Remember last year, when I was beating the drum for a 16-team College Football Playoff? Let’s do it again.
If you need a refresher, take a look at last week’s version. But the short version is this: In my playoff scenario, all ten conference champions automatically make the tournament. The field is then rounded out with six at-large teams. Independent schools would be eligible to make the field as an at-large selection.
With that outta of the way, what would the bracket currently look like under this system? This.
# 16 Northern Illinois (MAC) at # 1 Alabama (SEC)
# 9 Oklahoma State (at-large) at # 8 Mississippi (at-large)
# 13 Louisiana (Sun Belt) at # 4 Cincinnati (AAC)
# 12 Pittsburgh (ACC) at # 5 Notre Dame (at-large)
# 14 UTSA (CUSA) at # 3 Georgia (at-large)
# 11 Utah (Pac-12) at # 6 Ohio State (at-large)
# 10 Michigan State (at-large) at # 7 Baylor (Big 12)
# 15 Utah State (MWC) at # 2 Michigan (Big 10)
This scenario of course eliminates all the consternation about Notre Dame not making the playoff, about the SEC getting two teams, and all of the other drama that surrounds the final CFP rankings that sets up the current four-team playoff. In this scenario, the top 12 teams in the CFP qualified. #13 BYU is the highest ranked team that didn’t make the field, and you can’t make much of an argument for them getting shafted by this process, especially considering the lowest at-large team selected was at #10.
You can’t tell me this is a better way to do it than we’re doing it now…