Clemson vs. Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Oklahoma vs. Georgia in the Rose Bowl.
Big 10 champ Ohio St. left out in favor of Alabama. This is a repeat of the Penn St. and Ohio St. situation last year and the committee made the same decision as last year so at least there's consistency there which is a good thing even if someone disagrees with the choice.
Those appear to be the best 4 teams now. Two really good games.
I just can't stand Alabama. I'll root for anyone but Alabama (except Missouri).
But this is not a "playoff." Four teams is marginally better than the contrived BCS title game.
Take 12 teams and make the winners of the Power 5 conference title game the top 5 seeds with the top 4 getting a bye. The 5th getting the 5 seed. The 8 play, better seeds play at home, and then the top 4 are home games vs. the 4 survivors the next week. The final four is done the same as it is now.
This means the regular season means something, the title games mean everything, and you have the semblance of a REAL playoff.
Imagine how many NCs KU would have in hoops if we just took the top 4 teams to the final four? The system would be a joke, as CFB is.
I would think the Bowl Games cash cow is a major reason why there isn't a 16 team playoff just like D2 and D3.
I think they got the teams right but agree with @wissox, why not just have a 10 or 16 team playoff. Sucks for UCF who’s undefeated currently, if they beat Auburn in their bowl game it will be obvious they got screwed. You could still do bowls even with a playoff. They’ve added so many bowls they have to take teams with losing records, making a bowl isn’t what it once was. Shoot KU would several more appearances if it was like this even 20 years ago. But it’s all about how much the NCAA can make why else play the final four in a football stadium where 3/4s of the seats suck.
The NCAA tournament is run by the NCAA and it funds the entire institution, the Bowls are pretty much independent, as I understand it. Logistically it would be very difficult to have more than 8 teams as the season would be extended well into the next year and travelling arrangements for fans would be a nightmare.
@JayHawkFanToo Not sure how DII or DIII does it but NAIA has 10 regular season games and 16 team playoff last I knew. The teams that make the CFP don’t play for a month.
2 or 3 less games in the regular season makes it much shorter than Division I. My daughter went to North West Missouri State that has won several titles and not a lot of fans travel to the playoff games, probably in the very low hundreds and games are played in very small stadiums and teams travel by bus. A completely different scenario than Division I.
@JayHawkFanToo I just think it’s weird that this is the only football that doesn’t have a true playoff outside of community colleges, which is still voted like the bcs. I guess 4 is better than 2.
@JayHawkFanToo Why would it extend "well" into next year? Just do the two weekends of the playoffs over the next three weeks. Then the Final Four would slot in just as it does now. Or, do week one sometime over the next three weekends, then do the second round of 8 teams the New Year's weekend, then the Final Four after that. It only imposes on four teams is all. Four very thankful teams. Traveling might be an issue. So what? Give visiting teams an allotment and they can scalp them online. Or the fans can travel. The home team fans will buy them if they are sold, and fill the house.
Regarding bowls, it is a stupid system and should not stop a better alternative -- if we are really going to determine a champion. Bowls can stay in place for the non-playoff participants, and for the final four. Heck, if you lose before the final four, maybe you have a specified bowl slot. It's ridiculous that Ohio State is shut out. And it would have been ridiculous if Bama was out. It's idiotic that the Pac 12 and Big 10 have no team even participating.
Here's how a 12 team playoff would shape up.
1. Clemson 2. OU 3. Georgia 4. OSU 5. USC 6. Alabama 7. Wisconsin 8. Auburn 9. Penn St. 10. Miami 11. Washington 12. UCF
Byes in Bold
Week 1 -
12 . UCF at 5. USC
11 . Washington at 6. Alabama
10 . Miami at 7. Wisconsin
9 . Penn St. at 8. Auburn
Week 2 (assuming best seed wins)
8 . Auburn at 1. Clemson
7 . Wisconsin at 2. OU
6 . Alabama at 3. Georgia
5 . USC at 4. OSU
The winners then advance to the neutral site final four as is done now.
Please tell this is not worth ANYTHING to get done.
Please tell me why this will not create MORE money.
Football games need to be spaced about a week apart this is why football is the only pro sport I can think that is single elimination. Sports like Tennis and Volleyball are the equivalent of best of 5 so not really single elimination. I wish that the NCAA from the Sweet 16 or even elite 8 on would be best of 3.
I have seen lots of similar approaches and the answer was that logistically it i is very difficult and the live audience is just not there unless they move games to college campus stadiums which is not always feasible in the Winter and the national audience gets diluted pretty quickly. I though it made sense; I will see if I can find the links for you.
The CFP is a joint venture owned and operated by the FBS conferences (all 10 of them). They negotiated the TV deal which runs until a couple of years after after the Big 12 TV deal does. The Big 12 appears to be a zombie league since ESPN and Fox each refused to bump up the TV deal up to allow expansion and will likely be divided up in a few years.
The CFP will then expand to 8 teams with the next TV deal and the conference title games will be the quarter final games.
That's 7 games total for an 8 team playoff. Rotate between the 6 games in use now for the CFP and New Year's 6 games (Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Peach, Rose, and Sugar) and keep bidding out the title game like now.