It makes the regular season essentially a 12 week playoff. Lose once and you're on the bubble. Lose twice - welcome to the weedeater bowl. Every game, every week from the start of the season to the end is very important. More eyes on TV games every week, not just for some diluted end of season tournament where first round games would suck. Seriously now, if UFC made the playoff as a hypothetical 8 seed and played Bama in the first round, most people would watch for the first quarter/half out of curiosity until Bama got up 42-0 then go do something else. If there were more teams, the regular season would go the way of NCAA basketball - there is little interest until March Madness. I only wish they could enforce some rule about OOC game scheduling to have to meet some minimum standard to be eligible for the final 4. (Bama and Georgia should have to play outside their own zipcode). I have no inside knowledge but it's hard to believe schedules can't be altered only a year in advance where next year's schedules can be put together now.
Just some thoughts - GO IRISH! BEAT TIGERS!
teams will complain anyway.
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If you're going to have conferences (in this case the Power 5 conferences) then winning your conference should mean something (i.e. invitation to CFP).
You can leave it up to the conferences to identify who the 'conference champion' is...which takes that away from the CFP committee.
And...for example...the Pac12 could...if they chose...have Washington St as their conference representative...if they so chose. Probably not going to happen...but it is a conference thing from now on in this 8-team playoff situation.
That means that conference games matter throughout the season.
And then have 3 at-large. Which are the only teams the CFP committee selects.
If you don't win your conference (or are an independent)...you can still get into the CFP by showing that you belong.
And this allows a team like UCF to get in.
This can be accomplished by scheduling a good out-of-conference schedule. Which means you can schedule good out-of-conference teams (and lose) and not impact you getting in if you still win your conference (only conference games count towards winning the conference...just as today). And it allows an independent (like Notre Dame) to always schedule tough because teams will be willing to play them.
This makes playing a good schedule throughout the season just as important as winning your conference.
Doing this in no way diminishes the regular college football season. Every game counts (either in winning your conference or in proving yourself as an at-large team).
Just my thoughts.
Why not just start the playoffs in August? At what number of teams are the playoffs sufficient? The 4 team playoff was supposed to eliminate all of the controversy. LOL
That means your playoff should include at least 5 teams...and I don't understand why the conferences decided a playoff with fewer slots than the number of (Power 5) conferences made sense.
The 3 at-large (or wild-card) team selections accounts for ND, other really good teams not conference champions, and someone like UCF getting a shot.
Hell...the FCS does it for 20 teams (10 conf champs plus 10 at-large)...and that seems to work.
gets all the possible winners in and is manageable.....but more is not.
Go back to regular season of 12 games determine the 8 teams to play 2-3 extra games in playoffs. First games are at top seed home fields. The whole conference championship game is just a money making scheme by the leagues and the NCAA. Eliminate those and you eliminate the 13th game debate.
Why would the fact that we have conferences now require us to have an 8 team playoff
...is bullshit.
Like...The Rose Bowl...grand-daddy of them all...what a load of crap.
Or was it a good feeling when ND lost the national championship in '93 because of some BS poll after a bunch of disjointed bowl games?
...since no longer is it a big deal to go to the Rose Bowl as winner of the Big 10 and Pac 12.
It gave us two undefeated powerhouses (PSU and Nebraska) playing lesser foes, instead of each other.
Conference championships don't mean anything, and really never did.
Seems to work in the FCS.
No one goes to the games. No one watches it on TV.
As for why have conferences, I guess it is convenient for scheduling. I have no idea otherwise. As I said, there have been conferences for 100 plus years. No one ever remembers who won any of conference championships for those 100 years.
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Look, I’m fine with an expanded playoff but there is a fan logistic consideration.
You see people here are lukewarm about attending ND’s first ever semifinal game. Imagine how fans will treat quarterfinals or playoff games beyond that.
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Semi's and final at neutral spots.
Or...hell...have the semi's on campus as well.
That's the NFL model...only the final (super bowl) is played at a neutral site.
I don't know what the NCAA FCS does...is the championship on campus as well?
and probably pay the players for going to conference championship and playoff games instead of sitting out to protect their first round draft statuses.
It used to be 10 games, a Bowl and a couple polls were enough to figure out National Champions. Now that the FBS top 64 is essentially the NFL minor league and the rest of the FBS is irrelevant to the National Championship discussion and TV dollars own big time college football, and only a handful of top FBS teams give a shit about academics, might as well admit it.
Currently, the CFB season is 13 games for most D1 teams because of the extended season and, what, 40 bowl games. That means these guys are playing three extra games/year than their dads/granddads. Over the course of four years, that amounts to 12 extra college football games, an entire season more exposure to injury. Unless this is curbed, then more guys will leave early due to the very risk of serious injury.....
but joints, ligaments and brains are not much different in terms of resistance to greater forces.
...and ncaa would be swimming in $$...three or four weekends of winner take all games with top 8? Oh boy, it'd be amazing
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