CFB Power Brokers Discussing Expansion Of CFP To 8

gossamorharpy said:
Haven't heard one honest explanation as to why we started with a 4 team playoff system when we have 5 power conferences considered equal to one another... that system will inherently be unfair and guaranteed to leave out at least one conference champ each year, 2 when notre dame has a solid year.

All conference champs and then next 3 highest ranked teams.  Makes conference champ weekend and late november football way more compelling when teams 6-12 are fighting for the last spots.

I'm 100% against a 6 team because it gives the top 2 team an inherent advantage with a week off and since its impossible to have equal schedules, do not want a scenario where a biased committee dictates who gets a bye.

Start the 3rd round this weekend, 2nd round around new years and title game where it is now.

Who the F says no to that?
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I don't think it is bad to give an advantage to the top teams if playoffs get expanded. It would provide a much greater incentive to earn one of the top two seeds as opposed to slipping into the playoffs as the #6 or #8 team in the country and suddenly be on equal footing with number 1. 

Also, I don't know the answer to the perfect playoff system, but if all the conference champs got auto bids to the playoffs, wouldn't non-conference games lose all of their importance? 

 
Ulty said:
I don't think it is bad to give an advantage to the top teams if playoffs get expanded. It would provide a much greater incentive to earn one of the top two seeds as opposed to slipping into the playoffs as the #6 or #8 team in the country and suddenly be on equal footing with number 1. 

Also, I don't know the answer to the perfect playoff system, but if all the conference champs got auto bids to the playoffs, wouldn't non-conference games lose all of their importance? 
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I get the incentivizing the top 2 seeds but its also going to create a scenario of 2 vs. 3  and much of the poll biasy is going to pop up again.

If anything, I'd argue non-conf games become even more important.  As of now, there's really only a handful, if that, of non con games that actually matter and they usually involve whoever is ranked in the top 10 to start the year against another ranked team.  Having more teams in play to get into the playoffs means the importance of squads ranked from 10-15 playing another ranked team will heighten compared to the current situation where a fringe top 10 team really isn't that relevant on the national stage.

For pure selfish reasons, saturdays in december suck.  Its cold out, now I have nothing to watch on saturday, gimme a round of legit football in mid december to carry me to the holidays and the 2nd round of playoffs/bowl season that actually matters.

 
Or what if you kept it as a 4 team playoff. All 5- P5 conference champs have a crack. The top 3 highest rated conference champs get seeds 1-3. The 2 lowest ranked conference winners face eachother in a wild card to earn the final 4th spot. 

So this year. 

1. Alabama

2. Clemson

3. Oklahoma

4. Washington vs Ohio State play wild card to earn 4th spot. 

I know what your thinking. What about Notre Dame. My response is Notre Dame better join a P5 then- they have no one to blame but themselves. Any of the P5 conferences would take Notre Dame tomorrow. 

Now you say what about G5. So UCF. I say keep working hard and maybe you will earn a spot at the P5 table the next time expansion comes along. But why should someone with the 100th hardest schedule have an equal shot at the playoff as someone fighting an SEC, ACC or BIG10 Schedule. Or Maybe the G5 just needs to be a subset division to the P5 and hold their own playoffs/national title game.

 
seaofred92 said:
I also think that more teams are competitive now and 1 loss now is probably equal to 0 back when you could just stack rosters
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I hear that but don't believe that as much. I think the top teams have the same advantage, it's just that the lower teams are better than what they used to be. Bama has dominated the last 10 years like we've never seen before. Clemson also has a ridiculous record as of late. Ohio State, Oklahoma etc. 

 
Absolutely hate the idea of a wild card/play-in/first round byes....

Just go to 8 teams and be done with it. 5 P5 conference champs, two at-larges, and the highest rated G5 (if they're in the top 10).... Hopefully UCF is the first G5 in, so we can watch Bama curb stomp them by 35.

 
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I don't really care how they get it done but there should be a representative from each P5 conference.  Beyond that, it honestly doesn't matter.  Under the current system, strong conferences are cannibalizing each other to the point they are left out.  For example, the B1G beat each other up in the regular season (2017) but went 7-1 in the bowl games.  They weren't playoff worthy because Ohio State lost to Iowa in the middle of a loaded schedule...  It's a crappy system to me.        

 
Ulty said:
I don't think it is bad to give an advantage to the top teams if playoffs get expanded. It would provide a much greater incentive to earn one of the top two seeds as opposed to slipping into the playoffs as the #6 or #8 team in the country and suddenly be on equal footing with number 1. 

Also, I don't know the answer to the perfect playoff system, but if all the conference champs got auto bids to the playoffs, wouldn't non-conference games lose all of their importance? 
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There's been thoughts of having the 1st round be at the home site of the higher ranked school.  Surely they'd have to figure out logistics around this but I like the idea of this simply to incentivize being top 4 while still opening the door for all "equal" conferences to have their champ have a shot at the title.

 
If you don't lock in the conference champions, the SEC will get three most years is my guess and then they would be whining about needing a fourth.

 
I've always liked the idea of developing conferences with two 16 team tiers, split into divisions. I think European Soccer does something like this. 

For instance: The Big 10 and the Mac merge into 1 conference and steal Oklahoma, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Kansas from the Big 12 and: Tulsa (just for geography's sake) from the American West. (Only the top two performing Big 12 teams get added to tier 1 from the get go, only to fill out the 8 team west division because 11-1 votes deserve some payback.)

At the conclusion of each year, the lowest performing team from each division in the Tier 1 schools drops to Tier 2, and the Highest performing schools from each tier two division jump to tier 1. This would add so much more meaning to games that are played after a school is eliminated from the conference championship hunt. 

Each tier can have its own championship game. Each team only plays the 8 other teams in it's division to qualify for the championship game (schools can fill out their remaining schedule however they want). Tier 1 conference champions are guaranteed a spot in an 8 team playoff for national champion. Tier 2 can even have its own tier two championship. 

What I love about this is that is provides access for high performing small schools (UCF, TCU before the Bix 12, Boise State, for example) to the big boy table, and penalizes low performing power 5 schools for being terrible (Rutgers and Illinois). 

Based on Win/Loss records from this year, the conference might look like this in 2019.

The Big 10 tier 1

East: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Maryland, Indiana, Purdue, Buffalo

West: Northwestern, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Northern Illinois,

The Big 10 Tier 2

East: Kent State, Akron, Ohio, Miami, Bowling Green, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Rutgers,

West: Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Ball State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Kansas, Illinois

 
The only way to have a true champion is with a round robin tournament. Make it happen NCAA. 

 
If they did home games, I wonder if they’d consider moving the season up 1 week or removing a non con game. Dec. 14 in Nebraska could get... interesting.

 
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