I threw this into another thread last week, but I think it is a fun discussion so I wanted to lay it out in a longer post and get feedback.
First, let's all agree that the college football postseason is broken. Bowls have no meaning and the playoff continues to only truly benefit 4 schools (OSU, Clemson, Oklahoma and Bama) at the expense of everyone else. Of the 24 spots in the playoff over the last 6 years, 17 have gone to those 4 schools. And 8 of the 12 spots in the title game have been just Alabama or Clemson. So of course they continue to use that to recruit and it becomes an unending cycle. It will likely repeat itself in some fashion this year as well.
So let's fix it. We can add more teams, add more fun games, level the playing field, and even save the bowl system.
The first step is to expand the playoff to 8 teams. The champions of the Power 5 conferences all get a slot, you add 2 at-large teams from other P5 conferences and then add in the best Group of 5 team. You could also convince me to just choose the Top 8 without auto-bids for conference champions, but I like the conference champions because it makes the regular season more meaningful and turns the conference championship games into de-facto "Sweet 16" games.
Here is where it gets fun because there are several options for seeding and playing the 8 team playoff, each with their own positives and negatives.
Scenario 1: Seed teams 1-8, with games played the week after conference championships at the home sites of the Top 4 teams. The winners advance to the traditional 4 team playoff that we have right now on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day that rotates betweens the NY6 Bowl games.
Pros: It is simple and and a natural extension of the existing playoff. It rewards the top seeds with home games. And since it is done right after conference championships, the losers of those first 4 playoff games can still go to a bowl game too. It also could force a southern team to play a late season game outdoors in the cold.
Cons: The biggest challenge with this model might just be playing games at home sites in smaller college towns. These are going to be big productions. They probably can manage, but it might be a strain and it could put more stress on the home team responsible for hosting the game than they want. Finding out on a Sunday you have to host a game the following Friday or Saturday can be a big endeavor.
Scenario 2: The exact same as scenario 1, but instead of playing the quarterfinal games at home stadiums, we create regional sites (Midwest/West/South/East). You'd be giving away some home team advantages for being a Top 4 seed, but you could also balance it out by giving more tickets to the higher seeded teams. And they would still be placed by region like the NCAA tourney. You could still have a regional outdoors in a northern city though (maybe Soldier Field?), but it probably ends up being a rotation of Ford Field/Indianapolis in the Midwest/North, Phoenix/LA/Santa Clara in the West, Dallas/New Orleans in the South and Atlanta in the East.
Pros: The upshot here is that the production of the game wouldn't be the responsibility of the host school and these games would be played at big venues. Basically the equivalent of regional finals for the NCAA Tourney.
Cons: Seeding and locatoins might be tough. If Alabama is the 1 seed and Georgia is the 8 seed, you might have them playing in Atlanta, which punishes Bama a bit. But they already sort of navigate this with the semifinals so I think you can manage it.
Scenario 3: This one is for those of us that miss the traditional bowl season and matchups. We play the quarterfinals on New Year's Eve/Day using traditional bowl matchups. Here is one version of what it would look like:
Rose Bowl: Big Ten champion vs Pac 12 champion
Orange Bowl: ACC Champion vs SEC Champion
Sugar Bowl: Group of 5 best vs At Large
Cotton Bowl: Big 12 Champion vs At Large
Then you do semifinals a week later at the two other NY6 sites (Peach and Fiesta) and a championship the week after that.
Pros: We make all these bowls and traditional matchups meaningful again. We reward teams for winning their conference with a marquee bowl and trip. There is ample time for fans and teams to prepare for their quarterfinal games and you don't have to worry about waiting until after the quarterfinals to fill out the rest of the elite bowls. From a fan perspective, we're getting 4 very meaningful games again during the bowl season.
Cons: It extends the season a week longer. For players and their families, you potentially have 3 "bowl trips" to go to. You won't get a traditional 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 alignment. There is a possibility of getting 1 vs 2 in the first round. If you wanted to you could still adopt to not start the playoffs until NYD, but still seed the teams as compromise.
I think scenario #1 is by far the most likely and easiest to pull off. Scenario #3 is my favorite by far though. I think it would make for a lot more compelling football and matchups.
What other ideas do you have that I'm missing?
First, let's all agree that the college football postseason is broken. Bowls have no meaning and the playoff continues to only truly benefit 4 schools (OSU, Clemson, Oklahoma and Bama) at the expense of everyone else. Of the 24 spots in the playoff over the last 6 years, 17 have gone to those 4 schools. And 8 of the 12 spots in the title game have been just Alabama or Clemson. So of course they continue to use that to recruit and it becomes an unending cycle. It will likely repeat itself in some fashion this year as well.
So let's fix it. We can add more teams, add more fun games, level the playing field, and even save the bowl system.
The first step is to expand the playoff to 8 teams. The champions of the Power 5 conferences all get a slot, you add 2 at-large teams from other P5 conferences and then add in the best Group of 5 team. You could also convince me to just choose the Top 8 without auto-bids for conference champions, but I like the conference champions because it makes the regular season more meaningful and turns the conference championship games into de-facto "Sweet 16" games.
Here is where it gets fun because there are several options for seeding and playing the 8 team playoff, each with their own positives and negatives.
Scenario 1: Seed teams 1-8, with games played the week after conference championships at the home sites of the Top 4 teams. The winners advance to the traditional 4 team playoff that we have right now on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day that rotates betweens the NY6 Bowl games.
Pros: It is simple and and a natural extension of the existing playoff. It rewards the top seeds with home games. And since it is done right after conference championships, the losers of those first 4 playoff games can still go to a bowl game too. It also could force a southern team to play a late season game outdoors in the cold.
Cons: The biggest challenge with this model might just be playing games at home sites in smaller college towns. These are going to be big productions. They probably can manage, but it might be a strain and it could put more stress on the home team responsible for hosting the game than they want. Finding out on a Sunday you have to host a game the following Friday or Saturday can be a big endeavor.
Scenario 2: The exact same as scenario 1, but instead of playing the quarterfinal games at home stadiums, we create regional sites (Midwest/West/South/East). You'd be giving away some home team advantages for being a Top 4 seed, but you could also balance it out by giving more tickets to the higher seeded teams. And they would still be placed by region like the NCAA tourney. You could still have a regional outdoors in a northern city though (maybe Soldier Field?), but it probably ends up being a rotation of Ford Field/Indianapolis in the Midwest/North, Phoenix/LA/Santa Clara in the West, Dallas/New Orleans in the South and Atlanta in the East.
Pros: The upshot here is that the production of the game wouldn't be the responsibility of the host school and these games would be played at big venues. Basically the equivalent of regional finals for the NCAA Tourney.
Cons: Seeding and locatoins might be tough. If Alabama is the 1 seed and Georgia is the 8 seed, you might have them playing in Atlanta, which punishes Bama a bit. But they already sort of navigate this with the semifinals so I think you can manage it.
Scenario 3: This one is for those of us that miss the traditional bowl season and matchups. We play the quarterfinals on New Year's Eve/Day using traditional bowl matchups. Here is one version of what it would look like:
Rose Bowl: Big Ten champion vs Pac 12 champion
Orange Bowl: ACC Champion vs SEC Champion
Sugar Bowl: Group of 5 best vs At Large
Cotton Bowl: Big 12 Champion vs At Large
Then you do semifinals a week later at the two other NY6 sites (Peach and Fiesta) and a championship the week after that.
Pros: We make all these bowls and traditional matchups meaningful again. We reward teams for winning their conference with a marquee bowl and trip. There is ample time for fans and teams to prepare for their quarterfinal games and you don't have to worry about waiting until after the quarterfinals to fill out the rest of the elite bowls. From a fan perspective, we're getting 4 very meaningful games again during the bowl season.
Cons: It extends the season a week longer. For players and their families, you potentially have 3 "bowl trips" to go to. You won't get a traditional 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7 alignment. There is a possibility of getting 1 vs 2 in the first round. If you wanted to you could still adopt to not start the playoffs until NYD, but still seed the teams as compromise.
I think scenario #1 is by far the most likely and easiest to pull off. Scenario #3 is my favorite by far though. I think it would make for a lot more compelling football and matchups.
What other ideas do you have that I'm missing?
