CFB Playoffs?

[RyanMcD29]

This was a proposal I made.. I wanna say the week before the final week of the season

My proposal was

-12 Teams

-8 Conference Champs, with the 6 BCS Conference Champs and 2 Best Non-AQ Conference Champs

-4 At-Large bids regardless of conference

Rethinking this a bit, I guess to make things more open a top-20 requirement must be enforced for the BCS Conferences or else a third non-AQ auto-bid or a 5th at-large opens up, but other than that I stand by this format for a playoff, maybe with an expansion to 16. I'm not really a fan of giving every single conference an auto-bid (I think giving a Sun Belt or a WAC post-Boise team that's not top 25 a bid is the same as some of these low level conferences' auto-bids as a 16-seed in NCAAB), so that explains why I did that (besides, my proposed format would see the MWC get more bids than 4 of the BCS Conferences anyway). Plus I also feel 11 auto-bids and 5 at-larges might screw over a really good mid-major that didn't win their conference like a Houston just for the sake of getting Arkansas State into the show, whereas expanding to a 16-team playoff with the same 8 conference champs plus 8 at-larges gets them in. I know some of you will disagree with me over that, but that's how I feel.

[HedleyLamarr]

The only playoff model that will even be considered is a Plus-1 model. The college presidents and commissioners already aren't in favor of a playoff...much less jumping right into any 8-, 12-, 16-team (or more) tournament.

The only way we'll see a version of the playoffs is one of two scenarios:

A. The BCS conferences (Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, SEC, Pac-12) retain their bowl affiliations for the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta bowl games. The other two slots get filled by the two highest-ranked teams in the BCS standings, regardless of conference affiliation, with the bowls (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta) having a selection process to set up their matchups. Then, these games all get played on the same day, and the two highest-ranked teams that won their bowl game get to play for the National Championship a week later at a fifth location that's rewarded the game, a la like the Super Bowl rotates sites. All four bowl games become meaningful, the bowls still have a month for teams to make travel arrangements, and the season doesn't get extended through the holidays or into mid-to-late January.

B. Top-8 ranked teams in final BCS standings, regardless of conference affiliation, earn a spot into the "playoff pool". The Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta bowls then have a selection process to determine their matchups (keeping in mind that these bowls do want to make a little revenue for the city instead of having the best possible matchup, as this is a business) from this pool of teams. All four games get played on the same day, and the two highest-ranked teams that won get to play for the National Championship a week later at a fifth location (same as above....rotated around like the Super Bowl)

[infrared41]

The only playoff model that will even be considered is a Plus-1 model. The college presidents and commissioners already aren't in favor of a playoff...much less jumping right into any 8-, 12-, 16-team (or more) tournament.

Agreed. Despite my constant pimping of my playoff proposal, I'm not all that crazy about the idea of a playoff. I'd be just fine with a +1. It's a perfectly reasonable solution.

[TBGKon]

Step one towards a playoff is the Plus 1 system.

- Play all bowls as they are right now, but have all of them done by January 1st. (If this means moving the beginning of bowl season to an earlier date, so be it).

- Once all bowls are done, have one final BCS poll and whomever is 1 v. 2 based on that goes to the NCG at some neutral site (to be awarded like the Super Bowl, but can still be a BCS site or could be Dallas, Tampa, Atlanta, etc.)

By going this route for short term give a semi-playoff system, while also giving time to work out a proper plan, even if the proper plan is Plus 1.

[4_tattoos]

Any plan that doesn't preserve the Big Ten/Pac-12 matchup in the Rose Bowl is gonna catch hell.

The Rose Bowl needs to suck it up, then. One of the best Rose Bowls in recent memory was won by a Mountain West team.

Screw that tradition. If the PAC 12 and Big Ten don't want to change then they should be left out of the championship playoffs. Those of you that follow the FCS/1AA know there are a few conferences (Ivy League and SWAC I know for sure) that don't participate in the FCS playoffs. Almost every year top teams from those non-participating conferences get screwed out of the chance to play for the FCS championship because their conferences are too stubborn to change.

If this happened, I guarantee you the first time an undefeated Rose Bowl winner from the PAC or B1G isn't recognized as the national champion they will change tune and get in line real fast.

[rams80]

The only playoff model that will even be considered is a Plus-1 model. The college presidents and commissioners already aren't in favor of a playoff...much less jumping right into any 8-, 12-, 16-team (or more) tournament.

Agreed. Despite my constant pimping of my playoff proposal, I'm not all that crazy about the idea of a playoff. I'd be just fine with a +1. It's a perfectly reasonable solution.

We'll take the plus 1 and then when they go to a 13 game schedule in about a decade, we'll rebuke the college presidents for their hypocrisy and shame them into an 8 team playoff.

[DrAwesomeberry]

16 teams, the 11 conference champions and 5 at larges. First three rounds at the home field of the higher seed, last game at the Rose Bowl. Seeding is determined by a selection committee similar to the basketball tournament. If a team loses in the first two rounds, they can still participate in a bowl game.

[smzimbabwe]

Well, I guess I'm still in the small minority that would like to see things back to the way they were pre-BCS, though it was nice to see at least one other advocate for that...

Heck, I'd like to see the Pac-12 adopt a 11 game round robin schedule and no championship game. They can play one out of conference team at the beginning of the season to come to 12 games, that game wouldn't count in any standings relevant to the conference, maybe just a pre-season game...

[bosrs1]

I'd rather see no changes. Maintaining the current conference matchups in bowls like the Sugar and Rose are more important to me than crowning a national champion.

I didn't know Virginia Tech had joined the SEC.

The traditional ones when they aren't messed up by the freakish intra conference NCG.

[nuordr]

Cut the 2 worst bowls from bowl season and keep the BCS games the same as is. The difference would be a 4 team playoff, atleast 4 at first and then move to 8 if the situation works out. If my plan would be in effect this season the BCS and 4 team playoff picture would have looked like this(Cotton Bowl included because it may soon become BCS bowl, so hey why not? lol):

1 LSU vs 4 Stanford

2 Alabama vs 3 Oklahoma St.

Rose Bowl - Oregon vs Wisconsin

Sugar Bowl - Virginia Tech vs South Carolina

Orange Bowl - Michigan vs West Virginia

Fiesta Bowl - Arkansas vs Clemson

*Cotton Bowl* - Oklahoma/Kansas St. vs Boise St./Baylor....Considering Oklahoma beat K-State, I would think it would be the Sooners and Broncos. They could always pick Baylor because the game is in Texas and RG3 was hot all year. But in the end I think they would be intrigued by a rematch of that memorable Fiesta Bowl some years back.

I think I got the BCS bowls right in my scenario with how the bowls would of probably pick the teams. With Stanford and Oklahoma St. in playoffs, 2 more teams get into BCS bowls and with the Cotton Bowl a total of 4 teams are added to the BCS bowls.

I like this suggestion. Maybe if you only cut one of the small bowls, so then a few more bowl eligible teams get a bowl.

But here's my suggestion. It is really, REALLY out there. But a man can dream, right?

This is based loosely off another member's (was it RedSox44's?) suggestion. 16 team playoff: 11 AQ, 5 at large. The first 8 games are what were the 8 best non-BCS bowls, then the Elite Eight round is the former BCS bowls minus the NCG. Then, you have the Allstate National Semifinals and Allstate National Championship. That would be played in a neutral site (this year, New Orleans). Of course, that was the other member's idea.

The other bowls would remain for the other bowl eligible teams. The bowls would stay the same through the years; the Cotton Bowl would always be for the 8-9 matchup, etc. I kept the playoffs as commercialized as possible so the greedy people still get there money, but we can have our fun.

Ya like?

I like this concept and it is way better than "let's keep everything the same due to tradition!" I love when people like outside the box and that is what you did here. Great Job!

[Billy B]

Let me address my post about how mid-majors shouldn't be allowed. That's not entirely true. I'm honestly a fan of those teams getting their chance to play in a tournament. All they have to do is is be one of the top six ranked conference champions. That would include all of the small conference teams that have had excellent seasons in the past decade. A team like Boise/Utah (in the past)/Houston are included in the tournament if they are have a great year and win their conference. It's not uncommon (it's actually pretty common) that the champion from the Mountain West or the like is ranked higher than the Big East or ACC. Notice how TCU got a bid in mine infrared's system and West Virginia was left out.

[JQK]

6 Automatic Qualifying Conference Champions (SEC, B1G, PAC12, ACC, XII, Big East)*

(Notre Dame Rule: If Notre Dame is ranked higher than the lowest ranked Conference Champion, Notre Dame obtains the 6th AQ spot, and will be seeded based on rank)

_{*AQ Conferences subject to change}

6 Highest Remaining ranked teams, regardless of conference

4 Top Ranked Automatic Qualifiers receive byes

Each round will be re-seeded, rewarding the teams who finished high in the rankings, retaining regular season importance

College Football National Playoff: First Round

5 v 12

6 v 11

7 v 10

9 v 8

College Football National Playoff: Second Round

1 v Lowest Remaining Seed

2 v 2nd Lowest Remaning Seed

3 v 2nd Highest Remaining Seed

4 v Highest Remaining Seed

College Football National Playoff: Semi-Finals

Highest Remaing Seed v Lowest Remaining Seed

2nd Highest Remaing Seed v 2nd Lowest Remaining Seed

College Football National Championship Game

Semi-Final #1 Winner v Semi-Final #2 Winner

The College Football National Playoffs will take place completely outside of the Bowl System, with the games taking place at the home field of the higher-ranked team in a particular matchup. The National Championship Game will be awarded to a different neutral site venue every season.

[mjrbaseball]

A solution to the college football playoff question --- Easily done ... no polls, no computers, no guessing.

11 conferences = 11 conference champions

+ 5 wild cards (the 5 non-champions with the best overall records)

Seed the teams by overall records, and go.

(Have a standard tie-breaking procedure for conference champions, starting with head-to-head, then overall record, and so on.

Tie-breakers for wild card start with head-to-head, record vs common opponents, etc.)

Bowl games become the playoffs. 5 bowls rotate the champonship: Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton. ... Sequence TBA, let's call them ABCDE for now.

Year 1 - A = championship; B&C are semi-finals; D&E are qtr-finals along with Sun and Peach Bowls.

Year 2 - B = championship; C&D are semi-finals; E&A are qtr-finals along with Sun and Peach Bowls.

Year 3 - C = championship; D&E are semi-finals; A&B are qtr-finals along with Sun and Peach Bowls.

Year 4 - D = championship; E&A are semi-finals; B&C are qtr-finals along with Sun and Peach Bowls.

Year 5 - E = championship; A&B are semi-finals; C&D are qtr-finals along with Sun and Peach Bowls.

etc.

(If you want to put Sun and Peach into a rotation with other bowls for the first round and the two qtr-final spots, go ahead.)

[Note: I am including Cotton Bowl because they have already applied to join the current BCS set-up, now that it is played in the JerryDome.]

[GriffinM6]

Cut the 2 worst bowls from bowl season and keep the BCS games the same as is. The difference would be a 4 team playoff, atleast 4 at first and then move to 8 if the situation works out. If my plan would be in effect this season the BCS and 4 team playoff picture would have looked like this(Cotton Bowl included because it may soon become BCS bowl, so hey why not? lol):

1 LSU vs 4 Stanford

2 Alabama vs 3 Oklahoma St.

Rose Bowl - Oregon vs Wisconsin

Sugar Bowl - Virginia Tech vs South Carolina

Orange Bowl - Michigan vs West Virginia

Fiesta Bowl - Arkansas vs Clemson

*Cotton Bowl* - Oklahoma/Kansas St. vs Boise St./Baylor....Considering Oklahoma beat K-State, I would think it would be the Sooners and Broncos. They could always pick Baylor because the game is in Texas and RG3 was hot all year. But in the end I think they would be intrigued by a rematch of that memorable Fiesta Bowl some years back.

I think I got the BCS bowls right in my scenario with how the bowls would of probably pick the teams. With Stanford and Oklahoma St. in playoffs, 2 more teams get into BCS bowls and with the Cotton Bowl a total of 4 teams are added to the BCS bowls.

I like this suggestion. Maybe if you only cut one of the small bowls, so then a few more bowl eligible teams get a bowl.

But here's my suggestion. It is really, REALLY out there. But a man can dream, right?

This is based loosely off another member's (was it RedSox44's?) suggestion. 16 team playoff: 11 AQ, 5 at large. The first 8 games are what were the 8 best non-BCS bowls, then the Elite Eight round is the former BCS bowls minus the NCG. Then, you have the Allstate National Semifinals and Allstate National Championship. That would be played in a neutral site (this year, New Orleans). Of course, that was the other member's idea.

The other bowls would remain for the other bowl eligible teams. The bowls would stay the same through the years; the Cotton Bowl would always be for the 8-9 matchup, etc. I kept the playoffs as commercialized as possible so the greedy people still get there money, but we can have our fun.

Ya like?

I like this concept and it is way better than "let's keep everything the same due to tradition!" I love when people like outside the box and that is what you did here. Great Job!

I think that Houston should take the spot of Arkansas. They had the better overall record.

[4_tattoos]

6 Automatic Qualifying Conference Champions (SEC, B1G, PAC12, ACC, XII, Big East)*

(Notre Dame Rule: If Notre Dame is ranked higher than the lowest ranked Conference Champion, Notre Dame obtains the 6th AQ spot, and will be seeded based on rank)

_{*AQ Conferences subject to change}

6 Highest Remaining ranked teams, regardless of conference

4 Top Ranked Automatic Qualifiers receive byes

Each round will be re-seeded, rewarding the teams who finished high in the rankings, retaining regular season importance

College Football National Playoff: First Round

5 v 12

6 v 11

7 v 10

9 v 8

College Football National Playoff: Second Round

1 v Lowest Remaining Seed

2 v 2nd Lowest Remaning Seed

3 v 3rd Highest Remaining Seed

4 v Highest Remaining Seed

College Football National Playoff: Semi-Finals

Highest Remaing Seed v Lowest Remaining Seed

2nd Highest Remaing Seed v 2nd Lowest Remaining Seed

College Football National Championship Game

Semi-Final #1 Winner v Semi-Final #2 Winner

The College Football National Playoffs will take place completely outside of the Bowl System, with the games taking place at the home field of the higher-ranked team in a particular matchup. The National Championship Game will be awarded to a different neutral site venue every season.

I'd prefer a playoff without first round byes, but if a 12 team playoff was put in place I hope it would be like this.

[Philsphan]

I'm going to bump this thread becuase it is postseason time in College Football now! However, we can all agree that the current postseason format stinks and the new one won't be much better. In addition to new members posting their proposals, old members who posted on this thread last year can modify their playoffs to fit this year's teams. Here is mine:

A) I started with the belief that the three conferences with TV networks will become far more powerful and wealthy than the rest. Instead of a conference championship game, the Pac12, Big Ten and SEC will host a conference playoff. The conference playoff committee has to invite all deserving teams within the conference (top 16) and if any slots are left, the playoff committees can invite at-large teams. These selections will take place after the last weekend of November.

The ACC will keep their conference championship and Big XII will also gain a championship by expanding to 12 teams (just go with it). Those Championships will take place first week of December and the winners will play in Miami or Dallas the next week.

C) The other three conference playoffs will have Semifinals on the first week of December and the Finals on the next weekend.

D) National Semifinals take place on New Years Day and the Finals take place seven days later. Semifinals are hosted by the Rose and Sugar Bowls.

Here's how it looks this year:

SEC Playoff-Atlanta

Alabama

LSU

Georgia

Florida

ACC Championship/Big XII Championship-Miami/Dallas

Florida State

Georgia Tech

Kansas State

Oklahoma

Big Ten Playoff-Indianapolis

Notre Dame*

Michigan

Nebraska

Texas A&M

Pac 12 Playoff-Glendale

Oregon

UCLA

Stanford

Oregon State

[Magnus]

I'm a fan of giving all 11 conference champions a playoff spot, plus either the best independent, or, the best-judged runner-up of the 11 conferences? Why? I am sick of reading that the conferences with the most money fan following will always have the best shot at a title. I realize that many believe that mid-major teams cannot compete with the big 6, but let's prove that on the field - not just speculate about it with useless "rankings" that are inherently biased.

I would use the Rose, Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls as the second round of this playoff structure, with other minor bowls serving as the first round, between seeds 5-12. Seeding would be determined based on the records of all 12 entrants, and things such as strength-of-schedule, etc. The CIS does something similar with the Jewett Trophy, Dunsmore, Yates, and Hardy Trophy. They are bowl games, but also serve as stepping stones to the ultimate prize - the national championship.

[rams80]

I'm a fan of giving all 11 conference champions a playoff spot, plus either the best independent, or, the best-judged runner-up of the 11 conferences? Why? I am sick of reading that the conferences with the most money fan following will always have the best shot at a title. I realize that many believe that mid-major teams cannot compete with the big 6, but let's prove that on the field - not just speculate about it with useless "rankings" that are inherently biased.

1 loss Kent State and 1 loss Northern Illinois are playing for the MAC title this coming week. Their losses are to Kentucky and Iowa respectively. I'll have you look up their records.

[Magnus]

My point is, look at a team's whole body of work - not just the results of one or two "major" games.

If I recall correctly, Michigan lost to Appalachian State (an FCS team that nobody gave any chance to) a few years back.

Teams can surprise you.

[rams80]

My point is, look at a team's whole body of work - not just the results of one or two "major" games.

If I recall correctly, Michigan lost to Appalachian State (an FCS team that nobody gave any chance to) a few years back.

Teams can surprise you.

Michigan subsequently went on to lose to Oregon, Wisconsin, and Ohio State in a regular season that collapsed into mediocrity. Yeah the Wolverines had a bad day, but in retrospect they weren't the top 5 team they started the season as either.