Here's your playoff bracket
- Thread starter onewoof
- Start date
I looked at like that also, but then figured that the left will meet the right, in the finals.
Best to keep the Indiana/Georgia and Tennessee/Ohio State matchups, but move Indiana/Georgia to the 8/9 line and Tennessee/Ohio State to 7/10. That should prevent a rematch before the Final 4, and is justifiable anyway.
Oh I know, just saying the top of the graphic is stronger than the bottom
Wildest thing to me is that if Boise wins and SMU loses, ASU (or ISU) goes from the 12 seed playing 5 seed Penn State on the road….to the 4 seed waiting on the winner of Penn State vs. somebody else.
Just the dumbest format imaginable.
Just the dumbest format imaginable.
It's ridiculous. Byes for conference champions might make sense if all conferences are roughly equal. But of course they're not. I expect SEC and Big 10 are going to insist on no automatic byes when the next playoff format starts in 2026, and they will get it.
Army can't pass either Iowa St. or UNLV. They're out. As is Boise and/or SMU if they lose.
I want UNLV in really bad. Their QB did them really bad and I want him to totally regret what he did.
Nothing different happens. They’re still out.
Then they’re in as the 5th conference champ pretty much no matter what. They won’t be able to jump the Big 12 winner or Clemson or SMU. All are too far ahead.
ISU and ASU are 15/16 - back to back. Doesn’t matter who wins, they’re fighting for the same spot. Whoever it is will be the 5th conference champ if SMU and Boise both win, and will not get a bye. If Boise loses but SMU wins, they’ll be the 4th conference champ and get a bye. If SMU loses, but Boise wins, same result. If both SMU and Boise lose, they get the bye and the 3-seed, Clemson gets the final bye and the 4-seed, UNLV gets the 5 seed
The conference champs getting in besides the SEC / B1G are the ACC, Big 12, and MWC, in some order. AAC is out.
It’s essentially a bye for Bama and PSU to make the final four. Seeding SMU and BSU that high gives two teams , Bama and Penn State quite an advantage.
Quick format fix:
Take 16 teams, no byes, no special seeding rules (if you're the 3rd best conference champion and the 15th best team in the field, congrats you're the #15 seed and playing at the #2 seed in round 1). Maybe guarantee 6 conference champions in the field rather than 5, or even 7.
Take 16 teams, no byes, no special seeding rules (if you're the 3rd best conference champion and the 15th best team in the field, congrats you're the #15 seed and playing at the #2 seed in round 1). Maybe guarantee 6 conference champions in the field rather than 5, or even 7.
Look at Tennessee’s draw vs Bama, sure beat Ohio State then Oregon vs ND and SMU. Tennessee must have no political pull.
Heard this at work today and thought that it sounded interesting.
- 16 team CFP (No byes)
- 3 autobids for each of the P4 conferences (12 of the 16 teams).
- Each CONFERENCE, on its own, determines the 3 autobid teams, by whatever system they want to use. This is the kicker.
-They can just give them to top 3 in the standings after regular season ends and play no more football, they can have the Top 6 in the standings all pair off and play each other for the 3 autobids during the normal championship weekend, give them to the top 2 teams and have a quick 4-team tourney for the 3rd bid, or something else.
- SEC could do one thing, B1G could do something else, and so on. Doesn’t have to be the same.
- The remaining 4 bids are at-large, and selected by the committee. They can be from any conference (or independent), no limit to how many can be from any one conference. A rule could be that one has to be a G5 conference champion, and a G5 team that does not win its conference cannot be selected unless the champion from that same conference is selected first.
- Committee handles seeding. The only rules are that the 12 autobids from the P4 receive the Top 12 seeds, and that same-conference teams cannot play each other in the first round. Since no conference can send more than 6 teams, it is possible to achieve this.
- Same Notre Dame rules in current CFP format carry over. If they want a Top 12 seed and an autobid, they can join a conference. Otherwise, 17 em.
- Game locations can be on-campus or neutral site for first round. Neutral for 2nd round through final.
Done from the current rankings and standings (just making Top 3 teams from each league the autobids), here is your field:
Autobids:
Oregon
Penn State
Indiana
Texas
Georgia
Tennessee
Arizona State
Iowa State
BYU
SMU
Miami
Clemson
At large:
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Boise State
Alabama
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Stupid idea only because Ole Miss would be in.
I like it fine, but I see two problems - One is that "letting the conferences pick their own method" is a little too cute - it should just be based on standings.
The other is that the 3rd best Big 12/ACC team is almost never going to be as good as some of the SEC/Big 10 teams that get left out. I guess you could counter with "OK, but if an SEC team can't get in the top 3 of the conference and also can't get in the top 4 without an autobid, what business do they have playing for a national championship?" and I don't have a good rebuttal, but the idea BYU or Clemson getting in ahead of South Carolina doesn't sit right with me.
Maybe if they could redo the conferences to even them out a bit, I could get on board.
16 with home field advantage for the first round is the way to go. I could even live with 5-6 conference champs guaranteed to get that advantage, but byes is stupid
This was my favorite part of it, because it removes any and all reasons to bítch from the conferences, and it makes the playoff infinitely expandable at the conference level. To your South Carolina example below, if the SEC decided to pair off the Top 6 teams against each other into 3 play-in games for the autobids, South Carolina gets their shot to earn their way in on the field. All they gotta do is win 1 game.
Clemson might get in ahead of South Carolina anyway, this year. There’s no perfect way to do it, but if you let the conferences determine their own criteria for the bids, then its on them if they aren’t happy with this team or that team getting left out.
Of course, if it was instead that the SEC / B1G gets 4 autobids apiece and the ACC / Big 12 only get 2 each, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, either. Just think that would be a tough sell for the ACC / Big 12.
i would rather see some sort of metric to determine the auto-bids instead of a blanket 3.
Strongest conference by whatever metric is agreed upon- 4 bids, all the way down to 1 for the lowest. You still would have 6 at-large bids to hand out to anyone feeling short changed on the conference play out.
Giving 3 auto-bids to a bad conference is a hard no for me... and i dont ever think it'll happen.
Let's say Clemson beats SMU in a close game. They would have lost an early season three point game to BYU plus that.
An 11-2 SMU would have to be more attractive than a 9-3 Bama that lost to Vandy and Oklahoma when they were twenty-plus point favorites. I'm hoping that Clemson steals Bama's bid.
We’ll see. But best team SMU played was BYU & they lost. Best team they beat was 7-5 Pitt. With that schedule, you can afford 1 loss maybe. Not 2.
Surely the outcome of the B1G and SEC championship games will change the 5 and 7 seeds at a minimum, right?
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