According to the athletic, a move from a 4 team to a 12 team playoff, not an 8, is the proposal gaining steam. I did not see that coming. I assumed it would move to 8.
I’m wondering what the format would be? 12 isn’t a clean number without byes. I guess the top four could get a bye?
Exact same as the NFL before this year. 4 teams get byes, 8 teams play the first weekend to set the quarterfinals.
Good time to remind every that Jack Swarbrick and Greg Sankey are driving this bus, these two are gonna decide what happens after 2025 What’s in the best interest of ND and the SEC? 12 teams would be by far the most beneficial for those two
Also good for the non power 5 schools. Now the UCFs can stop whining when they play a good team with motivation
This will also open up new and exciting ways for the Georgia Bulldogs to choke away winnable games. So there's that too
This year would have been: Byes: Bama, Clemson, Ohio State, ND Round 1: A&M vs Coastal Carolina Oklahoma vs Indiana Florida vs ISU Georgia vs Cincinnati
First round is yuck....but hey you never know, if two of those are upsets that's pretty exciting football. All four of those underdogs could have beaten their opponent.
regular season should get better, no buy games anymore, better out of conference games, end of bullshit championship games also makes ppl buy season tickets as first two rounds likely at home stadiums
Miami still wont get in bc they're choking during that gauntlet of an ACC schedule. So there's that too
If you think CC and CIncy both get in I have some oceanfront property to sell you in Nebraska. HELL, I'm not sure either one of them gets in as long as the "Selection committee" in it's current format exists
Two years ago would have been good. Byes: LSU, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma Round 1: Georgia vs. Auburn Oregon vs. Utah Baylor vs. PSU Wisconsin vs Florida
Subscribe to The Athletic you dorks Concerned that their four-team product has been harmed by the dominance of a select few teams from the same region, FBS commissioners are seriously considering expanding the College Football Playoff. And while it’s long been assumed that any change to the format would be modest, several influential decision-makers are suddenly open to a playoff system that skips past eight teams and into the double digits. “I sense 12 teams is building support,” one Power 5 athletic director said. The CFP first publicly acknowledged an exploration of larger expansion models in a news release Friday afternoon, and despite a line in that release that the commissioners currently support the four-team model, multiple sources who would be involved with the process have expressed to The Athletic a surprising willingness to contemplate what would have been considered radical only a year or two ago. “There are two unintended consequences people didn’t see when they created the Playoff,” said a college administrator familiar with the discussions. “One, seeing the same teams over and over from one part of the country. It’s impairing the product, because there’s boredom. … There’s risk to not enough (geographic) spread. Secondly, the brand damage to a conference that doesn’t get in it.” The CFP release revealed that a working group — made up of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick — is studying six-, eight-, 10-, 12- and 16-team formats. It’s still possible the commissioners decide to stay at four teams, but the momentum seems to favor expansion. The question is whether those commissioners can convince their presidents to expand — and if so, how soon? The College Football Playoff’s 12-year contracts with ESPN and the six major bowls run through the 2025-26 season and would be complicated to change. However, if there’s a consensus to expand sooner, the 2023 season would make logical sense, as it’s the beginning of the last three-year semifinal rotation with the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls. In that case, a decision would likely have to be reached by this fall or winter. The College Football Playoff Management Committee (the FBS commissioners and Swarbrick) and Board of Managers (a panel of presidents and chancellors) will meet in person on June 22 in Dallas. It’s expected that the working group will present options to the presidents, and possibly make a specific recommendation at that time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the presidents will greenlight blowing up the current system early. “I wouldn’t predict what will happen,” said CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock. “The meeting last week doesn’t guarantee it will expand. Four teams remains an option, and we have five years left to go on the contract.” Of the 28 available spots in the Playoff so far, Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma have filled 20. The fear of fatigue from a significant portion of the college-football watching public is real. With no salary cap and no draft to even out the talent levels among the teams, college football can’t rely on rapid changes in teams’ fortunes to keep things fresh. That means there is no telling when a new set of teams might cycle up to take the place of some of the current dominant teams. The Pac-12 hasn’t placed a team in the Playoff since the 2016 season. The Big 12 missed the Playoff in 2014, 2016 and 2020. The Big Ten missed it in 2017 and 2018, and its champion was left out in 2016. (East Division second-place finisher Ohio State was included, though.) An expanded Playoff would likely include automatic bids, which could ensure that the champions of each Power 5 league make the field. The hope is that this would help fan engagement in leagues such as the Pac-12. It also could increase the value of conference championship games. Last year’s Pac-12 Championship between USC and Oregon, which had no Playoff implications, drew 3.85 million viewers, down from the 5.9 million for Utah-Oregon the year before when the Utes still had a shot. Another option in a larger field is to provide an automatic bid for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion, guaranteeing the possibility of access to five leagues that are, for all intents and purposes, shut out of the current Playoff. One factor driving the exploration of a much larger bracket is a desire to avoid having to overhaul the format again in a few years. “There’s a thought that IF you’re going to make a change and expand, you might as well do a little more than a little less,” said the source familiar with the discussions. “There’s always constant [public] pressure to keep increasing. You wouldn’t want to go through all this and realize fairly soon, you need to make more changes. So people want to think more long term.” Even leagues that have enjoyed success under the four-team model can see the benefit of getting bigger. Asked which format they preferred, a source at an SEC school said: “The one that gets three SEC schools in!” This joke contains more than a kernel of truth. Had a 12-team playoff been in place in 2012, five SEC teams likely would have made the bracket. Another major factor is that interest in the bowls beneath the Playoff has waned for fans and for players. Opt-outs have become more common as draft-eligible players choose not to risk injury in games that have no stakes attached. For example, the Florida team that lost by six points to eventual national champ Alabama in the SEC Championship played in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma without its best player (tight end Kyle Pitts) and three other starters. The result was a lopsided Oklahoma win in a matchup that didn’t resemble what organizers hoped they’d get when the game was set. One reason commissioners opted for a four-team Playoff after scrapping the BCS was in an effort to protect the bowl system. Multiple sources indicated they don’t expect the commissioners to fight so hard for the bowls this time. “I thought it was interesting they started the discussions this early,” a bowl executive said. “I don’t know how the bowls survive if they expand, to be honest. There will be some that survive, but with a different financial model. We make these big guarantees not knowing which teams we’re going to get.” This same bowl executive said they spoke to a Power 5 AD in March who “already knew they were going to expand.” Would an expanded playoff keep more stars playing into the postseason? One agent who represents NFL players said it might. “I think you go to the Ohio States and the Alabamas to get in the Playoff, and if they grow it so the CFP field expands so other teams get in, that’s everything you dream of if you’re a player there,” the agent said. “I think it’ll actually keep more guys playing.” Said an NFL scout: “I would find that really hard to believe that it would cause more opt outs, whether it’s four, eight or 16 teams. It’s still the Playoff. Man, that’s why you got to the school. Now, if they’re only going to the CampingWorld.com bowl or something like that, I understand opting out.” That line of thinking is another reason commissioners are considering a much bigger bracket. Another key factor is whether ESPN would be willing to rip up the current deal and pay more for an expanded playoff. A former television network executive believes ESPN would be willing to play ball: “There are only so many platinum properties.” In the last non-pandemic season, the CFP semifinal games averaged 17.2 million and 21.2 million viewers, respectively. The national title game between LSU and Clemson averaged 25.6 million viewers. All those games aired on ESPN. The last non-pandemic NBA Finals — which aired on free-over-the-air ABC — averaged 15.1 million viewers per game. The CFP is incredibly valuable to ESPN for a variety of reasons. Having such an in-demand event allows corporate parent Disney to put more pressure on cable and satellite operators to pay the highest per-subscriber fee in the industry (which is then passed on to the consumer). Plus, live sports events are now the only shows on television in which the vast majority of the viewers watch the ads in real time (or at all). ESPN would have to pay more, but it also stands to make more. So it wouldn’t matter that the network just committed about $2.6 billion a year to its new NFL deal if a CFP deal was profitable in its own right. “It’s not a zero-sum game,” the former TV executive said. Renegotiating the deal now also provides another advantage to ESPN — keeping the Playoff from hitting the open market. If the leagues want to expand the Playoff before 2026, they have to do it with ESPN. Will they expand before the current contract expires? That remains to be seen. But what seemed impossible only a few years ago seems quite possible now. — Nicole Auerbach and Bruce Feldman contributed to this report.
I know I don’t have a lot to complain about as an Alabama fan but our ranking after losing to LSU and Auburn (without Tua) by a combined 8 points was bullshit.
Auto bids is stupid but happening. A maximum number of teams from a conference is the worst idea I’ve heard. You aren’t looking for best teams at that point.
Actually I think that first round is amazing. Imagine if you got some first round CFB like first round March Madness.
It’ll be 4 byes 10 p5s and 2 G5s With the debate every year starting in October being dOeS tHe SeC dEsErVe a ThIrD oR MaYbE eVEn FoUrTh tEaM?
Sure it’s a bad idea if you are from a team from the conference that consistently overrates everyone else in the conference due to the top member (this is true of both the B1G and SEC). No one wants to watch rematches every week in the first round. Sure they work here and there but I’d be good with a 3 or 4 team maximum knowing how flawed and biased our ranking systems are every single year.
Can't tell if this is a serious comment or not, but it is one often said. It's amazing how literally every sport can have a good regular season and a successful playoff with more than 1 team. Also, I hope there is a huge push for more OOC games, 9 game SEC schedules, and limit the number of shit non-P5 games. It should make everything better. Then we get more good football
I dunno if they go 8 or 12, but there will definitely be 6 auto bids - 5 P5 and 1 G5. There's no way they're opening themselves up to a lawsuit by shutting out the G5.
If they expand out I'd like to see conference champs get an auto-bid. -P5 Champs gets 5 slots. -1 slots for a shitty non P5 team if they are ranked in the top 12. -Then that leaves 6 more slots for SEC teams
If you cap it at 2 In 2020 you lose #7 and pick up #16. You’d also lose #9 for #17. That seems like a good way to get better football and determine the best champion. Capping it at 3 trades 9 for 13. Just pick the best X number of teams and it will all work out. Don’t force other arbitrary constraints on it
My entire point is the ranking system has proven to be ass and biased, especially to Big Ten and SEC year after year. I’m fine with more representation from other conferences rather than a 3rd place SEC West or Big Ten east school.
Back when they changed the BCS rules every year, they had a rule that a conference only got an automatic bid to a BCS bowl if their champion was ranked top-14. I could see that used here. P5 get an auto bid, but only if top-12. The P5 champs are almost always going to be top-12.