How to fix the College Football Playoff: Format, schedule changes necessary with expansion on the horizon

[MisterGopher]

This is a pretty complex description, so you should read the entire article.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...nges-necessary-with-expansion-on-the-horizon/

A lot of people have shared their ideas for what the ideal College Football Playoff should look like, and plenty have been good. Some even great. However, I've yet to find one that addresses all my concerns, and what I believe to be the concerns of the sport at large.

To be clear, I was never a fan of playoff expansion past four teams. Four teams was fine. There were rarely four teams good enough to win a national title in any given season to begin with, but this is a battle that has been lost. You see, the point of the College Football Playoff was never truly about determining the best team; that was simply icing on the cake. No, the primary reason was money. Money is the cake, so an incredible television product was needed that would bring in big brands, and therefore more eyes to the product.

So what I set out to do is create a postseason format that would serve both ends: determine the best team in the country and provide an incredible television product. And, to be clear, that great television product isn't simply for the postseason. No, my playoff format would increase the television product during the regular season as well. I'm guessing there will be aspects of it you like and some you don't. That's fine. There are parts of my proposal I'm not a fan of philosophically, but this is how it must be! In a sport with 135 teams who can only play one game per week, there is no perfectly logical way to determine a champion. If there was, we'd have been doing it all along.

When it's all said and done, though, I do believe my solution has enough to make everybody mostly happy.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Starting to see some posts and suggestions for complete revamp of the schedule to help with the calendar, even moving bowl games to the start of the season and kickoff games.

Move the season up two weeks. Start the season in mid August with bowl and neutral site games to meet the P4 match-up needs. This would only compete with NFL Preseason.

13 week season with one bye week.
All leagues play 9 conference games plus 1 or 2 P4 opponents.
Conference Champion games (if played) would be the 3rd weekend in November and Playoffs would start on campuses Thanksgiving weekend.

Playoff =10 conference champions and 14 At-Large
Round of 24 Thanksgiving weekend
Round of 16 first weekend of December
Quarterfinal second weekend of December
Semi final third weekend of December
OFF for a week to line up for New Years Day Championship


Portal opens in January for Spring
Portal again open in May for Summer (Legally don't see how they can only have one portal date)
Practice starts 4 weeks before season.
HS Early Signing Day in December
Late HS signing in February

 

[ergopher]

8 teams. No automatic qualifiers for champs. Use unbiased BCS type algorithm.

 

[Some guy]

Starting to see some posts and suggestions for complete revamp of the schedule to help with the calendar, even moving bowl games to the start of the season and kickoff games.

Move the season up two weeks. Start the season in mid August with bowl and neutral site games to meet the P4 match-up needs. This would only compete with NFL Preseason.

13 week season with one bye week.
All leagues play 9 conference games plus 1 or 2 P4 opponents.
Conference Champion games (if played) would be the 3rd weekend in November and Playoffs would start on campuses Thanksgiving weekend.

Playoff =10 conference champions and 14 At-Large
Round of 24 Thanksgiving weekend
Round of 16 first weekend of December
Quarterfinal second weekend of December
Semi final third weekend of December
OFF for a week to line up for New Years Day Championship


Portal opens in January for Spring
Portal again open in May for Summer (Legally don't see how they can only have one portal date)
Practice starts 4 weeks before season.
HS Early Signing Day in December
Late HS signing in February

Legally they can have just one portal date because legally they don’t need to have any

And also legally people can transfer outside of the portal system

 

[Ope3]

Starting to see some posts and suggestions for complete revamp of the schedule to help with the calendar, even moving bowl games to the start of the season and kickoff games.

Move the season up two weeks. Start the season in mid August with bowl and neutral site games to meet the P4 match-up needs. This would only compete with NFL Preseason.

13 week season with one bye week.
All leagues play 9 conference games plus 1 or 2 P4 opponents.
Conference Champion games (if played) would be the 3rd weekend in November and Playoffs would start on campuses Thanksgiving weekend.

Playoff =10 conference champions and 14 At-Large
Round of 24 Thanksgiving weekend
Round of 16 first weekend of December
Quarterfinal second weekend of December
Semi final third weekend of December
OFF for a week to line up for New Years Day Championship


Portal opens in January for Spring
Portal again open in May for Summer (Legally don't see how they can only have one portal date)
Practice starts 4 weeks before season.
HS Early Signing Day in December
Late HS signing in February

Ick.

 

[SJUgopher]

8 team playoff.

10 games, 8 conference games. Eliminate conference championship games.

 

[Some guy]

8 team playoff.

10 games, 8 conference games. Eliminate conference championship games.

Why do you want to eliminate 16-17% of college football games?

 

[PMWinSTP]

8 team playoff.

10 games, 8 conference games. Eliminate conference championship games.

They are not going backwards.

 

[Goldmember]

All evidence suggests the playoff is too large already. Probably by at least 4 teams.

 

[Some guy]

All evidence suggests the playoff is too large already. Probably by at least 4 teams.

What evidence is that?
That the 8 seed won the national title game last year?
If the committee would’ve seeded them one lower the 9 would’ve won the national title last year.

 

[Goldmember]

What evidence is that?
That the 8 seed won the national title game last year?
If the committee would’ve seeded them one lower the 9 would’ve won the national title last year.

They were seeded 8th, but they were ranked 6th.
To be clear I always thought it was stupid to give multi-loss conference champions a “bump” in the seeding just so they can magically have a bye. Glad, everyone else knows that was stupid now too and its gone forever.

 

[MaxyJR1]

I’ll never understand people that want fewer teams in the playoffs and less football. Especially as Gopher fans.

 

[btowngopher]

I’ll never understand people that want fewer teams in the playoffs and less football. Especially as Gopher fans.

The sport was pretty great without any playoff in my opinion.

 

[Ope3]

I’ll never understand people that want fewer teams in the playoffs and less football. Especially as Gopher fans.

What's hard to understand that adding more teams to the playoffs can dramatically water down the importance and excitement of the regular season?

 

[Some guy]

They were seeded 8th, but they were ranked 6th.
To be clear I always thought it was stupid to give multi-loss conference champions a “bump” in the seeding just so they can magically have a bye. Glad, everyone else knows that was stupid now too and it’s gone forever.

The point stands. Last year the 6 ranked team winning proves 8 is the right number? How?

 

[Some guy]

What's hard to understand that adding more teams to the playoffs can dramatically water down the importance and excitement of the regular season?

Agree.
What I don’t get is people worried about the importance of the regular season wanting more at larges for the SEC #6 and the big ten #5 in lieu of bids for conference champs.

If you did a 12 team playoff with 8 conference champs and 4 at larges…actually more regular season games are important compared to 2023.



You can expand the playoff in a way that makes the regular season less important.
You can also expand in a way that makes it more important.
I think they’ll choose more at larges and a less important regular season. That’s sad though.

12 was the perfect number if they were going to have 7-8 conference champs in.
With 5, 8 was the right number to keep the value of the regular season.

With 16…I hope all 11 conference champs get in.


They do not listen to me though.
But at large bids growing in number is what devalues the regular season.

 

[MNfootballfan]

What's hard to understand that adding more teams to the playoffs can dramatically water down the importance and excitement of the regular season?

I strongly disagree with this. A 12 team playoff waters down the regular season for the top 3-4 teams heading into mid November, but there are 15-20 teams who are playing for their lives and with a win and another team losing may get to that coveted 12th spot. I could even argue that the regular season matters for the top 3-4 teams because they are fighting for a bye.

If anything getting more teams involved in the playoffs increases the competitiveness of the regular season.

 

[MNfootballfan]

For those of you think the playoffs are too big... it is December 19 and tonight we can watch Oklahoma vs. Alabama. That is a heck of a lot more fun than watching two random schools playing in the whatevercompany.com Birmingham Bowl, etc.

 

[Ope3]

For those of you think the playoffs are too big... it is December 19 and tonight we can watch Oklahoma vs. Alabama. That is a heck of a lot more fun than watching two random schools playing in the whatevercompany.com Birmingham Bowl, etc.

There's also 2 games tomorrow which will be largely ignored while much larger audiences tune into the NFL.

 

[Ope3]

I strongly disagree with this. A 12 team playoff waters down the regular season for the top 3-4 teams heading into mid November, but there are 15-20 teams who are playing for their lives and with a win and another team losing may get to that coveted 12th spot. I could even argue that the regular season matters for the top 3-4 teams because they are fighting for a bye.

If anything getting more teams involved in the playoffs increases the competitiveness of the regular season.

So adding 4 more teams would take away the Bye incentive thus watering down the regular season.

 

[PMWinSTP]

So adding 4 more teams would take away the Bye incentive thus watering down the regular season.

No, you make the first two rounds at home for the higher seed. That's plenty of incentive.

 

[MaxyJR1]

I strongly disagree with this. A 12 team playoff waters down the regular season for the top 3-4 teams heading into mid November, but there are 15-20 teams who are playing for their lives and with a win and another team losing may get to that coveted 12th spot. I could even argue that the regular season matters for the top 3-4 teams because they are fighting for a bye.

If anything getting more teams involved in the playoffs increases the competitiveness of the regular season.

Allowing more to play way in is better IMO. Taking the at-large component out is better IMO. The B1G has 18 teams and is considered one of the two power conferences. They should have an allotment of berths that they decide how to fill. Same with the SEC. You can't do at-large off of 9 conference games, 1P4 game, a G5 game, and a FCS opponent.

 

[Ope3]

No, you make the first two rounds at home for the higher seed. That's plenty of incentive.

Meh.

 

[Goldmember]

The point stands. Last year the 6 ranked team winning proves 8 is the right number? How?

Well if you watched any of the games, it was obvious 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 didn’t really belong there. And most people who know anything about the sport could have told you that before any of the games were ever played.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Well if you watched any of the games, it was obvious 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 didn’t really belong there. And most people who know anything about the sport could have told you that before any of the games were ever played.

March madness should go down to 16, maybe 8 using this logic...because upsets never happen.

 

[Texas Tornado]

I thought when twelve teams made the playoffs, that would be a happy medium.
And so far, it looks like the coaches and fans as well are still upset. If they have
sixteen teams next year, people will still Pi^^ and moan and groan about that.
Good luck to whoever can ever find a solution to this problem. Otherwise, Merry Christmas
to all the great Gopher fans.

 

[DarrenTheGreek]

I know this won't be popular and I also know it would never happen but if I were the commissioner of college football and I was tasked with coming up with a playoff format my goal would be to:
1. Keep the regular season important
2. Keep the conference championships important
3. Remove any byes

Thus my rules would be:
1. Each conference gets an auto-bid.
2. Conferences must have at least 10 schools and play a conference championship game (creates a defacto play-in game for some teams)
3. Total number of playoff spots would be the next even number that is rounded up from the number of auto-bids. So this year it is 9 auto-bids and 7 at-large
4. First two rounds are at campus sites of higher seeds.

2025 auto-bids: Tulane, James Madison, Indiana, Georgia, Texas Tech, Duke, Kennesaw State, Boise State, Western Michigan
2025 at-large: Ohio State, Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami

I don't care if Indiana would pound the piss out of Kennesaw State and if Ohio State would whip Western Michigan. I like giving the smaller schools a seat at the table. March Madness isn't hurt by having the 16-seeds offered up as a sacrificial lamb.

 

[MaxyJR1]

There's also 2 games tomorrow which will be largely ignored while much larger audiences tune into the NFL.

It will be interesting to see the ratings which are often affected by the network.

Miami and Texas A&M on ABC should get a good audience in traditional Big Noon/11AM Spot
Tulane Ole Miss on TNT at 2:30pm
JMU Oregon on TNT at 6:30pm

Eagle Commanders at 4pm on FOX
Packers Bears at 7:20pm on FOX

If game is competitive, Tulane and Ole Miss will have 1.5 hours invested and will people switch to the start of an NFL game with a team that has been eliminated and tanking for draft stock?

Packers Bears is a huge game for seeding but starts and will likely take the cake for the slot, but games are off set enough for people to flip.

Also in 2025, people have multiple screens going and watching more than one game at a time.

 

[Some guy]

Well if you watched any of the games, it was obvious 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 didn’t really belong there. And most people who know anything about the sport could have told you that before any of the games were ever played.

What do you mean they didn’t belong there?
Did you watch the Penn state vs Boise game? Or just the box score.
One no call away from being a one score game in the 4th

 

[MNfootballfan]

Meh.

You can disagree, but the fact is if there is a benefit or a consequence (bye or home field) there is actually more to playoff than the old model of bowl games only.