NCAA / college football playoff

Welcome back NCAA football fans! It's been one heck of a season to this point. With the release of yesterday's Bowl pairings & CFP matchups, it got me thinking once again about the current playoff format and how I would change it in an ideal world. I've had a system kicking around in the ol' noggin for a while now that I would absolutely love to see implicated for Division 1 FBS Level football. I can't take full credit for the concepts, they've all been tossed around by many others over the past few years as ways to improve upon the current system. I've always been a proponent of the 8-team playoff. I believe it is completely doable without major or drastic action needing to be taken. It would, however, need to see some sweeping uniform changes made to scheduling and a few other tweaks, but it is very realistic. - So, what would an 8-team playoff look like? Well let's break down the @sportsguychris College Football Playoff plan. First off, there needs to be uniformity in the scheduling all the way across every conference at the FBS level. The fact that some conferences are playing 9 Conference games, while others are playing 8, and some schools are playing FCS level schools (sometimes twice) as part of their non-conference schedules, while others are not is ridiculous in my opinion. I always thought it was a joke that much of the SEC is playing a FCS opponent in late November in the one of the last weeks of the season, while just about everyone else are playing difficult league games. - The arguing I've heard in favor of SEC teams beating up on Samford, Chattanooga, Furman, and others in late November is the SEC is so deep and difficult to maneuver through, that everyone needs a break before rivalry week at the end of the season. I'm not entirely opposed to that thought process, but it's tough to sell me on the TIMING of that game. While Tennessee is playing Chattanooga, Penn State & Ohio State are playing each other. My solution to this is simple: - A) Either completely do-away with the FCS games and have an extra week off or B) each team at the FBS level plays one non-conference game against a FCS level school. That way everyone has the advantage of what is usually an automatic win on their resume. So, my proposal for uniform scheduling is the following: - * Each school plays a total of 8 Conference games (doesn't matter if the conference has 12 or 14 schools) * 4 total non-conference games including * 1 non-conference game against a FCS level opponent (I understand that these smaller schools and their respective Athletic Departments a lot of times depend on the revenue and the paycheck they get for taking that game at a big-time FBS University) - With the scheduling issue now resolved, the rest is rather simple really. Each Power 5 Conference Champion punches a ticket to the playoff. Conference Champs deserve to be rewarded, otherwise what is the point of having different Conferences to begin with? Then the highest ranked of the 'Group of 5' Conference Champions also gets in. The final two spots are then reserved for whomever the committee considers to be the two most deserving at-large selections. It could be an "Independent" (still leaves plenty of room for Notre Dame), or say a really good 1 or 2 loss squad that loses a tie-break and doesn't make it into their respective Conference Title game despite the popular perception being that they might be better than who did make it (2017 Alabama comes to mind). - Now that the parameters have been set, what would an 8-team playoff under this system look like this year? Before I get to that, there is just one more concern to take care of and that would be - how do you work the extra game into the schedule? Simple. Either move the season up one week at the beginning, or have the Quarterfinal games played one week before the Semifinals. The Semifinals would continue to still be a traditional big-time Bowl game (this year it's the Peach Bowl & Fiesta Bowl that serve as the two semifinals), that wouldn't change. Again, a relatively easy solution to the overall scheduling to incorporate. The quarterfinal games would take place at the home stadiums of the higher- ranked 4 teams, making the logistics easier for those opening games & subsequent semifinals , while also rewarding the perceived four best schools with the home field advantage. (If a team goes undefeated, while another has two losses for instance, but both make the playoff, the undefeated team should get rewarded with an extra home game.) Here is how an 8-team playoff based on this system would look for 2019: - (The matchups & participants are based on my final top 25 published yesterday. While the CFP committee and I see eye-to-eye on most of the rankings, we do differ slightly on a few teams.) - (#16) BOISE STATE (12-1) @ [Highest ranked 'Group of 5' Champion] (#1) LSU (13-0) [SEC Champion] - (#5) OREGON (11-2) @ [Pac-12 Champion] (#4) OKLAHOMA (12-1) [Big XII Champion] - (#7) BAYLOR (11-2) @ [At-large] (#2) OHIO STATE (13-0) [Big TEN Champion] - (#6) GEORGIA (11-2) @ [At-large] (#3) CLEMSON (13-0) [ACC Champion] - The two differences between myself & the CFP committee are they have Memphis one spot ahead of Boise State & therefore the highest ranked 'Group of 5' team, while I have the Broncos one spot ahead of the Tigers. I also have Oregon at #5 and Georgia at #6, based on the Ducks' impressive rout of previously #5 Utah, and the fact that they finished up as a conference champion, while Georgia did not. Going by the current CFP rankings, Memphis would be at LSU, Georgia would be at Oklahoma, and Oregon would be at Clemson (Baylor at OSU remains unchanged). At any rate, that is my proposal for an 8-team College Football Playoff, and how it would look for this season. In this system, Wisconsin, Penn State, and Florida would be the next set of teams just outside of the playoff, but every single team out there can go into the season with an actual chance of competing for the National Championship, and that just isn't the reality right now. - I would love to get your thoughts on this in the comments section below. Is 8 enough? Is it too much? Is four just right? Be sure to let me know! Thank you all for the support as always and enjoy all of the upcoming Bowl games!