New CFB Playoff Proposal

[FQDawg]

This is making the rounds on Twitter:

[TWEET]1403040615823286278[/TWEET]

If the tweet doesn't post, it basically said the new proposal is a 12-team playoff with the six highest-rated conference champions and six at-large bids. Four highest-ranked champs get a bye and at least first round games at on campus stadiums.

 

[FQDawg]

To me, at least at first glance, it seems like a good proposal. You get some benefit from winning your conference while this system seems to also hedge against a situation where a 7-5 team upsets a 11-1 or 10-2 team in a conference championship game.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

I don’t mind having 6 conference champs assured of a bid, but I don’t like them automatically having the 4 byes. 4 byes should be the 4 strongest resumes top to bottom.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

I agree.

 

[Seinfeld]

Works for me. Regardless of whether Bama/Clemson still come out on top or not, this was never about a school like State ever having a legit shot at a title. It was about creating a system for us average Joes that at least gives our beloved teams some semblance of a shot at a playoff. Right now, that just doesn’t exist

I think the proposed format does a few good things

1) Continues to reward the top teams in the land
2) Creates inclusion for G5 and the extremely strong P5 teams that may have slipped up at some point in the season
3) Creates a meat grinder that will force any team to indisputably prove that they’re the best in the land.

It’s funny because I’m just thinking back to the final days of the BCS and the many ridiculous arguments back then. BuT iT’s TOO ManY GAMES!!!! OMG. Right, so what’s changed?

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

You are going to get some dud conference championship games if you don’t do it that way. You have to have a big incentive to keep a 12-0 Nick Saban team trying to win an SEC Championship Game. Otherwise he might figure he’d rather rest his starters to avoid injury and be the 3-seed than go all out for the 1 seed. That conference champion bye will be a big carrot to chase.

I don’t mind having 6 conference champs assured of a bid, but I don’t like them automatically having the 4 byes. 4 byes should be the 4 strongest resumes top to bottom.

 

[drumrcraig]

This should help satisfy a couple of the arguments from the other day. It says the top 6 conference champions. It doesn't have any restrictions of where those come from, so if you have some strong G5 teams that are highly ranked, they will get in over the 25th ranked PAC-12 champion.

 

[Quincy A. Wagstaff]

I'm not a fan of playing playoff games on campus. It is too significant of an advantage to be subjectively awarded. This is fundamentally different from the NFL that objectively determines home field advantage. There are over 40 bowl games. 11 of them can be used for the playoff.

But I would gladly accept this system just to get expansion to 12 teams. Game changer for teams like Mississippi State.

 

[Quincy A. Wagstaff]

who this helps

FWIW teams that have (1) been ranked top-12 in the final CFP poll (2) have never made the CFP:

Arizona
Auburn
Baylor
Cincinnati
Coastal Carolina
Colorado
Florida
Georgia Tech
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas State
Miami
Michigan
Mississippi State
North Carolina
Oklahoma State
Ole Miss
Penn State
Stanford
TCU
Texas A&M
UCF
USC
Utah
Wisconsin

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I'm not a fan of playing playoff games on campus. It is too significant of an advantage to be subjectively awarded. This is fundamentally different from the NFL that objectively determines home field advantage. There are over 40 bowl games. 11 of them can be used for the playoff.

But I would gladly accept this system just to get expansion to 12 teams. Game changer for teams like Mississippi State.

I would go the opposite direction and play all but the final at home sites. Fanbases aren't going to easily travel to multiple neutral sites on short notice. Having games on campus ensures huge crowds.

 

[EagleDawg97]

This is a good compromise. It gives both MSU and to a much lesser degree USM a path to play for a championship. I personally don’t think Bama being so dominant is good for the sport, and anything that has a chance to reward teams not named Bama, Clemson, and Ohio State, is a move in the right direction in my book.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

You are going to get some dud conference championship games if you don’t do it that way. You have to have a big incentive to keep a 12-0 Nick Saban team trying to win an SEC Championship Game. Otherwise he might figure he’d rather rest his starters to avoid injury and be the 3-seed than go all out for the 1 seed. That conference champion bye will be a big carrot to chase.

Right. Last year was weird, but in 4 of the 5 P5 conference championship games, the loser still ended up in the top 12. I would guess that this happens most of the time. With byes not reserved for conference champions, they have no incentive to win and all the incentive to try to rest their best players. Rewarding byes this way ensures the conference championship games aren't meaningless.

 

[WrapItDog]

The 4 highest-ranked champs get a bye while other 8 play 1st-round games on campus.

So GA or FL lose to Bama in the SEC Championship game. They don't get a bye but make the playoffs and the National Championship game. That's a 17 game season.

 

[wsjmsu75]

So GA or FL lose to Bama in the SEC Championship game. They don't get a bye but make the playoffs and the National Championship game. That's a 17 game season.

That won't happen often. And, that's still only 2 more games than teams that reach the final game play now (assuming they play a conference championship game, which most of them do). I think this playoff configuration is about the best that can be done. Brings a lot more teams into contention, and creates a lot more fan excitement in what is normally a pretty dead month (December). I am assuming that at least the first two rounds would be played in December.

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

So that means that all 5 conference champs from the power five make it and the highest ranked champ from the group of five, right?

There are going to be some major poll shenanigans to make sure the g5 only gets that one spot I think.

ETA - I'm in favor of said shenanigans because I have no time for these teams that play in CUSA and act like they're better than the middle of the pack SEC teams.

 

[SheltonChoked]

I agree.

And if this had been in place in 2014, we would have had a December home playoff game vs Arizona. Which , IMO, would have made the 2014 auburn game look like an easy ticket to get.

You think there are people pissed about not getting baseball tickets....

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I agree.

And if this had been in place in 2014, we would have had a December home playoff game vs Arizona. Which , IMO, would have made the 2014 auburn game look like an easy ticket to get.

You think there are people pissed about not getting baseball tickets....

If they do that then the teams and conferences are going to get a huge payday. Can you imagine what the advertisement dollars will be for these games? Not to mention the money for the local economy for host teams.

Coach salaries are about to go up in the next few years and there will be even more incentive to hand out bags on recruiting weekends

Kind of makes me glad we have the kind of coach that we have

 

[Dawgpile]

So that means that all 5 conference champs from the power five make it and the highest ranked champ from the group of five, right?

From the language that currently is being used, this doesn't guarantee all P5 champs get in. "6 highest-ranked conference champs" would mean that Oregon would have been left out last year. Splitting hairs I know, but it could happen.

 

[johnson86-1]

The only quirky thing about this is it's going to be a huge money maker for schools to be 5th through 8th, as they will get a huge home game. Be interesting to see how they treat onsite revenue for those games. Is the home team going to get to keep all that revenue and bear all the expenses? Or are they going to be paid a certain amount to cover costs and otherwise all the ticket sales and the schools share of concession sales just goes to a pot?

If Bama goes undefeated but then loses the SEC championship game, how much are they going to be able to charge for playoff tickets? $100 a ticket would be really cheap and they'd easily sell out. That'd be another $10M in revenue to them just from ticket sales. I'm assuming they'd have to set aside a good chunk for sponsors of the playoffs, but other than that,

 

[Mobile Bay]

What's changed $$$$$$$$

ESPN is losing subscribers as people cut off their cable. Ratings for the CFP were down last year compared to previous years. Heck, I live in Alabama and I didn't watch but the third quarter of the final.

 

[Mobile Bay]

With the new NIL stuff nobody will even need to hide the bags anymore.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I agree.

And if this had been in place in 2014, we would have had a December home playoff game vs Arizona. Which , IMO, would have made the 2014 auburn game look like an easy ticket to get.

You think there are people pissed about not getting baseball tickets....

That would have been amazing. Assuming the same rankings are real life (which is not really a safe assumption, because the Committee kinda half-asses down in the double-digit rankings):

12 Boise State @ 5 Baylor, 4 Ohio State
9 Ole Miss @ 8 Michigan State, 1 Alabama

11 Kansas State @ 6 TCU, 3 Florida State
10 Arizona @ 7 Mississippi State, 2 Oregon





Hot take: We upset Oregon in the quarterfinal before falling to TCU (not Florida State) in the semifinal.

Ice-cold ban-me take: Ole Miss upsets Alabama in quarterfinal before falling to Ohio State in semifinal.

 

[patdog]

Most years, but not all. Last year, the PAC-12 would have been shut out of the 12-team playoff. Might push the conferences to do away with the ridiculous divisions and take the top 2 teams in the championship game to avoid a weak division winner possibly taking away the auto bid.

 

[patdog]

Yeah. They've got to give the top 4 seeds a home game in the 2nd round. As it stands now, the 2 teams that make the finals could easily play their last 4 games at neutral sites. That's not good.

 

[paindonthurt_]

So what happens if a 7-5 pac10 teams beats an 11-1 pac 10 team?
Do they both possibly make it?

Are they taking the 6 highest rated conference champions from all conferences?

 

[Tall Dawg]

Yeah. They've got to give the top 4 seeds a home game in the 2nd round. As it stands now, the 2 teams that make the finals could easily play their last 4 games at neutral sites. That's not good.

When could/would this new schedule begin....2030.
Asking for friends...

 

[QuaoarsKing]

So what happens if a 7-5 pac10 teams beats an 11-1 pac 10 team?
Do they both possibly make it?

Are they taking the 6 highest rated conference champions from all conferences?

It's the 6 highest teams that are conference champions, so a 7-5 team that wins a P5 conference championship game is unlikely to be one of those.

Looking over the last 7 years, I couldn't find any examples of a team with more than 3 losses making it, and even that was rare and was usually either a conference champion, or someone like this past year's Florida, who had a 2-loss regular season and picked up their third in a hard-fought conference championship game against a better team. I don't think the selection committee should be punishing teams too hard for picking up a loss in a CCG unless it's a blowout or a loss to a bad team, when many of their competitors for at-large bids won't have even played in one.

 

[Apoplectic_Objurgator]

When could/would this new schedule begin....2030.
Asking for friends...

Thought I read 23

 

[engie]

Marginalizing the absolute hell out of a regular season they’ve already marginalized the hell out of. The beauty of cfb was always the margin for error to win titles. Now everyone gets a mulligan or two.

 

[paindonthurt_]

I guess my point is you have 5 major conferences.
If someone goes 8/5 after their conf championship game (say in pac 10), that leaves 4 major conference champions.

In the past 10 years have their been 2 other conference champions ranked in the top 20 or even top 25? Definitely 1 more but 2 more?

 

[maroonmania]

I'm not a fan of playing playoff games on campus. It is too significant of an advantage to be subjectively awarded. This is fundamentally different from the NFL that objectively determines home field advantage. There are over 40 bowl games. 11 of them can be used for the playoff.

But I would gladly accept this system just to get expansion to 12 teams. Game changer for teams like Mississippi State.

You can't ask fans of teams to travel week after week to neutral sites. I was hoping they would do an 8 team playoff with the first round at the home of the Top 4 seeds and then keep everything else the way it is now. I am not a fan of a 12 team playoff and giving the elite programs an extra week of rest. That is making a bad problem in college football with the talent disparity worse. No team gets a bye in the NCAA basketball or baseball tournaments. It should be an 8 team playoff or a 16 team playoff. Giving 4 teams an advantage in a 12 team playoff is a crock. And it takes just as many weeks for a 12 team playoff as it would a 16 team playoff so nothing is gained. And the biggest thing is that NONE of this addresses the lack of competitiveness in the overall college football product which is the real problem. As for the NFL though, home field is not truly objective because teams don't play the same schedules outside of their own division so comparing one team's record against another is not truly objective.

 

[johnson86-1]

Yeah. They've got to give the top 4 seeds a home game in the 2nd round. As it stands now, the 2 teams that make the finals could easily play their last 4 games at neutral sites. That's not good.

If they don't do neutral site games in the second round, then you are talking about just having 3 bowls each year part of the playoffs and the rest being also rans. I'm not sure they are going to want to cut out that much bowl revenue. If they make second round games neutral site games, then you have 7 bowls now that are part of the playoffs and should be willing to pay a lot of money. Going to suck for fans, but I honestly think they'll get enough corporate and local interest that financially it's going to more than make sense, which is all the NCAA is going to care about.

Going to be interesting to see who the 7th playoff bowl becomes. Out of the next five highest paying bowls (Citrus, Alamo, Outback, Holiday, Texas, in order), two are in Florida, two are in Texas, and one is in San Diego. Citrus is already paying a lot and is in a place that makes sense. The Texas bowl being in Houston could probably afford to pay a lot more to be part of the playoffs and Houston would make sense. Or they could possibly maximize revenue by letting the 7 playoff games rotate between the top 11 bowls.

 

[Go Budaw]

You can't ask fans of teams to travel week after week to neutral sites. I was hoping they would do an 8 team playoff with the first round at the home of the Top 4 seeds and then keep everything else the way it is now. I am not a fan of a 12 team playoff and giving the elite programs an extra week of rest. That is making a bad problem in college football with the talent disparity worse. No team gets a bye in the NCAA basketball or baseball tournaments. It should be an 8 team playoff or a 16 team playoff. Giving 4 teams an advantage in a 12 team playoff is a crock. And it takes just as many weeks for a 12 team playoff as it would a 16 team playoff so nothing is gained. And the biggest thing is that NONE of this addresses the lack of competitiveness in the overall college football product which is the real problem. As for the NFL though, home field is not truly objective because teams don't play the same schedules outside of their own division so comparing one team's record against another is not truly objective.

So you are going to make Alabama play an 8-4 Iowa team in Tuscaloosa just for the sake of having a 16 team playoff? What does that prove?

The bigger the field is, the more teams can stake a claim that they should be in. With a 16 team playoff there is no telling how much bitching there would be about those last 4 spots. There’s a ton of 9-3 / 8-4 teams every year....and almost none of them are worthy of playing for the national title even in a 12 team field.

 

[Seinfeld]

That’s a really good list. Lots of good programs and loyal fanbases, yet there probably aren’t more than 6-7 that have any kind of realistic shot at the CFP in its current format. Again, for me, this isn’t about winning titles. It’s about giving good football teams something to play for besides another meaningless trip to the Idaho Potatoes bowl

 

[patdog]

The bowl revenue is from TV revenue. It's gonna be there no matter where the games are played.

 

[patdog]

At least they're only going to 12 and not 16. I'd still rather have 8, but overall I think 12 is better than 4.

 

[Seinfeld]

To get to the playoff, maybe... but any team is going to have undoubtedly have its crap together by year end because the new CFP format will be an absolute gauntlet.

Are you enjoying Bama, Clemson, OSU, and some other poor soul that has virtually no chance year after year after year? By the time it’s all said and done, maybe that’s what we still end up with, but it’s hard to deny that this spices things up a good bit

 

[maroonmania]

So you are going to make Alabama play an 8-4 Iowa team in Tuscaloosa just for the sake of having a 16 team playoff? What does that prove?

The bigger the field is, the more teams can stake a claim that they should be in. With a 16 team playoff there is no telling how much bitching there would be about those last 4 spots. There’s a ton of 9-3 / 8-4 teams every year....and almost none of them are worthy of playing for the national title even in a 12 team field.

ABSOLUTELY. For the sake that they would have to accomplish the same thing as every other team in the playoffs and would be at risk of the same injuries as every other team in the playoffs. Every other division in college football already has a 16 team playoff with no more arguments there than there will be about teams 13 and 14 bitching that they didn't get the 12th spot. So I totally reject that the arguing has anything to do with field size. Whereever the cutoff is someone will complain. My biggest issue is that in a 12 team playoff you are giving the teams with the MOST depth of talent the week off so they can be fully healed and ready to play a team with less talent that just got banged up in a playoff game the week before. Like I said, my preference would be 8 teams, but if has to be larger it ABSOLUTELY should be 16 teams with everyone playing the same number of rounds.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Marginalizing the absolute hell out of a regular season they’ve already marginalized the hell out of. The beauty of cfb was always the margin for error to win titles. Now everyone gets a mulligan or two.

You are correct for the top 4, but even those teams will still be vying for the bye. But what this does is open the door for many more teams and makes their schedules much more important. Overall, it's a good thing.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

ABSOLUTELY. For the sake that they would have to accomplish the same thing as every other team in the playoffs and would be at risk of the same injuries as every other team in the playoffs. Every other division in college football already has a 16 team playoff with no more arguments there than there will be about teams 13 and 14 bitching that they didn't get the 12th spot. So I totally reject that the arguing has anything to do with field size. Whereever the cutoff is someone will complain. My biggest issue is that in a 12 team playoff you are giving the teams with the MOST depth of talent the week off so they can be fully healed and ready to play a team with less talent that just got banged up in a playoff game the week before. Like I said, my preference would be 8 teams, but if has to be larger it ABSOLUTELY should be 16 teams with everyone playing the same number of rounds.

The more I think about, I agree with you, as long as it is 8 teams. If we go 12, I like the idea of someone earning an advantage due to the regular season.