8-Team 2020 Playoff

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

Unless you give all conferences an automatic bid, I do not see any point. Would anybody here seriously put 2012's Northern Illinois team over the 2012 Oregon Ducks team? NIU was ranked 16th and lost to a 4-8 Iowa team. Oregon was ranked 4th and only lost to 11-2 Stanford in OT.
In the same season, you had 8-5 Wisconsin as well.

It should be the BEST teams here. W%, SOS% and H2H would be the most important factors. Anywhere in the 4-6 range is the best system, given the parameters of being within a bowl-loving system.

 

[Duckboy33]

Unless you give all conferences an automatic bid, I do not see any point. Would anybody here seriously put 2012's Northern Illinois team over the 2012 Oregon Ducks team? NIU was ranked 16th and lost to a 4-8 Iowa team. Oregon was ranked 4th and only lost to 11-2 Stanford in OT.
In the same season, you had 8-5 Wisconsin as well.

It should be the BEST teams here. W%, SOS% and H2H would be the most important factors. Anywhere in the 4-6 range is the best system, given the parameters of being within a bowl-loving system.

Wisconsin only got in because of unusual circumstances (two teams above them were on probation). That's going to be the exception, not the rule. However, conference championship weekend is going to be a lot more exciting when playoff bids were on the line. We are seeing your idea basically being played out now and championship weekend is largely irrelevant outside the ACC Championship. It shouldn't be like that.

 

[RB Bills]

An 8 team playoff will probably happen if / when the power five conferences break away and form their own sub division.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

Wisconsin only got in because of unusual circumstances (two teams above them were on probation). That's going to be the exception, not the rule. However, conference championship weekend is going to be a lot more exciting when playoff bids were on the line. We are seeing your idea basically being played out now and championship weekend is largely irrelevant outside the ACC Championship. It shouldn't be like that.

Are you okay with NIU getting a playoff spot over Oregon for the 2012 season? What about the 2009 season? Why leave out Boise State?

This is what I don't understand: why does only 1 G5 school get in, but all P5 schools do?

If we're going to make it a "mini-playoff", we should only put in the best teams.

 

[Duckboy33]

Are you okay with NIU getting a playoff spot over Oregon for the 2012 season? What about the 2009 season? Why leave out Boise State?

This is what I don't understand: why does only 1 G5 school get in, but all P5 schools do?

If we're going to make it a "mini-playoff", we should only put in the best teams.

If you include every conference, you get too much crap. Honestly FBS shouldn’t have as many teams as they do. But you want conference championship games to matter. Right now they don’t. College football is also set up different today. There used to be 6 major conferences, now there’s only 5. If the conference structures were to change drastically again, you should relook at your playoff structure. Arguing about how a playoff designed for this decade would have worked in 2009 is pointless

 

[We Are Decent]

Adopt the FCS playoff system or don't even try at all. The downplay of G5 & other teams is boring and stupid, give any team enough hype and you'll see results. This is college football people, any team can beat any other team under any circumstances in any day of the week. Give the G5 teams a chance and if they get blown out, so be it, if they pull an upset congratulate them. Why is it that every other sport thinks of this & accepts out but FBS wants to hold themselves back.

 

[JohnShadows]

The fact that they're not expanding to 8 teams just for this year (and see how it goes in the future) just caps off the general stupidity with which the season has been handled by the conferences and SEC. Flexibility was key the whole way - some conferences starting off late actually removed options, and now some teams don't even get to 7 games. An 8-team playoff while school was out for Winter Break made perfect sense, because it would be easier to keep the players isolated.

This year should have been: automatic seeds for the P5 and 3 at-large, at least one has to come from non-P5. Think outside the freakin' box, for chrissakes.

 

[belcherboy]

From what I'm hearing from different media people, the expanded playoff is coming! Programs lost so much money this year, they all are wanting a bigger playoff to begin making up for it.

 

[BrownEyedGirl]

The only reason I’m typically fine with a four team playoff instead of an eight team playoff is because realistically the 6th, 7th, and 8th ranked teams are not going to win multiple games in a row against better teams since the talent gap between those teams is usually significant despite all being in the top ten of ranking. Unless a huge fluke happens it’ll still end up being four of that top five ranked teams since you could in theory have one upset which would probably be that 4th ranked team losing. In most cases the backups for Alabama and Clemson especially but also Ohio State and Notre Dame and so on could start on Cincinnati, Iowa State, Texas A&M, and other top ten schools. Rankings they may be close but skill and talent wise it’s different from college basketball to me.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

If you include every conference, you get too much crap. Honestly FBS shouldn’t have as many teams as they do. But you want conference championship games to matter. Right now they don’t. College football is also set up different today. There used to be 6 major conferences, now there’s only 5. If the conference structures were to change drastically again, you should relook at your playoff structure. Arguing about how a playoff designed for this decade would have worked in 2009 is pointless

First off, you never responded to why 12-1 NIU deserved a playoff spot over 12-1 Oregon in 2012, or why 13-0 Boise should have been left out in 2009. It's a huge problem with your argumentation. You're essentially saying that conference tag means more than merit. Keep in mind that 2009 Duck team lost to Boise State.

There seems to be a contradiction within your argument. You on other hand argue "If you include every conference, you get too much crap", and on the other hand, you want conference championships to matter. Which one is it?

You give ALL the conferences the ability to make it into the playoff, you instantly INCREASE interest and money into the G5 CC games. I fundamentally reject the concept that an 9-4 Power 5 champion is automatically better than a 12-1, 13-0, or 12-0 G5 team.

Under an 8-team "best teams" format, you would most likely see all of the major conferences getting ranked somewhere in the top 8 or top 6. It is just that their entrance would be based purely on merit rather than name brand.

A good amendment to your "concept" would Power 5 conference champions get in, if ranked in the top 12 or top 10. That would mean that 2018's 10-3 Washington would get in over 10-2 Michigan. There's an issue in college football where teams can sneak in, by simply not qualifying for their conference championship game.

I for one think after 6, there seems to be a gigantic drop off in the quality of resume. Point to any college football season and you can see it very clearly.

 

[Duckboy33]

First off, you never responded to why 12-1 NIU deserved a playoff spot over 12-1 Oregon in 2012, or why 13-0 Boise should have been left out in 2009. It's a huge problem with your argumentation. You're essentially saying that conference tag means more than merit. Keep in mind that 2009 Duck team lost to Boise State.

There seems to be a contradiction within your argument. You on other hand argue "If you include every conference, you get too much crap", and on the other hand, you want conference championships to matter. Which one is it?

You give ALL the conferences the ability to make it into the playoff, you instantly INCREASE interest and money into the G5 CC games. I fundamentally reject the concept that an 9-4 Power 5 champion is automatically better than a 12-1, 13-0, or 12-0 G5 team.

Under an 8-team "best teams" format, you would most likely see all of the major conferences getting ranked somewhere in the top 8 or top 6. It is just that their entrance would be based purely on merit rather than name brand.

A good amendment to your "concept" would Power 5 conference champions get in, if ranked in the top 12 or top 10. That would mean that 2018's 10-3 Washington would get in over 10-2 Michigan. There's an issue in college football where teams can sneak in, by simply not qualifying for their conference championship game.

I for one think after 6, there seems to be a gigantic drop off in the quality of resume. Point to any college football season and you can see it very clearly.

I want the P5 conference championships to matter. There's already too many FBS teams, you can't include the MAC or CUSA champs in the playoffs. I would actually be fine if you didn't include the G5 at all and they had their own playoff. I'm open to that amendment.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

I want the P5 conference championships to matter. There's already too many FBS teams, you can't include the MAC or CUSA champs in the playoffs. I would actually be fine if you didn't include the G5 at all and they had their own playoff. I'm open to that amendment.

My view is we shouldn't be giving anybody a "special tag". I certainly do not support discriminating against the MAC or CUSA champions. This is why I oppose your "autos" for P5 champion, it is a system designed for name branding rather than quality. All teams should be eligible for the playoffs. Period. End of story.

Here would be my "adjustment" for you:

Conference Champions from the ACC, Big10, Big12, Pac12 and SEC gets an automatic playoff spot if:

(a) Ranked in the top 12.
(b) Does not supplant a team which won their conference.
(c) Does not supplant a team ranked in the top 6.

 

[Duckboy33]

My view is we shouldn't be giving anybody a "special tag". I certainly do not support discriminating against the MAC or CUSA champions. This is why I oppose your "autos" for P5 champion, it is a system designed for name branding rather than quality. All teams should be eligible for the playoffs. Period. End of story.

Here would be my "adjustment" for you:

Conference Champions from the ACC, Big10, Big12, Pac12 and SEC gets an automatic playoff spot if:

(a) Ranked in the top 12.
(b) Does not supplant a team which won their conference.
(c) Does not supplant a team ranked in the top 6.

No, I’m done pretending everyone who joined FBS should have been accepted. If you win a P5 conference, you should be in. Then figure out the rest of the field

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

The only reason I’m typically fine with a four team playoff instead of an eight team playoff is because realistically the 6th, 7th, and 8th ranked teams are not going to win multiple games in a row against better teams since the talent gap between those teams is usually significant despite all being in the top ten of ranking. Unless a huge fluke happens it’ll still end up being four of that top five ranked teams since you could in theory have one upset which would probably be that 4th ranked team losing. In most cases the backups for Alabama and Clemson especially but also Ohio State and Notre Dame and so on could start on Cincinnati, Iowa State, Texas A&M, and other top ten schools. Rankings they may be close but skill and talent wise it’s different from college basketball to me.

This is a really bad assumption. We have seen dozens of teams ranked outside of the top 5 win a national championship in college sports. You give any team the opportunity to win, especially if they are ranked in the top 12, they could string together 3 wins. Back in 2008, the "experts" didn't think Utah had a prayer against Alabama or Louisville in 2012 against #3 Florida. Upsets happen all the time and there's an unexpected winner.

8 teams is only 6% of the college football population. It's a pretty exclusive club. There's nothing wrong with giving schools opportunities here and putting more money into the pockets of the universities and colleges.

With 6, we could maintain the traditional bowl structure, with the #3 and #4 getting to pick their bowl site. If you go with 8, then the games would be played at the local stadiums.

The bigger pot is with 8 teams, and that would win the day. Assuming "Team A" cannot beat "Team B" has been proven to be false. Categorically false in fact.

 

[BrownEyedGirl]

This is a really bad assumption. We have seen dozens of teams ranked outside of the top 5 win a national championship in college sports. You give any team the opportunity to win, especially if they are ranked in the top 12, they could string together 3 wins. Back in 2008, the "experts" didn't think Utah had a prayer against Alabama or Louisville in 2012 against #3 Florida. Upsets happen all the time and there's an unexpected winner.

8 teams is only 6% of the college football population. It's a pretty exclusive club. There's nothing wrong with giving schools opportunities here and putting more money into the pockets of the universities and colleges.

With 6, we could maintain the traditional bowl structure, with the #3 and #4 getting to pick their bowl site. If you go with 8, then the games would be played at the local stadiums.

The bigger pot is with 8 teams, and that would win the day. Assuming "Team A" cannot beat "Team B" has been proven to be false. Categorically false in fact.

Fair enough, I could very well have the wrong take. I just think the talent gap for college football between the elite teams and the cinderella teams is pretty big. College basketball tends to have more upsets in the tournament for example because even the best teams maybe only have two truly elite players and pretty much all teams in the tournament have at least one "star" player. Add in multiple games to lead to the final and the talent gap isn't as impactful. In college football as I said earlier many of the bench players could be starters on other top 10 schools. An elite football team could have two NFL prospects just on their offensive line. I understand what you're saying though and I don't completely disagree, and I would personally find it to be pretty cool to have a college football playoff. I'm just saying I don't think you will see a whole lot of nuance between what we have now and what people think it will be.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

Fair enough, I could very well have the wrong take. I just think the talent gap for college football between the elite teams and the cinderella teams is pretty big. College basketball tends to have more upsets in the tournament for example because even the best teams maybe only have two truly elite players and pretty much all teams in the tournament have at least one "star" player. Add in multiple games to lead to the final and the talent gap isn't as impactful. In college football as I said earlier many of the bench players could be starters on other top 10 schools. An elite football team could have two NFL prospects just on their offensive line. I understand what you're saying though and I don't completely disagree, and I would personally find it to be pretty cool to have a college football playoff. I'm just saying I don't think you will see a whole lot of nuance between what we have now and what people think it will be.

If you don't give people opportunities, how would you know?

 

[PhilSimms11]

An 8 team playoff will probably happen if / when the power five conferences break away and form their own sub division.

This is a difficult year to say the least, but here goes. I'm in favor of two 8-team playoffs as usual...P-5 and G-5. This way deserving teams get a shot at a national championship. It's clear the committee doesn't hold much regard for the non-power 5. This conversation is had every year. Why not make it fair for everyone with this format? That way, teams know where they stand.
P-5
(1)Alabama (11-0) v (8)Oregon (4-2)
(4)Notre Dame (10-1) v (5)Texas A&M (8-1)

(2)Clemson (10-1) v (7)Indiana (6-1)
(3)Ohio St (6-0) v (6)Oklahoma (8-2)
----------
G-5
(1)Cincinnati (9-0) v (8)Ball St (6-1)
(4)San Jose St (7-0) v (5)Louisiana (9-1)

(2)Coastal Carolina (11-0) v (7)UAB (6-3)
(3)BYU (10-1) v (6)Tulsa (6-2)

 

[HuskerOC]

Gonna be Alabama vs Clemson

These shit threads are beyond tiring.

Only needed 2, maybe 3 teams this year. Some loser that is a proven 4TD loser to another team got in.

 

[Collegefbfan]

First off, I want to see the G5 teams have their own division and playoff. Then, we would have tons of postseason football. Outside of that, this is my take on this deal. It will never be like the FCS. It’s about money, period. I keep hearing the playoff will probably expand to eight teams. If a committee is the way they choose to go, then this will probably not change if these types of committee members stay the same. School athletic directors, former directors, former coaches, etc. have to be excluded from the mix. Go for the 8 best teams. Put more weight on conference championship winners, but what if a conference champ has 4 losses? I don’t have that answer. Another poster mentioned SOS, wins, etc. I feel that SOS is a huge part. Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina had no losses. Coastal had a big win vs BYU, but who did BYU beat? I didn’t look it up. Should Texas A&M be in? What is their best win after Florida? Would we look at A&M barely beating Vandy? If a CFP “group” decides undefeated teams should get in? Then sign my team to play Akron, an FCS team, and FIU out of conference. Note Dame lost big to Clemson. But didn’t Florida just hang with Bama after the gators lost to LSU?

This is NOT the season to try and figure this out. Players out, teams can’t play certain weeks, and all the other relative factors. Hell, I feel that we could come up with the 8 best teams. Just not this season. Ohio State didn’t play but this many games, A&M lost to Bama early, Coastal and Cincy are undefeated.

 

[belcherboy]

I don't think it is necessary or really all that good to expand the playoffs, but I predict that sometime in late January or February, the NCAA will announce the expansion to at least an 8 team playoff. COVID has put many teams in a bad financial situation, and a playoff expansion would make up for a portion of those losses over the next few years.