Should College Football Playoff expand? Coaches at AFCA convention in Nashville disagree

[Panthadad2]

Patterson believes the conference championship games should be eliminated and become the first round of the playoffs. Excerpt and link follow:

"NASHVILLE — TCU coach Gary Patterson said he enjoyed dissecting the College Football Playoff national title game on ESPN’s "Coaches Film Room" show Monday night. He was joined by Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Boston College’s Jeff Hafley in breaking down LSU’s 42-25 win over Clemson for the FBS national championship.

But Tuesday in Nashville, Patterson said he had one big problem with the game. It should’ve been the last game of an eight-team playoff rather than a four-team bracket.

“It should be eight,” said Patterson, who was attending the American Football Coaches Association convention at Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. “You’d have five winners (as champions of Power Five conferences), a couple that deserve it (as at-large selections) and one Cinderella, maybe from the (Group of Five) conferences.

“It’ll change once it’s about the money.” ..."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...n-in-nashville-disagree/ar-BBYXNPd?li=BBnb7Kz

 

[Goldmember]

His viewpoints highlight why coaches would make for horrible commissioners of the game.

 

[Schnauzer]

I have always felt it should be minimum 8 if not 16. 16 would require shortening the regular season by a game, in my opinion, and playing the first two games at the higher seed until it is down to 4, where it could be managed like it is currently.

I could live with an 8 team playoff. quarterfinal at the higher seed and then announce bowl games and progress the same way it does not with 4.

Either way, the big thing is each power 5 conference champ should be part of the 'tournament' with 3 at-large bids allowing another top team or two and/or get some group of five top teams involved.

 

[Panthadad2]

Conferences (thus the conference members) get the proceeds from the championship games now.

For Patterson's plan to work, a revenue distribution deal would need to be worked out to split proceeds of the first round playoff games among conferences...probably similar to the current CFP distribution. The ratings would need to be higher for the 4 first round games than they are now for the 5 Power Five conf champ games. There would need to be equity among Power 5 conferences in revenue distribution where the SEC doesn't get the lion share of proceeds otherwise it wouldn't work.

I like Patterson's scenario in theory as the conference champ games are a joke in my mind, but the money issue is huge. I haven't even mentioned how bowl games would be handled.

 

[tmvander]

If you're going to go to 8 just go to 16...no point in going to 8 and just having it be a few conference champs and all SEC teams.

 

[BigGopher69]

His viewpoints highlight why coaches would make for horrible commissioners of the game.

I really like pattersons playoff because every conference will be represented and a team like ucf who i would have love to see in the playoffs would make it from a non p5 bid otherwise they have no shot.

 

[MplsGopher]

Patterson's idea of replacing conf championship games with the first round of playoff makes sense from his viewpoint because the Big XII only has 10 teams with a 9 game conf schedule, thus they play a round-robin already, and therefore their champ game is guaranteed to be redundant.

That's not true in the other four P5 confs. The champ game would often be legitmately needed to fairly determine which team deserves the auto-bid.

 

[MplsGopher]

I still like the idea of having the P5 conf champs play the first round in their traditional, contracted slots of the Rose, Sugar, and Orange bowls, with the ACC champ playing a Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame at-large in the Orange, and the top G5 champ playing the other at-large in the Fiesta.

Then the two semi's feed yearly into the Cotton and Peach a week later, with the natty then being bid out as it is currently is as a standalone game.

 

[Herd]

I hear a lot of people say, "well if you increased the playoff field, LSU would still be the champion, why increase it".

The truth is, you don't expand the field to necessarily change the champion, you expand it to be more inclusive of more teams and conference, and bring more balance to college FB. If all you care about it is the champion, then have a two team playoff, or no playoff at all.

 

[Panthadad2]

Patterson's idea of replacing conf championship games with the first round of playoff makes sense from his viewpoint because the Big XII only has 10 teams with a 9 game conf schedule, thus they play a round-robin already, and therefore their champ game is guaranteed to be redundant.

That's not true in the other four P5 confs. The champ game would often be legitmately needed to fairly determine which team deserves the auto-bid.

The conference championship game can be redundant. In the past 20 years, there was only one year where there wasn't a team at the top of the standings or with a head to head win against a tied team (2002 Ohio State and Iowa). For the few years where that does happen, the usual tie breakers could be used. In my opinion, that's a superior way to select teams than the current 100% subjective committee-based method.

 

[MplsGopher]

The conference championship game can be redundant. In the past 20 years, there was only one year where there wasn't a team at the top of the standings or with a head to head win against a tied team (2002 Ohio State and Iowa). For the few years where that does happen, the usual tie breakers could be used. In my opinion, that's a superior way to select teams than the current 100% subjective committee-based method.

I'm not sure I follow your last sentence. Fair to reword as "selecting auto-bids by tie-breaker, per conference, is more fair than how the CFP committee selects the top 4 now"? If so, then I agree.

I don't agree that 2002 is the only case in the last 20 years, in the Big Ten, where more than one team had a legitimate claim to be the conference champion when considering only the regular season results.