Thamel: The lean towards a 12-team playoff
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
That's the first time I've listened to Tom Fornelli, and his anti-Iowa State rant, and hopefully it's the last. Another smartest guy in the room vibe.
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No, the Big XII would never get a team into the CFP without that all important 13th data point!!!!
Unless you're Ohio State. 7 games is all you need.
You will just see more blowouts in the second rounds. Huge blowouts. Not Notre Dame losing by 17 to Bama blowouts. Think Iowa vs Stanford first half Rose Bowl type of blowouts.
This.
There's a reason the AP just picked the 2 best teams every year for decades. Because half the time, there was only ONE great team. Half the time there were two great teams, or at least a 2nd that was close enough to contend. And maybe 10% of the time, there was a 3rd team good enough to debate who should get a shot at #1. And of course that is what drove the playoff and the BCS to resolve the arguments.
Which of course it didn't. Now the argument is over 4th-5th-6th. LOFL.
I only see 3 benefits of going to 12:
1. you might get an upset of a paper tiger now and again in the first round. e.g. Florida last year vs OU, or a undefeated team that has only played 1 tough game all year.
2. you might get to include a team that is really playing at a high level right now and could win it, but might have lost a couple games early because of injuries or just fluke losses
3. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I wonder if it's possible the proposal for 12 teams is a door-in-the-face strategy to expand to 8.
He talks about future "meaningless" play-off games. And I know basketball and football are not the same - But does anyone sit around today and talk about "meaningless" March Madness games? (Hawks in play-in games excluded, obviously.)
I would like to see someone suggest going back to an 11 game season, thus reducing "meaningless" non-conference games. There's the loss of revenue from fewer home games for teams but with some creative profit sharing from the expanded play-off game revenue that could be offset. Fewer total amateur games overall = actual reduction in injuries and time away from studies. Make it a 12 team play-off and only 4 teams play one more game than now.
This actually makes me wonder if we might see more meaningful non-conference games with a larger field.
With 4, one loss can eliminate you and two definitely does. So there's somewhat of a disincentive to schedule up, particularly if you get plenty of respect from your conference schedule as-is. With 8\12, that potential loss hurts less.
I can see that thinking too.
I was thinking of the UNLV type games and the SEC games late against South Georgia and UAB. Those don't add any usable 'data points' to the season 99% of the time.
And early season games often get heavily discounted by the end of the season - which non-conference games are most of the time. We almost got into the 4 team playoff last year with a loss in the non-conference to Louisiana.
JMHO.
Agree. It could be as simple as dropping the FCS opponent. I wouldn't suggest a "ban," each school could do non-conference however it wants. But that'd be a convenient starting point.
It’s the journey that matters though, not the destination. Just like in March Madness. Yeah we got Baylor vs Gonzaga in the championship. No surprise there. But that didn’t diminish all the excitement of the previous rounds.
It'll never happen for football because it'd take too long and too many games for players' bodies, but there's something magical about early march how technically almost every team is still alive for the national championship in early march if they go on a run.
Hope so. Going to 8 makes sense to address the main blowback to a possible 17 game season.
It's 4 more teams then it needs to be, but whatever it'll be an improvement over 4 where the committee, spent way to much time trying to get The OSU in no matter what.
Wouldn’t it make the non-playoff NY6 games a lot bigger? Since they would all be playoff games now? Teams who normally don’t make the playoffs have a chance to prove it against other teams who also think they should have made the playoffs, then get their shot at said Top 4 if they win. Literally last year Florida had a bunch of guys sit out their NY6 game.
I really think there should be a limit to 2 teams per conference, with 3 as a rare possibility if losing a conference championship ends up dropping you below a same conference team who didn’t make the championship game for example.
