College Football's 'Influential Voices' Ready to Discuss 8-Team Playoff Format

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2810...off-format

Several "influential voices in college football" are reportedly prepared to discuss increasing the number of College Football Playoff teams from four to eight.

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic reported Wednesday that CFP expansion has received a "groundswell of support" with hopes the change can happen before the current contract with ESPN, the event's broadcast partner, expires in 2026.

"It's an appropriate thing to begin thinking about," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby told Auerbach.


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Good. Should have done this in the first place.

Others will clamor for 16 but I think 8 is enough.

........bout time!! 8 is perfect!!

(12-12-2018 02:56 PM)ndlutz Wrote:  Others will clamor for 16 but I think 8 is enough.

Good. I like it.

(12-12-2018 04:41 PM)TerryD Wrote:  Good. I like it.

Conference championship games = quarterfinals?

With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Probably, but will the auto-bids be the championship game winner or the best ranked conference team? Also will the guaranteed G5 require needing to be ranked at least in the Top 12? If the auto-bid goes to the champion, must that champion be ranked at least in the Top 12?

Other questions - Do the contract bowls remain contract bowls as well as serve as semi-finalist sites? If the contract bowls are lost in the shuffle, how are the P5 monetarily compensated for said loss? Is the playoff system extending a week further into the NFL playoff system? (comment: that could prove detrimental to college football playoffs overall).

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers,
Neil

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Let's just say for speculation:
The best of the Big 12 and PAC merge to form a 14 or 15 team league.
Are the other 6/7 invited to the American or is there another upper level G conference formed? If another conference is formed could there be two G invitees if they are ranked high enough?

or


With multiple entrants, why wouldn't Texas and Oklahoma want to stay in a smaller weaker conference to improve their chances of both being invited? It might be the impetus that schools would need to move to smaller more homogeneous leagues. Could a true NorthEastern conference be born?

(12-13-2018 05:59 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Let's just say for speculation:
The best of the Big 12 and PAC merge to form a 14 or 15 team league.
Are the other 6/7 invited to the American or is there another upper level G conference formed? If another conference is formed could there be two G invitees if they are ranked high enough?

or


With multiple entrants, why wouldn't Texas and Oklahoma want to stay in a smaller weaker conference to improve their chances of both being invited? It might be the impetus that schools would need to move to smaller more homogeneous leagues. Could a true NorthEastern conference be born?

Fuhrer Mickey would have to want it to happen. Why would Fuhrer Mickey want to put in the effort to reorganize the assets unless there's a large cash increase at the end of the day? It's hard to imagine a NEC (UCONN, BC, Cuse, Army, Rutgers, Temple, Pitt, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, West Virginia) being hugely profitable. Look at that odd coalition. And that was using every last single team available in FBS in New England (and a bit beyond) with the exception of Buffalo. It's hard to imagine Penn State leaving the B1G for that. It's even hard to imagine WVU leaving the Big 12 for that.

There just aren't enough high caliber programs up there.

(12-12-2018 10:43 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Probably, but will the auto-bids be the championship game winner or the best ranked conference team? Also will the guaranteed G5 require needing to be ranked at least in the Top 12? If the auto-bid goes to the champion, must that champion be ranked at least in the Top 12?

Other questions - Do the contract bowls remain contract bowls as well as serve as semi-finalist sites? If the contract bowls are lost in the shuffle, how are the P5 monetarily compensated for said loss? Is the playoff system extending a week further into the NFL playoff system? (comment: that could prove detrimental to college football playoffs overall).

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers,
Neil

The details, as always, are negotiable. I imagine it'd be in the bag that those at-large bids would be almost automatically P5. Too much money at stake. The trouble is that will also lead to a bit of disparity. The SEC is going to get 2 bids every single year. It's not beyond imagination that they could get both at-large bids in addition to their autobid. This year that would have looked like Alabama, Georgia, and LSU.

As a fan of college football, I think having an 8 team playoff would be fantastic. The only negative I see would be with being able to fill the stadiums for the first round. For example, it has become quite expensive to be a Clemson fan lately. Not only does it require more and more money towards IPTAY to have decent seats and parking spaces for home games, over the past four years, we have played in Charlotte or Orlando for the ACC Championship, and then in Miami Gardens, Glendale, New Orleans, and now Arlington for the playoffs, and Glendale and Tampa for the championship. Your average fan can't afford all of this, and then when you add another round, it is only going to get more expensive. So, at least for some of the schools, I think you would see fans skipping out on the first round and holding out hope that they'll make it to the semis and/or finals. I know for me personally, I would not be able to afford to go to the conference championship, two rounds of the playoffs, and the finals, all in one year, especially if some of the games were far away.

Now, in terms of television, adding another round would make everyone more money. I just think you would see a lot of empty seats in the stands for the first round, unless the teams were located within driving distance or unless one or both of the teams had not been in a playoff game before, or at least recently.

(12-13-2018 01:13 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:43 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Probably, but will the auto-bids be the championship game winner or the best ranked conference team? Also will the guaranteed G5 require needing to be ranked at least in the Top 12? If the auto-bid goes to the champion, must that champion be ranked at least in the Top 12?

Other questions - Do the contract bowls remain contract bowls as well as serve as semi-finalist sites? If the contract bowls are lost in the shuffle, how are the P5 monetarily compensated for said loss? Is the playoff system extending a week further into the NFL playoff system? (comment: that could prove detrimental to college football playoffs overall).

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers,
Neil

The details, as always, are negotiable. I imagine it'd be in the bag that those at-large bids would be almost automatically P5. Too much money at stake. The trouble is that will also lead to a bit of disparity. The SEC is going to get 2 bids every single year. It's not beyond imagination that they could get both at-large bids in addition to their autobid. This year that would have looked like Alabama, Georgia, and LSU.

It would have been Notre Dame and Georgia with only two at larges.

More generally, these "rumblings" are undoubtedly coming from the Big Ten, who has now missed the playoff two years in a row, no doubt with support from the P12 and B12.

I do think that there is a very real possibility that the P12 is going to make a serious run at adding four B12 schools including Texas and OU. If successful, an expanded B12 might lose its autobid.

(12-13-2018 01:55 PM)orangefan Wrote:  

(12-13-2018 01:13 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:43 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  

(12-12-2018 10:20 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  With 8 you'll find auto-bids.

P5 + Highest G5 = 6
2 At-Large.

Probably, but will the auto-bids be the championship game winner or the best ranked conference team? Also will the guaranteed G5 require needing to be ranked at least in the Top 12? If the auto-bid goes to the champion, must that champion be ranked at least in the Top 12?

Other questions - Do the contract bowls remain contract bowls as well as serve as semi-finalist sites? If the contract bowls are lost in the shuffle, how are the P5 monetarily compensated for said loss? Is the playoff system extending a week further into the NFL playoff system? (comment: that could prove detrimental to college football playoffs overall).

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cheers,
Neil

The details, as always, are negotiable. I imagine it'd be in the bag that those at-large bids would be almost automatically P5. Too much money at stake. The trouble is that will also lead to a bit of disparity. The SEC is going to get 2 bids every single year. It's not beyond imagination that they could get both at-large bids in addition to their autobid. This year that would have looked like Alabama, Georgia, and LSU.

It would have been Notre Dame and Georgia with only two at larges.

More generally, these "rumblings" are undoubtedly coming from the Big Ten, who has now missed the playoff two years in a row, no doubt with support from the P12 and B12.

I do think that there is a very real possibility that the P12 is going to make a serious run at adding four B12 schools including Texas and OU. If successful, an expanded B12 might lose its autobid.

Under the 5 auto + 3 at-large plan this year, the playoffs would have been:
AUTO BIDS:
ACC: Clemson
B1G: Ohio State
Pac: Washington
SEC: Alabama
XII: Oklahoma

AT-LARGE BIDS:
BEST G5: UCF
AT-LARGE #1: Notre Dame
AT-LARGE #2: Georgia

The only conference with 2 teams: SEC
Is it conceivable that someone could get 3 teams? Yes... but under the current arrangement, it's conceivable that they could 4 teams, so this is much better IMO.

(12-13-2018 01:47 PM)Schema Wrote:  As a fan of college football, I think having an 8 team playoff would be fantastic. The only negative I see would be with being able to fill the stadiums for the first round. For example, it has become quite expensive to be a Clemson fan lately. Not only does it require more and more money towards IPTAY to have decent seats and parking spaces for home games, over the past four years, we have played in Charlotte or Orlando for the ACC Championship, and then in Miami Gardens, Glendale, New Orleans, and now Arlington for the playoffs, and Glendale and Tampa for the championship. Your average fan can't afford all of this, and then when you add another round, it is only going to get more expensive. So, at least for some of the schools, I think you would see fans skipping out on the first round and holding out hope that they'll make it to the semis and/or finals. I know for me personally, I would not be able to afford to go to the conference championship, two rounds of the playoffs, and the finals, all in one year, especially if some of the games were far away.

Now, in terms of television, adding another round would make everyone more money. I just think you would see a lot of empty seats in the stands for the first round, unless the teams were located within driving distance or unless one or both of the teams had not been in a playoff game before, or at least recently.

Valid. The solution is to have round one at the home field of the higher ranked team. Frankly I'd prefer to do away with bowls for the playoff. It should be like it is in FCS.... higher ranked gets home field all the way down.

(12-13-2018 05:47 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Valid. The solution is to have round one at the home field of the higher ranked team. Frankly I'd prefer to do away with bowls for the playoff. It should be like it is in FCS.... higher ranked gets home field all the way down.

Having the first round games hosted by the higher seed would be a good solution. I guess my biggest concern there would be the condition of the fields at that time of the year. You definitely wouldn't have pretty green grass at a lot of locations.

(12-13-2018 07:29 PM)Schema Wrote:  

(12-13-2018 05:47 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  Valid. The solution is to have round one at the home field of the higher ranked team. Frankly I'd prefer to do away with bowls for the playoff. It should be like it is in FCS.... higher ranked gets home field all the way down.

Having the first round games hosted by the higher seed would be a good solution. I guess my biggest concern there would be the condition of the fields at that time of the year. You definitely wouldn't have pretty green grass at a lot of locations.

Also valid. This hasn't stopped FCS. Equipment managers are going to earn their keep.

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(12-13-2018 05:47 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(12-13-2018 01:47 PM)Schema Wrote:  As a fan of college football, I think having an 8 team playoff would be fantastic. The only negative I see would be with being able to fill the stadiums for the first round. For example, it has become quite expensive to be a Clemson fan lately. Not only does it require more and more money towards IPTAY to have decent seats and parking spaces for home games, over the past four years, we have played in Charlotte or Orlando for the ACC Championship, and then in Miami Gardens, Glendale, New Orleans, and now Arlington for the playoffs, and Glendale and Tampa for the championship. Your average fan can't afford all of this, and then when you add another round, it is only going to get more expensive. So, at least for some of the schools, I think you would see fans skipping out on the first round and holding out hope that they'll make it to the semis and/or finals. I know for me personally, I would not be able to afford to go to the conference championship, two rounds of the playoffs, and the finals, all in one year, especially if some of the games were far away.

Now, in terms of television, adding another round would make everyone more money. I just think you would see a lot of empty seats in the stands for the first round, unless the teams were located within driving distance or unless one or both of the teams had not been in a playoff game before, or at least recently.

Valid. The solution is to have round one at the home field of the higher ranked team. Frankly I'd prefer to do away with bowls for the playoff. It should be like it is in FCS.... higher ranked gets home field all the way down.

^^This^^ I just don't see college fans traveling in huge numbers for 3 games. 4 if you consider the CCG. Sure, some fans will. But can you imagine taking a family of 4 to the CCG in Charlotte, then round 1 at FSU, then going to Atlanta for the semi-final, then Dallas for the NC? All within a 4-5 week period. That's a 2nd and 3rd mortgage!

Having the finals at a neutral site would give it a championship feeling.

No auto-bids, but CCG are elimination games.

Keep everything at-large. It reinforces the poll tradition. Get it done reg season.

(12-15-2018 10:10 PM)esayem Wrote:  No auto-bids, but CCG are elimination games.

Keep everything at-large. It reinforces the poll tradition. Get it done reg season.

TOTALLY agree with this.

Why have auto bids?? If you are a Power 5 Conference, and you can't place your champion in the Top 8 in the country, than tough sh!t ... you don't deserve a bid.

But I bet if we looked back, every P5 conference would have had a top 8 team every year of the playoff era.