AFCA recommends changes to college football calendar

[PushupMan]

AFCA board proposes 4 changes to college football calendar

The American Football Coaches Association is recommending changes to the college football calendar that would end the season by the second Monday in January, while also pushing for increased access to the College Football Playoff.

www.espn.com

Interesting article about recommendations being proposed by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) … major changes recommended to the calendar are:
(1) start the regular season one week earlier (week before Labor Day, essentially)
(2) minimize or completely eliminate bye weeks
(3) eliminate conference championship games. (Yes, please!)
(4) Army-Navy game remains as the last game of regular season
(5) championship playoff game to
be played on the second Monday in January
(6) New schedule would accommodate an expanded playoff (24 teams likely, but up to 32 possible)

And on a related topic, the AFCA also recommends expanding to a 16 team playoff as soon as possible, but not for the 2026 postseason.

 

[Louis III]

Love 1, 2, and 3. Fine with 4 and 5 and hell no to 6.

 

[beantowncard]

I’m good with all the proposals. 16 is the natural number for the playoffs- I just want to get rid of the stupid committee and have objective criteria everyone knows before the season begins.

 

[PushupMan]

Personally I like 32 teams. I like to see a playoff have about 20% of the total number of teams, and 32/138 =23%. Also, I like everybody in the playoff to have played the same number of games (requires that the number be a factor of 2), so 32 is the closest number.

The playoffs are going to have to get bigger if we’re going to pay the players and also keep some of the non-revenue sports.

 

[Louis III]

I hate the idea of 32 teams. How bad would the 1 through 4 seeds beat 29-32. Would be awful!!! 16 max!!!!! This aint basketball. There is a massive gap between the top 5 or 6 and teams in the late 20s early 30s!!

 

[PushupMan]

I hate the idea of 32 teams. How bad would the 1 through 4 seeds beat 29-32. Would be awful!!! 16 max!!!!! This aint basketball. There is a massive gap between the top 5 or 6 and teams in the late 20s early 30s!!

Would be about the same as the Tulane-Ole Miss and James Madison-Oregon games last year. The NCAA bball tournament has some mismatches in the first round every year and that doesn’t seem to hurt the popularity of the tournament. In fact, it’s those blowouts year after year that make the UMBC over Virginia and Farleigh Dickinson over Purdue upsets so memorable.

I highly suspect that, once in a very great while, one of those David’s will upset a Goliath in football, too. “Never say never.”

 

[Louis III]

Would be about the same as the Tulane-Ole Miss and James Madison-Oregon games last year. The NCAA bball tournament has some mismatches in the first round every year and that doesn’t seem to hurt the popularity of the tournament. In fact, it’s those blowouts year after year that make the UMBC over Virginia and Farleigh Dickinson over Purdue upsets so memorable.

I highly suspect that, once in a very great while, one of those David’s will upset a Goliath in football, too. “Never say never.”

Totally agree......and I think the basketball tournament has too many teams and is getting ready to get worse. 48 teams would be great in my book. 1 and 2 seeds are 215-13 since the expansion of the tournament. But we can all agree its about the money so is what it is.

I will say if they expand the CFP to 32 which is 5 games for the teams that make it the ship, they will have to get rid of conf championships and maybe even a regular season game. 17-18 games is NUTS!!!

 

[gobigblue812_rivals29381]

24 teams like FCS

 

[beantowncard]

I think 16 is perfect. But the participants, for the umpteenth time, can NOT be selected by committee. That has always been the big weakness of CFB- it’s based on opinions.

 

[PushupMan]

I think 16 is perfect. But the participants, for the umpteenth time, can NOT be selected by committee. That has always been the big weakness of CFB- it’s based on opinions.

Like you, I’d love for at large spots to be selected based on W-L records and a set of published tiebreakers, but the SEC and Big Ten won’t go for that, so it won’t happen.

That’s why I like a 32 team playoff. The bigger the playoff, the less controversial the selection of those final at large spots are. At large selections by committee doesn’t seem to negatively affect the popularity of the basketball tournament, so it shouldn’t affect the football playoff either, as long as the playoff includes enough teams.

 

[beantowncard]

Like you, I’d love for at large spots to be selected based on W-L records and a set of published tiebreakers, but the SEC and Big Ten won’t go for that, so it won’t happen.

That’s why I like a 32 team playoff. The bigger the playoff, the less controversial the selection of those final at large spots are. At large selections by committee doesn’t seem to negatively affect the popularity of the basketball tournament, so it shouldn’t affect the football playoff either, as long as the playoff includes enough teams.

Agreed, but a playoff that large works in basketball because the sport is not nearly so physical as football. Adding an additional 3-4 games is hard, especially on 17 and 18 yo kids. Also, we have piled on additional burdens with conference consolidation, especially with the destruction of the PAC 12, which place a penalty on teams traveling coast to coast in the B1G and ACC. 16 gets us conference champs plus a reason number of at-large teams without too many extra games. If the B1G and $EC don’t like it, then shut up and go win your conference ! If that’s too hard, maybe you shouldn’t have joined such a big conference. If you just want to cash checks, then take what comes with it - a harder road to the playoffs.

 

[PushupMan]

All very true, which is why I want to tear this all down and start from scratch. No more conferences. 16 geographical divisions. 10 divisions with 9 teams, 6 with 8. Single round robin decides the champion of each division, which gets you 16 playoff auto qualifiers. Teams get to schedule either 4 or 5 non-conference games. Some number up to 16 at large bids. Maximum of 17 games in a season.