An 8-Team Playoff Would Solve Most Of College Football's Biggest Championship Problems

Business Insider ^ | 12-9-2017 | Cork Gaines

[blam]

The College Football Playoff field is set and there was one controversial decision — the committee took Alabama over Ohio State.

While our projection had Alabama in as the fourth team rather easily, many felt that Ohio State had he stronger resume based on bigger wins and the sometimes important conference championship. Playoff committee chairman Kirby Hocutt made it sound like the decision wasn't that hard, calling the Buckeyes' 31-point loss to unranked Iowa "damaging" and noting that the committee felt Alabama was "clearly the No. 4 team in the country.".

The decision was also controversial because it means this year's playoff will have no teams from the Big Ten and the Pac-12. Instead, it will have two teams from the SEC, including one team that did not reach their conference championship game.

Of course, all of that would easily be fixed if the NCAA would just move to the one thing most fans want — an 8-team playoff.

Here is what the 8-team playoff would look like this season based on the final rankings. The champions of the Power 5 conferences received automatic bids, and then we gave the final three spots to the highest ranked team from a Group of 5 conferences and two at-large teams.

8-team College Football Playoff ESPN; Business Insider

An 8-team playoff solves two of the biggest gripes against the current system: 1) winning a Power 5 conference would mean something more than just a tiebreaker between otherwise even teams; and 2) it would give a team like undefeated UCF a chance to prove they can play with the big schools.

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[Know et al]

The last three spots would be by at large conference champions. No Championship no entry.

And, what about the independents? They would need to be in a conference.

[bray]

If they wanted into the Championship of champions they would. Maybe Notre Dame would have to play week to week.

[RayChuang88]

Here is how I would set up the new college season:

1. Scale back the college football regular season from 12 to 11 games, with a uniform eight in-conference and three out-of-conference games (no more playing FCS schools).
2. No polling until after the fourth week of the season completes.
3. New ranking system is identical to BCS, but uses the AP human poll instead of the old Harris human poll. Will start after the sixth week of the season.
4. Eliminate conference divisions. The top two teams in each conference based on the new poll go to the conference championship--the 12th game of the season.
5. The new poll seeds teams 1 through 8. Top four teams will host quaterfinal playoff game in early December.
6. Winners will be re-seeded and go to two New Year's Day bowl games designated as semifinal games, with games on ABC instead of ESPN.
7. Semifinal winners play championship game eight days later, with the game on ABC instead of ESPN. It will play the night after Dancing with the Star premieres on ABC for the spring season.

[Hotlanta Mike]

The SEC only plays 8 conference games whereas the Big Ten plays 9, gotta load up on those cupcakes. Further mighty Alabama played one game against FCS Mercer. That alone should disqualify a team from CFP consideration. The SEC will end up embarrassing the committee by failing to get any of their teams into the championship game.

[tang-soo]

Alabama plays TWO FCS teams next season, Louisiana-Lafayette and The Citadel!!!

[OKSooner]

Most of the arguments about those three "wild card" spots would be solved with a "No Two Teams From The Same Conference" rule. Not never ever, no matter whose team or which conference, not singling anybody out here.

Those other three are for non-"power five" and/or independents who didn't otherwise wouldn't make the top five so that they can have a fair chance too.

Of course, people would still find something to complain about... but if I were Emperor... An eight team playoff, with aforementioned rule. Bowl games might be the first round, or they might be the semifinals.

I'd make that a Saturday proclamation, right after I'd spent a week solving certain other problems...

[discostu]

But they LIKE the controversy. Keeps people talking about the sport. Especially now in the big drought before the bowls. The fact of the matter is a bad system that makes no damn sense adds drama and coverage. It’s actually better for the sport than a good system that makes sense.

[Hotlanta Mike]

They should be SHAMED out of the CFP...