When I thought about the College Football Playoff Committee releasing their top four in the playoff rankings this week, I couldn’t help but to notice that there were way more than four teams capable of winning college football’s greatest prize. I also couldn’t help but realize how arbitrary the whole process is. It’s just a group of people picking four teams based on perceived resumes and records. While the committee says conference championships matter, Penn State did not make the playoff last year as the B1G champ, and the Big 12 champion has been forced to stay home multiple times in the past few seasons. Why does college football have five power conferences if only four can make the playoff in a given year? Furthermore, what about all of the smaller schools who may be just as good but don’t have a shot at being a top four team come December. The answer to solve all of this? An eight team playoff.
Now hear me out before the angry mob overtakes me with their torches and pitchforks. An eight team playoff would not ruin the sanctity of the game or make any of the games mean less. Sure, it would be possible to still win a championship with two losses, but the product itself would become so much better. While resume is important in the current format, teams would be able to challenge themselves in the non-conference schedule more if they had more room for error. This means that maybe instead of seeing Alabama beat up on a Kent State or Fresno State every year to pad their win total and guarantee a win, maybe they would schedule more match ups against teams like Clemson or Oklahoma in the regular season. I don’t see any way how this could hurt the product.
The way I envision an eight team playoff being set up would be the five conference champions, two at-large teams, and one group of five school, if there is a team worthy enough. Otherwise, this would turn into another at-large bid. By taking on this format, conference championship races would mean a lot more and be automatic bids, unlike the current system where you could win your conference championship and still not make the playoff. This ensure that every major conference is represented as well. In order to make this fair, conference schedules would have to be changed around a little bit to make sure that each team played a balanced schedule within the same conference. I picture the matchups to look something like this:
#1 Conference Champ vs. #2 At-Large
#2 Conference Champ vs. #1 At- Large
#3 Conference Champ vs. G-5 Conference Champ (Or At-Large)
#4 Conference Champ vs. #5 Conference Champ
To throw another wrench into this playoff setup, make the first round of games campus sites. This works for two reasons. The first reason would be that the top four teams in the country would gain a competitive advantage by playing at home and would be rewarded for being one of the four best conference champs. Secondly, campus site playoff games would be an unreal atmosphere that no other sport could duplicate. Can you image playoff games at Bryant Denny or the Big House? It would be insane.
Based on the first playoff rankings, would you complain with this years’ matchups?
#1 Georgia vs. #8 Penn State
#2 Clemson vs. #7 Notre Dame
#3 Ohio State vs. #6 Alabama
#4 Oklahoma vs. #5 Washington
I have not yet considered how to treat the independent teams like Notre Dame. You could slot them in almost anywhere. Also, I did not include any G5 teams because there are not currently any ranked in the top 15, which would be the cutoff in this format, like the G5 New Years Six bid. The committee would still be used to seed these teams and choose who receives the at-large bids.
While there is no perfect system in college football, I believe that having eight teams make the playoffs in this format would keep the season interesting, increase the number of marquee regular season games, give the most fair shot to G5 teams, and put the best product out for the fans. Plus, I REALLY want campus site playoff games.