re: The expanded 12-team College Football Playoff is here — and it already has problems.

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Enough rules, let’s get to the complaints — chief among them is that no protocol exists for selection members to avoid rematches in the first round. This is a simple, solvable problem. Like the NCAA basketball tournament selection, the CFP could implement a protocol requiring first-round games to feature two teams from separate conferences when possible. With such a small field (12) and conferences steadily expanding, there may be times where it is not possible.

But for the most part, it is. Such a protocol is necessary because modeling shows that this format, combined with realignment moves, produces a lot of rematches. An entire conference dissolved, the Big 12 and SEC swelled to 16 teams and the ACC and Big Ten grew to 18.

While considering realignment, there would have been seven first-round, conference-vs.-conference rematches over the 10 years of the CFP — far too many.

Even commissioners acknowledged as much after their bracketing exercise.

“A lot of rematches,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said.

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The rankings are created by the committee, they could essentially just rank the teams in a manner in which they would avoid re-matches