Here we go again. Possible playoff changes.

[Sonap]

SEC, Big Ten look to expand College Football Playoff, form scheduling partnership, end conference championships

The SEC and Big Ten are reportedly weighing options for an expanded College Football Playoff, including 14 or 16 team formats.

awfulannouncing.com

 

[Bucket Getter]

Greed. Pure and simple.

 

[82hoosier]

The next step will be schools having to buy a spot in the playoffs. Similar to buying a table at a fundraising dinner.

 

[CC Mac]

So ND would continue to receive preferential treatment,the more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[red hornet]

ND would really need to be bad to not get in the playoffs under this scheme.

 

[Sonap]

So ND would continue to receive preferential treatment,the more things change the more they stay the same.

Exactly. Easy to be top 14 when you play 2 real away games a year.

 

[FightingIrish44]

So ND would continue to receive preferential treatment,the more things change the more they stay the same.

How is that preferential? They have to finish in the top 14 — the number of slot’s available. All other conferences are potentially eligible even if outside of the top 14. That’s actually preferential.

 

[IUNorth]

Just make the damn thing 16 teams.

B10 champ gets a bid
SEC champ gets a bid
ACC champ gets a bid
B12 champ gets a bid
Top Ranked group of 5 gets a bid
The top other 11 teams get at larges.

***committee picks and seeds the at large teams, and the 16 team field.

Seed them all, no byes or special treatment for the seeding...1-8 host campus home games.

8 winners feed in to the Bowl games like they did this year, with conference tie ins if teams from those conferences are still alive.

If you don't like having to go play at a cold weather stadium in December, maybe take your regular season games a little more seriously. Maybe don't get your ass beat at Oklahoma...as an example.??

 

[indiana ed]

ND would really need to be bad to not get in the playoffs under this scheme.

They need to be in a conference in my opinion.

 

[mushroomgod_1]

Greed. Pure and simple.

The worst aspect is the play-in BS......disgusting.

 

[Irregulars]

SEC, Big Ten look to expand College Football Playoff, form scheduling partnership, end conference championships

The SEC and Big Ten are reportedly weighing options for an expanded College Football Playoff, including 14 or 16 team formats.

awfulannouncing.com

It's not too big of a leap before the top 3 or 4 teams in the B1G decide they don't need to pull the weight of a lot of these bottom dweller in the conference and start cutting back the number of teams in the B1G to something "more manageable", say ten or twelve teams . Still keep all the money just get rid of the " also ran" dead weight. This is not good, not why the conference was created. One for all, and a for Ohio State, Michigan, etc.

 

[4IUSox2]

It will be 16 teams soon enough. The 4 highest seeded teams would have loved to have had those home games they missed out on. They will get them soon. More money to be made with a couple more games.

 

[ESalum86]

Four glorious years of my life were spent in Bloomington and IU. I bleed cream & crimson; especially when it comes to college football.

All said, I can envision a future where I take the easy, inexpensive drive to Kalamazoo to cheer on my daughter's alma mater, Western Michigan, and follow IU through media.

I pray the greed never forces this outcome.

 

[Bucket Getter]

Just make the damn thing 16 teams.

B10 champ gets a bid
SEC champ gets a bid
ACC champ gets a bid
B12 champ gets a bid
Top Ranked group of 5 gets a bid
The top other 11 teams get at larges.

***committee picks and seeds the at large teams, and the 16 team field.

Seed them all, no byes or special treatment for the seeding...1-8 host campus home games.

8 winners feed in to the Bowl games like they did this year, with conference tie ins if teams from those conferences are still alive.

If you don't like having to go play at a cold weather stadium in December, maybe take your regular season games a little more seriously. Maybe don't get your ass beat at Oklahoma...as an example.??

In a perfect world, this is perfect. We don't live in that world. Greed rules, and the B1G/SEC are trying desperately to tilt the table even more. As long as they demand 4 slots each with built-in byes and all the rest of that crap, it'll never make much sense.

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

The worst aspect is the play-in BS......disgusting.

The play-in could be a godsend for teams like Indiana that will have a hard time routinely being top 4. It could also bite us in the ass if we're top 3-4 and lose to 5-6, sure.

 

[mushroomgod_1]

In a perfect world, this is perfect. We don't live in that world. Greed rules, and the B1G/SEC are trying desperately to tilt the table even more. As long as they demand 4 slots each with built-in byes and all the rest of that crap, it'll never make much sense.

A modified 3-3-2-2-4 playoff (14 teams), no special consideration to ND, 6 byes with 1 each for league champs and 2 others, w/o other seeding concessions, would have worked for everyone..

At what point does there come a valid anti-trust lawsuit against the Big 10 & SEC?

 

[mushroomgod_1]

A modified 3-3-2-2-4 playoff (14 teams), no special consideration to ND, 6 byes with 1 each for league champs and 2 others, w/o other seeding concessions, would have worked for everyone..

At what point does there come a valid anti-trust lawsuit against the Big 10 & SEC?

Looking at it some more....with 12 teams you'd only have 4 byes....5 or 6 would not work. Give those to the league champs for the top 4 leagues, but seed all 12 teams honestly. Lets say those teams ranked 1, 2,6, and 8--first round games at the higher seed....neutral site games thereafter. Winner of 1st bracket plays winner of bracket 3.....bracket 2 plays winner of bracket 4.

11
7............#1.

12
5............#2

13
4............#6

14
3...........#8

 

[Euro]

I'm dizzy

 

[mushroomgod_1]

The play-in could be a godsend for teams like Indiana that will have a hard time routinely being top 4. It could also bite us in the ass if we're top 3-4 and lose to 5-6, sure.

I don't like it because it you were really serious about winning a NC (say OSU this year, or IU), you'd now have to play FIVE playoff games, which means 17 games total. And also, as a matter of principle, if you're not really sure your one of the top 4 teams in a league, have you earned the right to bitch about being excluded from the playoff? Also, you might not even be excluded.....that is the #5 team in the BT or SEC might get in anyway if they're deemed to be a top 14 team.

 

[ElMeson]

I don't like it because it you were really serious about winning a NC (say OSU this year, or IU), you'd now have to play FIVE playoff games, which means 17 games total. And also, as a matter of principle, if you're not really sure your one of the top 4 teams in a league, have you earned the right to bitch about being excluded from the playoff? Also, you might not even be excluded.....that is the #5 team in the BT or SEC might get in anyway if they're deemed to be a top 14 team.

Loser of the B1G championship game would have to play 17. Depth is a must to compete for a title.

 

[Grateful Redbeard]

D2 has been doing a 16 team playoff for years. This was always where it was headed. If it grows to 24 then I'd also cry greed, but 16 was always the lowest amount of teams that would be in the playoffs long term. At 24 teams you'd create a wildcard weekend to pare the field down to 16. As much as I don't like the idea of going to 24, I can totally see it happening.

The B10 and SEC demanding more slots and making themselves more guarantees was always going to happen, and it was what they tried to get last year but couldn't. Now that year 1 is in the books and it was a resounding success, they have more clout. They also bring waaaay more to the table than all the other teams in the FBS combined. They could break off and create a super league and leave the rest of the conferences in the dust. Nobody wants that, so agreeing to a worse deal is their only option.

I'm a big soccer fan, so I will use the Spanish league (la Liga) as an example. There are 20 teams in la Liga, but 2 of them are the 2 biggest clubs in the entire world: Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barca and RM are worth a combined $12.2B and they had combined revenue of $1.713B in 2023. The other 18 teams are worth less than that combined, and only Atletico Madrid are even in the top 50 worldwide. This means that the entire league is kept afloat by 2 clubs. The rest are dependent on Barca and RM to survive, so they let them run the entire league. The TV contracts, licensing deals, and everything else that they negotiate collectively as a league, always benefit and pay Barca and RM way more than everyone else. The rest of the league just accepts it because losing those 2 teams would bankrupt the rest of the league.

That's the reality now facing every team that's not in the B10 or SEC. If those 2 leagues decide to do their own thing separate of the rest, then the rest of those teams will either have to join the super league the B10 and SEC create, or get left out in the cold. It's better for them to get a diminished seat at the table as opposed to no seat at all. The rest of the teams fought for the byes and automatic conference qualifications for last year and they got them. Then it was glaringly obvious that those concessions had been the biggest flaw in the whole thing, so these changes became necessary.