(11-01-2014 12:16 AM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I voted pre-BCS, but really I grew to love the sport with the BCS and think the 4 team playoff will be OK.

Four teams is the absolute most I want though. I want to love and care about what's going on around the country and creating a bigger playoff will destroy that interest long term. College sports are inherently regional for the regular season. There are hundreds of teams and most rivalries are regional. Few care about most of the college basketball regular season outside their own regional teams or an occasional Duke/North Carolina game because it doesn't effect them. #1 Kentucky vs. #2 Duke in November might have some good story lines, but really what difference does it make? They do well in their conferences and they're both going to the NCAA Tournament with high bids. The day you get to the point that conference champions from the major conferences are all but assured (or actually assured) spots in the playoff is the day that the regular season starts it's transformation to being a regional sport again.

Exactly. We need a P4, not a P5, and we need conference champions only in the 4 team playoff. There is no way to really know how good or bad a conference is most years when they play 3 patsies and 1 OOC P5 game, and the rest in conference. Make winning the conference mean something and then have a 4 team conference champion only playoff. There are many great bowls for the #2's and #3's, and #4's to be paired in against similar finishers from the other conferences. Quite frankly I'm sick of sombody's #2 playing someone else's #5, 6 or 7 in a bowl. But anything above 4 is going to be too many games for the players, for the ticket buying alumni, and that kind of saturation will destroy the relevance that makes each game in a college season important.

I am willing to try the 4-team playoff for a while, so I voted for that.

But my favorite number has always been 12.

In my 12-team playoff, the 4 top teams that get a first round bye should have to win a conference championship game to get the bye. The Top 6 conference champions overall are guarunteed a spot in the playoff but not all conference champions are guarunteed a spot. The other 6 spots are at large bids.

College football became insanely popular under the pre-BCS system. The BCS didn't do much to improve on the sport's popularity, and I think the playoff will actually have the opposite effect.

CFB's fan dynamic is more akin to CBB or baseball than the NFL or NBA. And how do the championship games of those sports fare? More people watch the first day of the NCAA tournament than watch the last game. The World Series is practically irrelevant outside 2 markets every year. I don't see why so many people on this board and in the media think that crowning a champion is so important, when there is abundant evidence that the actual act of crowning a champion just ends up ticking off all but one fanbase.

(10-31-2014 10:32 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

+1. Bit is correct. The only acceptable answer is "8 teams", which is not listed.

+2...8 School playoff...

My 8 team playoff solution:
Regular season count:top 2 teams at the end of regular season guarantee a top 4 seed, if they choose to bypass the conference champion game. Those are open to every one, p5, g5, and independent. A regular season top 2 team lost its bit if participating conference champion game (possible lay for better seeding)

Conference champion count: P5 champions get auto bids.

The remaining 1-3 bids will be filled by the highest ranked remaining teams.

Regular season bids and top ranked p5 champion bids will be 1-4seeds based on the current ranking.

First round games play in high seed home field.

I prefer the 16 team model, but I could live with the 8 team version.

I like 6 with #1&2 getting the bye

(11-01-2014 09:36 AM)tigerjamesc Wrote:  I like 6 with #1&2 getting the bye

I think you have it right here. I don't think this model will happen until we've done at least 6 years (probably 12 though) of the current system.

Even if the P5 don't consolidate into the P4 by that date, they can still give auto-bids to conference champs and then 1 at-large bid to whomever they desire (which means Alabama).

(10-31-2014 07:26 PM)EvilVodka Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

5 autobids? 3 at large?

Sounds about right...

I didn't vote either. I would like to save the bowl games for all the 6-9 win teams (which my school will most likely reside in)

(11-01-2014 10:02 AM)allthatyoucantleavebehind Wrote:  

(11-01-2014 09:36 AM)tigerjamesc Wrote:  I like 6 with #1&2 getting the bye

I think you have it right here. I don't think this model will happen until we've done at least 6 years (probably 12 though) of the current system.

Even if the P5 don't consolidate into the P4 by that date, they can still give auto-bids to conference champs and then 1 at-large bid to whomever they desire (which means Alabama).

I prefer 12, but I could live with six if it were limited to conference champions only.

(10-31-2014 08:40 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

8 Would by necessity exclude the smaller conferences, but I do agree that it would be better than 4.

By necessity? I don't think so. Any school that manages to qualify should be eligible. The opportunities are more limited for G5 conferences, but they should not be non-existent.

No vote! An 8 team playoff is the answer. I think there are two ways that this could be accomplished that make sense to me. 1) Conferences essentially stay the same as they are now and the P5 conference champions get automatic entry. You then allow the top ranked G5 school to have an auto bid and then the last two spots are filled with the best left. 2) P5 becomes P4 and completes there separation from the G5. An 8 team playoff in this scenario would be the conference championship games becoming the first round of the playoffs, winners go into the final 4.

(10-31-2014 10:32 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

+1. Bit is correct. The only acceptable answer is "8 teams", which is not listed.

No, the only acceptable answer is a 12 team playoff - 10 FBS conferences, 10 auto-bids and two at larges to account for the independents; done, no useless committee, no debating which conference is best, no "but they haven't played any body" BS. Win your conference, you are in. No undefeated G5 team or third place SEC squad screaming "no fair", its only way to have a clear champ.

(11-02-2014 10:31 AM)AppfanInCAAland Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 10:32 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

+1. Bit is correct. The only acceptable answer is "8 teams", which is not listed.

No, the only acceptable answer is a 12 team playoff - 10 FBS conferences, 10 auto-bids and two at larges to account for the independents; done, no useless committee, no debating which conference is best, no "but they haven't played any body" BS. Win your conference, you are in. No undefeated G5 team or third place SEC squad screaming "no fair", its only way to have a clear champ.

You're entitled to your opinion, even if it's wrong.

The biggest hurdle IMO to an expansion is financial. The thing is, by and large, the exhibition bowls, the old BCS bowls, and the new Contract/Access bowls, while they may not be as "important," draw about the most you could expect in terms of TV ratings as a quarterfinal would. So it's hard to see the extra TV money to justify it. And you need "extra" money, because a 3rd round would absolutely cannibalize the travelling fan bases for those first round games. You would have to have them on campus. That would cost them a LOT of money.

I point out a lot about how bowls are funded. They never release this info publicly, but you can find studies on it. This one I thought was interesting because it came today in email from Variety and I thought was worth sharing.

Quote:WWE sent out the following press release this morning:

WRESTLEMANIA 30 GENERATES RECORD $142 MILLION FOR NEW ORLEANS REGION


STAMFORD, Conn. — WWE and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced today that WrestleMania 30 generated a record-breaking $142.2 million in economic impact for the New Orleans region this past April, according to a study conducted by the Enigma Research Corporation. This marks the third consecutive year that WrestleMania generated more than $100 million in economic impact for its host city.

Over the past seven years, WrestleMania has generated more than a half-billion dollars in cumulative economic impact for the cities that have hosted the event. WrestleMania 30 also generated approximately $24.3 million in federal, state and local taxes.


Also read: WWE & NBC Send Out A Press Release Regarding The WrestleMania 30 Special

“On behalf of New Orleans, we thank all WWE fans that came from around the world to experience all that our beautiful city has to offer,” Landrieu said. “The week-long series of events helped generate a record-breaking boost to our economy, and we look forward to the possibility of New Orleans hosting a future WrestleMania.”

“We are thrilled that our historic milestone celebration delivered a record economic windfall for New Orleans,” said John P. Saboor, executive vice president of special events for WWE. “Our heartfelt thanks go out to Mayor Landrieu, the New Orleans Saints, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and so many other public and private sector partners from throughout the community that created an enormous welcome and experience for WWE’s worldwide fan base. We now turn our attention to the journey ahead in Silicon Valley and the entire Bay Area for WrestleMania 31.”

A capacity crowd of 75,167 fans from all 50 states and 36 countries attended WWE’s pop-culture extravaganza this past April, making it the highest-grossing entertainment event at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Key highlights from the study include:

* $142.2 million in direct, indirect and induced impact derived from spending by visitors to New Orleans for WrestleMania 30.


* 79 percent of fans that attended WrestleMania were from outside the greater New Orleans region and stayed an average of 3.7 nights.

* $22.5 million was spent on hotels and accommodations within the New Orleans region.

* The economic impact derived from WrestleMania Week was equal to the creation of 1,662 full-time jobs for the area.

* $10.7 million was spent by visitors to New Orleans at area restaurants.

Next year, WrestleMania 31 will take place Sunday, March 29 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, Nov. 15, at 12 noon ET/9 a.m. PT. The event will be broadcast on WWE Network and pay-per-view in more than 170 countries.

Now I realize this is from a wrestling event, and not a bowl game. So why does it matter? Because this is essentially what bowl financing looks like. Only for major bowls, the numbers above are doubled to tripled, due to corporate involvement and the extra money they spend on these events compared to wrestling fans, which by and large there is no corporate involvement with sponsorships and ticket sales. Case in point, They only sold I think ten suites for this event, and ticket prices averaged around $150 including all tickets.

If 75,000 fans, 98% general admission tickets, from fans mostly paying their own way and staying on the cheap produces THIS much economic activity, you can see what major bowls do. And you can see what I am always talking about when I refer to how bowls are financed by travelers.

Now how much money would an extra home game generate? $10 million? At best? And that's at a major school with an 80k capacity with a lot of suites? The above is why those bowls pay so much money. Money that may not be there in a quarterfinal? And that is just to break even.

(10-31-2014 07:01 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I prefer the 8 team model. So I didn't vote.

Agreed. But I think we need to stay at 4 for a couple of years, then move to 8.

I didn't vote either, as I think 8 would be best. Actually I'd like 12 since NIU could have a chance of getting in with a really good year. But for college football in general 8 is better than 4.

(10-31-2014 06:10 PM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  Now that the first playoff rankings have been out for a while, I can say without reservatiom that with all due respect to the rugged SEC West... nobody wants to see a playoff full of SEC West rematches. Furthermore if you want a truly national feel to the event (similar to March Madness) where everyone from every conference feels like they can make a deep run in the tournament you simply must create a larger more inclusive tournament. Doing so would also have the positive benefit of staving off non-G5 leagues from getting lawsuit happy (Which will surely come). Additionally, a reasonable number of at-large berths will permit a dominant conference to still get plenty of bids.

Idea 1; 16 team tournament - all conference champions get an automatic bid, fill out remainder of bracket with best at large teams

Idea 2; 24 team tournament - G5 leagues get 2 bids a piece (division champion automatically in), non G5 get 1 bid a piece, concession made for Independents, fill out remainder of bracket with best at large teams ***My Vote Goes here**

Bowl Protection Plan - schools not playing in at least 2 playoff games must play in a bowl game, election not to do so would mean playoff ineligible for 3 years.

Games would start the second weekend in December at the home field of the higher rated team until semifinals which will be held at bowl sites as currently set up.

Idea 1

Idea 2 is the NCAA bb tourney. You ignore the regular season and focus on the playoffs. Think that is a very bad idea. In FCS, some of those schools actually get better regular season attendance than in their massive 24 team playoff.

I think idea 1 produces a bunch of blowouts and teams that have no business being there. However, if FBS does go to 16, it needs to include all conference champions. Otherwise, you get a bunch of 3 and 4 loss teams who have already been beaten by others in the playoff and it diminishes the regular season and diminishes the championship. It merely becomes a tournament winner the larger you make it. With 10 conference champs, then you only have 6 at large.

We need to go to 8 first. I think 11 is a good number eventually. Seed the P5 champs in the quarterfinals. Have 3 or 4 wildcards and 2 or 3 G5 champs meet in the first round to produce the other 3 teams for the quarterfinals. One alternative would be to make it effectively a 16 team by making the ccgs an elimination game. CCG losers could not be selected as a wildcard.

College FB is the most controversial sport out there. And though we often don't like it, that is good for college football. Don't count on a change any time soon. Every game is huge, The arguments are never ending, and the talk never really stops.