The Playoff must expand to eight teams or the same four will always be playing

[CTBasketball]

Did you see the deal espn just gave to the SEC? Blew the deal cbs has with the sec out of the water

SEC games this year were 10x better than any playoff game, regular season P5 game, or bowl game.

 

[pepband99]

You are right. It is perfect as it is.

I wonder who will make the playoffs next year? Oh, that's right, we already know: Alabama, Clemson, and 2 of Oklahoma/Ohio State/wildcard. Exciting.

His question was legit. Are you incapable of having a discussion that isn't 100% inline with your point? Jeez.

You could just as easily envision an 8 team playoff that would have the same issue. The last few years could have been:

Alabama
Clemson
OU
OSU
Georgia
LSU/Florida/ND
Maybe the Pac12 champ
Maybe the G5 best team

It all depends on how the 8 teams are derived. The more AQ's there are, the more interesting it gets. If it's all committee, it's probably less interesting.

 

[freescooter]

In a perfect world we dump any “ national championship” tournament. But that isn’t happening so I’d favor a tournament like the 1AA one. 16 teams. Maybe go 18 with 2 play in games. Every league champ gets in so 10 auto bids then 6-8 at large to get Norte Dame, BYU and UConn. Plus 3-5 more P5 teams. Top ranked teams play at home for play in, first and second rounds then semis are at the orange, sugar, cotton and fiesta bowls and the final at the Rose Bowl.Ratings had been basically stable at around 25 million after year 1 but this year was a disaster and is just shedding fans and honestly it had zero juice. Barely mentioned on even ESPN radio.

I think that they are pretty much destroying the sport. Before this, teams that had solid seasons could draw fans and interest. We have moved to a point where only the National Championship matters, but even with that, everybody knows that before the first kick of the first game of the year, only about 6-8 teams have even the longest of long shots. Fully 50% have none. Contrast that with other sports and you know Central Connecticut basketball can play for the title. Probably won’t win, but they’ll get a chance. In soccer, same 5hing. In hockey, Sacred Heart likely won’t win, but if they win the AHA they will get a chance. In football you can go unbeaten, win your league and set scoring records and not even get considered.

 

[Guapo]

For all the talk about the “greatness” of the NCAA tournament; there really isn’t a difference in championships. The same small number of schools horde most of the championships.

re: TV ratings. The Semi Finals and the Championship game are still the four most watched non-NFL broadcasts this year. The next closest broadcast was game 6 of the World Series at 12.7 million. The championship game was down 18%, but the semis were “only” down 2%. Compare that to the NBA and NHL finals which were down close to 60%. This has more to do with Covid tv rating declines rather than the overall health of the sport.

I’d probably be ok with a 6 game playoff - and I agree there needs to be more diversity in the teams getting in, especially geographic diversity. However expanding it too big destroys the best regular season in sports.

I’d much rather watch Alabama play Ohio State, Clemson etc every year in a small playoff than sub .500 teams playing in the NFL playoffs. That’s just gross.

 

[QDOG5]

The scholarship limit was moved to 105 in 1973, dropped to 95 in1978, and dropped again to the current 85 in 1992. There is a push to drop the limit to 75. I don't know if it would level the playing field if it is passed. In theory it seems like it would work. I'm in favor of an 8 team playoff. I think there would be some first round upsets that might get people watching. It seems many sporting events have had their worst viewership ever during Covid. Seems counterintuitive. Maybe people are sick and tired of everything?

 

[Guapo]

For all the talk about the “greatness” of the NCAA tournament; there really isn’t a difference in championships. The same small number of schools horde most of the championships.

re: TV ratings. The Semi Finals and the Championship game are still the four most watched non-NFL broadcasts this year. The next closest broadcast was game 6 of the World Series at 12.7 million. The championship game was down 18%, but the semis were “only” down 2%. Compare that to the NBA and NHL finals which were down close to 60%. This has more to do with Covid tv rating declines rather than the overall health of the sport.

I’d probably be ok with a 6 game playoff - and I agree there needs to be more diversity in the teams getting in, especially geographic diversity. However expanding it too big destroys the best regular season in sports.

I’d much rather watch Alabama play Ohio State, Clemson etc every year in a small playoff than sub .500 teams playing in the NFL playoffs. That’s just gross.

of course, I’m not opposed to reform - obviously what’s happening now is not ideal.

thinking on this a bit more, I would be ok with 8.

The 5 P5 conference champions, the highest ranked G5 conference champion and 2 wild cards.

play the first round on campus.

emphasizing the conference championships preserves the importance of the regular season

 

[NatiHuskiFan]

As a fan of the Bearcats I don’t have so much a problem of people assuming we would get blown out by Alabama or anyone else. My biggest thing is by taking away the opportunity altogether you also lose a good coach every time you start to make a statement. So UC has had to rebuild their program 5 times in the past decade in a half with two of those coaches having been to the CFP.
If college basketball worked the same way as football UConn could very well have zero nattys in men’s basketball and we would be stuck watching Duke/UNC/UK with some combo of Kansas/Mich St depending on if there were more big 10 or big 12 people on the committee

 

[nelsonmuntz]

For all the talk about the “greatness” of the NCAA tournament; there really isn’t a difference in championships. The same small number of schools horde most of the championships.

re: TV ratings. The Semi Finals and the Championship game are still the four most watched non-NFL broadcasts this year. The next closest broadcast was game 6 of the World Series at 12.7 million. The championship game was down 18%, but the semis were “only” down 2%. Compare that to the NBA and NHL finals which were down close to 60%. This has more to do with Covid tv rating declines rather than the overall health of the sport.

I’d probably be ok with a 6 game playoff - and I agree there needs to be more diversity in the teams getting in, especially geographic diversity. However expanding it too big destroys the best regular season in sports.

I’d much rather watch Alabama play Ohio State, Clemson etc every year in a small playoff than sub .500 teams playing in the NFL playoffs. That’s just gross.

The two choices are having 3 teams play in the National Championship game or having sub .500 teams play in it? Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

So what you’re saying is, you dislike Clemson

This truly cracked me up...well done.

Obviously...I meant Clemson, Alabama and OHIO STATE.

 

[Guapo]

The two choices are having 3 teams play in the National Championship game or having sub .500 teams play in it? Thank you for clearing that up.

no it was just for comparison sake in the general “sports preference” talk

 

[pepband99]

For all the talk about the “greatness” of the NCAA tournament; there really isn’t a difference in championships. The same small number of schools horde most of the championships.

Fair point, but the NCAA tourney gives us variety and excitement in the earlier rounds, with a chance at something substantial shaking things up. the CFP gives us none of the latter, and very little of the former.

Even if Bama, Clemson, LSU, etc curbstomp everyone (which is likely), it would be fun to see a couple of teams knock out some heavyweights in earlier rounds.

Everyone remembers schools like FGCU, UMBC, etc. They are a blip in tourneys, from the perspective of the title itself, but the games are great.

 

[pepband99]

no it was just for comparison sake in the general “sports preference” talk

Don't mind @nelsonmuntz - he pulls that nonsense every time someone doesn't lick his boots.

 

[tzznandrew]

no it was just for comparison sake in the general “sports preference” talk

10-16 out of well over a hundred certainly preserves the integrity of the sport.

All conference champions plus 2-6 non-champion wildcards feels like the perfect compromise. Regular season matters, conference champions automatically get in, and ultimately there will be a diversity of teams in these games.

 

[Guapo]

Don't mind @nelsonmuntz - he pulls that nonsense every time someone doesn't lick his boots.

im more than aware of Nelson, but thank you

 

[nelsonmuntz]

For all the talk about the “greatness” of the NCAA tournament; there really isn’t a difference in championships. The same small number of schools horde most of the championships.

That is a great point, other than it is completely wrong.

11 different schools have played in the CF Playoffs during its first 7 years of existence, with Clemson and Alabama leading the way with 6 appearances each.

21 difference schools have played in the last 7 NCAA basketball Final Fours. No team has made more than 2 appearances during that period.

There are only 4 different champions during the first 7 years of the CFP.

There have been 6 different basketball champions in the last 7 tournaments, with only Villanova winning it twice.

Do people predict this disparity of access to get bigger or smaller over time?

 

[Rocktheworld]

10-16 out of well over a hundred certainly preserves the integrity of the sport.

All conference champions plus 2-6 non-champion wildcards feels like the perfect compromise. Regular season matters, conference champions automatically get in, and ultimately there will be a diversity of teams in these games.

I say get all the conference champions, seed them as you will. That’s 10 teams right? Top 4 seeds get a bye; the others play 6 “at large” bids seeded 11-16

 

[CL82]

The scholarship limit was moved to 105 in 1973, dropped to 95 in1978, and dropped again to the current 85 in 1992. There is a push to drop the limit to 75. I don't know if it would level the playing field if it is passed. In theory it seems like it would work. I'm in favor of an 8 team playoff. I think there would be some first round upsets that might get people watching. It seems many sporting events have had their worst viewership ever during Covid. Seems counterintuitive. Maybe people are sick and tired of everything?

If it did nothing else, it would at lease reduce the cost of scholarship paper loss.

 

[Guapo]

That is a great point, other than it is completely wrong.

11 different schools have played in the CF Playoffs during its first 7 years of existence, with Clemson and Alabama leading the way with 6 appearances each.

21 difference schools have played in the last 7 NCAA basketball Final Fours. No team has made more than 2 appearances during that period.

There are only 4 different champions during the first 7 years of the CFP.

There have been 6 different basketball champions in the last 7 tournaments, with only Villanova winning it twice.

That is a great point, other than it is completely wrong.

11 different schools have played in the CF Playoffs during its first 7 years of existence, with Clemson and Alabama leading the way with 6 appearances each.

21 difference schools have played in the last 7 NCAA basketball Final Fours. No team has made more than 2 appearances during that period.

There are only 4 different champions during the first 7 years of the CFP.

There have been 6 different basketball champions in the last 7 tournaments, with only Villanova winning it twice.

Do people predict this disparity of access to get bigger or smaller over time?

Fair enough, but there still aren’t any Cinderella, non-power conference schools winning (Big East counts as a power conference in basketball).

Ultimately, you’re trying to make College Football into a tournament/post season-focused sport, which it has never been. Good luck with that.

Let’s not pretend like the preeminence, and expansion of, the Tournament hasn’t had a negative impact on the regular season in college basketball. The sport for most people is a one month sport now.

 

[Big East Fa]

Exactly. ESPN and NCAA thought they were cashing in huge with the CFP. I wouldn’t doubt it we see some major changes when the CFP deal runs out.

The NCAA has nothing to do with the FBS level.

 

[Big East Fa]

Honestly, college football doesn't play enough non-conference games to really get a true sense of who the best teams are. In years with undefeated teams, you have a reasonable guess, but there's no reason CFB needs to be the only sport where every team coming into the season cannot reasonably say they can win a title.

They play enough non-conference games. Just who most play are the sisters of the poor.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Fair enough, but there still aren’t any Cinderella, non-power conference schools winning (Big East counts as a power conference in basketball).

Ultimately, you’re trying to make College Football into a tournament/post season-focused sport, which it has never been. Good luck with that.

Let’s not pretend like the preeminence, and expansion of, the Tournament hasn’t had a negative impact on the regular season in college basketball. The sport for most people is a one month sport now.

None of the games in college football matter if your name isn't Alabama, Clemson, or maybe Oklahoma or Ohio State. The rest of them are just exhibition games. How does that make the regular season matter more?

 

[uconntailgater]

The fastest way the playoffs would expand to 8 teams would be if the SEC didn’t qualify for the playoffs one year. I know it sounds far-fetched now especially with Alabama’s dominance. The rest of the SEC power teams are slowly catching up to Alabama and they may start beating up on each other? A one or two loss SEC team coming out of the SEC championship game would have a real possibility of not being selected if the other conferences/Notre Dame had an undefeated team. Heck, even Mississippi & Mississippi State Will no longer be easy outs in that conference.

USC Is starting to keep top-notch talent in California so they should start making a run soon and possibly earning a spot in the playoffs. Alabama-Clemson-Ohio state have hit lightning in a bottle recruiting wise to coincide during the college playoff era. No one can deny that they didn’t deserve to be there. I don’t like seeing the same teams every year. I think it’s going to start to work itself out we’ll start to see new teams crash the party.

A fair amount of the teams vying for the playoffs play each other next year so that will be interesting. The four teams that were in the playoffs this year have to replace a lot of generational talent. Yes, those teams recruit very well and are well stocked.

if Covid 19 is no longer a factor in the fall of 2021 I think it will be an exciting college football season and hopefully usher in an era of change.

 

[huskypantz]

16 teams. Every conference champ and 5 at large. Split the pot evenly with a few extra bucks for the winners each round. The P5 make plenty on gate and media. This will spread the talent out. The biggest programs are just crushing the smaller ones with affluence.

 

[Samoo]

Fair enough, but there still aren’t any Cinderella, non-power conference schools winning (Big East counts as a power conference in basketball).

Ultimately, you’re trying to make College Football into a tournament/post season-focused sport, which it has never been. Good luck with that.

Let’s not pretend like the preeminence, and expansion of, the Tournament hasn’t had a negative impact on the regular season in college basketball. The sport for most people is a one month sport now.

Didn't a team from the AAC win it one year... wait, dont tell me...I'll remember their name...

 

[Guapo]

Didn't a team from the AAC win it one year... wait, dont tell me...I'll remember their name...

yes. With a Big East roster