(02-08-2018 02:39 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(02-08-2018 02:21 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  A thought I had: If at least one power conference were to reach 16 schools, perhaps they might lobby the NCAA to permit a 2-round, 4-team championship for any conference that reaches 16 schools. What are the odds of this succeeding? And if it did succeed, could this trigger expansion by those power conferences with fewer than 16, even if they would otherwise not have expanded?

I suspect this may not be plausible. For the lobbying to succeed, the request may have to be for a 2-round championship regardless of conference size, or perhaps with 12 or 14 as a minimum instead. This would get the backing of those conferences not seeking to expand. And in any case, there might be hesitation by the NCAA to permit such a change due to the potential for realignment-related instability.

That would mean the teams in the national title game would have played 16 games that season (12 regular season, two conference playoffs, two CFP). That might be a bridge too far for approval. Plus there's really no need for a second layer of conference postseason with just 16 teams, since scheduling with eight-team divisions is still easy enough (seven in-division games, one or two interdivision games).

Now if conferences got big enough to go to three or four divisions, the two-round proposal would have more support, I'd think (four division champs or three champs and a wild card). But it would probably require most if not all conferences to swell to that point.

The teams in the FCS championship can play up to 16 games, and no one bats an eye at that.

And it's not about "need" for a 2-round conference playoff. It's about $$$, as always. The power conferences would rather expand their playoffs to 4 rather than expand the CFP to 8.