(04-28-2021 01:29 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-28-2021 01:16 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(04-28-2021 12:48 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(04-28-2021 12:11 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  When I first saw that a 12-team playoff was the leader in the clubhouse, my initial reaction was, "WTF?!"

Thinking about it further, though, maybe the powers that be have been paradoxically convinced that a 12-team playoff is actually less of a shock to the status quo than an 8-team playoff. I don't know if I personally believe that to be the case, but I can see the following rationale:

(1) We have concentrated on changes to the 4-team playoff itself (myself included), but the powers that be are probably looking at the CFP system as all NY6 bowls put together. How many teams are in the NY6? 12 teams with 5 P5 contract bids, 1 G5 spot and 6 at-larges*. Essentially, the new system would take that exact same field but just put them into a 12-team playoff.

(2) Similarly, a 12-team playoff presumably would give the top 4 teams a bye for the first round. This preserves the top 4 horse race that exists in the current CFP system while expanding enough to allow for auto-bids for all of the P5 and the top G5 champ. (Personally, part of my support for an 8-team playoff with P5 auto-bids was to remove a lot of the power from CFP selection committee, but the powers that be apparently like it and a 12-team playoff would preserve it.) Essentially, the CFP committee power and the top 4 rankings show every week will still be very important in a 12-team system in a way that might not have been the case in an 8-team playoff.

Now, I think a 12-team playoff potentially blows up (or at a minimum completely reshuffles) the bowl system in a way that an 8-team playoff could have avoided. When it comes to the actual *participants* in a 12-team playoff, though, I think they're basically just saying take the current NY6 field and turn it into a playoff. "Easy peasy."

EDIT: * - I understand that the current "at-larges" in the NY6 aren't necessarily always true at-larges with how the contract bowls work. The point, though, is that they current "top tier" consists of 12 teams and a 12-team playoff essentially just rolls that forward.

Interesting take Frank. I’m inclined to agree.

Provided they go with something similar to a 5-1-6 model the result is:

2 weeks after the CCGS (1 week after Army Navy)—you have seeds 5-8 host seeds 9-12. 7 of the 8 participants will be from P conferences and should command a decent tv audience. I wouldn’t be surprised if these games average 8-10M viewers, which is way more than the G5 vs G5 bowls that normally air that weekend.

Winners advance to 4 top NYD/NYE bowls. These 4 games should also get really high numbers and I anticipate would be better than if the games were just exhibitions with nothing on the line.

With semis and finals left to play, you get 3 nights of prime time television in January that should be ratings bananzas.

That is the interesting thing.

The construction of a 12-team playoff field is the easiest part of the whole exercise: 5-1-6. It's zero change from the current NY6 system.

The schedule for it, though, is the massive challenge.

The way that you've proposed it here is probably the best way to incorporate the playoff into the current bowl system. The question is whether it still makes any sense to try to leverage the bowl system here (and I'm saying that as someone that has largely been a proponent of using the bowls for an expanded playoff). I would have been 100% on-board with using the traditional bowls in an 8-team playoff. Once we start adding in byes and additional rounds, though, it becomes so much tougher because "bowl economics" are dependent on holiday travelers getting that full 4 or more weeks to prep to go. Speaking from experience, it's bad enough trying to get a plane ticket to California or Florida for the Christmas-to-New Years period when doing it during the first week of December. That is already getting into "Do I need to take out another mortgage to pay for this?" territory. Delaying that even more after a play-in round to not knowing if you're going until right before Christmas is *really* tough logistically.

From a pure logistics standpoint, the bowls in the destinations that already get tons of non-bowl tourists during the holidays (Pasadena, Phoenix, New Orleans and Miami) are the hardest to have such a short turnaround time for planning. It's probably less of an issue in the more business travel-oriented cities (Atlanta and Dallas, plus maybe places with domes/decent weather like Houston, Charlotte and Indianapolis).

I'm thinking they use 1st round home games and then incorporate the NY6 into the QF/SF.

1st Round - Week after CCG
Fri 8pm Higher seed
Sat 1pm Higher seed
Sat 5pm Higher seed
Sat 9pm Higher seed

QF - Bowl sites
NYE 8pm Orange Bowl
NYD 1pm Cotton Bowl
NYD 5pm Rose Bowl
NYD 9pm Sugar Bowl

*Jan 8 in 2022, for example, wouldn't conflict with NFL playoffs --
Otherwise, Thursday & Friday night*
SF - Bowl sites
Sat 5pm Peach Bowl
Sat 9pm Fiesta Bowl

NC - Highest bidder
Mon 8pm

Jan 8,2022 for example wouldn't conflict with NFL playoffs, but would conflict with NFL regular season games with the new TV contract.