Bill Hancock moved his lips again.
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock reiterated that the CFP has no plans to expand beyond its four-team format.
Alabama won the second CFP national championship.
“There’s no discussion of expanding,” Hancock said. “We set the four-team tournament for 12 years and there’s no discussion in our group about any kind of expansion.”
I almost wish they’d get it over with already, just so he can move on to his next line of bullshit.
Get The Picture 
Off topic, but Isaiah Crowell is a piece of shit and I’m embarassed he’s in any way affiliated with the University of Georgia.
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Yes, that was bad, and yes, that’s off topic.
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Concur
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#OutrageCulture
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Phil Steele did a terrific breakdown of the last twenty or so seasons to see which playoff format would have worked the best – and the worst. No surprise, eight teams was the worst format more than any other. Wonder if the powers that be would even consider looking back before they change it up.
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Not if the money’s right. 🙂
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where can Steele’s break down be found?
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I almost wish they’d just go to 16 teams and be done with it because I think that’s where we’ll wind up eventually even though it may take a decade to get there. A 16 team format really would devalue much of the regular season in my opinion, but in some respects it might be the most equitable way. However, unless teams are willing to give up a game or league’s agree to do away with their championship game (not gonna happen), the length of season becomes a major issue.
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That would sure move up my blogging retirement date.
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I forgot to insert that sarcasm emoji
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I’m scared you are right and 16 teams is where this is headed, but I disagree that it’s most equitable. There will always be an argument about the bubble. Push it to 16, and you’ll have seven or eight teams screaming “we beat them” and “our record is just as good” and so on. The argument should only be about – are you one of the two best teams in the country? If you can’t make a case for that, I don’t think you should be playing for a championship.
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Got to reel in the $$$$! Same as it ever was…
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8 is awful other than it likely gets all P5 champions in. I hate any format that includes wildcards (including a 1-loss ND). At that point, it’s not who is the best team that season. It’s who is the team that’s hot at the right time.
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Agreed.
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The second best team in a conference just might be better than the other Champs…I see no issue with finding that out.
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But why does that 2nd best team in the conference deserve a 2nd shot at the conference champion? Alabama lost fair & square at home to LSU in 2011 and didn’t deserve to play for the title in New Orleans whether or not they were the best team in the country.
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IF they were second best, they deserved another shot. Just the way I see it.
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For what it’s worth, us CFB lovers aren’t alone. Even the Euro soccer tournament has suffered because of expansion:
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/euro2016/portugal-winning-euro-2016-is-exactly-what-uefa-deserved-after-michel-platini-s-vision-backfires-a3292821.html
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Shame that making more $$$ will be what destroys the greatest regular season in sports.
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Not sure why you’re having such a heart attack over an 8 team playoff system. Oh wait, I forgot you’re obsessed with the money angle. More money for the NCAA and schools, but the poor athletes suffer under the tyranny. Cry me a river.
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Swing and a miss. As usual.
But thanks for playing.
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Are you kidding me? I have your number! Nobody who loves college football would argue against an 8 game playoff. Sure, the regular season has to be modified to accommodate such a structure, but it can be done. You have an alternative motive and its transparently obvious.
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Obviously, I hate college football. That’s why I’ve blogged about it for almost ten years.
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I’m not sure it’ll be as fast as we think. It took a long time to come up w/ the Coalition, then BCS. Conferences don’t budge easily, and I think they do understand the sanctity of the regular season.
The harder thing for me to wrap my head around in the modern game is how to best equate for the tremendous imbalance between conferences. Look at Clemson’s upcoming schedule. Auburn is probably their 2nd hardest game behind FSU. Maybe Louisville. What if they had not scheduled that game this year? They don’t play UNC. They don’t play ND.
There is going to come a day when we have a really, really good 11-2 SEC champion who gets left out. Look at our 2017 schedule: @ Notre Dame, @ Tennessee, @ Auburn, @ Tech and Florida in Jax. Home tilts with South Carolina and Mizzou. It’s a murderer’s row.
I’d love to see a 6-team that invites all 5 conference champions and at least lets the field decide what a strong team is. It would actually increase intensity in regular season conference games (except in the Big 12 – but that’s another discussion). Championship Saturday would actually become a 10-team playoff. Win your division and you’ve got a shot. There’s 1 at-large. Some years that might be ND, a group of six champion or another Power 5 non-conf. champion. A few rules could easily be set in place.
-No at-large team may go if another team has a better record. 10-2 ND cannot get in over 11-1 Conf. USA champ.
-1 & 2 get a first round bye. This greatly increases a team’s desire to go undefeated. The regular season is critically important to get that bye. Clemson and Bama would have earned that last year.
-3 & 4 host a quarter-final game in their stadium in mid-December to kickoff bowl season.
-5 & 6 go on the road for the quarter.
-the ‘at-large’ team must be ranked 5 or 6 (which gives room to rank an upset power 5 champ (like a 9-3 team that wins a weak division and wins the championship game) at number 6 if they’re clearly the 6th team.
My problem with 4 is it’s still a beauty pageant. I think Clemson was really good last year, but I have no idea if they were better than Stanford or if Michigan St. or OU was better than Stanford. Stanford missed out, but we don’t know how much scheduling played into that. The beauty pageant aspect lends me to want to play cupcakes (to avoid injuries, wear and tear, and a potential loss), it makes me avoid sportsmanship so I can run the score up (which decreases valuable playing time for back-ups) and puts it in the hands of voters. If the champions get in, there’s no score-margin or all those other stupid ‘game-control’ metrics. Just win your games, win your conference, and you get a shot.
Heck, make it 5 teams and have a play-in game. They’d never do that because the group of 6 would like a shot. And I don’t mind that. Who knows if Memphis could hang with the big boys or the Utahs, Hawaii’s or Boise State’s of years past.
What I’m concerned about is that the powers that be really don’t comprehend how deadly to the sport 3 at-large teams would be, especially if they’re played at neutral sites. Heck, if 3 at-larges want to get in, does 2013 11-0 Bama even ‘want’ to beat Auburn. Let Auburn go play in the SECCG so you can rest up for the playoff, especially if winning the SEC doesn’t even get you a bye or a home game. Who cares if I’m going to Dallas vs. Phoenix to play? 8 teams in a playoff greatly diminishes the need to win conferences or all regular season games. And if you think they won’t sit superstars…look no further than the NFL.
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Bama not wanting to beat Au…you have me in tears with that comment.
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The first time a team loses a key player in a game they didn’t need to win, everything changes.
2009 UNC basketball. Roy Williams sits Ty Lawson (who was a little banged up) in the ACC tourney, the Heels lose in the semis to FSU (who loses to Duke in the championship).
Lawson returns for the NCAAs, and the Heels win every game by double digits in the tourney en route to another title. Duke was ACC tourney champions, but do you think Carolina cared?
It’s not that you don’t WANT to beat a rival, but when the entire system is rigged toward a bigger picture, if forces coaches’ hands in playing star players. And you have heard basketball coaches talk about wanting rest rather than win a conference tourney.
A better example is Florida 2012. In reality, in the world of the 8-team playoff, it was actually better for them to lose to us. That means they couldn’t go to that championship game and lose to Bama on the last weekend. A system in which it is potentially a benefit to not play for your conference championship game is a bad one.
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Of all the major sports I can think of, college football is the only one that holds its exhibition season after its regular season, not before. I’d really like an expanded playoff format, because the month of December is otherwise a really boring sports month for me, and the entire month could be the climax of the CFB season.
I don’t buy the argument that more playoffs would destroy the CFB regular season. I think SEC championships and late-season wins over rivals are always going to be huge in CFB, which is not the NFL nor is it college basketball. No way Florida or Georgia is ever not going all-out to win the WLOCP. No way Alabama doesn’t go all out to beat Auburn, regardless of team records or playoff potentials. College football has already weakened its regular season by letting teams load up on cupcakes, and making fans who buy season tickets pay for these games at the same price as meaningful games.
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The sooner the better. A four team playoff is only slightly less stupid than the BCS format.
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Then when I think about the unnecessary selection committee I start to wonder if it’s not just as stupid.
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Eight is the sweet spot but it won’t come soon enough, will never understand why they did a half ass job by just having four. Same issues as the BCS system, just two more teams. When it gets to eight, it will not have to be adjusted again because every legit contender will have their shot.
And you will never see teams withholding players if they play the first round at the 4 highest rated team’s home stadium. First round mid-December, semis on January 1 or 2, championship (first open one) in mid January. Always be a whiner but everyone will hqave had their shot.
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