The College Football Playoffs are one of the most entertaining watches in the sports year as the top four programs compete to figure out which team will reign supreme. However, the news that the College Football Playoffs Committee officially proposed the expansion of the playoffs from four teams to 12 was only two months ago.
It’s only a matter of time that the expansion happens throughout college football but there is a better way of expansion here that we will dive into today.
Do Not Have 12 Teams in the Playoffs
There are definitely reasons, financial incentives being the leader, for the committee to expand the playoffs. However, 12 teams do not make sense.
There is currently a tournament-style playoff structure where the College Football Champion currently has to defeat two of the three other top teams in the United States, why take that away? Instead of 12 teams, let’s do eight programs inside the playoffs in a single-elimination tournament.
How Would We Decide on What Teams Are in the Playoffs?
This is such an easy answer that people seem to avoid. The March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournament has automatic qualifying bids and that’s what the College Football Playoffs should have as well.
There are currently five top conferences in NCAA Football (ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12) and each conference champion receives an automatic bid into the College Football Playoffs. The other three spots will be filled with the three top-ranked college football programs, similar to the Wild Card formats in professional sports playoffs.
That way we can have an expansion with eight teams and we don’t have a major conference missing in this playoff structure, which is a major complaint of the current playoff model in college football.
But How Do We Set the Playoff Bracket in This Case?
With this playoff bracket, it is possible that the top eight ranked teams are not all making the playoffs. However, with the conference champions, they will be automatically in the top five seeds. Determining the seeding between them will be based on their record based on winning percentage in their respective conference.
The three non-conference winners will automatically be placed in the six through eight seeds in the bracket. Their seeding will be based on AP ranking so that will also remain an important distinction in collegiate football.
These games will be played in their home stadiums and the better seed in the matchup will be the home team in that game. That way we are giving a benefit to the good programs to host playoff games but the National Championship Game will be at a neutral site similar to what the NFL does with their playoff structure.
Expand the College Football Playoffs
The College Football Playoff Committee is ready to expand and doing four more teams keeps the integrity of the current format while expanding it to a respectable level. Do you think this possible expansion makes sense or do you believe there is an even better way to do this?
