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.
Since the College Football Playoff rankings won’t come out until November 2nd, I am currently using the AFCA Coaches Poll. Which I trust a lot more than the AP poll. We’ll update this after the CFP rankings come out on Tuesday.
This year is still taking on a 2007 vibe. That was the year that #2’s kept losing. Cincinnati is now #2, which is again reminiscent of 2007 when California, South Florida, Boston College and Kansas all took a turn at #2. And they only beat Navy yesterday by seven despite being double-digit favorites.
2007 was also the year 2-loss LSU won the National Title. Keep that in mind as we progress.
What would the bracket currently look like under this system? This.
# 16 Northern Illinois (MAC) at # 1 Georgia (SEC)
# 9 Wake Forest (ACC) at #8 Notre Dame (at-large)
# 13 Houston (AAC) at # 4 Oklahoma (Big 12)
# 12 Texas-San Antonio (CUSA) at # 5 Ohio State (Big 10)
# 14 Louisiana (Sun Belt) at # 3 Alabama (at-large)
# 11 Oklahoma State (at-large) at # 6 Michigan State (at-large)
# 10 Michigan (at-large) at # 7 Oregon (Pac-12)
# 15 Fresno State (MWC) at #2 Cincinnati (at-large)
In a rare move for this season, the 11th ranked team gets in as an at-large. Plus we do get a weird “conference game” between Wake Forest and Notre Dame in this scenario.
You have to imagine that eventually Houston will lose to Cincinnati and fall out of the AAC automatic bid, which would have opened up a spot for 12th ranked Texas A&M to sneak in.