Eight team playoff (CFP)

[VA Froggie]

I’m sure this has been beat to death but dropping off one non conference game and go to an eight team playoff seems to be a no brained to me. What are the negatives with the eight team format? I’ve got my big boy pants on, shoot me down.

 

[Sebastian S]

They won't do it, yet.

They like the fact that we discuss this every year and every game matters.

If you know you have the conference championship game locked up, the games in between that "don't matter" won't be as big.

I think last week Clemson and Miami locked a spot into the conference championship game. If it were an 8 team playoff, as long as they get into the ccg healthy, losing a game up to then wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[ReedFrawg]

Top 6 with top 2 getting first round bye.

 

[Wexahu]

I’m sure this has been beat to death but dropping off one non conference game and go to an eight team playoff seems to be a no brained to me. What are the negatives with the eight team format? I’ve got my big boy pants on, shoot me down.

One negative is that over 90% of the programs would get one less game. I'm not sure you'd necessarily have to drop an OOC game though. I don't see many negatives but rather than make conference champions automatic qualifiers like most suggest I'd prefer the current system, but guarantee a G5 team a bid and make it 2-team per conference max. I'd want the best teams in, not some 3 or 4 loss conference champ that backed their way in thru weird circumstances. But I'd be fine with an 8-team playoff however they'd want to do it as long as some at-large bids are at stake.

 

[Sebastian S]

Whatever it is, conference champ can't be an auto qualifier.

Has to be the "best" teams be it 4,6 or 8

 

[Lone Frog]

I don't see any reason to drop an OOC game in order to go to an eight-team playoff. Right now, the two teams in the champ game play a 15-game season. The other two playoff contenders (who lose in the first round) play a 14-game schedule, along with every other team that plays in a conference championship game and a bowl.

If the CFP goes to eight teams, you'll have four teams playing a 15-game schedule and two teams playing 16 games. Everyone else will still be at 14 or fewer. Why should every FBS football program lose a game off their schedule because four teams will be playing one or two extra games? Makes no sense to me.

 

[Despite the odds Frog]

Won't happen till the SEC is left out of the playoffs. Then you will see change.

 

[ShadowFrog]

Won't happen till the SEC is left out of the playoffs. Then you will see change.

Truth

 

[Mean Purple]

BEAT tt

 

[Limey Frog]

Whatever it is, conference champ can't be an auto qualifier.

Has to be the "best" teams be it 4,6 or 8

No, anytime you leave it subjective in college football some committee of elitist [ Finebaum ]s will interpret "best" to mean Notre Dame.

Edit: is the synonym for fecal matter starting with t and rhyming with herd really so offensive?

 

[TxFrog1999]

It has to be at least 8, and no we don't need to drop a game from the schedule to do it. Plenty of time off between championship weekend and New Year's

 

[Limey Frog]

It has to be at least 8, and no we don't need to drop a game from the schedule to do it. Plenty of time off between championship weekend and New Year's

The best solution would be for conferences to go back to the size and geographic alignment they used to be in, have eight autobid leagues and eliminate the championship games. Then you could have an eight team playoff without adding or subtracting games for anyone.

 

[Horny4TCU]

Instead of warming up with FCS opponents, they should make every team play 2 P5 OOC games. Strength of schedule should then be determined by how the conference performs as a whole.

 

[tcumaniac]

Won't happen till the SEC is left out of the playoffs. Then you will see change.

So in other words, we will never see change?

 

[HG73]

The best solution would be for conferences to go back to the size and geographic alignment they used to be in, have eight autobid leagues and eliminate the championship games. Then you could have an eight team playoff without adding or subtracting games for anyone.

This is the best solution. Eight conferences, 9 teams each. Adds 7 more teams (and ND), for sure nobody left out. Eight conference games, 4 home and 4 away, and 4 OOC. Eight team playoffs custom made for a tournament. ESPN goes out of business, nothing to talk about.

 

[Wexahu]

This is the best solution. Eight conferences, 9 teams each. Adds 7 more teams (and ND), for sure nobody left out. Eight conference games, 4 home and 4 away, and 4 OOC. Eight team playoffs custom made for a tournament. ESPN goes out of business, nothing to talk about.

Do the OOC games count toward conference standings? If they do, they'd have to turn over scheduling to the NCAA for some kind of equitable scheduling system (and that really wouldn't work either), otherwise everyone would play four Jackson State's. If they don't, then those games are meaningless exhibition games in which coaches probably wouldn't even play their most important players much.

That's the thing that always gets in the way and why there HAS to be at-large teams in a playoff.

 

[HG73]

Whatever it is, conference champ can't be an auto qualifier.

Has to be the "best" teams be it 4,6 or 8

Disagree strongly. Conference champions only in the playoffs. Otherwise why have conferences and play conference schedules?

Playoffs should be the P5 champs, 4 and 5 seeds play a wild card game to get in the final four. Or have a 6 team playoff with P5 champs and the best G5 champ.

WHY HAVE A TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS THAT DIDN'T WIN THEIR CONFERENCE?

Teams would schedule OOC better because an OOC loss wouldn't keep them out of the playoffs. Better OOC games mean more interest and more money. September is almost a lost month anyway what with the P5 teams playing bodybag games.

 

[eh0215]

This is the best solution. Eight conferences, 9 teams each. Adds 7 more teams (and ND), for sure nobody left out. Eight conference games, 4 home and 4 away, and 4 OOC. Eight team playoffs custom made for a tournament. ESPN goes out of business, nothing to talk about.

I think it's far more likely we'll see the 5 power conferences combine into 4 16 team conferences (at the expense of the Big 12) before we see them break up into 8 smaller conferences.

That still works though. You could even do conference 4-team tournaments at the end of the season to crown the 4 conference champs for a virtual 16 team playoff. How can a conference make even more TV money? Finish the season with 2 semi-final games and a championship game of their own.


Scheduling could even be perfect too. 9 conference games. 3 from your own 4 team division, 6 from 2 each of the other 3 divisions. Then 3 non-conference games against 1 team each from the other 3 conferences.

As a player with 4 years, you'd get a home and away with every team in your conference. As a fan, you'd see your team play every other team in a power conference home and away over 32 years. The other teams that aren't in that 64 team setup just have their own second tier division from now on, which means they probably axe football without getting money games against the top 64.

 

[Hoosierfrog]

Disagree strongly. Conference champions only in the playoffs. Otherwise why have conferences and play conference schedules?

Playoffs should be the P5 champs, 4 and 5 seeds play a wild card game to get in the final four. Or have a 6 team playoff with P5 champs and the best G5 champ.

WHY HAVE A TEAM IN THE PLAYOFFS THAT DIDN'T WIN THEIR CONFERENCE?

Teams would schedule OOC better because an OOC loss wouldn't keep them out of the playoffs. Better OOC games mean more interest and more money. September is almost a lost month anyway what with the P5 teams playing bodybag games.

Agree, otherwise we need to abolish conferences and just have a big rotating D1 round robin every year.

 

[rifram09]

8 teams makes it far less likely that TCU would get screwed again. That's why I like it.

But I don't like auto-bids, for the reasons described by Wexahu above.

Top 6 could be okay too, but getting a bye seems like too much of a break for the top two, especially where the difference between 2 and 3 would likely be not drastic at all.