RE: This is what I think the CFB Playoff format should look like
For me it comes down to the fact that if you’re going to have a division of football, common sense dictates that everyone within that division needs to have a realistic path to winning the championship of that division.
Can you imagine starting in NFL season whereby the AFC West and the NFC South are not eligible for the Super Bowl?
What’s the point in them completing them? What exactly are they competing for? The honor of “Dear Old State?”
Eff that!
Look, I’m a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I fully realize that the odds of us winning a World Series are extraordinarily low. Even if we are run exceptionally well – which the Pirates clearly are not Dash the deck is decidedly stacked against us.
Incidentally, the same goes for half the teams Major League Baseball. The Brewers, the Reds, the Twins, the Indians, the Marlins, the Rays, etc. It’s very unlikely that any of us is ever going to win the World Series in our lifetimes, because the system is specifically set up for that not to happen.
ESPN and FOX are footing the bill and they simply don’t want to have the Reds playing the Orioles in the World Series. They want the Cubs, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Dodgers, etc.
However, there is still a pathway by which a team in our position can go to a championship and win it and that creates an illusion of fairness that helps baseball. Hell, the Kansas City Royals WON the World Series a few years ago. Now, MLB has done everything they can to make you forget all about that, because from their perspective it was an abject travesty. However, for a fan of the small-market team like me, that triumph was a ray of hope.
Never mind the fact that every other World Series champion over the past several years has been from Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston, etc. – all of the big boys. The fact that there’s a Kansas City in there as well means it’s at least possible, if unlikely.
College football need to do the same thing. If you are not going to let the Memphises and the Miami of Ohio’s and the Troy’s of the world compete for your championship, then they are not really competing in the same division and that needs to be officially acknowledged. They are effectively the new 1-AA sub-division.
From there, where does it stop? We have already talked about eliminating entire major conferences and we have eliminated a lot of the former major conferences. At what point does that turn inward and we look to call the freeloading members of existing leagues? How could Mississippi State feel safe? Vanderbilt? Purdue? Duke?
Is that really where people want to go with this? Do you really want to continue to trim and trim and trim? Personally, I don’t think so because in cutting out so much of the “loose fat” you’re also effectively cutting out a lot of the existing interest in your sport.
If someone is a fan of the say, Northwestern and they get booted out of the club for whatever reason, nine out of 10 times they are not going to switch to Illinois or a random school like USC as their new allegiance, they’re just going to stop watching college football.
Why would anyone want that?
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This is what I think the CFB Playoff format should look like
