CFP Could Expand by 2024
August 31st, 2022 at 6:16 PM ^
It's hard to believe the B1G will vote for it without letting Fox in. It seemed like one of the hangups was that doing it before 2026 meant that espn got exclusive rights.
August 31st, 2022 at 6:21 PM ^
And see here I was thinking the hangups were "tradition" and "rivalry" and "regular season" and "athlete welfare"
August 31st, 2022 at 8:50 PM ^
And conference championships - that have some weight in the process.
The SEC and ACC need to come up with something. Their bag men have been in the unemployment line - and, they haven’t been able to convince NIL “partners” to hire them.
August 31st, 2022 at 6:21 PM ^
Is it me or doesn't it seem unlikely they get a unanimous vote given the volatility of conference realignment?
September 1st, 2022 at 9:14 AM ^
From a money standpoint, if the B1G agrees to a 12-team playoff, they water down their own TV deal. The champion of the corpse of the Pac12 and Big 12 has an easier path to the playoff with watered down schedules and they can sell that to the playoff to TV execs.
Go with eight teams and give an autobid to conference champions if their conference was in the previous year's CFP final four. It still gives an incentive to win your conference and sticks it to schools with independent status (see: Notre Dame).
August 31st, 2022 at 6:27 PM ^
I think we can all agree now after 8 years, a grave mistake was made - bring back the Crystal Football trophy in 2023
August 31st, 2022 at 6:38 PM ^
So teams like 2 loss Baylor can get in. They should have been in last year in the place of Cincinnati. They would have given a much better game to Alabama than the dud from "undefeated" Cincinnati. But they only took 4 teams. And not taking the undefeated Cinderella team was too hard for the CFP committee to do---even though Baylor was a better team.
August 31st, 2022 at 6:41 PM ^
Dumb take. That Baylor team would've been stomped, too. They had earned the right to be there.
August 31st, 2022 at 6:54 PM ^
Um, maybe. But Cincinnati struggled with several AAC teams. Utah, Baylor, Oklahoma St, Ohio St, Penn St, Wisconsin, Iowa, and others, all would probably have beaten Cincinnati last year.
September 1st, 2022 at 12:17 AM ^
You are so right. I kept saying that cincy was a fraud, but I think after Frosty's undefeated year and self proclaimed National Championship at UCF, would have been hard not to invite an undefeated cincy.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:01 AM ^
Frost just causing more confusion….
August 31st, 2022 at 7:21 PM ^
Cincinnati should have been left home. Expand the playoffs. Let teams n that should be there and not because of voters guilt.
August 31st, 2022 at 7:54 PM ^
Agree. Trying to figure out which teams "would have beaten" which other teams can't be the only criteria. You want to play in the playoffs? Win all your games. If you don't, no complaints. And hell, everybody "struggles" during some point or another. Georgia "struggled" with Clemson, for instance, and got stomped by Alabama.
I know I'll get negged for us, but I expected Ohio State to beat us last year, and if we played them again, I'm not sure the results wouldn't be different. Should they have been selected over us because "they would have been a better challenge" for Georgia?
Nah. We won. We earned that spot. Just like Cincinnati did. No patience for Baylor or OSU. You don't get to lose twice then complain.
August 31st, 2022 at 8:05 PM ^
And hell, everybody "struggles" during some point or another.
QFT.
Remember, Michigan struggled against Nebraska last year. Granted, Nebraska was the BeSt 3-WiN tEaM eVaR!!!! but they were still a 3-win team. And although maybe not a struggle, per se, only beat Rutgers by a touchdown after putting up goose eggs in the 2nd half.
So yeah, Cincy was maybe not the best team out there, but they played their schedule and earned their shot. And yeah, they got stomped by Alabama, but Michigan got stomped by UGA, so....
August 31st, 2022 at 8:14 PM ^
Cincinnati was outgained by Indiana, and Indiana had 2 turnovers in the 4th qtr, one after a long drive. Otherwise, Indiana may have beaten Cincinnati, while six BIG10 teams blew Indiana away.
September 1st, 2022 at 10:42 AM ^
If we're going down that road, we cannot ignore that Indiana was absolutely ravaged by injuries last year. Our game with them was a snoozefest because Indiana just did not have the horses to keep up with a Michigan that was barely even trying.
September 1st, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^
How does that help the case for Cincinnati?
August 31st, 2022 at 7:06 PM ^
What I fear we get--as the gap between the have and have nots widens precipitously--is some real yawners in the opening round games, the usual suspects in the later ones. (I will delight in every exception to this likelihood, with most everyone.) What measures might bring greater parity to college football?
August 31st, 2022 at 7:38 PM ^
My biggest fear is that the soul of the season moves from on-campus into neutral site stadiums. That "December Madness" is what people remember, and The Game is just a prelude to the extended, expanded playoff.
As for parity - I think that the 1980s and 1990s saw parity, with the emergence of new national powers, and conference races saw more champions than the 1970s or the CFP era. From 1990-1997, 9 different schools won either the Coaches or AP Poll. It continued into the '00s too - the first 9 editions of the BCS saw 9 different winners, and 11 schools participating. The 8 CFPs have 5 winners, a 6th school that was a finalist (7 other schools have been semifinalists). So, what changed in the late 1970s to make the 1980s seem so much more wide open?
I do think this current run of recruiting dominance won't last - Ohio and Clemson are starting to see cracks, the SEC dominance of 2006-2012 became Nick Saban's dominance, with one good LSU year and Mark Richt building a machine in UGA. I won't bet against Saban, but I don't think that OSU and Clemson are both going to waltz back into the playoff this year. They could, but I don't think it's crazy to see a CFP of Baylor, A&M, NC State and the big ten champ. 3 first-time participants, and the 4th either being a different team than last year or not one of the usual suspects from 2014-2020 - it's not out of the question.
August 31st, 2022 at 8:21 PM ^
I think that the 1980s and 1990s saw parity,
OTOH, Miami won five national titles between 1983 and '01, FSU finished in the top five something like 15 years in a row (If the playoff had existed, Bobby Bowden may have racked up national titles like Saban) and Nebraska had that crazy run under Osborne.
I think the biggest difference was the absence of a playoff. In the playoff era, multiple teams have won it all despite losing a game. That happened much less pre-playoff. Then, the national champ usually had a perfect season.
September 1st, 2022 at 3:03 PM ^
Yep. Florida State - for all their success from 1987 to 2000 (always finishing in the Top 5 at season's end!!!!) only had TWO undefeated regular seasons during that same stretch! That's it.
Only one of those two regular seasons resulted in a MNC (1999); their only other MNC during that same stretch was in a season where they lost once but was fortunate that Notre Dame lost at a later date (1993).
If a 4-team playoff existed in that same era, FSU would look a lot more like Alabama in terms of National Titles.
August 31st, 2022 at 8:55 PM ^
Vasav, what action resulted in more parity? Scholarship limits.
August 31st, 2022 at 7:49 PM ^
Expanding the playoff plus the eased transfer rules ought to help. Riding the bench at Bama is a harder sell when they aren’t the only sure shot to make the CFP during your career.
September 4th, 2022 at 5:09 PM ^
What's the point in "making the playoffs"? There are already 2 or 3 blowouts in the 4 team playoff. A 12 team playoff is pretty much guaranteed to be almost all blowouts. Not really compelling TV. Players will 100% sit out playoffs after a few years once they realize its actually just a bowl game called something else.
August 31st, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
What measures might bring greater parity to college football?
The fact that more than 4 teams have a shot at the playoff is a good start.
September 4th, 2022 at 5:10 PM ^
More than 4 teams already have a shot at a title all they have to do is win their conference. Conference division champs and conference championship games are de facto playoff games you dont need to give those teams a second chance. Because in the end its going to give an unlucky Alabama or Ohio St team a better chance to win.
August 31st, 2022 at 7:19 PM ^
Let me try to solve the “logistical problems”….
higher rated team gets a home game
August 31st, 2022 at 9:05 PM ^
Chaco, I’m a proponent of deciding it on the field - and, believe conference championships should be worth something.
I can easily see the “SEC runner up” being ranked “Top 4”. And, with the “higher seed at home” - would result in more home games for that conference. Of course, they will need to figure out how to seed the teams.
My suggestion - the fist criteria / requirement to host a playoff game should be - conference champion.
I’m a fan of an eight team playoff. Anything larger, IMO, dilutes the regular conference season. The major conference champions host round one. For the time being - maybe that will be five conferences - which could become four, or possibly three - after more consolidation and realignment. The Committee selects one group of five representative - and two to four at-large teams (based on how many “Power” conferences there actually are at the time).
August 31st, 2022 at 7:24 PM ^
It's all about money... The more NFL like CFB becomes, the more I dislike it. The last NFL playoff season was amazing and CFB will never replicate that.
Maybe if there was more fairness but that is currently not the case.
August 31st, 2022 at 8:07 PM ^
Money, money, money. I'll still watch because I've been a Michigan fan since November 22, 1969, but it doesn't feel nearly the same as it did 50 plus years ago. I'm glad Harbaugh still seems to want his players to get more out of the experience than preparing to play professional football. That's just one thing that puts him high above the Urban Meyers of the coaching profession. Go Blue..
August 31st, 2022 at 8:34 PM ^
Good!
September 1st, 2022 at 6:43 AM ^
I understand that a point of contention was where to play some of these games. I really hope the BIG fights for these to be onsite at the universities...at least in round 1. If you are good enough to be in the top let's get some games in Ann Arbor, Columbus, etc.
September 1st, 2022 at 8:05 AM ^
Flex - I love the idea of a “barely travel outside of my warm weather conference” playing a December outdoor game in Columbus or Ann Arbor.
i would love to see it happen…
September 1st, 2022 at 3:30 PM ^
Totally agree and as far as college football goes it just distills the entire experience with too many neutral site games. Let's have LSU travel up to Ann Arbor or Alabama to osu, etc. etc. And same goes the other way if a team like michigan is #10 they should have to travel to wherever the higher ranked team is.