How would you structure the postseason?

#1DieHardHawk

#1DieHardHawk

Well-Known Member
We've had a lot of chatter on various threads, with opinions all over the place. This is a down time, so let's hear some proposals.

The way I see it, there are some basic criteria:

1. Make the conference championships matter.
2. Make the records matter.
3. Limit the extra demands on behalf of the players.
4. Make the locations desirable and rewarding.

Personally, I'm somewhat torn here between rewarding the players by giving them the opportunity to play in a nice climate and affording them another chance to showcase their skills, versus genuine concerns about limiting risk of injury while adding another week or two to already taxing academic demands (especially given that the bowl system is about corporate revenue more than anything else).

What I would propose is an 8-team playoff, comprised of the P5 conference champions and 3 at-large bids to be determined by the committee. What I particularly like about this proposal is that it adds only one extra week, and it makes the conference championship games meaningful. It also allows for some subjectivity (for example, if a top-ranked team lost a conference championship for a clear reason, such as losing a marquee player for that game, there is still a back way into the playoff). The element of subjectivity also allows pathways for non-P5 teams and independents.

Do away with "bowl names" for the playoff games. Call them the "CFB Playoff Semi-final" or what have you, and rotate the locations year to year (as is done with the SB now).

As for the actual bowl games, to make them meaningful, greatly limit the number and require them to be in preferred climates that reward the players. We don't need to have the "Depends Undergarment Shoveling Your Driveway With Confidence Bowl" in Bismark, N.D. Identify 10 or so classic locations and come up with a selection process that makes sense. Corporate sponsors would cry foul, but, the risk-reward for the players simply isn't worth it (Actually, you could reasonably make that argument for any of these games...).

What you are left with is 8 playoff teams and 20 more that earned the opportunity to play an extra week in a nice Bowl. That's 28 teams total in the post-season which IMO is more than enough.
 
Loot and pillage the ACC out of existence. Get the other power 4 to expand to 16 teams. Have 4 team divisions in each conference. Play conference semi finals, finals and then have national semifinals and finals. A real innovative format because you don’t have polls or committees. It’s like you have to win games.
 
Get rid of divisions and CCG in FBS conferences. Conference champion is team with best conference record plus tiebreakers.

expand playoffs to 8 best teams. Quarterfinals in late Dec and early Jan.

Semifinals on Saturday on same weekend as NFL conference championships (mid Jan)

NCG on Saturday the week before SuperBowl (last Sat in Jan)
 
8 conferences, 8 champions. Don't want to join a conference? You don't get to be in the playoffs.
 
They need to tweak the signing day and transfer rules to adopt to the coaching carousel so kids don't just sign letters of intent then have their coaches leave the next day. Same for the NFL early entry date, some guys have to meet their new coaches after the guys who recruit them get fired.
 
PlatypusMessiah said:
Loot and pillage the ACC out of existence. Get the other power 4 to expand to 16 teams. Have 4 team divisions in each conference. Play conference semi finals, finals and then have national semifinals and finals. A real innovative format because you don’t have polls or committees. It’s like you have to win games.
Click to expand...
guffus said:
Get rid of divisions and CCG in FBS conferences. Conference champion is team with best conference record plus tiebreakers.

expand playoffs to 8 best teams. Quarterfinals in late Dec and early Jan.

Semifinals on Saturday on same weekend as NFL conference championships (mid Jan)

NCG on Saturday the week before SuperBowl (last Sat in Jan)
Click to expand...
99topdawg said:
8 conferences, 8 champions. Don't want to join a conference? You don't get to be in the playoffs.
Click to expand...
Interesting thoughts. What about the bowls outside of the playoffs?
 
#1DieHardHawk said:
We've had a lot of chatter on various threads, with opinions all over the place. This is a down time, so let's hear some proposals.

The way I see it, there are some basic criteria:

1. Make the conference championships matter.
2. Make the records matter.
3. Limit the extra demands on behalf of the players.
4. Make the locations desirable and rewarding.

Personally, I'm somewhat torn here between rewarding the players by giving them the opportunity to play in a nice climate and affording them another chance to showcase their skills, versus genuine concerns about limiting risk of injury while adding another week or two to already taxing academic demands (especially given that the bowl system is about corporate revenue more than anything else).

What I would propose is an 8-team playoff, comprised of the P5 conference champions and 3 at-large bids to be determined by the committee. What I particularly like about this proposal is that it adds only one extra week, and it makes the conference championship games meaningful. It also allows for some subjectivity (for example, if a top-ranked team lost a conference championship for a clear reason, such as losing a marquee player for that game, there is still a back way into the playoff). The element of subjectivity also allows pathways for non-P5 teams and independents.

Do away with "bowl names" for the playoff games. Call them the "CFB Playoff Semi-final" or what have you, and rotate the locations year to year (as is done with the SB now).

As for the actual bowl games, to make them meaningful, greatly limit the number and require them to be in preferred climates that reward the players. We don't need to have the "Depends Undergarment Shoveling Your Driveway With Confidence Bowl" in Bismark, N.D. Identify 10 or so classic locations and come up with a selection process that makes sense. Corporate sponsors would cry foul, but, the risk-reward for the players simply isn't worth it (Actually, you could reasonably make that argument for any of these games...).

What you are left with is 8 playoff teams and 20 more that earned the opportunity to play an extra week in a nice Bowl. That's 28 teams total in the post-season which IMO is more than enough.
Click to expand...

#4 ruins it for me. "Playoff" games, if we were to expand the playoff--and IMO, it's the only way you will stop the "I'm-shutting-it-down-for-the-combine" crap--shouldn't favor teams in "nice" or "desirable" locations. How well would Bama or any Florida team play in Ann Arbor in late-November or early-December? Unless/until the games is played in all climates, bowls and playoff scenarios are meaningless.

If you want a hybrid between CFP and bowls, something needs to be done to ensure teams are at full-strength for any and all games. If a kid from Stanford "shuts it down" and Stanford is in the CFP or a bowl game, too bad-too sad, Stanford stays home. Make peer pressure a thing again. If a Fant shuts it down and causes his team to miss a bowl or playoff game, he'll get "bike-racked" before he ever does rep one at the combine.

The whole bit about taxing academic demands, adding a week, etc., is straw-man, as it assumes they have "time off". It's become a full-time sport, and we already see bigger numbers of kids graduating early. Ironically, that seems to be a result of being able to grad transfer anywhere without sitting out. Now that the "transfer portal" is in place, it makes it even more of a "business".

Corporate sponsors won't cry foul as long as they still have a means to get their name out during football season. In fact, they may end up being able to piggy-back/tag-team on a lesser number of bowls with bigger impact.bang for the buck

Hell, if you are going to rotate the CFP sites to campus sites for "first round", go ahead and rotate the bowls. Nothing says Bowl X can't take a one-or two-year hiatus while another bowl gets its day in the sun (so to speak). Let the Pinstripe Bowl be a participant every other year, with maybe a chance to make the venue "tolerable" for both players AND fans. Ostensibly, it's the fans that make it popular, so they should get to enjoy it, too. Maybe allow all bowls that have been in existence as of/before a certain date have first crack/priority. Let bowl sites host the CFP games, but as you suggest, don't call it the "Whatever" Bowl. Simply say, "Game 1 will take place at the Blank Bowl" this year. But to make it "desired" is code word for "Hey, Bama's playing in New Orleans again!" Uh, F no. Let them play, if lower-seeded, a game in a northern stadium. Hell, Norman or Lincoln would be troublesome for any Florida team, let alone Ann Arbor, Iowa City or Columbus. And God forbid a Clemson or Texas should try and play at Camp Randall any time after Halloween.

In essence, expand the playoff, shrink the bowl system. And for God's sake, stop with ANY conference sending 7, 8, 9 or 10 teams to a bowl game! WTF? Why have a conference season if everyone gets a bowl?! Limit it to something like "No conference shall have more than X teams in the CFP. No conference shall more than X teams, combined, in CFP and bowl games. The number of teams a conference has in the CFP will reduce the number of team in that conference allowed to participate in bowl games". In other words, 6-6 teams will DEFINITELY stay home, and all but the oddest circumstances will see 7-5 teams playing beyond Thanksgiving.


Big 10/Big Ten used to allow bowl teams to keep more of the bowl revenue, but still split a portion with conference members. Why not go back to that? But the way it is now, EVERYONE seems to get "paid". There's no penalty for "failure".

FInally, IF conferences insist on holding CCGs, make it required that a team MUST participate in said CCG in order to be eligible for CFP. And Ntre Dame and other independents? Join a conference, or all you can achieve is a non-CFP bowl game.

Finally, if we are going to have polls before the season starts, require any and all voters to explain each and every pick. Allow NO coaches polls of any kind. And finally, CFP should not be ALLOWED to meet before the season is over. Eliminate, as much as possible, any chance for poll "manipulation", i.e., teams jumping or falling in a pretty damn "un-random" fashion. Make committee justify why an undefeated team, from ANY conference, is less worthy than a 1-loss team or 2-loss team from a "power" conference.
 
#1DieHardHawk said:
Interesting thoughts. What about the bowls outside of the playoffs?
Click to expand...
I would keep 'em. There are a lot of them and some say there are too many. I don't think so, because if Western Delaware Tech is playing South Dakota Prosthetic Academy, I just won't watch.
 
#1DieHardHawk said:
Interesting thoughts. What about the bowls outside of the playoffs?
Click to expand...


If you run the conference championships as quarterfinals, you don’t have to change the structure of bowl games and the round of 8 should be close to home.

Now if you opt for a larger playoff, I think you might as well run 2 other tournaments (like a football NIT) and run those throughout December.
 
6 teams. P5 conference champions plus top ranked G5. Seed them 1 thru 6. Top 2 seeds get a bye. The 3/6 and 4/5 games played at better seeded home field. Semi finals and final played similar to now.
 
8 is plenty. All power conference champs. Give as little love and a shot to a Central Florida type team that offers the cinderalla story. A couple “at large”..

There’s always an argument at the cut off but I think with 8 you still have a good quality.

Any more than 8 is too many. This isn’t the NFL a salary cap and this isn’t basketball with only 5 players on the floor and more parity.
 
hawkeyebob62 said:
#4 ruins it for me. "Playoff" games, if we were to expand the playoff--and IMO, it's the only way you will stop the "I'm-shutting-it-down-for-the-combine" crap--shouldn't favor teams in "nice" or "desirable" locations. How well would Bama or any Florida team play in Ann Arbor in late-November or early-December? Unless/until the games is played in all climates, bowls and playoff scenarios are meaningless.

If you want a hybrid between CFP and bowls, something needs to be done to ensure teams are at full-strength for any and all games. If a kid from Stanford "shuts it down" and Stanford is in the CFP or a bowl game, too bad-too sad, Stanford stays home. Make peer pressure a thing again. If a Fant shuts it down and causes his team to miss a bowl or playoff game, he'll get "bike-racked" before he ever does rep one at the combine.

The whole bit about taxing academic demands, adding a week, etc., is straw-man, as it assumes they have "time off". It's become a full-time sport, and we already see bigger numbers of kids graduating early. Ironically, that seems to be a result of being able to grad transfer anywhere without sitting out. Now that the "transfer portal" is in place, it makes it even more of a "business".

Corporate sponsors won't cry foul as long as they still have a means to get their name out during football season. In fact, they may end up being able to piggy-back/tag-team on a lesser number of bowls with bigger impact.bang for the buck

Hell, if you are going to rotate the CFP sites to campus sites for "first round", go ahead and rotate the bowls. Nothing says Bowl X can't take a one-or two-year hiatus while another bowl gets its day in the sun (so to speak). Let the Pinstripe Bowl be a participant every other year, with maybe a chance to make the venue "tolerable" for both players AND fans. Ostensibly, it's the fans that make it popular, so they should get to enjoy it, too. Maybe allow all bowls that have been in existence as of/before a certain date have first crack/priority. Let bowl sites host the CFP games, but as you suggest, don't call it the "Whatever" Bowl. Simply say, "Game 1 will take place at the Blank Bowl" this year. But to make it "desired" is code word for "Hey, Bama's playing in New Orleans again!" Uh, F no. Let them play, if lower-seeded, a game in a northern stadium. Hell, Norman or Lincoln would be troublesome for any Florida team, let alone Ann Arbor, Iowa City or Columbus. And God forbid a Clemson or Texas should try and play at Camp Randall any time after Halloween.

In essence, expand the playoff, shrink the bowl system. And for God's sake, stop with ANY conference sending 7, 8, 9 or 10 teams to a bowl game! WTF? Why have a conference season if everyone gets a bowl?! Limit it to something like "No conference shall have more than X teams in the CFP. No conference shall more than X teams, combined, in CFP and bowl games. The number of teams a conference has in the CFP will reduce the number of team in that conference allowed to participate in bowl games". In other words, 6-6 teams will DEFINITELY stay home, and all but the oddest circumstances will see 7-5 teams playing beyond Thanksgiving.


Big 10/Big Ten used to allow bowl teams to keep more of the bowl revenue, but still split a portion with conference members. Why not go back to that? But the way it is now, EVERYONE seems to get "paid". There's no penalty for "failure".

FInally, IF conferences insist on holding CCGs, make it required that a team MUST participate in said CCG in order to be eligible for CFP. And Ntre Dame and other independents? Join a conference, or all you can achieve is a non-CFP bowl game.

Finally, if we are going to have polls before the season starts, require any and all voters to explain each and every pick. Allow NO coaches polls of any kind. And finally, CFP should not be ALLOWED to meet before the season is over. Eliminate, as much as possible, any chance for poll "manipulation", i.e., teams jumping or falling in a pretty damn "un-random" fashion. Make committee justify why an undefeated team, from ANY conference, is less worthy than a 1-loss team or 2-loss team from a "power" conference.
Click to expand...

JFC... brevity, dude
 
guffus said:
Get rid of divisions and CCG in FBS conferences. Conference champion is team with best conference record plus tiebreakers.

expand playoffs to 8 best teams. Quarterfinals in late Dec and early Jan.

Semifinals on Saturday on same weekend as NFL conference championships (mid Jan)

NCG on Saturday the week before SuperBowl (last Sat in Jan)
Click to expand...

What if a player fails his finals in Dec????
 
I think the CFP should be expanded to 8 teams. I think this year Ohio St and Georgia were credible top teams that might have won on a given set of games. Take the P5 champs for 5 teams and then 3 at large with some rules like no more than two losses, record and stats like strength of schedule helping in the decision.

I think a few bottom rung bowls can go away but those are privately run entities so as long as the NCAA gives them the ok to play then that is another matter. But I would really look at not letting 6-6 teams or below teams play in bowls as they are not even winning records.
 
uihawk82 said:
What if a player fails his finals in Dec????
Click to expand...

I"m flexible. That can be left up to the school. When does the new semester usually start? Mid Jan?

One could argue it would make sense if a player fails his December finals, he should be ineligible. But does that also mean all players need to be enrolled in classes in January? What if a player graduated in December? What if a player plans to declare early for the draft?

On second thought, it's probably better to say eligibility for the fall semester would carry over to the semifinals and finals in late January. It's just simpler that way.
 
It can be argued both ways.
1. Limit the bowls to the top 32 teams to give them elevated significance plus have an 8-team playoff.
That's the best 40 teams playing post-season. Winning teams benefit and those who weren't good enough stay home and strive to work harder next season to make the cut.

or

2. A crap load of bowl games = more $TV$ revenue/bowl game paydays.

Regardless of how much common sense it makes to the fans... TV revenue will always win out.
Once the conference big shots got a taste for bowl game payouts our fate was set.
Very similar to Fed and State taxes...they won't ever vote it away.
 
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