8 Team Playoff Will Happen

[NCHawker]

How many teams were in the field for the NCAA Basketball tournament 40 years ago? 16 or 32?

Over time the emphasis was - not so much about getting the best teams into the championship....but "who gets in". and it continued to expand... and of course it was an enormous financial success.

Now its "who gets in".


The point? The BCS and then the playoff was intended to have the national championship decided on the field rather than in the hands of the sportswriters. It isn't about "who gets in" They've done that. 4 accomplishes that IMO.

 

[NCHawker]

8 teams makes way too much sense. Why would you want to reward the P5 conference champions, the highest ranked G5 conference champion, and two at-large teams? No, it's better to be super wishy-washy about your inclusion criteria, say that conference championships should matter, then ignore them, and put two teams from the same conference in (despite one of them being 3rd in their conference and not particularly impressive).

Oh, and disrespect the ONLY FBS team with a 13-0 record because they happen to be a G5 team. Definitely don't want to give them a shot.

Its like a strip tease act.

They move toward 8 s l o w l y rather than suddenly.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I think it should be 5 teams. Each conference champion goes, no committee decisions needed for that anymore. The only thing they would need to do is seed the champions 1-5. The 4 and 5 seeds play Dec 20ish. Kinda like a bowl kickoff game. Winner joins the top 3 seeds in the semifinals on NYE/NYD.

Initially I was one in favor of just keeping it around 4 but in recent years like the idea of having each conf champ in plus a couple at-large. This year proves exactly why I think they should go that route. What do you do with the team like Central Florida who goes undefeated and has no chance to play for a title? They are a Div 1 FBS team. I don't think any Div 1 FBS team that goes undefeated should be left out and should have a chance to contend for a title.

Why would a player/recruit choose to play at a school like that then. Then recruiting wouldn't be fair for those schools. My only gripe is that schools like Central Florida this year, or a Wyoming, Boise St could be left out since not a P5 school. I think all P5 conferences should send a champion and there be a couple at-large spots for the top two non-P5 programs that use a defined Matrix for SOS and results.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

The FCS makes a 24 team playoff work.

If we get to 4 power leagues we will have a 16 team playoff its just done by conference semi-final games to see who advances to the 4 in the CFP. But even if we never get to 4 leagues, I even like the idea Mike Leach has floated to have expanded playoffs. First of all you dump the CCG's and you can even leave the last week of the season as a floating game to start your first round. If teams don't make the playoffs they are still matched up a game to play.

There are absolutely ways to make it work. I wouldn't even mind if we ended up staying with a P5 letting a set number of teams from each league make it. I wouldn't mind 1 out of every 3 teams. If the P5 grew to 72 that is 24 teams. I would even be for a computer seeding them based on their position they placed in their conference standings and rotate on an equal basis which year each league is ranked the #1 seed and let a computer seed the whole tourney for home field until the semi-finals.

Watered down.

I couldn't believe UNI got into the playoffs and then got their butt kicked in the 2nd game. You can't run Div 1 P5 football playoffs like the NCAA tournament. Too physical for that many games.

 

[deanvogs]

College football is the only sport that tries to tell you that last years results are more important than the current years results. Yep, because Bama has been good for a long time now, that makes THIS YEAR'S resume impressive somehow.

What a joke, can you imagine if the Atlanta Braves would have been just given a spot in the WS every year just because they had won 10, 11, 12, NL East titles in a row? I mean that kind of dominance hand't been seen in a great long time. Just imagine that even when the streak was broken, they were still allowed into the playoff over a more DESERVING team, well you know just because they had been so good for so long.

 

[kicker22]

I don't think 8 teams is as much the answer as the issue of consistency and access into what goes on behind the scenes within the committee.

Prior to announcing who was "in", they committee had made it known that there was very little separating OSU and Bama. The day before the field is announced, OSU beats an undefeated Wiscy, while Bama sits at home on the couch watching their conference championship. Sure OSU had a humiliating loss to us, but how did Bama "secure" that spot with a win against a powerhouse in Mercer and the loss to Auburn?

I have no problem with Bama and am absolutely thrilled OSU missed out as a result of their loss to us, but you have to be kidding if anything can be said about Bama belonging there while coming off a week that they didn't play. So we're putting Bama into the playoffs with their best win, aside from FSU (not knowing how good they may have been had they not lost their QB) is LSU, but then penalizing OSU for beating both PSU and Wiscy who both finished ranked higher than anyone who Bama beat.

Do I think 2 losses is deserving? Absolutely not, but if you're basing it on an over all schedule then absolutely when comparing bodies of work. Being in the SEC means little when Bama dodged in conference play, because they simply didn't have the resume this year.

As I said I'm thrilled OSU is out, but until we know what goes on behind the scenes within the committee it doesn't matter how many teams are there because there will be no consistent basis to determine who should be in or out. I'd of truthfully rather have seen a 3 loss Auburn despite their losses against Clemson and Georgia, in over Bama because the wins vs. Bama and Georgia look better than any wins on Bama's schedule.

We complain about only a field of 4, when we should be complaining about parameters used to determine the four team field.