ESPN: Could the SEC stage its own college football playoff? It's all on the table at spring meetings

[mnsportsgeek]

Why even have a conference championship if you don’t have divisions? Why should the first place team have to beat the second place team again?

Bingo. If people want to scrap divisions then go all the way and create a balanced schedule. 13 game big ten season. Everyone plays everyone, and forget about any championship.

Divisions were the right move to accommodate the growing size of conferences.

 

[Some guy]

There are a lot of different directions that this thing is being pulled into, which it makes sense why they're deadlocked.

They only need a simple majority of 6 out of 11 votes for the new contract (starting in 2026), but it also has to be 3 out of 5 of the P5 votes. So the "Alliance" can block it, without one of them breaking off.


What size/format - SEC wants 12, so they can get more teams in each year, 8 is a nonstarter for them. G5 wants top 6 highest ranked champions, autobids for P5 is a nonstarter for them. Alliance wants P5 autobids (which would be greatly in the new Big XII's interest as well), so that they can't have years where their champ is left out for a Sun Belt team. And while 8 could seem more wieldy, how do you satisfy everyone? Top 5 champs + 3 auto's? 5 auto + 1 top G5 + 2 auto? Neither of those would seem to work.

Scheduling/logistics - Obviously though, a 12 team bracket takes 4 rounds. The first round or "play in" round gets you down to 8, which then takes three rounds. You have the NY6 bowls, which could be quarter and semi finals each year, but what would be the schedule? Shouldn't the Rose bowl (and perhaps Sugar) always be a semi? Would the other bowls agree to step backwards a week back from NYD, then? Or you could have quarter-final bowls on NYD, and then which two bowls step forward a week for the semi-finals? Or do you bid out from the semis onward?

Another issues is the first round games. Should they be home games? Or should they be played at bowl games? The issue with home game is like this: the four losing teams basically get jobbed. Think about it: you're the undefeated Sun Belt champion, ranked in the teens. And your reward is ...... traveling to College Station, TX to play A&M (at-large) in a defacto home game for them, lose, and not even get to go to a bowl game or bowl game atmosphere. Who wants that? But if you have the first round be at bowl games, which bowls and what would be the schedule?

Rose Bowl - this is a whole issue unto itself. The Big Ten, PAC, and Rose view this property as a special thing that is on the level of the CFP itself. Like the Kentucky Derby or the Masters. They want to do everything in the power of the universe to preserve this property as a Big Ten vs PAC matchup and on NYD afternoon timeslot. But they also don't want it to get overshadowed by the CFP. Ideally, it should be in the CFP, while attempting to preserve that matchup. This is also part of why the Alliance wants P5 autobids.

The natural best answer is 16 with 10 auto bids for conference champs

OR

12 with 10 auto bids for conference champs ranked in some sort of ranking systems top 20 and champs not in top 20 converting to an extra at large

But that won’t happen.


I think there is a chance the big 10, pac 12, and possibly ACC would rather have it go back to 2 or pre BCS rather than have 12 at large bids controlled by ESPN.


Big Ten and pac 12 probably will want an objective criteria rather than a subjective committee to expand the number of at large bids because the SEC will be able to run the thing at the expense of others.
If it is 7 at large bids with the SEC getting 5 of them the lead the SEC has will just keep growing and growing

 

[stocker08]

The SEC playing only the SEC is a recipe for the SEC to realize eventually that most of college football fandom cares about the SEC because they like college football and the SEC is the highest level of college football that their school is associated with.

If the SEC is a different level of football than Iowa state. Iowa state fans don’t watch Georgia vs Florida as much as they do now

This is a good point. If the SEC implements a large scale playoff that is more than four teams....It basically puts a kibosh on the SEC's best teams participating in the NCAA bowl season....including the NCAA playoff.

I don't see it happening. ESPN doesn't award the national championship title. The NCAA does. The AP has some say too.

 

[Some guy]

This is a good point. If the SEC implements a large scale playoff that is more than four teams....It basically puts a kibosh on the SEC's best teams participating in the NCAA bowl season....including the NCAA playoff.

I don't see it happening. ESPN doesn't award the national championship title. The NCAA does. The AP has some say too.

The NCAA literally doesn’t award the FBS national championship

 

[stocker08]

The NCAA literally doesn’t award the FBS national championship

Ok. It's the BCS. My point is that it's awarded for winning the college football playoff. And then the AP awards a trophy as well. So the SEC attempting to create their own playoff and foregoing the bowl season could end up causing more shared national championships. And that would depend on how the AP voters felt about it. Possible that they punish SEC teams for refusing to play outside the conference for their "championship".