Lane Kiffin's playoff idea makes too much sense for college football's gatekeepers

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — As the commissioners of the Big Ten and SEC push ever more complicated models for the next version of the College Football Playoff, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin offered something straightforward that seems a lot more satisfying.

“The best system,” Kiffin said, “should be the 16 best.”

That word “best” could be a sticking point, because your idea of best and my idea of best probably vary somewhat. But with 16 teams, the odds of leaving the eventual national champion out of the tournament seem pretty slim. This also seems like a better plan — from a potential antitrust law standpoint — than assigning twice as many automatic bids to the Big Ten and SEC than to the ACC and Big 12. 

It’s a testament to how cynical the leaders of the sport have made us that we essentially dismissed what Kiffin said moments after the words passed his lips. But what if we didn’t? What if SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti took the opinions of Kiffin (and other coaches) more simply and opted for the simplest solution?

Just for fun, here’s how last year’s CFP would have looked had the selection committee’s top 16 been loaded into a basic 16-team bracket.

No. 16 Clemson at No. 1 Oregon

No. 9 Boise State at No. 8 Indiana

No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Notre Dame

No. 13 Miami at No. 4 Penn State

No. 14 Ole Miss at No. 3 Texas

No. 11 Alabama at No. 6 Ohio State

No. 10 SMU at No. 7 Tennessee

No. 15 South Carolina at No. 2 Georgia

Going through this bracket, only one question pops into my head: Who says no?

There are five conference champions, and there would be five conference champions in most years. The matchups are compelling and could produce some massive seed upsets. No. 14 Ole Miss at No. 3 Texas would have had a low single-digit spread. Ditto for No. 15 South Carolina at No. 2 Georgia.

The current SEC hand-wringing over “displacement” and the ruggedness of the league’s schedules disappears with six SEC teams in the bracket. The ACC and Big 12 don’t have codify inferiority to the Big Ten and SEC. If a bunch of ACC teams or a bunch of Big 12 teams cycle up, then they could have more in the bracket. The Big Ten has four, but the next year it might have six.

It’s easy to explain. It’s easy to envision. 

It wouldn’t eliminate complaints entirely. BYU and Iowa State — which just missed at No. 17 and No. 18 — would complain. They’d pound the table, as would Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. But had SMU beat Clemson in the ACC title game, one of those Big 12 teams would have made the field.

There would be no need for play-in games on conference championship weekend. Conference title games would still exist, and they’d have real stakes. Win, and you get to play a much lower ranked team in the first round than you would have if you’d lost.

It makes so much sense, which is why it’ll never happen.

How do I know this? Because the cousin of this is the model the ACC and Big 12 have pushed that would guarantee spots — but not seeds — for the five highest ranked conference champions and then had the committee select 11 at-large teams. On Tuesday, SEC coaches brought up this model to Sankey. Sankey was asked how that discussion went.

“It was cold, so that’s why I wear pullovers here,” Sankey joked. “At the coaching level, the question is ‘Why wouldn’t that be fine? Why wouldn’t we do that?’ It was a good conversation — not a destination.”

Translation: Of course the meathead football coaches would want something so simple, but there are much larger issues at play here.

But do there need to be?

Sometimes, it doesn’t need to be as complicated as the people in charge make it.