Are you tired of your team getting so close to making the playoff, but then barely missing out? Yeah, I am too. The current playoff system is flawed, considering an undefeated team (Wisconsin) might not even get in, barring their Big Ten Championship performance this Saturday. Last year, Penn State won the Big Ten, yet Ohio State made the College Football Playoff. Alabama has made it every year because they win the SEC every year, but this year they will not have a shot at the conference title, but can still get in. I’m just tired of seeing teams make the College Football Playoff when they can’t even play for their conference title. So call it stupid, call it crazy, here is my idea for a new and improved College Football Playoff.
I think the playoff system should expand to eight teams.
Four teams does not represent the entire nation well enough and only gives us a little taste of what the country has to offer for football. The committee this year might select two teams from the SEC, maybe even from the state of Alabama. The people want to see each region in the United States represented in college football, and I’m not saying Alabama does not deserve to make it, but if eight teams could make it, I think it would be better to watch as a whole.
To expand the playoff to eight teams would eliminate all the New Year’s Six bowl games. Instead, we start the playoff around Christmas. Then the semi final would be on New Year’s Eve and/or New Year’s Day. Finally, the National Championship would be the following Monday, as usual. This would make bowl season a lot more interesting, instead of making us watch the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl or the Boca Raton Bowl. I’m not saying I don’t watch these now, I would just like a little more excitement a week before New Year’s.
The final question is who gets to make the College Football Playoff?
I think the winners of the Power 5 conferences get in, no matter their records. This way the West coast, East coast, Midwest, Southeast, and South-Central regions of the United States are all represented in a battle for the national title. But who are the other three teams that make it? I say the next three teams that make it are based off records. If multiple teams can make it because they have the same record, then you look at their strength of schedule. This forces teams to try to play better opponents during the regular season. The teams would be seeded 1-8 based on record and schedule strength and would play the same way it is now where the best seed plays the worst seed and so on.
My idea might not be plausible, there are many issues that people would have to deal with if this could ever happen. The NCAA also doesn’t care what a freshman in college has to say about their current playoff system. But college football would be a lot more exciting if we could watch more quality football come bowl season and eight teams would give that to us!