(05-01-2021 03:12 PM)ken d Wrote:  I don't expect there to be a 12 team playoff, but if there must be one, this is how I would do it.

No autobids. Every conference champion ranked* in the Top 25 gets a spot. The four highest ranked champs get a bye to the quarterfinals played at New Years. The remaining champions plus at large teams are seeded #5-#12, with #5-8 hosting the first round games the week after CCGs.

* No selection committee. To be eligible for the playoff, a team must be ranked in the Top 25 in both the AP and Coaches' Poll. Using those polls, plus the Massey Composite, Sagarin, and one other TBD, each eligible school throws out its best rank and its worst and averages the middle three rankings. Then all are seeded for the playoff (or excluded) based on those averages.

In a typical year, two G5 champions would make the field. In the 7 years of the CFP, and using the selection committee's rankings, one G5 would have made it in 2014 and 2015, the next three years two would make it, and the last two years three would have made it (including the anomalous COVID year).

In 2022 the schedule would look like this:

Week 1 - August 27 (Saturday)
Week 14 - Thanksgiving (Rivalry Week)
Week 15 - December 10 (First playoff round hosted by seeds #5-#8)
Week 19 - December 31 (Playoff quarterfinals at Peach, Cotton, Fiesta and Capital
One bowls)
Mon Jan 2 - Rose, Sugar and Orange Bowls with existing conference tie-ins
Week 20 - January 9 and 10 (semifinals rotate among Rose, Sugar and Orange Bowl
sites)
Week 21 - January 16 (National Final at site determined by bid)

The CFP would pay the travel costs of the first round visitors (seeds #9-12) and all teams in the next three rounds. The host schools would be responsible for game day expenses out of parking and concession revenues. All ticket revenues and media revenues less expenses go into the pool to be distributed among the participants with each getting a share for each game they participate in.