How I would fix the 12 team CFP

I like all of your suggestions. 100% agree that winning a conference shouldn't confer an automatic 1st round bye. It can get you in but then everyone gets seeded afterward, like the NCAA BB tourney. On the 1st round home game topic, I'm torn. While I can see the reward for being higher ranked, it is a significant advantage and we saw it play out that way this weekend. Heck, even the top seeded teams who didn't play in round 1 don't get a home game so it does feel uneven.

 

Agree with all except #5. In fact, should be like NFL all throughout the playoffs. Home games for the top seeds.

 

6 Strength of schedule. Some teams play absolutely no one all season… SMU, Indiana, Notre Dame and you can even put Penn State in this category. When these said teams played a winning team they lost, except for Notre Dame, they lost to a high school team

 

Clemson won ACC, they didn’t get a bye?
Plus they had to go on the road. Lol

 

NO BRACKET top seed get the lowest seeded

 

Simple enough… every other sport already does it.

 

My bad didn’t see it

 

Do we really want to go back to that scenario? Gotta score 70 points and win by 50? Was very controversial in the past when it mattered.
Also changing up committee members every year so it would keep us guessing. Hell, from week to week this season had no idea what formulas they were using

 

If you had watched college game day for the past
Month, they told you how the playoffs would work.How
brackets and seeds would be selected. So on and so on.

 

Gotcha

 

I seen that and was responding that they already were changing criteria week to week.
They need to be more transparent
First year with 12 teams, they will hopefully workout the kinks.

 

Make it like all other playoffs

133 Div 1 teams so 69 come to the party

 

Make a playoff spot for every conference champion. That's 10 schools. Add 6 at large schools, that will get ND in, and the 2nd and 3rd best SEC and Big10 schools. Let everybody have some fun.

 

There are some changes they can make for next year, but due to agreements/contracts there can be no significant changes until after the 2025 season. There has been a lot of talk and speculation, but it will really come down to the power of the SEC and big 10, how the lawsuit(s) in the ACC play out, and how the Playoff goes these first couple of years. IDK how binding the conference contracts are for their members, the different media affiliations are in length of contracts, etc. Watching some of the bowl games, college football will be heading into a further convoluted mess if they do not set some criteria for the portal, NIL, etc. OK had 25 guys enter the portal, only a 6-6 team, but nearly their entire team was freshman in a bowl game. A school in the past who could at one time be call a 'blue blood', now a minor league program to prepare guys for the next bigger leap. A bit exaggerated, its getting harder to watch this crap they call football.

 

When does the salary cap come into play for college football? It’s all going to come down to who spends the most money. Welcome to college football version of MLB. Kiss your favorite small school program good bye.

 

Thats it in a nutshell. The media contracts already signed hold any major changes to the playoffs in check until I think 32 or 35. The amount of cash that generates is split by teams in those respective conferences, really is not that much for a conference with 18 teams, ND actually collected the most independently, plus they have their own deal with NBC. The NIL money of course comes in by different streams, large schools with huge alumni that have success will of course draw the most interest and money. Now that the box has been open it is going to be hard to seal it back up, the smaller schools and conferences eventually be forced to make decisions if it is really worth it, to maintain strength and interest the larger conferences will come up with some structure, what that will be is anybody's guess.

Greed is impossible to satisfy, the huge flow of money only feeds the monster, and makes it desire even more. Rules and agreement look good, then you have a team like the Dodgers finding loopholes to by pass agreements, the payroll discrepancy between top and bottom is ridicules and yet the beat goes on.

 

There was a recent meeting. nothing official, but just discussion on how to improve and move forward. According to Nick Saban (who was not involved in the talk) it was 4,4,2,2, auto bids with 2 out side...total 14. The ACC and Big 12 may balk, but right now the SEC and Big !0 have the muscle. The one interesting thing was the 'play in' in the conferences beyond the their tournament. Thus 3 through 6 in those 2 conferences would play to get the 2 other automatic bids. Interesting concept, putting it back on the field instead of in a board room. Still has kinks, but I like the idea with the conferences so large, to have their own 'play ins', thus eliminating a lot of the 'we missed out' talk.

 

8 months later and the landscape is still evolving. Nothing official, but on Patrick he shared something about a committee getting together do discuss expansion of the playoffs to 24 teams. With this was the SEC and Big 10 getting 7 spots each, doing away with conference championships, 2 guaranteed spots for the little 5 (or whatever it called), some other crap. I have mixed feelings about most of this, but those feelings mean nothing to the big bucks, lol. have no idea how all this plays out as the entire college football is changing so rapidly, but could see something like the European model of football (soccer) where there is a set number who compete at a certain level, with the lower level being opted out and in after the current years performance.

 

Even with 12 schools in the playoffs there are only 2-3 schools with a legit shot at winning the Natty anyway. The other schools are just in there for the payday. I say share the wealth. Every conference winner gets in. Divide up the remaining spots however you want.

 

I agree, for now.
Also I think with 12 teams you have a chance at 4-5 that can win it all, and the rest is like You said. Of course one day, one of those teams will get lucky.

 

12 teams are plenty right now, do you guys watch March madness/ Hoosiers On any given day a 16th seed takes out a 1 or 2 seed.