My thought process is while the CCG at least for the P5 conferences generates good to great ratings depending on the games and who is play and is equivalent to the conference tournaments in basketball for conferences, but with conference realignment, you have bigger brands that networks would play each other more frequently. My question is would television networks prefer to pay conferences more money to have an additional set of conference games (6-10 games, depends on conference size) to air/promote and potentially adjust the season to make way for 16 teams in a CFP instead of 8-12 teams? Would that be acceptable for conferences to scrap CCGs?

Teams would likely play 10 conference games with 2 non-conference Power conference opponents and 1 cupcake instead of 12 regular season games (8-9 conference games + 1-2 power conference opponents + 2 cupcakes) + 1 CCG for the top 2 teams per conference. This would allow teams to play 7 home games each season. The start of the season would likely move up a week and probably still conclude on Thanksgiving weekend to maintain rivalry week to conclude the season.

That would free up a week that could make a 16 team CFP more logistical scheduling wise if the majority of conferences are insistent on having 16 teams instead of 12 teams whether 6+10 or top 16 teams. For format, you could have ladder styled with the 1st 2 rounds in mid-December, but you could maybe split up the first round of regular 16 team playoff into 2 weekends in mid-December if the amount of games is a concern, and then play the quarterfinals around New Years in either format. With the latter, teams would still have a 2-3 week gap for each of the 1st 2 rounds of games between rivalry week and the quarterfinals and keep games separated in the 1st round.

I would also increase bowl eligibility to 7 wins if there would be 13 games during the regular season. You would see a reduction in bowl eligible teams, but playoff expansion would replace lower tier bowls and likely still increase the total number of postseason games, which could be spread out further to 4 weeks long rather than 2.5 weeks.

CCGs are a wasted week. Just expand the playoff and flow from regular season right into round 1.

The networks absolutely, positively, 100% want CCGs.

A single game with the best two teams from a league playing for a championship trophy is exactly what they want.

People that think that CCGs are going away no matter how large the playoff gets are fooling themselves. Those CCGs were already worth around $50 million each per year to the Big Ten and SEC annually under their old TV contracts and that figure is increasing much higher now. You couldn't pry CCGs from the cold dead hands of either the Big Ten or SEC at this point.

If you don't believe me, look at basketball as a corollary. Even the Big Ten schedules everything around its conference basketball tournament having the last TV time slot prior to the NCAA Tournament selection show even though it rarely even impacts the seeding of either participating team (much less whether they make the NCAA Tournament at all). The lower tier conferences are even more at the whims of ESPN where they are effectively forced to disregard their entire regular seasons and everything comes down to who gets hot in their respective conference tournaments. Why? Because TV wants a clear and unambiguous championship game for a championship trophy and that's what they'll pay for.

(08-09-2022 09:18 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The networks absolutely, positively, 100% want CCGs.

A single game with the best two teams from a league playing for a championship trophy is exactly what they want.

People that think that CCGs are going away no matter how large the playoff gets are fooling themselves. Those CCGs were already worth around $50 million each per year to the Big Ten and SEC annually under their old TV contracts and that figure is increasing much higher now. You couldn't pry CCGs from the cold dead hands of either the Big Ten or SEC at this point.

If you don't believe me, look at basketball as a corollary. Even the Big Ten schedules everything around its conference basketball tournament having the last TV time slot prior to the NCAA Tournament selection show even though it rarely even impacts the seeding of either participating team (much less whether they make the NCAA Tournament at all). The lower tier conferences are even more at the whims of ESPN where they are effectively forced to disregard their entire regular seasons and everything comes down to who gets hot in their respective conference tournaments. Why? Because TV wants a clear and unambiguous championship game for a championship trophy and that's what they'll pay for.

That's what I thought that neither would want to get rid of the CCGs, but wasn't sure if an additional week of games and a few extra playoff games would be enough to surpass CCGs and figured I toss it out there, especially with the mention of a 16 team CFP.

(08-08-2022 08:18 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  CCGs are a wasted week. Just expand the playoff and flow from regular season right into round 1.

Why not 14-16 games since there's 19 weeks from 8/27-12/31?

(08-09-2022 09:18 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The networks absolutely, positively, 100% want CCGs.

A single game with the best two teams from a league playing for a championship trophy is exactly what they want.

People that think that CCGs are going away no matter how large the playoff gets are fooling themselves. Those CCGs were already worth around $50 million each per year to the Big Ten and SEC annually under their old TV contracts and that figure is increasing much higher now. You couldn't pry CCGs from the cold dead hands of either the Big Ten or SEC at this point.

If you don't believe me, look at basketball as a corollary. Even the Big Ten schedules everything around its conference basketball tournament having the last TV time slot prior to the NCAA Tournament selection show even though it rarely even impacts the seeding of either participating team (much less whether they make the NCAA Tournament at all). The lower tier conferences are even more at the whims of ESPN where they are effectively forced to disregard their entire regular seasons and everything comes down to who gets hot in their respective conference tournaments. Why? Because TV wants a clear and unambiguous championship game for a championship trophy and that's what they'll pay for.

Assuming you mean "best" in theory or going forward since the previous matchups have hardly produced the best 2 teams. SEC East, B10 West, B12 North were all garbage for years.

(08-09-2022 01:08 PM)GoBuckeyes1047 Wrote:  

(08-09-2022 09:18 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The networks absolutely, positively, 100% want CCGs.

A single game with the best two teams from a league playing for a championship trophy is exactly what they want.

People that think that CCGs are going away no matter how large the playoff gets are fooling themselves. Those CCGs were already worth around $50 million each per year to the Big Ten and SEC annually under their old TV contracts and that figure is increasing much higher now. You couldn't pry CCGs from the cold dead hands of either the Big Ten or SEC at this point.

If you don't believe me, look at basketball as a corollary. Even the Big Ten schedules everything around its conference basketball tournament having the last TV time slot prior to the NCAA Tournament selection show even though it rarely even impacts the seeding of either participating team (much less whether they make the NCAA Tournament at all). The lower tier conferences are even more at the whims of ESPN where they are effectively forced to disregard their entire regular seasons and everything comes down to who gets hot in their respective conference tournaments. Why? Because TV wants a clear and unambiguous championship game for a championship trophy and that's what they'll pay for.

That's what I thought that neither would want to get rid of the CCGs, but wasn't sure if an additional week of games and a few extra playoff games would be enough to surpass CCGs and figured I toss it out there, especially with the mention of a 16 team CFP.

The main thing is "trade-off" isn't in the vocabulary of these leagues. Certainly, you might see an additional week of games... AND the CCGs AND the 16-team playoff. Things that make money don't get subtracted.

...if there will be no 'AutoBid' in the final iteration of the CFP, there should be no need for CCGs... I know it's all 'at large' currently, but when the conferences expand out, just not sure what the point would be, other than extra $$$ and a 'true' champion...

I mean, the SEC Championship last season was really of little consequence as to the CFP, other than which of the two would be the CFP #1 seed and #3 seed...


...but then again, there ARE some pretty good contests to watch that week...

...and as to # of regular season games, I wouldn't be surprised if they add a few more, to at LEAST 14 games... if they are wanting to 'mimic' the NFL (which I think is up to 17 regular season games now), and make more $$$, this gives two more opportunities, with a few more conference games or another decent OOC matchup...

They will keep CCGs if they can move out Army/Navy and Heisman presentation and free up that weekend for playoff games. The week off for study break and finals needs to go away. Otherwise, they'll get rid of them. They can also move the season back one week, but that is least likely IMO.

(08-09-2022 07:38 PM)RUScarlets Wrote:  They will keep CCGs if they can move out Army/Navy and Heisman presentation and free up that weekend for playoff games. The week off for study break and finals needs to go away. Otherwise, they'll get rid of them. They can also move the season back one week, but that is least likely IMO.

funny you bring up the Heisman - I was just thinking that they should really move that, as well as the 'position awards' presentation, to the week after the Championship Game... never really knew why it was done so early (I remember Pat Sullivan (I grew up an Aubie and AU is still of course my SEC team ) won the Heisman the week BEFORE the Iron Bowl (and then AU lost to Bama the next week )) - I know that the FINAL rankings were done before the bowls WAY back in the day, so...

But here in the 21st Century, not sure why they couldn't move it to the end of the whole thing...

(08-09-2022 09:18 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The networks absolutely, positively, 100% want CCGs.

A single game with the best two teams from a league playing for a championship trophy is exactly what they want.

People that think that CCGs are going away no matter how large the playoff gets are fooling themselves. Those CCGs were already worth around $50 million each per year to the Big Ten and SEC annually under their old TV contracts and that figure is increasing much higher now. You couldn't pry CCGs from the cold dead hands of either the Big Ten or SEC at this point.

AGREED. That's why I was surprised by Kevin Warren's recent statement about auto-bids. A mere handful of autobids - say top 6 champs + 10 at-large - would increase the value of the Big Ten CCG even more (even if both teams likely make it into the playoffs in practice). Any staked for the CCG - even if it's just a home game - makes it more valuable.

The NCAA could increase the regular season to 13 games. If conferences wanted to use the 13th game for a CCG that would still be an option. Perhaps they might choose to have a flex game for other schools.

(08-08-2022 07:44 PM)GoBuckeyes1047 Wrote:  My thought process is while the CCG at least for the P5 conferences generates good to great ratings depending on the games and who is play and is equivalent to the conference tournaments in basketball for conferences, but with conference realignment, you have bigger brands that networks would play each other more frequently. My question is would television networks prefer to pay conferences more money to have an additional set of conference games (6-10 games, depends on conference size) to air/promote and potentially adjust the season to make way for 16 teams in a CFP instead of 8-12 teams? Would that be acceptable for conferences to scrap CCGs?

Teams would likely play 10 conference games with 2 non-conference Power conference opponents and 1 cupcake instead of 12 regular season games (8-9 conference games + 1-2 power conference opponents + 2 cupcakes) + 1 CCG for the top 2 teams per conference. This would allow teams to play 7 home games each season. The start of the season would likely move up a week and probably still conclude on Thanksgiving weekend to maintain rivalry week to conclude the season.

That would free up a week that could make a 16 team CFP more logistical scheduling wise if the majority of conferences are insistent on having 16 teams instead of 12 teams whether 6+10 or top 16 teams. For format, you could have ladder styled with the 1st 2 rounds in mid-December, but you could maybe split up the first round of regular 16 team playoff into 2 weekends in mid-December if the amount of games is a concern, and then play the quarterfinals around New Years in either format. With the latter, teams would still have a 2-3 week gap for each of the 1st 2 rounds of games between rivalry week and the quarterfinals and keep games separated in the 1st round.

I would also increase bowl eligibility to 7 wins if there would be 13 games during the regular season. You would see a reduction in bowl eligible teams, but playoff expansion would replace lower tier bowls and likely still increase the total number of postseason games, which could be spread out further to 4 weeks long rather than 2.5 weeks.

In a 16 team conference, a 13th regular season game would be 8 extra games for the conference. I doubt that even the SEC Championship game gets the viewership of 8 regular season games combined. So of course networks would prefer a 13th game.


But where have you heard that a 13th regular season game is even being considered? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

(08-09-2022 07:29 PM)GreenFreakUAB Wrote:  ...if there will be no 'AutoBid' in the final iteration of the CFP, there should be no need for CCGs... I know it's all 'at large' currently, but when the conferences expand out, just not sure what the point would be, other than extra $$$ and a 'true' champion...

I mean, the SEC Championship last season was really of little consequence as to the CFP, other than which of the two would be the CFP #1 seed and #3 seed...


...but then again, there ARE some pretty good contests to watch that week...

...and as to # of regular season games, I wouldn't be surprised if they add a few more, to at LEAST 14 games... if they are wanting to 'mimic' the NFL (which I think is up to 17 regular season games now), and make more $$$, this gives two more opportunities, with a few more conference games or another decent OOC matchup...

Alabama wouldn’t have made the playoffs if they had lost the conference title game. That’s why there were some suspicions that the SEC instructed UGA to deliberately lose the game. (I’m not joking.)

(08-08-2022 08:18 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  CCGs are a wasted week. Just expand the playoff and flow from regular season right into round 1.

I love the CCG weekend, as a fan, it's a great weekend of action. I would not want to give that up.

(08-08-2022 08:18 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  CCGs are a wasted week. Just expand the playoff and flow from regular season right into round 1.

CCGs are part of the playoffs.
They represent the first round.

(08-12-2022 09:03 PM)Poster Wrote:  

(08-09-2022 07:29 PM)GreenFreakUAB Wrote:  ...if there will be no 'AutoBid' in the final iteration of the CFP, there should be no need for CCGs... I know it's all 'at large' currently, but when the conferences expand out, just not sure what the point would be, other than extra $$$ and a 'true' champion...

I mean, the SEC Championship last season was really of little consequence as to the CFP, other than which of the two would be the CFP #1 seed and #3 seed...


...but then again, there ARE some pretty good contests to watch that week...

...and as to # of regular season games, I wouldn't be surprised if they add a few more, to at LEAST 14 games... if they are wanting to 'mimic' the NFL (which I think is up to 17 regular season games now), and make more $$$, this gives two more opportunities, with a few more conference games or another decent OOC matchup...

Alabama wouldn’t have made the playoffs if they had lost the conference title game. That’s why there were some suspicions that the SEC instructed UGA to deliberately lose the game. (I’m not joking.)

Smart would have LOVED to stick it to Saban and have kept him out of the playoffs, not least b/c it would have made UGA's path to the title that much easier.

(08-12-2022 09:58 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-08-2022 08:18 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  CCGs are a wasted week. Just expand the playoff and flow from regular season right into round 1.

I love the CCG weekend, as a fan, it's a great weekend of action. I would not want to give that up.

That's because the games have NCG implications. Playing for a bye or whatever greatly diminishes that. Every SEC game is a playoff game for at least one school at the moment. Same with the B1G CCG. How good was the Big 12 game last year with OSU in contention? It's going to be compelling when teams are on the precipice. However, you can easily remove them for a straight playoff weekend with the stakes a lot lower for a 12 team playoff, as the last 8 seeds don't have a realistic shot unless it's a highly ranked At-Large like ND/Bama that can go deep in the tournament. 8 team playoff will have too many people complaining, but that would be better only without AQ. You can do 4+4 or 2+6 or something, but they probably won't.

(08-12-2022 09:00 PM)Poster Wrote:  

(08-08-2022 07:44 PM)GoBuckeyes1047 Wrote:  My thought process is while the CCG at least for the P5 conferences generates good to great ratings depending on the games and who is play and is equivalent to the conference tournaments in basketball for conferences, but with conference realignment, you have bigger brands that networks would play each other more frequently. My question is would television networks prefer to pay conferences more money to have an additional set of conference games (6-10 games, depends on conference size) to air/promote and potentially adjust the season to make way for 16 teams in a CFP instead of 8-12 teams? Would that be acceptable for conferences to scrap CCGs?

Teams would likely play 10 conference games with 2 non-conference Power conference opponents and 1 cupcake instead of 12 regular season games (8-9 conference games + 1-2 power conference opponents + 2 cupcakes) + 1 CCG for the top 2 teams per conference. This would allow teams to play 7 home games each season. The start of the season would likely move up a week and probably still conclude on Thanksgiving weekend to maintain rivalry week to conclude the season.

That would free up a week that could make a 16 team CFP more logistical scheduling wise if the majority of conferences are insistent on having 16 teams instead of 12 teams whether 6+10 or top 16 teams. For format, you could have ladder styled with the 1st 2 rounds in mid-December, but you could maybe split up the first round of regular 16 team playoff into 2 weekends in mid-December if the amount of games is a concern, and then play the quarterfinals around New Years in either format. With the latter, teams would still have a 2-3 week gap for each of the 1st 2 rounds of games between rivalry week and the quarterfinals and keep games separated in the 1st round.

I would also increase bowl eligibility to 7 wins if there would be 13 games during the regular season. You would see a reduction in bowl eligible teams, but playoff expansion would replace lower tier bowls and likely still increase the total number of postseason games, which could be spread out further to 4 weeks long rather than 2.5 weeks.

In a 16 team conference, a 13th regular season game would be 8 extra games for the conference. I doubt that even the SEC Championship game gets the viewership of 8 regular season games combined. So of course networks would prefer a 13th game.


But where have you heard that a 13th regular season game is even being considered? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I was only suggesting an extra week of conference games as opposed to playing CCGs. I haven't heard anything official about expanding the number of games, but if the B1G and SEC decided to move to 10 conference games, I'm sure they'd want a 13th game to maintain 2 Power opponents with 1 buy game to maintain 7-8 home games while maintaining a schedule that's engaging to fans to keep attendance up.

I did see Dodd mention moving the start of the season to Week 0, which could make room for a 13th regular season game or create a 2nd bye week to spread out the schedule some more and allow players extra rest during the season.