This is something I have been promoting since the CFP started. It’s a big deal, and the G5 needs to band together to ensure it happens.
If there is 8 spots, then actually G5 would deserve 3 just by simple math, not just 1.
As much as I love Charlotte football and root for the G5, I disagree here. There are not in a given year 3 G5 teams that are even among the top 25 best teams. The playoffs should strive to put together the best competition. In my view the best way to do this is to let in the winners of the P5 conferences, have a couple of at-large spots to be able to let in teams that are clearly among the best that somehow get shut out of their conference title games (and that could be G5 teams in some years) and then one guaranteed G5 team. That will be fair, and it will frankly make for the most compelling matchups.
8 team playoff:
5x P5 Champs
1x G5 Rep
2x At Large
Keep in mind, seeding is also going to come into play. The G5 rep may end up playing the SEC champ or OSU every year as an 8 vs a 1. To the arrogant amongst the P5, they’d see it as a semi bye into the next round. But its a great stage for the G5 to pull an upset.
It should be a guaranteed spot in the 8 team play-off for the top G5 school and an automatic second spot for any other G5 team finishing in the top 15.
They’ll never give us more than 1 guaranteed spot. They should just guarantee one G5 spot IMO and guarantee spots to the other top 7 ranked teams, regardless of conference. If you’re a G5 that is undefeated, there is a reasonable chance you’ll be in that top 7 group. Not a fair chance of course, but it has happened before, not long ago.
I like conf winners going and the top ranked G5 school. Then at large teams. Winning your conference should mean something.
What about 16? If it goes to 16, then can we guarantee all 10 conferences get in plus 6 wild cards?
And 3 pages out of SI’s CFP Preview for G5 is BS.
[quote=“stonecoldken, post:8, topic:29745”]What about 16? If it goes to 16, then can we guarantee all 10 conferences get in plus 6 wild cards?
And 3 pages out of SI’s CFP Preview for G5 is BS.[/quote]
No way it goes to 16. 8 or maybe 10 with top 2 getting byes is as far as I think it will go. Logistically going to 16 is too much.
With 68 in B-Ball, then 1-A & 1-AA should both be theoretically 32 each, so 16 is actually not enough.
You cannot go more than 3 games deep in a CFP without either a) letting the games go into the spring semester (which the Presidents have been adamant about not doing) or b) reducing the season back to a 10 game season. Plan b) would be devastating for the G5 because the games that would be cut would be the P5 vs G5 games. Given that constraint, I expect to see an 8 game playoff (which is 3 games for the two teams that make it to the finals) and that will be about it.
Do 12. Every conference gets an auto bid plus wild cards, top-4 get a bye. Eliminate one non-conference game from the traditional schedule.
Now you’re looking at a team typically playing 11 games in the regular season, plus a possible conference championship game, and then possibly up to 4 more games to win the title. Total of 16 if the title winner comes from a conference with a title game and is one of the 8 lowest seeds.
That’s not too bad with the possibility of up to 15 or 16 games, even now. Most teams play 12 (with a few playing 13) regular season games, plus a title game, and two wins for the national title.
Every conference gets a shot, there are extra slots for stronger conferences, it doesn’t really extend the season, and we’d have a real national title winner.
[quote=“NewNiner, post:12, topic:29745”]Do 12. Every conference gets an auto bid plus wild cards, top-4 get a bye. Eliminate one non-conference game from the traditional schedule.
Now you’re looking at a team typically playing 11 games in the regular season, plus a possible conference championship game, and then possibly up to 4 more games to win the title. Total of 16 if the title winner comes from a conference with a title game and is one of the 8 lowest seeds.
That’s not too bad with the possibility of up to 15 or 16 games, even now. Most teams play 12 (with a few playing 13) regular season games, plus a title game, and two wins for the national title.
Every conference gets a shot, there are extra slots for stronger conferences, it doesn’t really extend the season, and we’d have a real national title winner.[/quote]
This could work. Total of 10 auto-bids plus two wild cards. Would be interesting.
[quote=“NewNiner, post:12, topic:29745”]Do 12. Every conference gets an auto bid plus wild cards, top-4 get a bye. Eliminate one non-conference game from the traditional schedule.
Now you’re looking at a team typically playing 11 games in the regular season, plus a possible conference championship game, and then possibly up to 4 more games to win the title. Total of 16 if the title winner comes from a conference with a title game and is one of the 8 lowest seeds.
That’s not too bad with the possibility of up to 15 or 16 games, even now. Most teams play 12 (with a few playing 13) regular season games, plus a title game, and two wins for the national title.
Every conference gets a shot, there are extra slots for stronger conferences, it doesn’t really extend the season, and we’d have a real national title winner.[/quote]
Darn, that does make sense, and it would at least have a chance of a buy in by the P5 with the top 4 getting byes.
The problem then isn’t with the playoff format, which is very sensible; it’s the lost revenues from those 12th games. How many payday games would get cut as a result?
I can answer my own question there - the playoff would generate more money in this format, which could be shared by the conferences to offset, but that’d be a hard sell to greedy P5 programs.
[quote=“Ninerdawg, post:13, topic:29745”][quote=“NewNiner, post:12, topic:29745”]Do 12. Every conference gets an auto bid plus wild cards, top-4 get a bye. Eliminate one non-conference game from the traditional schedule.
Now you’re looking at a team typically playing 11 games in the regular season, plus a possible conference championship game, and then possibly up to 4 more games to win the title. Total of 16 if the title winner comes from a conference with a title game and is one of the 8 lowest seeds.
That’s not too bad with the possibility of up to 15 or 16 games, even now. Most teams play 12 (with a few playing 13) regular season games, plus a title game, and two wins for the national title.
Every conference gets a shot, there are extra slots for stronger conferences, it doesn’t really extend the season, and we’d have a real national title winner.[/quote]
This could work. Total of 10 auto-bids plus two wild cards. Would be interesting.[/quote]
If you start the 12 team playoff soon after the end of the season, can you not get 4 weekends of playoff games? It is usually at least a month between the end of the regular season and the National Championship game. The loser in this scenario would be the other bowl games, but it seems playing those other bowl games at times other than the playoff games should not cut into the bowl games TV audience too much.
[quote=“49r9r, post:15, topic:29745”][quote=“Ninerdawg, post:13, topic:29745”][quote=“NewNiner, post:12, topic:29745”]Do 12. Every conference gets an auto bid plus wild cards, top-4 get a bye. Eliminate one non-conference game from the traditional schedule.
Now you’re looking at a team typically playing 11 games in the regular season, plus a possible conference championship game, and then possibly up to 4 more games to win the title. Total of 16 if the title winner comes from a conference with a title game and is one of the 8 lowest seeds.
That’s not too bad with the possibility of up to 15 or 16 games, even now. Most teams play 12 (with a few playing 13) regular season games, plus a title game, and two wins for the national title.
Every conference gets a shot, there are extra slots for stronger conferences, it doesn’t really extend the season, and we’d have a real national title winner.[/quote]
This could work. Total of 10 auto-bids plus two wild cards. Would be interesting.[/quote]
If you start the 12 team playoff soon after the end of the season, can you not get 4 weekends of playoff games? It is usually at least a month between the end of the regular season and the National Championship game. The loser in this scenario would be the other bowl games, but it seems playing those other bowl games at times other than the playoff games should not cut into the bowl games TV audience too much.[/quote]
You probably could, but remember right now most teams - even those playing in the early bowls - get at least a week to 10 days off before beginning bowl practice. You lose that if you go straight from the conference championship games to the first round of the playoffs a week later.
I am curious about where the games are played if you start exanding this. Fans can travel for a single bowl game, but even the biggest fan bases are going to have trouble traveling all over the country for an extended 3 or 4 game run in various parts of the country. Maybe play first and second round on campus of higher seed?
That will almost certainly happen if you go to even 8 games. Just no real hope of getting remote games filled in the early rounds.
If all the conferences were guaranteed at least one playoff spot, it would possibly change the perspective of the G5 programs, including their fans. It seems it may help recruiting and attendance at some schools, not to mention TV contracts and TV viewership (I’m thinking a conference championship game between Charlotte and Marshall, Rice, or anyone else could draw a decent TV audience if the winner goes to the playoffs).
Because of this, I doubt it happens.