I was bored/procrastinating and was thinking about the recent AP Poll and the pending playoff (and what it will eventually evolve into). I would love to see a 16 team playoff someday, so I made up a scenario. I didn't want the whole SEC playing in the SE regional, so there are some weird teams in weird places.
Rules:
In my playoff system, only four teams can make the playoffs per conference. The top 16 teams (I used the AP Poll) are taken; once a conference has all four spots filled, the next highest team is added. The higher ranked seed hosts the first game, the regional finals are played at neutral sites.
Breakdown:
SEC: 4
Pac-12: 4
Big 12: 2
ACC: 2
WAC: 1
Big Ten: 1
MAC: 1
Independent: 1
Seeding:
East Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at Lucas Oil, plays W regional in semis):
4.) UCLA at 1.) Notre Dame
3.) Clemson at 2.) Stanford
Southeast Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held in Jacksonville, plays MW regional in semis):
4.) Utah State at 1.) Alabama
3.) Florida State at 2.) Georgia
Midwest Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at Ford Field, plays SE regional in semis):
4.) NIU at 1.) Ohio State
3.) Oklahoma at 2.) Kansas State
West Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at some western indoor stadium?, plays E regional in semis):
4.) Oregon State at 1.) Florida
3.) LSU at 2.) Oregon
What do you guys think? What would your brackets look like? I'll post mine in a few.
Alright here's my thoughts:
East Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at Lucas Oil, plays W regional in semis):
4.) UCLA at 1.) Notre Dame //Notre Dame
3.) Clemson at 2.) Stanford //Clemson
Clemson vs Notre Dame //Clemson
Southeast Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held in Jacksonville, plays MW regional in semis):
4.) Utah State at 1.) Alabama //lol. Alabama
3.) Florida State at 2.) Georgia //Georgia
Georgia vs Alabama //Georgia pulls it off
Midwest Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at Ford Field, plays SE regional in semis):
4.) NIU at 1.) Ohio State //OSU
3.) Oklahoma at 2.) Kansas State //Kansas State
KSU vs OSU //OSU
West Regional (higher seed hosts first game, final held at some western indoor stadium?, plays E regional in semis):
4.) Oregon State at 1.) Florida //Florida
3.) LSU at 2.) Oregon //Close, but Oregon
Oregon vs Florida //Florida
Semis:
Ohio State vs Alabama //Alabama, painfully.
Clemson vs Florida //Clemson
NCG:
Clemson vs Alabama //Alabama
This would be a lot better than a four team playoff, from a fan perspective.
Clemson in the National Championship?? This would never happen. They didn't even make the ACC championship game
IMO I think their offense is capable of taking on the teams laid out in my scenario. Tajh Boyd is really good. I think they could beat UCLA, Notre Dame, and Florida in that order.
I gotcha maybe in a crazy bracket they could make it but highly unlikely. I like the hypo though, its the off season good to get creative. Go Bucks!
East regional: Notre Dame over UCLA/Stanford over Clemson, Stanford upsets Notre Dame
Southeast regional: Alabama over Utah State/Georgia over FSU, Alabama over Georgia
Midwest: Ohio State over NIU/Oklahoma over K-State, Ohio State over Oklahoma
West: Florida over Oregon State/LSU upsets Oregon, LSU upsets Florida
National semis: Alabama over Ohio State, Stanford over LSU
National final: Alabama over Stanford
Class of 2010.
All roads lead to Tuscaloosa :(
There will be just as much whining about who the 16th team should be.
In basketball there has always been a lot of gritching about who the 64th team should be.
Laughably, the last team out in this was TSUN.
I could watch something like this... Could be interesting.
16 team playoff too big IMO it dilutes the regular season (ie NFL) you should reward regular season success and consistency not a fluke run (March Madness).
It should be a 4 team playoff with a wildcard play in game where conference champs take priority (ie Kstate over Florida).
You usually have 2 teams that should definitely be in the game and then about 3 teams with cases for their inclusion.
Example this season (won't include OSU since we are banned):
1. Notre Dame
2. Alabama
No one is really arguing with those teams in the mix
3. Kansas State
4. Stanford vs Florida for the last spot
In this model Stanford would play at home (since they won their conference) vs Florida on December 15th. The winner would then travel to South Bend to play the number one Irish.
1. Notre Dame vs. #4 Play in winner (South Bend, IN)
2. Alabama vs Kansas State (Tuscaloosa, AL)
Winners play on New Years or a week after like the current schedule at a neutral site.
I completely disagree, and here is why. In the NFL, you can lose 5 games, 6 game, heck 8 games, and still make the playoffs because of the number of teams. In the NCAA, there are 124 (and growing) number of teams in the FCS, so to be in the top 16 you would still need to win a lot of games (max 3/4 loses). The majority of the teams in his proposed 16 team playoff have 1 loss, some have 2, and just a few have 3/4, but they are low seeds. Do you think a team would rather host a first round against Utah St or have to go play ND in South Bend? That would be the differnce there. You wouldn't get a scenario like UConn two years ago, where a flat out mediocre team made a run because the field is still too small for those typs of teams to be admitted.
Cause I couldn't go for three
I think you make my point perfectly, thank you. In college you can have 5-6 loss conference champions (Wisconsin). Do you really think anyone from the B1G (outside of banned OSU) deservers a spot in a playoff this year? HELL NO. You are rewarding great teams which there are 3-4 each year in football not 16. Also, teams can't play that many games of football each year. This isn't basketball where teams can play 4 games in a week and be fine.
Talk to the coaches and the players and they will be against a 16 team playoff and so will the schools themselves. Also the amount of travel required for fans would be too much especially if semi finals are at neutral sites and then a championship game at a neutral site.
My model rewards the regular season and conference champs and gives a shot to another team that could possibly have an argument or was tripped up once in a fluke loss. Either way if you win or lose your playoff game you will be playing +1 game per year which is ok.
You changed your argument, I did not argue for a 16 team playoff, but merely pointed out that a 16 team playoff would not dilute the regular season (a la the NFL or CBB) like you had said. You take the top 16 teams, you aren't gonna have a 5-6 loss team, there was no mention of gaurenteeing BCS conference champs, so Wisconsin would not make it in the system presented.
Your other arguments are legit (timing, and fan travel), but that was NOT what I was pointing out
Cause I couldn't go for three
So who would be playing in the playoff if we had the 4-team this season? Do you have to win your conference?
You don't have to win your conference. But conference champions will supposedly be looked at heavily. We shall see.
So prolly
1) Notre Dame vs 8) Stanford
2) Alabama vs 6) Kansas State
Ill take Stanford vs Bama with Bama winning
More likely ND vs. Oregon, Alabama vs. Florida
Oregon didn't even win their division yet alone their conference and I'm hoping their arnt two SEC teams playing each others in the national semi final
All I'm saying is i don't care how big a playoff gets. It just needs to include ALL conference champs and have room for some wild cards. Like a 16 team playoff.
The ONLY way to truly have teams settle it on the field is to eliminate the need for any polls and selection committees.
The NFL hashas a set criteria for divisional winners and 2 wildcards. So, if any team complains all anybody has to say is well you should've taken care of business on the field. It's your fault for missing the playoffs.
No polls/selection committee set with on field results as to who makes the playoff = pure objectivity/ON THE FIELD
I strongly disagree just because you win your conference doesn't mean you have the right to have the chance to win the national title.
Wisconsin has no argument
Louisville has not argument
and whoever won the ACC has no argument either
Those are simply not championship worthy teams and they have proven it throughout the season.
But if Wisconsin wins the conference they should be in. It just so happens penn st and osu are ineligible so wisconsin wouldnt be in this discussion if it were a normal season. If teams want to complain then they should have beat Wisconsin. That's my point. Teams can take care of things on the field.
As long as there are polls/selection committees there will always be a bias and there will never be any objectivity. Ever.
There is no bias or politics in determining a NFL champion. There is a set structure on how to win and what to do.
And winning your conference should give you a chance. So the media thinks the BIG is crap this year and so do I. Well let the other conference champs and wildcards prove that in a tournament/playoff format so we can witness that on the field.
Yep, main idea is to get teams playing in single-elimination rounds, with bad game/slow start/turnover heavy performance probably likely to claim one or two favorites in first round, ala NCAA basketball. No reason why it couldn't work and, yes, there will be those who take issue with any field, so you live with it.
I would not have Bama as an overwhelming favorite, either, in this format.
Here's a proposal of what could happen. A couple of Hypothetical conditions:
1) ACC and Big East both fail to survive realignment.
2) There end up being four 20 team mega conferences. Four five pod teams in two divisions.
3) Delaney realizes he can create a BTN2 and signs an agreement with the MAC. All other Conferences follow suit. The Champion of Tier 2 teams can move up to Tier 1 and the worst team in Tier 1 moves down.
The Division 1 FBS looks like this (Current teams in Black, Known Transfers Red, Hypothetical in Blue):
The playoff looks like this:
A couple of additional hypothetical conditions were no bowl bans, current teams rankings determined round 2 teams, and I'm a big homer so OSU always wins.
I don't necessarily like this (I like going back to the way it was when i grew up); but for a fair system with expansion its not bad and doesn't rely on polls or computers or anything like that. Also theoretically any team in Division 1 could win a national title sometime over a two year period.
I was looking and playing around with ideas in my head and this is something that i saw college football getting to eventually. All this expansion just seems like it's eventually going to leaf to a college playoff with a huge college Superbowl.
I had 4 big conferences figured out but couldn't figure out how to work in the little guys. I was going to make a blog post about it and try to explain what college football seems to be leading towards. Good job. Some specifics might be off but i think you nailed the general idea.
Its a little over the board; but I work with Excel every day so that's how I operate.
The little guys idea come from Premier League Soccer where the lower league guys and the bad upper league guys switch places every so often.
The bad part about it is that there end up being a lot of games that do not matter.
I think youve thought a lot.