For those of you who want to believe that playoff expansion will have little or no effect on college football, please consider the following tidbits:
- Gary Pinkel thinks that if Notre Dame wants to play in the postseason, it should be made to join a conference first.
- Bob Bowlsby admits that if the Big 12 gets shut out of the playoffs for the second season in a row, it would have to reconsider its current 10-school, round robin, no championship game approach to the regular season.
- John Swofford’s perfect world has an eight-team college football playoff in it.
- And while we’re on the subject of perfect worlds, here’s Hugh Freeze’s version: “Let’s only play 11 games, no league title game & have 8 playoff teams”
And that’s just what’s dropped in the last day or so. Give ’em time, folks. They’re just getting warmed up.
Now, granted, these people don’t have any real power, like conference commissioners…er, wait… Aw, the hell, with this – we’re going to see the postseason expand until TV doesn’t want to pay any more. Get used to the idea.
And if you think it’s gonna stop at eight, I have some marvelous investment opportunities I’d love to discuss with you.
Get The Picture 
How many teams are in the Div II (whatever it is called now)?
There are at least 8 teams and they have been doing it for 30 plus years.
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If you’re talking about what used to be called 1-AA and is now called FCS, it’s at a 24-team playoff now, after steadily expanding.
And its regular season is nothing more than a seedings sorter.
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I think 8 teams would be fine, but the 8 need to be conference champs, not picked by some beauty pageant process. If there were 8 14 team conferences (I think 112 teams is enough D1, let the smaller/weaker programs go to FCS level) and each conference champion was in the playoff, that would be a system that would produce a legitimate champion. Notre Dame would have to get over itself and join a conference or decide to stand on principle and drop down to FCS level.
The “tournament” would be over in three weeks, with a legitimate national champion. The other 104 teams that did not make the playoffs would go to bowl games if they qualified. Home field could be determined by ranking at regular season end or blind draw or coin toss. Championship game would be at neutral site.
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Turning college football into an English Premier League soccer-style system would certainly work well for producing quality champions. But the constant shuffling would mean the end of certain annual rival games (like UGA-GT, UGA-UF, Bama-Auburn, etc.).
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I don’t see how it would affect UGA/FL or Bama/AU, they are all in the same division of the same conference. Georgia/tech could still be played as an OOC game like they do now. In fact, having conference champs go to the playoff would make more interesting OOC matchups easier to do. Georgia could play Michigan or USC and whoever lost would not suffer in the polls and therefore in the eyes of the committee. They could still go on to win their conference championship and be in the playoff. Instead of suffering through the cupcake noon kickoff OOC games, fans could see some entertaining football.
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I too do not see 8 being the end of the world. It could work with the current 4 Champs plus 3 at large…yeah somebody’s gotta pick’em…I get that (I have no problem with the previous BCS Pool)..but no gimme slots for a non power 5 team unless they are one of the 3 highest ranked non champs. First round at home for sure, the semi’s in the bowls last year seemed to work fine.
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5 Champs, obviously..oh for an edit.
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I’d take that for now. I don’t like any system where teams are “picked”, it’s too much like figure skating or gymnastics. I like teams to win it on the field. Let the non P5 teams figure out how to create 3 more conferences and make it the P8 and have the playoff with those 8 champs.
I’d take the 5+3 scenario for 5 years while the other programs figured out and implemented the other 3 conferences.
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That other division that no one bothers to watch does it, so it’s possible. Ignore the ocean of differences between FBS Football and every other college sport.
It’ll expand, and expand, then expand again, and it’ll suck. And they’ll be no going back. Don’t say the Senator didn’t warn you.
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I do agree about ND however. They are a natural geographic and cultural fit for the B1G, a hell of a lot more so than Maryland or Nebraska. The only way to break their influence is to lock them out.
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Yup. They should not be treated differently than any other school. They have been for too long. I have never understood it.
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The Irish have national clout in the form of a broadcast deal. There isn’t a P5 conference that wouldn’t take ND as a member in a heartbeat.
That’s why they get different treatment.
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ND is really the only program with a national fan base, that’s why they can have their own tv deal. If the playoff rules required all teams to be in a conference, they would get in one.
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This, and to this point, they have been just fine with it. I don’t see them changing much in this regard. IF they go undefeated, they are a shoe in for the final 4.
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Comparing Richt to Dooley is absurd, the resources have changed completely. Was SOS, or Muschamp compared to Graves?
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Who knew they played football at FU before 1990?
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Give John Swofford credit for unintentional honesty. He knows he has a one horse league, and if FSU cycles down it’s bad news. It sucks being the last kid picked.
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Media is picking Clemson and GT as ACC division winners this season, FWIW.
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This subject gets under your skin, I’ll say that. I have heard my entire life that 88% of things you worry about have already happened, or never will happen.
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Let’s just not have a regular season, just a playoff bracket with all the teams seated based of COA, or some other arbitrary value, and play until the last team standing. Don’t want nobody left out.
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