12-Team Playoff On the Way; 14-Team to Follow

SECHusker said:
Curious what impact this will have in the lesser bowl games. But definitely like the idea of all P5 Champs getting a guaranteed spot.
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They will continue to soldier on with their conference tie-ins, though I would suggest they should all move to holiday break and/or the dead time between the championship game and the last playoff game. One or two weeks of solid bowl games with known dates will do wonders for visibility and attendance. 

 
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2019

1 LSU
2 OSU
3 Clemson
4 Oklahoma

5 Georgia
6 Oregon
7 Baylor
8 Wisconsin
9 Florida
10 Penn State
11 Utah
12 Auburn

(2nd round matchup includes bye teams: 1vs8, 2vs7, 3vs6, 4vs5)

5 Georgia vs 12 Auburn --- Winner gets Oklahoma (4)
6 Oregon vs 11 Utah --- Winner gets Clemson (3)
7 Baylor vs 10 Penn State --- Winner gets Ohio State (2)
8 Wisconsin vs 9 Florida --- Winner gets LSU (1)

Final 4
LSU vs Oklahoma
Clemson vs Ohio State

Championship
LSU vs Clemson

--------

2018

1 Alabama
2 Clemson
3 Notre Dame
4 Oklahoma

5 Georgia
6 Ohio State
7 Michigan
8 UCF
9 Washington
10 Florida
11 LSU
12 Penn State

(2nd round matchup includes bye teams: 1vs8, 2vs7, 3vs6, 4vs5)

5 Georgia vs 12 Penn State --- Winner gets Oklahoma (4)
6 Ohio State vs 11 LSU --- Winner gets Notre Dame (3)
7 Michigan vs 10 Florida --- Winner gets Clemson (2)
8 UCF vs 9 Washington --- Winner gets Alabama (1)

Final 4
Alabama vs Oklahoma
Clemson vs Notre Dame

Championship
Alabama vs Clemson

--------

2017

1 Clemson
2 Oklahoma
3 Georgia
4 Alabama

5 Ohio State
6 Wisconsin
7 Auburn
8 USC
9 Penn State
10 Miami
11 Washington
12 UCF

(1st round bye teams 2nd round matchup 1vs8, 2vs7, 3vs6, 4vs5)

5 Ohio State vs 12 UCF --- Winner gets Alabama (4)
6 Wisconsin vs 11 Washington --- Winner gets Georgia (3)
7 Auburn vs 10 Miami--- Winner gets Oklahoma (2)
8 USC vs 9 Penn State --- Winner gets Clemson (1)

Final 4
Clemson vs Alabama
Oklahoma vs Georgia

Championship
Clemson vs Oklahoma

 
Anyone else feel like there's a potential unintended consequence of this making life even easier for Bama/Clemson/OSU/OU? Could we even see teams intentionally lose to stay out of their conference championships, knowing they'll still get a playoff bid and an extra week of rest?

I'm not a fan of cheapening the 'win or you're out' high stakes of the regular season (which has already been cheapened) that makes college football great. But, if it's inevitable, at least this way there's literally no excuse left for pretty much anyone even close to being able to argue they deserved a shot.

 
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Lorewarn said:
Anyone else feel like there's a potential unintended consequence of this making life even easier for Bama/Clemson/OSU/OU? Could we even see teams intentionally lose to stay out of their conference championships, knowing they'll still get a playoff bid and an extra week of rest?

I'm not a fan of cheapening the 'win or you're out' high stakes of the regular season (which has already been cheapened) that makes college football great. But, if it's inevitable, at least this way there's literally no excuse left for pretty much anyone even close to being able to argue they deserved a shot.
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Yeah. That's a concern. Also, don't be so sure of "there's literally no excuse to argue" when a legacy program with 2 or 3 losses pushes aside a 1 or 2 loss team with a smaller fanbase. 

 
TBH I don’t care what they do with CFB playoffs anymore. I may be an old grumpy get off my lawn guy but I didn’t really have a problem with no playoff. It was part of what made CFB different and special. Plenty of fodder for fan bickering, coulda-woulda-shoulda and what ifs.

4 teams isn’t enough if you want a true playoff and 12 seems a bit too much. Until Nebraska starts getting sniff of it I just don’t care. Might be a few games I would watch but personally Ive had enough of seeing Bama, Clemson and tOSU curb stomp other teams. Lack of parity would seem to be a larger concern than feeding more teams to the lions.

 
One of the arguments of the current imbalance of the college football world being so skewed to Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. is that these are the teams that keep getting in to the playoffs, so they're the teams that keep getting the top recruits. You want to go to the playoff? You're not going to Michigan, or to USC, or Washington, because they never make it. You go to one of these three, or Notre Dame. 

Diluting the playoffs, the argument goes, means more schools have a chance, so the talent doesn't pool to the top like it has the past several years.

Maybe that works. I don't know. For certain Clemson, Alabama & OSU are going to continue to pull in top classes. But maybe after a few years things change. 

 
Lorewarn said:
Anyone else feel like there's a potential unintended consequence of this making life even easier for Bama/Clemson/OSU/OU? Could we even see teams intentionally lose to stay out of their conference championships, knowing they'll still get a playoff bid and an extra week of rest?

I'm not a fan of cheapening the 'win or you're out' high stakes of the regular season (which has already been cheapened) that makes college football great. But, if it's inevitable, at least this way there's literally no excuse left for pretty much anyone even close to being able to argue they deserved a shot.
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I think conference championship games will now get way more attention.  The storylines of say a #10 team in the polls thinking theyre in and then a conf title game upset happens and that chews up a guaranteed spot is compelling.  For instance, what if Nortwestern converted one of those turnovers last year and ended up beating an ohio state team that NW defense had in check for a large part of the game? Or the pac 12 title game that most of the nation hasnt paid any attention to in recent years because its either an oregon/utah team or a 3 loss team from the south going for it now gets way more exposure with an automatic tie in.

If bama/clemson/osu/ou want to intentionally lose a game to stay out of conf title than theyre prolly also throwing away at top 4 seed and a chance at a bye... 

Really its dependent on the details attached to it (conf title tie ins) non P5 access, etc.  

 
JJ Husker said:
TBH I don’t care what they do with CFB playoffs anymore. I may be an old grumpy get off my lawn guy but I didn’t really have a problem with no playoff. It was part of what made CFB different and special. Plenty of fodder for fan bickering, coulda-woulda-shoulda and what ifs.

4 teams isn’t enough if you want a true playoff and 12 seems a bit too much. Until Nebraska starts getting sniff of it I just don’t care. Might be a few games I would watch but personally Ive had enough of seeing Bama, Clemson and tOSU curb stomp other teams. Lack of parity would seem to be a larger concern than feeding more teams to the lions.
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I like to think that a coach can stay at a mid major and actually build something. I would love to see what a team like Cincinnati could do in a 12 team playoff when they don't feel like they have to go undefeated to just barely make it into the top 10. Would that be bad for OSU because it would make it harder for them to lock down the state/region? Yes, but it would be fun to see. 

 
Lorewarn said:
Anyone else feel like there's a potential unintended consequence of this making life even easier for Bama/Clemson/OSU/OU? Could we even see teams intentionally lose to stay out of their conference championships, knowing they'll still get a playoff bid and an extra week of rest?

I'm not a fan of cheapening the 'win or you're out' high stakes of the regular season (which has already been cheapened) that makes college football great. But, if it's inevitable, at least this way there's literally no excuse left for pretty much anyone even close to being able to argue they deserved a shot.
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I agree with you in part, but I'm tired of seeing ND in the semis. And if they do get there through this system at least they'll have to earn it.

 
jaws said:
I like to think that a coach can stay at a mid major and actually build something. I would love to see what a team like Cincinnati could do in a 12 team playoff when they don't feel like they have to go undefeated to just barely make it into the top 10. Would that be bad for OSU because it would make it harder for them to lock down the state/region? Yes, but it would be fun to see. 
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That’s a good point. Expanding the playoffs may very well contribute towards more parity. I’m still not totally convinced that 12 teams is better than 8. It seems all 12 does is provide more of an unneeded advantage to the top 4 if they will be receiving a round 1 bye. If we’re trying to make it as difficult as other sport’s playoffs then all teams involved should start at the same point. But maybe 12 does provide some added opportunity for some group of 5 or mid major programs and maybe that is a good thing.

 
JJ Husker said:
That’s a good point. Expanding the playoffs may very well contribute towards more parity. I’m still not totally convinced that 12 teams is better than 8. It seems all 12 does is provide more of an unneeded advantage to the top 4 if they will be receiving a round 1 bye. If we’re trying to make it as difficult as other sport’s playoffs then all teams involved should start at the same point. But maybe 12 does provide some added opportunity for some group of 5 or mid major programs and maybe that is a good thing.
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If the top teams are probably (and they probably will) going to dominate and win anyways, at least this way maybe we get some entertaining and electric games before the inevitable boring conclusions?

 
Lorewarn said:
If the top teams are probably (and they probably will) going to dominate and win anyways, at least this way maybe we get some entertaining and electric games before the inevitable boring conclusions?
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I don’t disagree but like I originally said, I’m pretty ambivalent about however they do the playoffs.....at least until Nebraska starts getting somewhere near the discussion.

 
JJ Husker said:
4 teams isn’t enough if you want a true playoff and 12 seems a bit too much. Until Nebraska starts getting sniff of it I just don’t care. Might be a few games I would watch but personally Ive had enough of seeing Bama, Clemson and tOSU curb stomp other teams. Lack of parity would seem to be a larger concern than feeding more teams to the lions.
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Over the past 2-3 years or so, I've only watched regular season CFB and a handful of bowl games. Haven't watched much of the CFP due to the lack of parity.

And at this point, I don't know if an expanded playoff would or wouldn't help that. A lot of the best players in the country are going to Bama, Clemson, and tOSU because they're NFL feeders and everyone thinks they're just oh so cool. I'm sure the CFP is relevant to those players, but overall? I don't know.

Maybe playoff expansion gives us a shot at an extra crazy upset or two, at least. Probably a much greater likelihood of a 1v8 upset than a March Madness 1v16 upset.

 
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