12-16-2018, 07:50 PM
Not to rehash a story that has been retold a thousand times on this platform but the playoff expansion is inevitable. However I'm with Mike Leach in my preference to go to 16. My argument is this... Going to 16 (along with losing the conference championship games) has the same impact on the total number of games as going to 8 (and keeping the conference Championship games).
You can argue with me one way or the other but other than the SEC game and occasionally the B1G the Conference Championship games basically come down to double jeopardy. One team can lose but the other can't necessarily win. Take the Ohio State v Northwestern game. Ohio State risked way more than Northwestern and even after the win Ohio State ended up no better off for the wear.
If you lose the CCGs you obviously have to compensate the Conferences so the breakout would look like this:
P5: 2 Berths apiece (Division champs)
G5: 2 highest ranked
At Large: 4 highest ranking schools without regard to conference affiliation.
A setup like this would ensure:
#1 The Best school in the nation will be in the field and any reasonable opponent that has the capability of knocking them off is also in the field.
#2 The regular season, especially division contests will keep the regular season meaningful
#3 The G5 will be Guaranteed an opportunity to show their stuff.
#4 The deepest Conferences will make a ton of money off of the at-large bids
Closing thoughts, I do not like the playoff panel. I would much rather go back to the BCS model that took into consideration the human element but was not solely reliant on it. The P5 will get their Division champs in and therefore 10 of the 16 bids will be won on the field. From there allow a human/computer model to determine the top 2 G5 schools and top 4 at- large schools.
You can argue with me one way or the other but other than the SEC game and occasionally the B1G the Conference Championship games basically come down to double jeopardy. One team can lose but the other can't necessarily win. Take the Ohio State v Northwestern game. Ohio State risked way more than Northwestern and even after the win Ohio State ended up no better off for the wear.
If you lose the CCGs you obviously have to compensate the Conferences so the breakout would look like this:
P5: 2 Berths apiece (Division champs)
G5: 2 highest ranked
At Large: 4 highest ranking schools without regard to conference affiliation.
A setup like this would ensure:
#1 The Best school in the nation will be in the field and any reasonable opponent that has the capability of knocking them off is also in the field.
#2 The regular season, especially division contests will keep the regular season meaningful
#3 The G5 will be Guaranteed an opportunity to show their stuff.
#4 The deepest Conferences will make a ton of money off of the at-large bids
Closing thoughts, I do not like the playoff panel. I would much rather go back to the BCS model that took into consideration the human element but was not solely reliant on it. The P5 will get their Division champs in and therefore 10 of the 16 bids will be won on the field. From there allow a human/computer model to determine the top 2 G5 schools and top 4 at- large schools.