There’s a new 12-team College Football Playoff proposal: Here are the pros and cons
This week’s newsletter comes to you a couple days early because there is some news to tackle!
Yesterday, a four-person working group from the College Football Playoff revealed a proposal for a 12-team playoff that looks a lot like the 12-team playoff I proposed back in early January.
The proposal calls for automatic bids for the top six conference champions and six at-large teams (mine had eight and four, respectively). The byes are awarded to the top four conference champions, which is something I championed as well.
There are a lot of reasons to like this proposal, but it’s not perfect. Let’s get into the pros and cons.
There’s so much to like about this proposal
When looking at this proposal, it’s hard to think of any programs that wouldn’t benefit from it.
The biggest winner would be college football as a whole because this format would keep the entire country engaged throughout the entire season. That’s the biggest problem with the current four-team model; many teams are done playing meaningful games by Columbus Day.
With 12 teams making the playoff — including at least six different conference champions — every region of the country would be represented. With six at-large bids, teams that have really-really-good-but-not-great seasons get the reward of playing in the playoff rather than a consolation trip to the Peach Bowl.
Oh, and the wording of “top six conference champions” rather than Power 5 champions plus the top Group of 5 champion should ensure two things: 1) Every Group of 5 team with a serious claim to playing for a national title should get a shot, and 2) if a Power 5 conference has a really bad year (ahem, Pac-12), we don’t have to see that champion in the playoff.
Some people don’t like that only conference champions are eligible for a bye, but I think that’s a great thing because it will add weight to the conference championship games. Could the SEC get multiple teams into playoff? Sure. But only one SEC team can earn a bye to the quarterfinals.
There’s one big flaw with this format
One of the four people on the CFP’s working group was Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick. Does it seem strange that he, of all people, would be one of the ones in favor of a system in which the Irish can’t get a first-round bye?
Here’s my guess as to why he’s just fine with that rule: The teams that receive first-round byes don’t get to host a playoff game. Only the first round would be played on campus, meaning that teams seeded 5–8 are the only ones who get to host a playoff game.
I think Swarbick— and many other athletics directors — would rather be seeded 5–8 than 1–4 in order to earn the extra gate from a playoff game.
This is the one spot in which I think the working group got it wrong. The home-field environments are what separate college football from every other American sport, so a new playoff should be embracing that as much as possible.
In the proposal I wrote in January, the 5–8 seeds would host first-round games and the 1–4 seeds would host quarterfinal games. The top 8 seeds would all get one home game — no more, no less. The semifinals and finals would be played a neutral sites, just like they are now. That seems way more fun, not to mention more fair.
Instead, the working group’s proposal says “the quarterfinals and semifinals would be played in bowl games.” I have no idea what that means. It kind of sounds like teams would play in a bowl game on New Year’s Day then play in another bowl game a week later. I guess that means some bowl games would be played the second week of January?
Oh, and then the National Championship Game would be played at another neutral site. Sounds like a lot of travel.
In a call with reporters, Swarbick said having the quarterfinals played on New Year’s Day would help college football reclaim the holiday. I don’t have any problem with that sentiment, but why do those games have to be part of the bowl system? Why couldn’t quarterfinal games be played on campus, even on New Year’s Day?
The bowls — which fewer and fewer people are watching — shouldn’t be dictating anything. It’s not 1975 anymore.
It will still be a while before any new playoff format gets approved. There are still a lot of powerful people who need to weigh in, and there’s sure to be more haggling over the details.
This proposal is a great start. Playing more of the playoff on campus would make it perfect.
