8-Team 2020 Playoff

[cclxxxvdicere]

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.

You would have auto bids because the CFP is a creation of the P5 conferences, and they have a great incentive to include one team from each conference in the playoff. I do not agree with expanding to 8, but I expect it is inevitable given that under the current system, at least one conference will be, and sometimes two and possibly three can be left out. This makes for unhappy conference commissioners and bad tv. With 8, all P5 conferences are sure to have at least one team, if you auto bid the conference champions, and you can still get “the best” teams in if one gets upset in or left out of the CCG. The other 3 spots should all be at larges, no auto bid for G5.

A 6 team format is dumb, why should #3 have to play an extra game while #2 gets a bye? Right now, the only team with any advantage is #1 getting to pick the semifinals site, now we’re going to make the difference between being selected 2 or 3 as having to play another game? You think there’s controversy now, just wait until you try to sell that.

The committee idea was and is stupid, go back to the BCS selection format.

 

[Mike A. S.]

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)

Why would Indiana get in in this scenario over Florida or Georgia? They're not a P5 champ and they're ranked lower than them...

 

[Bedlam131]

Whether ya like him or not, this is actually a decent argument for an expanded playoff.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

You would have auto bids because the CFP is a creation of the P5 conferences, and they have a great incentive to include one team from each conference in the playoff. I do not agree with expanding to 8, but I expect it is inevitable given that under the current system, at least one conference will be, and sometimes two and possibly three can be left out. This makes for unhappy conference commissioners and bad tv. With 8, all P5 conferences are sure to have at least one team, if you auto bid the conference champions, and you can still get “the best” teams in if one gets upset in or left out of the CCG. The other 3 spots should all be at larges, no auto bid for G5.

A 6 team format is dumb, why should #3 have to play an extra game while #2 gets a bye? Right now, the only team with any advantage is #1 getting to pick the semifinals site, now we’re going to make the difference between being selected 2 or 3 as having to play another game? You think there’s controversy now, just wait until you try to sell that.

The committee idea was and is stupid, go back to the BCS selection format.

I fundamentally reject the concept that name brand trumps resume. Giving the P5 champs an automatic bid is essentially a scheme to devalue merit-based systems and continue to degrade the Group of Five conferences. If you're going to give autobids, it is has to apply to all conferences. For example, why is a 9-5 power conference champion automatically better than a 12-1 G5 team without looking at the individual resume?

6 works fine. It creates a system where every gets into a bowl game. The top 2 seeds gets rewarded with the top choice of bowl site and more time to rest up their bodies. However, the more I think about it, the more to revert back to my 8 team playoff belief. Why would college football pick adding 2 extra games over 4 extra games?

 

[cclxxxvdicere]

I fundamentally reject the concept that name brand trumps resume. Giving the P5 champs an automatic bid is essentially a scheme to devalue merit-based systems and continue to degrade the Group of Five conferences. If you're going to give autobids, it is has to apply to all conferences. For example, why is a 9-5 power conference champion automatically better than a 12-1 G5 team without looking at the individual resume?

6 works fine. It creates a system where every gets into a bowl game. The top 2 seeds gets rewarded with the top choice of bowl site and more time to rest up their bodies. However, the more I think about it, the more to revert back to my 8 team playoff belief. Why would college football pick adding 2 extra games over 4 extra games?

You can fundamentally reject whatever you want, but the Golden Rule applies here: the P5 has the gold, so they make the rules. The G5’s are welcome to go pound sand, or start their own playoff. If their product is so good, they won’t have a problem selling their playoff for a few gazillion bucks too, and screw the so called Power conferences.

A 6 team playoff is a stupid idea, all that does is give the top 2 seeds an even bigger advantage, might as well make them play another meaningless game too.

 

[WNY_FOOTBALL_DUDE]

You can fundamentally reject whatever you want, but the Golden Rule applies here: the P5 has the gold, so they make the rules. The G5’s are welcome to go pound sand, or start their own playoff. If their product is so good, they won’t have a problem selling their playoff for a few gazillion bucks too, and screw the so called Power conferences.

More like the P5 gets to rig the system in order to steal the apple pie. Bottom line is here: the MWC, MAC, AAF, Sun Belt and C-USA are members of the FBS, they should be treated as equal partners. Otherwise, you're simply promoting second class citizenship. You give the G5 more opportunities to compete, it increases their power and ability to make more money for the system.

 

[cclxxxvdicere]

More like the P5 gets to rig the system in order to steal the apple pie. Bottom line is here: the MWC, MAC, AAF, Sun Belt and C-USA are members of the FBS, they should be treated as equal partners. Otherwise, you're simply promoting second class citizenship. You give the G5 more opportunities to compete, it increases their power and ability to make more money for the system.

Nobody owes them an opportunity to compete, if their product is so good, then somebody will pay for it, if they won’t, then it’s a second class product. The Sun Belt isn’t equal to the SEC, and the SEC isn’t obligated to help them get better.

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

Nobody owes them an opportunity to compete, if their product is so good, then somebody will pay for it, if they won’t, then it’s a second class product. The Sun Belt isn’t equal to the SEC, and the SEC isn’t obligated to help them get better.

The funny part is we DO help the SunBelt, and every time we beat a (usually title-contending) SB team 50-something to 7, we are chided for “weak OOC games”. Hell, in 17 we played two bowl teams from the Mountain West and were criticized for those games. Why should SOME teams get great credit for beating those teams while others are dinged for it?

 

[Mike A. S.]

The one thing I like about giving P5 conference champions an automatic bid is it takes out some of the "subjective" part of selecting. That's what's good about the NFL, nobody ever complains about the champion because there is no picking and choosing who a committee believes to be most worthy, there is just a set of rules that applies to everyone. Now obviously it is more difficult to set that system up in college the way it works. Most years there are at least 3 SEC teams better than 2-3 other P5 conference champs. Anyway, I don't wanna go on a rant about the SEC and obviously there would be more to it needed, but the auto-bid would eliminate some of the subjective-ness of the playoff.

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

The one thing I like about giving P5 conference champions an automatic bid is it takes out some of the "subjective" part of selecting. That's what's good about the NFL, nobody ever complains about the champion because there is no picking and choosing who a committee believes to be most worthy, there is just a set of rules that applies to everyone. Now obviously it is more difficult to set that system up in college the way it works. Most years there are at least 3 SEC teams better than 2-3 other P5 conference champs. Anyway, I don't wanna go on a rant about the SEC and obviously there would be more to it needed, but the auto-bid would eliminate some of the subjective-ness of the playoff.

Agree 100% WRT removing some of the subjectivity.

I add that any unbeaten team from G5 should get an autobid as well. Said teams have done everything they can do, and controlled all they can control.

This year, you would have Bama, Clemson, tOSU, OU, Oregon, Cincy, CC, and ND. The subjectivity comes in the seeding, but at least you have given everyone with a solid case a shot.

 

[Mike A. S.]

Agree 100% WRT removing some of the subjectivity.

I add that any unbeaten team from G5 should get an autobid as well. Said teams have done everything they can do, and controlled all they can control.

This year, you would have Bama, Clemson, tOSU, OU, Oregon, Cincy, CC, and ND. The subjectivity comes in the seeding, but at least you have given everyone with a solid case a shot.

I think they should absolutely make it more realistic for a G5 team to get in, but I don't think that one of them every year deserves an auto-bid. So I think something like what you said, maybe if they're undefeated still. Even then though I don't know if we ever need to really see (2) G5 teams in the playoff in the same year. So even then I would probably just say the highest ranked G5 team gets in, if it's unbeaten. Although that would bring back in some subjectivity. But very rarely is there a debate between who is the most deserving G5 team in a given year. It's usually pretty obvious.