(12-13-2019 10:04 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  

(12-13-2019 09:29 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  I see where the logic is for making the playoff all bowl hosted.

Quarterfinals (4 bowls)
Semifinals (2 bowls)
National Championship (1 bowl)

This way the NYD bowls can be rotated into a 7 year contract to each host the national championship game. It would require of course the addition of one more bowl game to the NYD mix (Citrus Bowl?) to make it workable.

It might be the way to squeeze the most value out of the system.

The National Championship game is all the way on Jan 13th this year. The first major bowls are between Xmas and NYD, if not NYD itself.

So where do you schedule all these games and travel unless you push the bowls back a week, pre Xmas? That's why you cannot incorporate the bowls into an 8 team playoff. You run out of weekends.

If there is an 8 team playoff, you have to sacrifice Army Navy and give student athletes a pass for Fall Finals because that week would be gone for playoff preparation. At the very least, you have to make that first round campus games for the top 4 schools as a reprieve for students and alumni.

If you keep Army Navy weekend clear as is, the semifinals have to be pushed to the middle of the week on the first week of January (after the four quarterfinal NY6 Bowls), otherwise the semis go head to head with ESPN and NFL WC weekend.

If you extend the season any longer, the season basically becomes the NFL in terms of length and months. The fundamental problem with the 8 team playoff is not preserving the meaning of the regular season. It is the travel and scheduling, and finding the appropriate TV slots.

I see two reasonable options:

1) NY6 Quarterfinal Bowls played the Saturday before New Year's Day. NY6 Semifinal Bowls played the following Saturday or Monday that is at least one week later. This year, the Quarterfinal Bowls would be played on December 28 and the Semifinal Bowls could be played on January 4. National Championship game could still be played on Monday, January 13.

EDIT: There are just two NFL Wild Card games on January 4, so you could find the TV slots for the CFP semifinal games. OR, play them on Monday, January 6.

2) NY6 Quarterfinal Bowl are played on New Year's Day. The semifinal bowls are played on the first Friday, Saturday or Monday that is at least one week after New Year's. The national championship game is held on the first Monday that is at least one week after the semifinals. So, this year, the four Quarterfinal Bowls are held on January 1 and the semifinals could be held on Saturday, January 11. The national championship game could be held on Monday, January 20.

EDIT: There are just two NFL Divisional playoff games on January 11, so you find the TV slots for the CFP games. Or, play one on Friday night and one on Saturday, around the NFL schedule. Or, play on Monday, January 13.

Just one week later fro the national championship game and you move the NY6 bowls back to New Year's Day.