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24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-15-2026 01:29 PM
Here we go https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/2110787647610515541
RE: 24 team playoff - Motown Bronco - 10-15-2026 02:02 PM
Agreed this deserves its own thread (I mentioned this in the Miami-AAC one).
Still only one G6. And you need to play ten power teams in a season to be an at-large, so there goes any chance of a second G6.
The impact to bowls could be significant, where it could honestly be a time to consider a G6-only playoff. Yes, I know it basically admits that there is a huge wall between the G6 and P4, but it is what it is.
RE: 24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-15-2026 02:29 PM
I agree its tike for a separate playoff. Greed wins again
RE: 24 team playoff - kreed5120 - 10-15-2026 03:22 PM
I also just devalued the regular season. What made college football unique 20 years ago was every regular season game mattered. I remember a year or two where OSU had their season ruined by a very bad Purdue Spoilermalers. It made every week of college football must watch even if you didn't care about either team. Now just go 8-4 and play 10 P4 games and you're in. It's going to devalue the regular season like March Madness has made college basketball regular season irrelevant to anyone who isn't a die hard.
RE: 24 team playoff - toddjnsn - 10-15-2026 03:26 PM
Yeah, I don't like the talk on how it'd be set up for the teams that go (we don't know the exact rules on teams quite yet tho). IMO, you should care about winning one's conference, and having conference championship games -- especially since conferences have expanded and you can't/don't play as many within.
I can see stipulations To have a conference champion get an auto-bid in. Kinda like in the past when a 6-6 team played in the P12 Conf Championship, and if they won (they didn't unsurprisingly) they'd be 7-6. So I can see stipulations to have 10+ wins to get auto-bid, if there's a conference championship game, or 9+ wins + sole (not shared) winner of said conference -- showing that conferences Mean something. Otherwise, it's just a schedule thing, and mine as well not have Officially marked conference champions as in a sport it's Supposed to be the means to put you in position for a Playoff like sports go by in the end.
After all, there's *24*, not a very understandable, natural desire for 16 teams to heed gray-zones of "playoff worthy" teams given so many of them, as opposed to 12. So they'd be Doubling the # of teams, which More than covers non-conference winners. A team ranked #22 who's Not near the whole conference winner zone of their conference, shouldn't get in over a 11-2 G6 team who had no bogus OOC schedule & clearly won their whole conference. So a sole winner + high record should give Any conference champ an auto-bid. And that wouldn't threaten ANY team in the Top 16.
So hopefully they have some level of auto-bid for conference champs in there. Otherwise, that's just asking for the G6 to go to D1AA/FCS or make their own, as even with a Huge football playoff, regardless of how good a G6 champ's record is, they don't want the winners of a conference to mean much 'cause they don't want said G6 entering in if they're barely-ranked or nearly ranked due to consistently not-as-strong schedule when compared to P4s.
If the league 2 years from now was also knowing ONLY going to be P4 teams, they wouldn't be making a 24 team playoff. Only 12 would be necessary, and probably just expanding it to 16 for more games made/televised. But we have double that 12 -- that should allow clearly decent by-record Conference Champs of any conference, to get auto-bids.
RE: 24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-15-2026 03:27 PM
Exactly kreed all while being a showcase for the SEC and P1G10. We probably are going to see 8 from each conference in, talk about a watered down product.
RE: 24 team playoff - wmubroncopilot - 10-15-2026 03:42 PM
(10-15-2026 02:02 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote: Still only one G6. And you need to play ten power teams in a season to be an at-large, so there goes any chance of a second G6.
None of this is official so could be wrong, but I believe the proposed stipulation is 10 P4 games *OR* conference games.
RE: 24 team playoff - ChippewaPride - 10-15-2026 04:28 PM
(10-15-2026 03:42 PM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:(10-15-2026 02:02 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote: Still only one G6. And you need to play ten power teams in a season to be an at-large, so there goes any chance of a second G6.
None of this is official so could be wrong, but I believe the proposed stipulation is 10 P4 games *OR* conference games.
The MAC just announced that they will be going to nine conference games in 2028. Would this force them to make a huge adjustment and go to 10 conference games for 2027? Would that even be possible?
RE: 24 team playoff - Bronco'14 - 10-15-2026 04:41 PM
(10-15-2026 03:22 PM)kreed5120 Wrote: I also just devalued the regular season. What made college football unique 20 years ago was every regular season game mattered. I remember a year or two where OSU had their season ruined by a very bad Purdue Spoilermalers. It made every week of college football must watch even if you didn't care about either team. Now just go 8-4 and play 10 P4 games and you're in. It's going to devalue the regular season like March Madness has made college basketball regular season irrelevant to anyone who isn't a die hard.
Yep, exactly. Items like the Michigan / Ohio St rivalry just got devalued too, & conference championships. It matters as much as winning the division in the NFL does. You might as well watch the NFL.
24 is simply riduclous. It's so a .500 Michigan can get in, plain & simple
You might as well not watch the regular season. Not sure how this impacts the G6. I'd like to see the G6 go back to the conference champs just playing each other in bowl games the old format, like the MAC Champ plays the SB champ & that's that.
RE: 24 team playoff - GRBRONCO - 10-15-2026 05:00 PM
(10-15-2026 04:41 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:(10-15-2026 03:22 PM)kreed5120 Wrote: I also just devalued the regular season. What made college football unique 20 years ago was every regular season game mattered. I remember a year or two where OSU had their season ruined by a very bad Purdue Spoilermalers. It made every week of college football must watch even if you didn't care about either team. Now just go 8-4 and play 10 P4 games and you're in. It's going to devalue the regular season like March Madness has made college basketball regular season irrelevant to anyone who isn't a die hard.
Yep, exactly. Items like the Michigan / Ohio St rivalry just got devalued too, & conference championships. It matters as much as winning the division in the NFL does. You might as well watch the NFL.
24 is simply riduclous. It's so a .500 Michigan can get in, plain & simple
You might as well not watch the regular season. Not sure how this impacts the G6. I'd like to see the G6 go back to the conference champs just playing each other in bowl games the old format, like the MAC Champ plays the SB champ & that's that.
Every other division does it. It will be much more exciting with 30 or so teams in the mix instead of 4 like the last 100 years. There’s more parity than ever before. There could be years with 2 or 3 G6 teams in as long as you get ranked in top 25.
RE: 24 team playoff - wmubroncopilot - 10-15-2026 05:53 PM
(10-15-2026 04:28 PM)ChippewaPride Wrote:(10-15-2026 03:42 PM)wmubroncopilot Wrote:(10-15-2026 02:02 PM)Motown Bronco Wrote: Still only one G6. And you need to play ten power teams in a season to be an at-large, so there goes any chance of a second G6.
None of this is official so could be wrong, but I believe the proposed stipulation is 10 P4 games *OR* conference games.
The MAC just announced that they will be going to nine conference games in 2028. Would this force them to make a huge adjustment and go to 10 conference games for 2027? Would that even be possible?
I hope not. I understand the logic that occasionally a team might fail to get a P4 team on the schedule and would be left essentially ineligible, but I would hate to see even fewer nonconference matchups.
RE: 24 team playoff - Bronco'14 - 10-16-2026 07:05 AM
It's not from me, but I heard from people here on the past what'll eventually happen is the G6 becomes a true minor league where we're owned by the P4 flat-out. I can see that happening. Too much money (too many suckers like you & me) for it to die but can't operate independent
It's all just following the pro model, a repeat of that
RE: 24 team playoff - Motown Bronco - 10-16-2026 08:07 AM
In slight defense of this format, it's what the FCS has been doing all along, so it's nothing strange. And when you consider the percentage of post-season participants in other sports - especially pros - 24 out of 138 here isn't crazy.
If some "6-6 vs. 6-6" bowls go away as a result, it'll rob some smaller schools like ours of national December air time, but honestly won't be the end of the world.
But what's most bothersome is there still being just 1 G6 rep, unless the tides shift on that (and it could I suppose). Out of 24 slots. Keep me honest here but I believe it's the only collegiate sport that doesn't award every conference champion in the division a post-season playoff berth. For some reason America is fine - excited, even - with a lot of "no names" in March Madness opening weekend, but are terrified of seeing even two in football.
Unlikely, but worst case scenario is returning to the 1990s and 2000s where only 1 MAC team goes to a post-season game, leaving behind a 9 or 10 win team. And if that means a separate G5 tourney, so be it.
RE: 24 team playoff - JHVMU19 - 10-16-2026 10:13 AM
(10-15-2026 05:00 PM)GRBRONCO Wrote:(10-15-2026 04:41 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:(10-15-2026 03:22 PM)kreed5120 Wrote: I also just devalued the regular season. What made college football unique 20 years ago was every regular season game mattered. I remember a year or two where OSU had their season ruined by a very bad Purdue Spoilermalers. It made every week of college football must watch even if you didn't care about either team. Now just go 8-4 and play 10 P4 games and you're in. It's going to devalue the regular season like March Madness has made college basketball regular season irrelevant to anyone who isn't a die hard.
Yep, exactly. Items like the Michigan / Ohio St rivalry just got devalued too, & conference championships. It matters as much as winning the division in the NFL does. You might as well watch the NFL.
24 is simply riduclous. It's so a .500 Michigan can get in, plain & simple
You might as well not watch the regular season. Not sure how this impacts the G6. I'd like to see the G6 go back to the conference champs just playing each other in bowl games the old format, like the MAC Champ plays the SB champ & that's that.
Every other division does it. It will be much more exciting with 30 or so teams in the mix instead of 4 like the last 100 years. There’s more parity than ever before. There could be years with 2 or 3 G6 teams in as long as you get ranked in top 25.
Agree G6 could get more than 1 and should…
There have been years with multiple G6 top 25 so these would get bids. This could be better than current mess, but Big2 greed just dominates.
RE: 24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-16-2026 11:52 AM
(10-16-2026 10:13 AM)JHVMU19 Wrote:(10-15-2026 05:00 PM)GRBRONCO Wrote:(10-15-2026 04:41 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:(10-15-2026 03:22 PM)kreed5120 Wrote: I also just devalued the regular season. What made college football unique 20 years ago was every regular season game mattered. I remember a year or two where OSU had their season ruined by a very bad Purdue Spoilermalers. It made every week of college football must watch even if you didn't care about either team. Now just go 8-4 and play 10 P4 games and you're in. It's going to devalue the regular season like March Madness has made college basketball regular season irrelevant to anyone who isn't a die hard.
Yep, exactly. Items like the Michigan / Ohio St rivalry just got devalued too, & conference championships. It matters as much as winning the division in the NFL does. You might as well watch the NFL.
24 is simply riduclous. It's so a .500 Michigan can get in, plain & simple
You might as well not watch the regular season. Not sure how this impacts the G6. I'd like to see the G6 go back to the conference champs just playing each other in bowl games the old format, like the MAC Champ plays the SB champ & that's that.
Every other division does it. It will be much more exciting with 30 or so teams in the mix instead of 4 like the last 100 years. There’s more parity than ever before. There could be years with 2 or 3 G6 teams in as long as you get ranked in top 25.
Agree G6 could get more than 1 and should…
There have been years with multiple G6 top 25 so these would get bids. This could be better than current mess, but Big2 greed just dominates.
If I were MAC commissioners I would he demanding 3 G5 and no less. If 2 can get in witu 12 then 3 with 24 teams is completely realistic. Hoot n holler, threaten lawsuits I dont care nut its time for our leaders to grow a pair and fight for a seat at the table
RE: 24 team playoff - Motown Bronco - 10-16-2026 11:57 AM
(10-16-2026 11:52 AM)cmufanatic Wrote: If I were MAC commissioners I would he demanding 3 G5 and no less.
And in that scenario, you could ditch the conference championship games, and have 3 play-in games. Seeded, for instance, PAC winner vs. CUSA winner, AAC winner vs. MAC winner, MWC winner vs. Sun Belt winner.
RE: 24 team playoff - indianasniff - 10-16-2026 12:12 PM
No MAC fan should spend any time watching these games. Speak with your eyeballs.
RE: 24 team playoff - astr083 - 10-16-2026 12:36 PM
At 24, can't we at least get all of the conference champions in the playoff? Then the rest can be P4 unless there is a realllllly good non-P4 that deserves a spot. Make it more like the NCAA tournament. We all know that a good Chattanooga team that wins the Southern Conference 9 times out of 10 will lose to the 9th place Ohio State team out of the Big Ten, but at least they get the chance for having a good season and winning their conference. As we see every year, someone is likely to make a Cinderella run....
RE: 24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-16-2026 01:20 PM
(10-16-2026 11:57 AM)Motown Bronco Wrote:(10-16-2026 11:52 AM)cmufanatic Wrote: If I were MAC commissioners I would he demanding 3 G5 and no less.
And in that scenario, you could ditch the conference championship games, and have 3 play-in games. Seeded, for instance, PAC winner vs. CUSA winner, AAC winner vs. MAC winner, MWC winner vs. Sun Belt winner.
RE: 24 team playoff - cmufanatic - 10-16-2026 01:21 PM
(10-16-2026 12:36 PM)astr083 Wrote: At 24, can't we at least get all of the conference champions in the playoff? Then the rest can be P4 unless there is a realllllly good non-P4 that deserves a spot. Make it more like the NCAA tournament. We all know that a good Chattanooga team that wins the Southern Conference 9 times out of 10 will lose to the 9th place Ohio State team out of the Big Ten, but at least they get the chance for having a good season and winning their conference. As we see every year, someone is likely to make a Cinderella run....
That makes too much sense! The problem is money. They want the G5 to have little as possible.