably in 10 years. Only one direction this is heading. Either the G5 can be happy with scraps and no guaranteed shot at the playoffs, or there will be a break. Best case scenario is top 6 conference champs get an auto bid in an 8 team playoff. The American has to separate itself enough where they end up on the right side of a potential split of FBS. Of course we have no idea what conferences will even look like in 2023 yet so there may be 5 conference with 16 teams and we are in one of them, then I am sure we wont care about CUSA, Sun Belt, etc.
4 20 team conferences
each conference with 4 Pods (A-D) of 5 teams
every year Pod A plays everyone in Pod A and then one year everyone in Pod B, next year everyone in Pod C, and the next year everyone in Pod D
Each team can also schedule 3/4 OOC games
The winner of Pod A/B plays the winner of Pod C/D for conference championship (this is pretty much an 8 team playoff)
The conference champions all play each other in a 4 team playoff
The 40+ teams in FBS that don’t make the 80 team cut, move to FCS
Problem solved
Absolutely. And who approved this current system anyway? The schools? Coaches? Some cigar smoking fat men in a dimly lit room? I’ll go with that last one.