Nicole Auerbach
‏Verified account @NicoleAuerbach

EXCLUSIVE: Major college football power brokers like Bob Bowlsby, Barry Alvarez and Gordon Gee tell @TheAthleticCFB that it's time to start talking about an eight-team playoff. As soon as 2020? It's possible:

https://theathletic.com/708538/2018/12/1...m-support/




Behind a pay wall, but title says it all.

Eight might well stabilize current conference alignments.

Eight has seemed inevitable to me for a long time. I hope it happens.

I think 6 is much better than 8 since it rewards 2 by giving them byes and keeps value for conference title games. I don’t really see any reason for a loser in a conference title game to be able to go to the playoffs. I would Give 5 auto bids to the big 10,sec, acc, big 12, and pac 12 with 1 open slot to have a geographic interest in the playoffs. Have a round at higher seed week after conference title games, than keep everything else as is. I guess you would have the 2 losers from the 1st round go to a bowl. This probably would freeze conference realignment. However, I would force the issue on the big 12 and say auto bids only go to leagues with 12 teams. I think it’s stupid to have a conference title game with 10 teams and that would put 2 more teams in the pool.

8-- 5 from the P5, two wild-cards and best from the G5.

It was a very real possibility this year that the CFP could have been an all SEC/ACC affair if Georgia had narrowly beat Alabama. (And yes, I am counting ND as an ACC-lite)

It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

(12-12-2018 10:31 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I think 6 is much better than 8 since it rewards 2 by giving them byes and keeps value for conference title games. I don’t really see any reason for a loser in a conference title game to be able to go to the playoffs. I would Give 5 auto bids to the big 10,sec, acc, big 12, and pac 12 with 1 open slot to have a geographic interest in the playoffs. Have a round at higher seed week after conference title games, than keep everything else as is. This probably would freeze conference realignment. However, I would force the issue on the big 12 and say auto bids only go to leagues with 12 teams. I think it’s stupid to have a conference title game with 10 teams and that would put 2 more teams in the pool.

If it is a six-team playoff, then P5 conference championship games should be re-calibrated as well. It should be the team with the best overall record vs the team with the highest CFP ranking. If it happens to be the same team, then the top two CFP ranked teams go to conference championship game. For example, Michigan and Syracuse will go to B1G and ACC conference championship games this year instead of Northwestern and Pittsburgh.

The sixth spot goes to the top CFP ranked G5 team after conference championship games.

Saturday (or in rare case, Monday) Dec 26 - 31. Wild card games in Gator Bowl and Camping World Bowl.
Saturday Jan 1 - 7. National Semi. Use the current NY6 bowls.
Monday Jan 9 - 15. National Championship Game.

(12-12-2018 10:31 AM)bluesox Wrote:  ...keeps value for conference title games...

Don't get me wrong, I think we'll see 6 before we see 8, but I think that if we had 8 where all A5 champions were automatically in the playoff, it would instantly add a lot to the conference title games. Like, people might have actually watched the PAC12 title game if there were a trip to the playoffs on the line, but since everyone knew that wasn't happening, the game this year was much less appealing.

(12-12-2018 11:00 AM)ArQ Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:31 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I think 6 is much better than 8 since it rewards 2 by giving them byes and keeps value for conference title games. I don’t really see any reason for a loser in a conference title game to be able to go to the playoffs. I would Give 5 auto bids to the big 10,sec, acc, big 12, and pac 12 with 1 open slot to have a geographic interest in the playoffs. Have a round at higher seed week after conference title games, than keep everything else as is. This probably would freeze conference realignment. However, I would force the issue on the big 12 and say auto bids only go to leagues with 12 teams. I think it’s stupid to have a conference title game with 10 teams and that would put 2 more teams in the pool.

If it is a six-team playoff, then P5 conference championship games should be re-calibrated as well. It should be the team with the best overall record vs the team with the highest CFP ranking. If it happens to be the same team, then the top two CFP ranked teams go to conference championship game. For example, Michigan and Syracuse will go to B1G and ACC conference championship games this year instead of Northwestern and Pittsburgh.

The sixth spot goes to the top CFP ranked G5 team after conference championship games.

Eight is more efficient. Six takes the same amount of time to run as an 8 team playoff. May as well go to 8 if your going to expand.

Step #1, get rid of CCGs

Seed 1-8 on Sunday post Thanksgiving with 2 fixed sites and 2 flex sites between Atlanta, Indy, JerryWorld, Santa Clara/Charlotte/DC/Miami.

8 neutral site games, NO AQ. Conference champs go undeclared unless teams win with conference record outright, but essentially it means nothing.

The playoff will generate 4 guaranteed money slots. You can play the first game Friday night and three on Saturday all in a separate TV window.

I don’t really see big 10 and sec dumping conference title games. It’s more likely the big 10 and sec want to expand to 16 and have a 2 game playoff for each conference and keep the money in house. That is the real issue, does the big 10 and sec throw in the towel on conference expansion by allowing the playoffs expand to 6-8?

(12-12-2018 11:04 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 11:00 AM)ArQ Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:31 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I think 6 is much better than 8 since it rewards 2 by giving them byes and keeps value for conference title games. I don’t really see any reason for a loser in a conference title game to be able to go to the playoffs. I would Give 5 auto bids to the big 10,sec, acc, big 12, and pac 12 with 1 open slot to have a geographic interest in the playoffs. Have a round at higher seed week after conference title games, than keep everything else as is. This probably would freeze conference realignment. However, I would force the issue on the big 12 and say auto bids only go to leagues with 12 teams. I think it’s stupid to have a conference title game with 10 teams and that would put 2 more teams in the pool.

If it is a six-team playoff, then P5 conference championship games should be re-calibrated as well. It should be the team with the best overall record vs the team with the highest CFP ranking. If it happens to be the same team, then the top two CFP ranked teams go to conference championship game. For example, Michigan and Syracuse will go to B1G and ACC conference championship games this year instead of Northwestern and Pittsburgh.

The sixth spot goes to the top CFP ranked G5 team after conference championship games.

Eight is more efficient. Six takes the same amount of time to run as an 8 team playoff. May as well go to 8 if your going to expand.

See my revision of the post. It makes all the P5 conference championship games more meaningful.

(12-12-2018 10:57 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

They never seem to worry about scheduling those games in regular season, in the case of the SEC in November.

(12-12-2018 11:18 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:57 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

They never seem to worry about scheduling those games in regular season, in the case of the SEC in November.

Regular season is one thing, but no one except die hards are going to tune in to watch that.

I'm all for having G5 teams in the playoff (and even guaranteeing at least one), but not on an autobid basis.

(12-12-2018 11:38 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 11:18 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:57 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

They never seem to worry about scheduling those games in regular season, in the case of the SEC in November.

Regular season is one thing, but no one except die hards are going to tune in to watch that.

I'm all for having G5 teams in the playoff (and even guaranteeing at least one), but not on an autobid basis.

Just like no one tunes in when Duke plays Jackson State in the NCAA Tournament?

(12-12-2018 11:38 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 11:18 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:57 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:40 AM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  It won’t happen (at least for quite some time), but I wish the NCAA would make an official playoff for the FBS level. All other levels have official playoffs.

All conference champs get auto-bid, then have another 6 at large teams. FCS has a 24 team playoff, FBS can have 16.

Only loser in this situation is the bowl games, any bowls not in the playoff would essentially be NIT type games that get very little attention. Most of the playoffs would likely be on campus too, likely only semifinals and the final at neutral sites.

The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

They never seem to worry about scheduling those games in regular season, in the case of the SEC in November.

Regular season is one thing, but no one except die hards are going to tune in to watch that.

I'm all for having G5 teams in the playoff (and even guaranteeing at least one), but not on an autobid basis.

For the 8-team playoff, how about 1 G5 auto-bid and they have to be ranked in the top 20?

Most teams end up in a bloodbath against Alabama this year.

(12-12-2018 11:46 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 11:38 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 11:18 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:57 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:45 AM)ken d Wrote:  The P5 conferences would be losers in this scenario. They would lose their lucrative conference championship games in exchange for having to risk injury against first round body bag opponents.

Yeah, I don't think 10 autobids would really work for FBS.

Alabama/Northern Illinois would be a bloodbath.

They never seem to worry about scheduling those games in regular season, in the case of the SEC in November.

Regular season is one thing, but no one except die hards are going to tune in to watch that.

I'm all for having G5 teams in the playoff (and even guaranteeing at least one), but not on an autobid basis.

Just like no one tunes in when Duke plays Jackson State in the NCAA Tournament?

I just don't see them choosing to go that route.