CFP Timeline

[CyKings]

I'm sure it's been beat to death... but they really need to fix the CFP timeline. How it currently is set up:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games (they got this right)
3. 1st Round Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 13/14 days AFTER last game played
      1. assuming they played in a conf championship game
4. Quarter Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. 11/12 days after the 1st round
   2. 25/26 days for any bye teams
      1. assuming they played in the conf championship game
5. Semi Final Games - January 8th/9th
   1. 7/8 days after Quarters (they got this rightish)
6. Champ Game - January 19th
   1. 11 days after Semis

How I'd like to see it:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games
3. 1st Round Games - December 12th/13th
   1. 6/7 days AFTER last game played
4. Quarter Final Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 6/7 days after the 1st round
   2. 13/14 days for any bye teams
5. Semi Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. Because we have to "protect the bowls" - i guess
   2. Games on New Years Eve/Day are fun
6. Champ Game - January 10th through the 12th
   1. Keep it on Monday if you want to... I don't care

The break right now for the teams with a bye is absolutely a disadvantage unless you are severely banged up. Sitting on your butt for almost 4 weeks is a long time.

Feel free to dissect or disagree with anything i have, curious what other people think. Nothing I say will change anything... but how this setup is today is stupid.

 

[beentherebefore]

Playoffs could expand AND conference championsips go away. Then first round games begin December 6.

 

[Hoggins]

That timeline plus the whole season moves ahead a week. National championship on 1/1 every year. Portal opens 1/2. Ideally at the Rose Bowl but I don’t give a ****. Stop playing games into middle/late January

 

[2speedy1]

4 team playoff among the 4 P4 champions, and done.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

24 Team Playoff that matches the FCS calendar, it's not hard.

Everybody plays Week 0.

Rivalry weekend moves to the week before Thanksgiving. No conference championships.

National Title game is always mid-afternoon on New Year's Day

 

[isucy86]

I hate the current schedule. The national championship game is 50 days after the final regular season games. Crazy that most teams will have 3 week break between their final regular season/CCG and their first playoff game. Bama, JMU & Tulane being the exceptions.

Any momentum from the college regular season is lost going into the playoff. Agree with @beentherebefore that CCG's can be eliminated. In part because they are anti-clmatic for Big10/SEC because they seem preordained to have 3-5 playoff teams every year.

No reason the Playoff can't end around Jan 1 when the conference basketball schedule goes full bore. This year's schedule should have been:

Dec 5/6 - Round 1: 4 or 8 games (On Campus - 8 games assumes move to 16 team CFP)
Dec 12/13 - Quarters: 4 games (On Campus)
Dec 19/20 - Bye Week
Dec 26 or 27 - Semis: 2 games (Neutral Site)
Jan 2 or 3 - Chanpionship (Neutral Site)

That would allow traditional bowls to be played through Jan 1

 

[Clonehomer]

You’re not going to get school presidents to sign up for playoff games between dead week and finals. I know you’re looking at this from the fans perspective, but there is an illusion that these are still students.

 

[CyKings]

You’re not going to get school presidents to sign up for playoff games between dead week and finals. I know you’re looking at this from the fans perspective, but there is an illusion that these are still students.

That's a good point. I forget that we're trying to keep up that illusion.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

I'm sure it's been beat to death... but they really need to fix the CFP timeline. How it currently is set up:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games (they got this right)
3. 1st Round Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 13/14 days AFTER last game played
      1. assuming they played in a conf championship game
4. Quarter Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. 11/12 days after the 1st round
   2. 25/26 days for any bye teams
      1. assuming they played in the conf championship game
5. Semi Final Games - January 8th/9th
   1. 7/8 days after Quarters (they got this rightish)
6. Champ Game - January 19th
   1. 11 days after Semis

How I'd like to see it:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games
3. 1st Round Games - December 12th/13th
   1. 6/7 days AFTER last game played
4. Quarter Final Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 6/7 days after the 1st round
   2. 13/14 days for any bye teams
5. Semi Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. Because we have to "protect the bowls" - i guess
   2. Games on New Years Eve/Day are fun
6. Champ Game - January 10th through the 12th
   1. Keep it on Monday if you want to... I don't care

The break right now for the teams with a bye is absolutely a disadvantage unless you are severely banged up. Sitting on your butt for almost 4 weeks is a long time.

Feel free to dissect or disagree with anything i have, curious what other people think. Nothing I say will change anything... but how this setup is today is stupid.

Two issues that pop up, one is for student atheists needing to take finals but the even bigger one is that you can’t have the first round games that soon after selection day if you still want to reward home field advantage.

That doesn’t allow for easy travel plans for anyone plus the turnaround needed to even have the stadium ready.

This time off isn’t really that crazy compared to what it was before. Many teams played their last game the final week of November and didn’t play till New Year’s Day.

Also push back a bit on it being a disadvantage for the bye teams. By this time of the season people are pretty beat up and the time off can be a huge advantage in addition to not having an extra game to pick up additional injuries/suspensions due to targeting.

 

[isucy86]

You’re not going to get school presidents to sign up for playoff games between dead week and finals. I know you’re looking at this from the fans perspective, but there is an illusion that these are still students.

Not sure if that's even happening today. I've heard of schools on the following schedules this fall:

1. Dead Week: Dec 1 to Dec 5 / Finals Week: Dec 8 to Dec 12 (CCG between) or
2. Dead Week: Dec 8 to Dec 12 / Finals Week: Dec 15 to Dec 19 (CFP After)

I would rather play the weekend before finals week than the weekend after finals week.

Plus, what's the difference between playing a Conference Championship Game and a Playoff Game. I think both require the same practice time and with CCG's both teams are traveling.

 

[Hoggins]

You’re not going to get school presidents to sign up for playoff games between dead week and finals. I know you’re looking at this from the fans perspective, but there is an illusion that these are still students.

********. We are sending the god damn tennis and volleyball teams over 1000 miles away right now on a school night. Academic excuse is over

 

[psycln11]

Hard logistically for the visiting team to schedule transportation, lodging, food, etc. for the 1st round on-campus games without the week break, especially not knowing who will be hosting and such.

 

[Hoggins]

Hard logistically for the visiting team to schedule transportation, lodging, food, etc. for the 1st round on-campus games without the week break, especially not knowing who will be hosting and such.

FCS does it. So does every single level of college football

 

[psycln11]

FCS does it. So does every single level of college football

The seeded teams receive a first-round bye in the tournament. The remaining 16 teams play first-round games and are paired according to geographic proximity and then placed in the bracket according to geographic proximity to the top eight seeds.

Teams cannot travel more than 400 miles via ground, and teams from the same conference that played each other during the regular season will not be paired for first-round games.


- Except the rules are quite different with geographic seeding and paring to reduce those travel logistics.

 

[ISUTex]

I'm sure it's been beat to death... but they really need to fix the CFP timeline. How it currently is set up:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games (they got this right)
3. 1st Round Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 13/14 days AFTER last game played
      1. assuming they played in a conf championship game
4. Quarter Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. 11/12 days after the 1st round
   2. 25/26 days for any bye teams
      1. assuming they played in the conf championship game
5. Semi Final Games - January 8th/9th
   1. 7/8 days after Quarters (they got this rightish)
6. Champ Game - January 19th
   1. 11 days after Semis

How I'd like to see it:

1. Conference Championship games - Dec 6th
2. Selection Sunday - December 7th
   1. 1 day after Conf Champ games
3. 1st Round Games - December 12th/13th
   1. 6/7 days AFTER last game played
4. Quarter Final Games - December 19th/20th
   1. 6/7 days after the 1st round
   2. 13/14 days for any bye teams
5. Semi Final Games - December 31st/January 1st
   1. Because we have to "protect the bowls" - i guess
   2. Games on New Years Eve/Day are fun
6. Champ Game - January 10th through the 12th
   1. Keep it on Monday if you want to... I don't care

The break right now for the teams with a bye is absolutely a disadvantage unless you are severely banged up. Sitting on your butt for almost 4 weeks is a long time.

Feel free to dissect or disagree with anything i have, curious what other people think. Nothing I say will change anything... but how this setup is today is stupid.

No conference title games.

Start playoffs Dec 6th. National title on Jan 1.

 

[1UNI2ISU]

The seeded teams receive a first-round bye in the tournament. The remaining 16 teams play first-round games and are paired according to geographic proximity and then placed in the bracket according to geographic proximity to the top eight seeds.

Teams cannot travel more than 400 miles via ground, and teams from the same conference that played each other during the regular season will not be paired for first-round games.


- Except the rules are quite different with geographic seeding and paring to reduce those travel logistics.

That's outdated. They've changed the format.

They now seed the top 16 to true seed and then fill in the other 8 in the first round by geography where possible but because the MVFC and Big Sky take up so many bids, it's hard to do that anymore when the Top 16 are locked.

This year in the first round you had:

Illinois State at SE Louisiana-Flight
CCSU at Rhode Island-Bus
Harvard at Villanova-Bus (barely)
North Dakota at Tennessee Tech-Flight
Yale at Youngstown-Flight
Abilene Christian at Lamar-Flight
Drake at South Dakota-Bus
New Hampshire at South Dakota St-Flight