(04-19-2021 04:56 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-19-2021 01:10 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-19-2021 10:15 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-18-2021 10:35 PM)hammannja Wrote:  The most likely current path to college football play-off expansion is a 6-team play-off. In my opinion, the AAC needs to figure out how to get some sort of conference-champion and Top 8 criteria into a six-team playoff scenario. If any conference champion is Top 8 (this includes the Pac-12, Big 10, AAC, MWC, etc. . . . and maybe even the ACC now that Trevor Lawrence is gone . . . heck, everyone but the SEC), then they get a spot in the play-off even over a higher-ranked second conference team. That should still almost always leave room for Alabama in the Alabama Invitationals in the event they are the second-best team in their conference.

Interesting. When playoff expansion is discussed, it's almost always an 8-team model that is brought up. But, a desire for expansion is obviously not universal among the P5, otherwise we would probably have it right now.

So a six-team model could be a compromise among the various Power leagues. And in that case, as you say, it will be up to the AAC to try and maneuver for a format that gives us the best chance to get a team in to it.

I see any less conventional option (like a 6-team playoff) as very unlikely. Look---the biggest logistics issue with expanding the playoff is time. The time window is limited. Thus, if your going to add an extra week to the playoff (like a 6 team playoff would require), it makes no sense to play less than the maximum number of teams that will fit into that time window. Adding 4 extra teams and a full first round brings more interest, more money, and maximizes the value of the expansion vs the 6-team alternative. Furthermore, if you add 8 teams rather than 6---the chances of any one league landing 2 teams in the playoff increases---thus---its hard for me to see why any conference would have much incentive to vote for a 6 team playoff over an 8 team playoff if both require the same time frame. Eight means more money and more opportunity to make the playoff.

Agreed.

The biggest hurdle is the expanded schedule, where a 6-team playoff adds another round in the exact same manner as an 8-team playoff yet doesn't maximize revenue. The 6-team playoff concept has never made sense to me logistically. I get it from a pure message board competitive standpoint, but if the powers that be are willing to go to 6 teams, then there's pretty much no reason why they wouldn't be willing to go to 8 teams. Now, I think any further expansion beyond 8 teams is extremely unlikely. Once we get to the point where every P5 champ gets a guaranteed playoff spot, the desire to go beyond that is essentially nil for the interests that have power.

The 8-team model makes too much sense to ignore based on the current NY6 setup.

Right now you have 6 NY6 bowls and a moving national championship venue. Right now those 6 bowls rotate through which 2 get to host the semi-final games for the 4 invited teams every year. The rest have their normal conference tie-in games that don't advance.

With an 8-team playoff, you make 4 bowls quarter-finals (8 teams), and make two semi-finals (4-teams). You rotate through which are quarter vs semis each year. So each bowl is a quarter 2 years and a semi 1 year on the 3-year rotation.

Now every NY6 bowl is a playoff game every year. It solves all the conference tie-in issues with those bowls, because they would all vote to be a playoff game every year.

Beyond that, the whole question of 0-8-0, 5-3-0, 5-2-1 is still up for debate.