Ragin' Dave's Solution to the CFP Format

[RaginDave]

I was thinking about this, I think this would be a perfect solution for the NCAA and the CFP.

A 24-team format, that eliminates Conference Championship games, because for the most part they have become useless and starts the season 1 week earlier (remember you are already playing games in Week 0, just have everyone play that week, rather than just 4 or 5 games.)

The Power 4 conference Champions would get automatic bids plus the highest ranked Group of 5 champion. Every other position would be an At Large bid, just like you do in every other collegiate sport.

You would seed the top 16 teams, the top 8 would get first round byes. Seeds 9-16 would get the first-round home games. Based on the seedings of the week before conference championship games the following teams would get a first-round bye.

1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. UGA
4. Texas Tech
5. Oregon
6. Ole Miss
7. Texas A&M
8. Oklahoma

9-16 would get home games in round 1, but they would not be based on matching up with the worst ranked team left in the playoffs, instead you work try to base in on regional matchups that make sense, for instance lets say LSU would make the CFP as a 9-16 seed and Tulane or UL would make it as the top Group of 5 champion but would not be one of the top 16 National Seeds, in that case you would match LSU up with Tulane/UL in Tiger Stadium, another example would be if USC made the tournament and UCLA was unseeded you would try to match them up together at USC.

These matchups this year could be something like this:

9. Alabama vs Tulane
10. Notre Dame vs Michigan
11. BYU vs Georgia Tech
12. Miami vs JMU
13. Texas vs Houston
14. Vandy vs UVA
15. Utah vs Iowa
16. USC vs Arizona

Or something like this. Try to make these matchups as regional as possible or historic rivals. Could you imagine a first-round game of ND vs Michigan in the big house, or Houston traveling to Texas in week 1. USC/Arizona would be a good one. Obviously once week 1 is over then the matchups would be the regular matchups:

1 vs 8/9 or the lower seed
2 vs 7/10 or the lower seed
3 vs 6/11 or the lower seed
4 vs 5/12 or the lower seed

By starting the season one week earlier and eliminating the Conference Championship games, your season would still end on the same date and you would have most everyone that you would assume has a chance to win the National Championship and in turn give you some cool matchups in week 1 playoff which would give it a little bit of a March Madness feel.

Just my .02, it will never happen because it makes too much sense.

My other piece to this is you would pare down the bowl games to just maybe 16 matchups, in a NIT like format for those teams that just miss out. Eliminate all 6-6 teams and have the NIT format start on Thursday and Friday nights, not to coincide with the NCAA playoff games. This means that 56 teams would play in some sort of postseason game. Everyone else would be done after their last game. If a team chooses to not take part in the NIT format, that is fine, just go to the next available team on your list. You should have tons to choose from.

[MarlinMan3]

What stated "problem" is attempting to be solved

[Million$Mullet]

It’s still not a playoff if it doesn’t include all FBS conference champions. Make it 24 teams. 9 conference champs auto qualify. Get rid of committee. Use BCS rankings. After the conference champs take the highest ranked 15 at large based on bcs type metrics. Most certainly those next 15 will be majority P4. The little guys are included. The big guys who think they were left out this year(vandy, ut, nd, etc…) grab the at larges. This caters to everyone. Which is why it will never happen. It will just turn into the big boy invitational.

[CharlieK]

All conference champions get in. Then as many at large as yall want.

[MarlinMan3]

We just use straight records- signed nfl

[GeauxCajuns]

i really think if this would have happened in year 4 or 5 of the current set up, it would just be said that sometimes this will happen. just because it happened in the first year of the set up everyone is over reacting.

[MarlinMan3]

i really think if this would have happened in year 4 or 5 of the current set up, it would just be said that sometimes this will happen. just because it happened in the first year of the set up everyone is over reacting.

The only people overreacting are p4 and bought and paid for media...nothing "bad" happened, best 5 conference champs are in....just when they built it they thought it would be 5 different conferences (they are down 2 p5s in essence)

[MarlinMan3]

People say, basketball lets all the conference champs in..... do they? Will they always??? First play in games then what..seems a trajectory to get rid of them

[RaginDave]

It’s still not a playoff if it doesn’t include all FBS conference champions. Make it 24 teams. 9 conference champs auto qualify. Get rid of committee. Use BCS rankings. After the conference champs take the highest ranked 15 at large based on bcs type metrics. Most certainly those next 15 will be majority P4. The little guys are included. The big guys who think they were left out this year(vandy, ut, nd, etc…) grab the at larges. This caters to everyone. Which is why it will never happen. It will just turn into the big boy invitational.

The NCAA nor the big boys (SEC and B1G) will never go for all conference champs in the CFP. That is why I think my solution is the best, should allow the best opportunity for the top G6 teams to play in and possibly get more than 1 in like this year.

[MarlinMan3]

Eliminate conf champ game:

"We get all money from our conf championship game"- conferences
"We might get some money from playoff"- conferences