What if...... there was a real College Football Playoff?

Charlotte 49er Football 🏈
1

Just imagine. Maybe it would look something like this…

December 2-3, 2016
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEC: #1 Alabama v. #12 Florida
ACC: #3 Clemson v. Virginia Tech
PAC: #4 Washington v. #9 Colorado
B1G: #6 Wisconsin v. #7 Penn St.
MWC: #18 Boise St. v. #23 SDSU
MAC: #19 WMU v. Ohio
AAC: #24 Navy v. Temple
CUSA: LA Tech v. WKU

December 9-10, 2016
PLAY-IN ROUND
#12 Arkansas St. (SB) at #5 Michigan (Wild Card)
#11 LA Tech (CUSA) at #6 Wisconsin (B1G)
#10 Navy (AAC) at #7 Oklahoma (B12)
#9 Boise St. (MWC) at #8 WMU (MAC)

December 16-17, 2016
QUARTERFINALS
#9 Boise St. at #1 Alabama (SEC), in Tuscaloosa, AL
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Ohio St.(Wild Card), in Columbus, OH
#6 Wisconsin #3 Clemson (ACC), in Clemson, SC
#5 Michigan at #4 Washington (PAC), in Seattle, WA

December 31, 2016
SEMIFINALS
PEACH: #1 Alabama v. #4 Washington
FIESTA: #2 Ohio St. v. #3 Clemson

OTHER NY6
ROSE: Wisconsin v. USC
SUGAR: Oklahoma v. LSU
ORANGE: Louisville v. Michigan
COTTON: Boise St. v. Penn St.

January 9, 2017
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Tampa, FL
#1 Alabama v. #2 Ohio St.

2

[quote=“JudyPleaseRetire, post:1, topic:30642”]Just imagine. Maybe it would look something like this…

December 2-3, 2016
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEC: #1 Alabama v. #12 Florida
ACC: #3 Clemson v. Virginia Tech
PAC: #4 Washington v. #9 Colorado
B1G: #6 Wisconsin v. #7 Penn St.
MWC: #18 Boise St. v. #23 SDSU
MAC: #19 WMU v. Ohio
AAC: #24 Navy v. Temple
CUSA: LA Tech v. WKU

December 9-10, 2016
PLAY-IN ROUND
#12 Arkansas St. (SB) at #5 Michigan (Wild Card)
#11 LA Tech (CUSA) at #6 Wisconsin (B1G)
#10 Navy (AAC) at #7 Oklahoma (B12)
#9 Boise St. (MWC) at #8 WMU (MAC)

December 16-17, 2016
QUARTERFINALS
#9 Boise St. at #1 Alabama (SEC), in Tuscaloosa, AL
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Ohio St.(Wild Card), in Columbus, OH
#6 Wisconsin #3 Clemson (ACC), in Clemson, SC
#5 Michigan at #4 Washington (PAC), in Seattle, WA

December 31, 2016
SEMIFINALS
PEACH: #1 Alabama v. #4 Washington
FIESTA: #2 Ohio St. v. #3 Clemson

OTHER NY6
ROSE: Wisconsin v. USC
SUGAR: Oklahoma v. LSU
ORANGE: Louisville v. Michigan
COTTON: Boise St. v. Penn St.

January 9, 2017
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Tampa, FL
#1 Alabama v. #2 Ohio St.[/quote]

I’ve been saying for years that something similar to this is the best thing college football could do. The problem is too many teams and conferences are not interested in what is best for college football. They are interested in what is best for them.

I made a few adjustments to your pairings, assuming this sill have to happen in the future.

December 2-3, 2016
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
SEC: #1 Alabama v. #12 Florida
ACC: #3 Clemson v. Virginia Tech
PAC: #4 Washington v. #9 Colorado
B1G: #6 Wisconsin v. #7 Penn St.
MWC: #18 Boise St. v. #23 SDSU
MAC: #19 WMU v. Ohio
AAC: #24 Navy v. Temple
CUSA: CHARLOTTE v. WKU

December 9-10, 2016
PLAY-IN ROUND
#12 Arkansas St. (SB) at #5 Michigan (Wild Card)
#11 CHARLOTTE (CUSA) at #6 Wisconsin (B1G)
#10 Navy (AAC) at #7 Oklahoma (B12)
#9 Boise St. (MWC) at #8 WMU (MAC)

December 16-17, 2016
QUARTERFINALS
#9 Boise St. at #1 Alabama (SEC), in Tuscaloosa, AL
#7 Oklahoma at #2 Ohio St.(Wild Card), in Columbus, OH
#11 CHARLOTTE #3 Clemson (ACC), in Clemson, SC
#5 Michigan at #4 Washington (PAC), in Seattle, WA

December 31, 2016
SEMIFINALS
PEACH: #1 Alabama v. #4 Washington
FIESTA: #2 Ohio St. v. #11 CHARLOTTE

OTHER NY6
ROSE: Wisconsin v. USC
SUGAR: Oklahoma v. LSU
ORANGE: Louisville v. Michigan
COTTON: Boise St. v. Penn St.

January 9, 2017
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Tampa, FL
#1 Alabama v. #11 CHARLOTTE

:slight_smile:

3

Get rid of the “ats”. All neutral site games.

4

I don’t believe in the conference champion necessarily going.
Just because you win one side of a weak conference and upset a good team on neutral ground, it doesn’t mean you should go to a playoff.

5

[quote=“Tintin, post:4, topic:30642”]I don’t believe in the conference champion necessarily going.
Just because you win one side of a weak conference and upset a good team on neutral ground, it doesn’t mean you should go to a playoff.[/quote]

Why not? It works quite well for basketball, baseball, soccer, and the various pro leagues too. Using all the conference champs can reward stronger team(s) since they will be playing against those “weak” teams.

Plus, it gives the playoffs the “underdog” factor, which is one of the reasons the NCAA Basketball Tourney is one of the most popular sporting events.

6

I think expansion of the playoff is inevitable and in the future could help increase the competitive balance in college football. Its probably one reason certain conference are against it as they see their pool of money being dipped into by others. Although the idea of all conference champions making it seems good I think for only a sixteen team playoff you would have to rethink that. Sure it works fine for basketball, but you also are allowing 68 teams which makes it more feasible. I would suggest some qualifiers for all conference champions to be eligible. Maybe you have to reach a win threshold along with a certain ranking level of RPI to be eligible as the conference champion.

7

Meh - there are only 10 conferences. Leaving room for 6 at-large bids should be plenty in football (there aren’t nearly as many teams, after all). Automatic bids for the conference champions seems like a must if you ever want to even the balance in college football. Otherwise, SEC teams who never go on the road to play OOC will continue to dominate their all-home OOC schedules and teams from the G5 will never get a fair shake. How is a team like Akron ever going to be able to make the playoffs if they have to always play AT Ohio State rather than getting them on a neutral field or a home field? That’s a major advantage that is often overlooked and several close games could’ve gone the other way (how long did Tennessee stay ranked after nearly losing at home to App State?). I think Georgia played its first game above the Mason-Dixon line since the 60’s just this year. Alabama hasn’t played an OOC game away from home in 5 years, since a tight win against Penn State in 2011. That certainly stacks things in your favor and ensuring that “G5” conferences get a neutral crack at them is about the only way you’ll ever see a fair shake.

If you want convince me that every playoff team from the Pac-12 or Big-12 is actually better than the CUSA champion the last couple of years then you’re going to need Marshall/WKU/etc. to play a USC/UCLA/etc. on a neutral field. Continuously beat us down after that and you have a point. Just look at what the CUSA basketball champion has done the last few years in basketball when given a “neutral” court. I doubt they’d have made any RPI cutoff.

8

[quote=“Tintin, post:4, topic:30642”]I don’t believe in the conference champion necessarily going.
Just because you win one side of a weak conference and upset a good team on neutral ground, it doesn’t mean you should go to a playoff.[/quote]

It is illogical in my opinion to say that a team can be the best in the nation if they’re not the best in their conference.

I’m okay with a few at-large bids in a 12-team playoff with autobids for conference champs, provided that those at-large bids automatically get 11 and 12 seeds. At the very least, they shouldn’t be able to get a bye.

9

Meh - there are only 10 conferences. Leaving room for 6 at-large bids should be plenty in football (there aren’t nearly as many teams, after all). Automatic bids for the conference champions seems like a must if you ever want to even the balance in college football. Otherwise, SEC teams who never go on the road to play OOC will continue to dominate their all-home OOC schedules and teams from the G5 will never get a fair shake. How is a team like Akron ever going to be able to make the playoffs if they have to always play AT Ohio State rather than getting them on a neutral field or a home field? That’s a major advantage that is often overlooked and several close games could’ve gone the other way (how long did Tennessee stay ranked after nearly losing at home to App State?). I think Georgia played its first game above the Mason-Dixon line since the 60’s just this year. Alabama hasn’t played an OOC game away from home in 5 years, since a tight win against Penn State in 2011. That certainly stacks things in your favor and ensuring that “G5” conferences get a neutral crack at them is about the only way you’ll ever see a fair shake.

If you want convince me that every playoff team from the Pac-12 or Big-12 is actually better than the CUSA champion the last couple of years then you’re going to need Marshall/WKU/etc. to play a USC/UCLA/etc. on a neutral field. Continuously beat us down after that and you have a point. Just look at what the CUSA basketball champion has done the last few years in basketball when given a “neutral” court. I doubt they’d have made any RPI cutoff.[/quote]
[font=Verdana][size=2]My only point is that with divisions in some conferences and the unbalanced nature of some of them at times you could have worth teams not make it into the playoffs due to an upset in another conference title game. A good example this year is lets say Western Michigan loses in the title game. They are still 12-1 but then a 9-4 Ohio team makes it. In basketball this is could be a moot point as both teams could easily be placed into the field. I am not opposed to all conference champions being qualified I just think a better system needs to be in place.[/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=2]One being the better scheduling by Power Five schools by rewarding teams that do go on the road to other places and win. The reason it doesn’t occur now is there is no incentive to out way the risk. [/size][/font]

10

Meh - there are only 10 conferences. Leaving room for 6 at-large bids should be plenty in football (there aren’t nearly as many teams, after all). Automatic bids for the conference champions seems like a must if you ever want to even the balance in college football. Otherwise, SEC teams who never go on the road to play OOC will continue to dominate their all-home OOC schedules and teams from the G5 will never get a fair shake. How is a team like Akron ever going to be able to make the playoffs if they have to always play AT Ohio State rather than getting them on a neutral field or a home field? That’s a major advantage that is often overlooked and several close games could’ve gone the other way (how long did Tennessee stay ranked after nearly losing at home to App State?). I think Georgia played its first game above the Mason-Dixon line since the 60’s just this year. Alabama hasn’t played an OOC game away from home in 5 years, since a tight win against Penn State in 2011. That certainly stacks things in your favor and ensuring that “G5” conferences get a neutral crack at them is about the only way you’ll ever see a fair shake.

If you want convince me that every playoff team from the Pac-12 or Big-12 is actually better than the CUSA champion the last couple of years then you’re going to need Marshall/WKU/etc. to play a USC/UCLA/etc. on a neutral field. Continuously beat us down after that and you have a point. Just look at what the CUSA basketball champion has done the last few years in basketball when given a “neutral” court. I doubt they’d have made any RPI cutoff.[/quote]
[font=verdana][size=1em]My only point is that with divisions in some conferences and the unbalanced nature of some of them at times you could have worth teams not make it into the playoffs due to an upset in another conference title game. A good example this year is lets say Western Michigan loses in the title game. They are still 12-1 but then a 9-4 Ohio team makes it. In basketball this is could be a moot point as both teams could easily be placed into the field. I am not opposed to all conference champions being qualified I just think a better system needs to be in place.[/size][/font]

[font=verdana][size=1em]One being the better scheduling by Power Five schools by rewarding teams that do go on the road to other places and win. The reason it doesn’t occur now is there is no incentive to out way the risk. [/size][/font][/quote]

I agree with your point about Western Michigan, but what’s the solution? Just take the highest RPI teams from each conference? If you don’t mandate that someone from each conference gets in, then the slots will still all go to the “Power 5.”

11

Meh - there are only 10 conferences. Leaving room for 6 at-large bids should be plenty in football (there aren’t nearly as many teams, after all). Automatic bids for the conference champions seems like a must if you ever want to even the balance in college football. Otherwise, SEC teams who never go on the road to play OOC will continue to dominate their all-home OOC schedules and teams from the G5 will never get a fair shake. How is a team like Akron ever going to be able to make the playoffs if they have to always play AT Ohio State rather than getting them on a neutral field or a home field? That’s a major advantage that is often overlooked and several close games could’ve gone the other way (how long did Tennessee stay ranked after nearly losing at home to App State?). I think Georgia played its first game above the Mason-Dixon line since the 60’s just this year. Alabama hasn’t played an OOC game away from home in 5 years, since a tight win against Penn State in 2011. That certainly stacks things in your favor and ensuring that “G5” conferences get a neutral crack at them is about the only way you’ll ever see a fair shake.

If you want convince me that every playoff team from the Pac-12 or Big-12 is actually better than the CUSA champion the last couple of years then you’re going to need Marshall/WKU/etc. to play a USC/UCLA/etc. on a neutral field. Continuously beat us down after that and you have a point. Just look at what the CUSA basketball champion has done the last few years in basketball when given a “neutral” court. I doubt they’d have made any RPI cutoff.[/quote]
[font=verdana][size=1em]My only point is that with divisions in some conferences and the unbalanced nature of some of them at times you could have worth teams not make it into the playoffs due to an upset in another conference title game. A good example this year is lets say Western Michigan loses in the title game. They are still 12-1 but then a 9-4 Ohio team makes it. In basketball this is could be a moot point as both teams could easily be placed into the field. I am not opposed to all conference champions being qualified I just think a better system needs to be in place.[/size][/font]

[font=verdana][size=1em]One being the better scheduling by Power Five schools by rewarding teams that do go on the road to other places and win. The reason it doesn’t occur now is there is no incentive to out way the risk. [/size][/font][/quote]

I agree with your point about Western Michigan, but what’s the solution? Just take the highest RPI teams from each conference? If you don’t mandate that someone from each conference gets in, then the slots will still all go to the “Power 5.”[/quote]

A simple solution is to let each conference decide who it sends to the playoffs. That’s the way it once worked in basketball when only one team from each conference went to the dance, up until the mid 70s. The ACC sent their conference tourney champion as their sole representative to the NCAA. The Big 10 did not play a conference tournament back then, so they sent the regular season champion.

I think one thing that most Charlotte, App State, and ECU fans will agree on is that a playoff system using all the conferences is a great move.

12

What if WMU had a chance while undefeated? It’s bad enough they get dissed for 1 loss teams, but this year we could get a 2 loss team in the Final 4, & WMU is nowhere close to making it.

13

I like taking conference champs and then having X number of spots for atlarge based on rpi and rankings. My argument is if you cant win your conference then you shouldnt be in the running to win a national title.

I do think that the top 2 or 4 should get a bye. One of the big arguments against any playoff was keeping the regular season as something special. Put a bye in for the top teams and it keeps finishing there as a big deal.

14

clt would prefer that a computer pick the best 2 teams, and those teams can play for the championship.

15

Another proposal, again not mine:

The Conference Championship Games would serve as the first round of the playoffs.

1st round - Conference Championship Games - December 2nd/3rd.

2nd round - Seed the Conference Champs and the best of the rest - 16 teams in total. Eight Bowls will host these games played on December 17th/18th of each year.

Alamo Bowl
Arizona Bowl
Belk Bowl
Citrus Bowl

Holiday Bowl
Orange Bowl
Sun Bowl
Taxslayer Bowl

3rd round - Quarter finals - 4 Games on New Year’s Day

Cotton Bowl
Outback Bowl
Rose Bowl
Sugar Bowl

4th round - Semifinal - 2 games on January 14th/15th

Fiesta Bowl
Peach Bowl)

5th round - National Championship Game - January 21st (Tampa, Florida)
Note: The NFL AFC and NFC Championships are on January 22nd

CFP This year:

ACC Champ - Clemson
AAC Champ - Temple
Big 12 Champ - Oklahoma
Big Ten Champ - Penn State

CUSA Champ - Western Kentucky
MAC Champ - Western Michigan
MWC Champ - San Diego State
PAC 12 Champ - Washington

SEC Champ - Alabama
SBC Champ - Appalachian State

Then Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Southern California, Colorado, and Florida State.

The 2nd round this year:

Alabama vs Appalachian State
Clemson vs Western Kentucky
Penn State vs San Diego State
Washington vs Western Michigan

Oklahoma vs Temple
Ohio State vs Florida State
Wisconsin vs Colorado
Michigan vs Southern California

This would make everybody happy including the bowls.

16

I propose two tournaments:

First, the revamped College Football Playoff which pits the six best conference champions against each other. The top two receive a bye.

First Round, December 18th at lowest seed home stadium:

#6 Western Michigan @ #3 Washington
#5 Oklahoma @ #4 Penn State

Second Round, New Year’s Bowl Games:

Fiesta Bowl: #2 Clemson vs. lowest remaining seed
Peach Bowl: #1 Alabama vs. highest remaining seed

Championship: 2nd Saturday of January

In addition to this, the remaining four conference champs enter college football’s version of the NIT.

First round: 12/18

#3 Western Kentucky @ #1 Temple
#4 App State @ #2 San Diego State

Championship game: New Year’s Six bowl game

Along with this, I’d propose shortening the current bowl season to the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Those four games on December 18th should go on without competition. Let them be the center of attention.

17

This would be really fun, but I think it creates too many problems with academics. I like the 4 team playoff. I think there are too many bowl games as is. Actually, a number of schools actually lose money by going to bowl games.

18

Schools aren’t in session during these games, so I don’t see it being much of a problem academically. This gives everybody a chance at some exposure without overextending the playoff.

The biggest knock to this IMO is the “relegation” of four of the five G5 programs to the undercard tournament (unless a major upset happens in a CCG) but this would garner a hell of a lot more exposure for the G5 programs than sending our champion to Boca Raton for a pre-Christmas bowl game that nobody will watch.

19

Attached is my 32-team dream bracket. All conference winners get a berth (as it should be). I would get rid of the conference championship games up front. That could actually lead to conference downsizing. Move the opening weekend up to the last weekend in August, and everybody would have 13 weeks to play 12 regular season games with the season ending the Saturday before Thanksgiving. First three rounds would be played at higher seed, and the semis and championship would be played at neutral sites. The two teams in the championship would play 1 additional game with this setup than what they do currently with the abysmal four-team setup. November Madness would start at noon on the Friday after Thanksgiving. 8 games on Friday, and 8 games on Saturday, staggered about an hour to an hour and a half apart so the endings can all be seen. Play the 2nd round the following weekend, then take a couple of weeks off for exams. Resume the weekend before Christmas with the Final 8. Final 4 would play on New Year’s Day, and the Championship a week and half later. Who’s with me?

2016 NCAA Football Playoff.jpg2156×1235 312 KB

20

Blasphemer!!! Obey your ESPN/Power 5 Gods!