…one group just wants to mandate each power five conference will get an automatic slot no matter if they are truly in the top 8 or not. Some of them also want the top non-power five conference team, again, whether they are qualified or not. Some always want Notre Dame regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Then there will be, at most, 1-2 slots for someone like the 2nd place SEC team which might just be the #2 or #3 team in the country despite not winning their conference.
Then there are fans who just want the top 8 teams no matter what conference they are in. This bunch has no chance of getting what they want. They have no power, there are no conference chairman working for them, not even any ESPN execs.
Remember the Golden Rule: 'He who got the gold makes the rules." ESPN wants as wide of an audience as possible, wants teams from all over the country, and hates the idea of the top two teams being from one conference. They could not care less whether they get the truly deserving, they just want ratings. Underdog, undeserving, teams upsetting far better teams like they do in the basketball playoffs is what they want. To heck with getting the truly top 8 teams into the playoff. They want it expanded until they get lots of cinderellas.
I don’t like the first one. There are conferences champions who could have 3-4 losses and get in over a 1 loss team from a better conference. Non P5, there are years the best non P5 team has 2 or more losses. I’m not sure what to consider Notre Dame, if it’s non P5 they would have got in over UCF this year, and UCF probably deserved it more. I think it’s dumb to do it that way.
I don’t like the idea of the Top 8 either, number nine maybe better than 6, 7, and 8.
I do think we need to expand, but the question is how? And you’re right the money will dictate what happens.
Your argument has one huge flaw: There is no human way to determine who the best 8 teams truly are. But the conference winners have proven they are deserving of a spot. It does not matter if a number two team is better than a non 5 team, you play into the playoff or you do not.
Bob, Washington won the PAC 12 with 3 losses this year, they would not have beaten Notre Dame, or UCF with a healthy Milton. You can’t say they deserve anything. They won what was widely considered a very weak conference.
Not to mention if Pitt had somehow upset Clemson in the ACCCG, they would have been in the playoffs with an 8-5 record. You really going to tell me you leave out a one-loss at-large for a 5-loss team that survived a weak division and got lucky in one game? At least in the basketball tournament a bad team has to win three or four games in the conference tournament to steal the automatic bid.
Bake, I should have used the quote as I was not referring to your post, but, I feel there is no perfect system and I feel it is fair to know if you want in the playoffs win your conference. I have seen the best team lose the World Series and lose the NCAA playoffs etc. so any system has flaws but my way would eliminate politics. Football is the hardest because of the physical part of the game.
If expansion ever takes place, it will more likely consist of 8 teams: Champions form the power five conferences and three at-large teams. The at-large teams may come from ratings of Non-power five, independent, or any deserving team like UCF this year or like Georgia when most felt was unfairly left out. While no argument should be made on the P-5 Champions, the at-large leaves the door open for some fuss.
If you drop the Championship game you will still have a lot of controversy. What happens when Alabama and Georgia are both undefeated and will not play each other due to conference scheduling as an example?
I say pick the four best teams. You get that by making it an eight team playoff . If you pick what you think is the best eight teams surely the four best teams in the country will be in that group. No automatic bid for conference champs and sorry but no automatic spot for best non power five team. Central Florida is a really good team that could probably beat a lot of the best teams in a one game setting. This is about the grind of an entire season.
I’m sorry but if you give the Central Florida schedule to every team in the power five there would be numerous teams go through that slate undefeated. Would you put them all in the playoffs? Would they deserve it? Would there be room for them all? I’m afraid that would be a resounding no. For that reason no non power five. Apples vs oranges.
What? Pick four teams that have no chance just to make sure you get the four best? Heck, let’s just take 32 teams if that’s your idea.
I think they got the four best this time. Georgia ended up with three losses. Clearly they weren’t good often enough. Ohio State was a 13-win team that looked more like an 8 or 9 win team, floundering against lesser opposition.
You said the way to make sure you get the four best is to take eight. So you’re taking four more teams who shouldn’t be there, just in case #5 is better than #4.
There is nobody (except Sankey) in NCAA football leadership that wants the truly top 8 teams to be seeded into an 8 game playoff. That would mean at least 2 and sometimes 3 SEC teams in the playoffs. The all SEC championship game was a nightmare for the non-SEC part of college football. ESPN hated it. This means they will never want a 12 or 16 team playoff because that could mean an all SEC final four some years.
The goal they have is just wide open enough to guarantee a nationwide audience without letting too many SEC teams into it. So, a guaranteed slot for each of the Power 5 conferences (either their conference champion or the highest rated team from that conference) plus three “at large” teams would be the playoff.
I wonder what they would do if Bama and Auburn were undefeated, Auburn upset Bama to go to the SECCG and Florida upset them. Florida gets the automatic and formerly number one Bama gets a slot. Auburn could clearly be the best of the rest. Would they give the SEC 3? Never! They would probably include a rule that 2 teams from same conference was the limit just to keep that nightmare for ESPN from happening.
I read today that there will be meetings in Santa Clara this weekend which will actually discuss expanding the playoff to 8 teams for the first time. Previously it’s been in the media but not discussed by the CFP constituents. I don’t think they’ll make any decisions about it but it will be on the table.
Watch them try and sneak a “no more than 2 teams from one conference” rule AND, if two teams from one conference get in, they have to be seeded on same side of bracket to prevent a final game of teams from same conference. They are going to make damn sure there is never another Bama versus Georgia rematch for the National Championship. JMVHO
If that rule is in place (no more than 2 teams from a conference) then there is still a big possibility of a qualified playoff team being left out.
Since that’s the whole purpose, to make sure “All” qualified teams get a shot. Accomplished nothing.