re: Would you want an 8 or 16 team playoff in CFB?

32!!

8-12 max

16 is too many

8

You can't give the two top teams a bye. Would be way too unfair.

4 teams would be what I'd prefer. 8 teams is the absolute max they can do without ruining college football. 16 would drastically ruin the sport overnight.

There should also be zero automatic bids for conferences.

Here's something I crafted a while back. If we'd had an 8-team playoff the entire time and based the eight teams on the BCS standings:

- Have an East bracket of four teams and a West Bracket of four teams. Games played on higher seed's home field.
- BCS #1 and #2 will be split into East and West.
- BCS #3 and #4 will be split into East and West by geography, not seed.
- BCS #5, #6, #7, and #8 will be split into East and West by geography, not seed.
- Arrange the two brackets by seed.
- East winner plays West winner at neutral site for the title.

Here's what we'd have right now:

East
2 Florida State vs. 7 Clemson
3 Ohio State vs. 6 Auburn

West
1 Alabama vs. 8 Missouri
4 Baylor vs. 5 Oregon

Obviously these will change, but there's an idea. I did it for every past BCS season (and I have nothing against post-season rematches, btw). Just to give you an idea of what we could have been watching all these years.

2012

East
1 Notre Dame vs 8 LSU
3 Florida vs 7 Georgia

West
2 Alabama vs 6 Stanford
4 Oregon vs 5 Kansas State

(A&M was #9. Holy crap the meltdown.)



2011

East
2 Alabama vs. 8 Kansas State
3 Oklahoma State vs. 6 Arkansas

West
1 LSU vs. 7 Boise State
4 Stanford vs. 5 Oregon



2010

East
1 Auburn vs. 6 Ohio State
3 TCU vs. 5 Wisconsin

West
2 Oregon vs. 8 Arkansas
4 Stanford vs. 7 Oklahoma



2009

East
1 Alabama vs. 8 Ohio State
3 Cincinnati vs. 5 Florida

West
2 Texas vs. 7 Oregon
4 TCU vs. 6 Boise State



2008

East
2 Florida vs. 8 Penn State
3 Texas vs. 4 Alabama

West
1 Oklahoma vs. 7 Texas Tech
5 USC vs. 6 Utah



2007

East
1 Ohio State vs. 6 Missouri
3 Virginia Tech vs. 5 Georgia

West
2 LSU vs. 10 Hawaii (or 8 Kansas if you have no heart)
4 Oklahoma vs. 7 USC



2006

East
2 Florida vs. 7 Wisconsin
3 Michigan vs. 6 Louisville

West
1 Ohio State vs. 8 Boise State
4 LSU vs. 5 USC



2005

East
2 Texas vs. 8 Miami
3 Penn State vs. 7 Georgia

West
1 USC vs. 6 Notre Dame
4 Ohio State vs. 5 Oregon



2004

East
2 Oklahoma vs. 8 Virginia Tech
3 Auburn vs. 7 Georgia

West
1 USC vs. 6 Utah
4 Texas vs. 5 California



2003

East
2 LSU vs. 8 Tennessee
4 Michigan vs. 7 Florida State

West
1 Oklahoma vs. 6 Texas
3 USC vs. 5 Ohio State



2002

East
1 Miami vs. 8 Kansas State
3 Georgia vs. 5 Iowa

West
2 Ohio State vs. 7 Oklahoma
4 USC vs. 6 Washington State



2001

East
1 Miami vs. 6 Tennessee
3 Colorado vs. 5 Florida


West
2 Nebraska vs. 8 Illinois
4 Oregon vs. 7 Texas



2000

East
2 Florida State vs. 7 Florida
3 Miami vs. 5 Virginia Tech

West
1 Oklahoma vs. 8 Nebraska
4 Washington vs. 6 Oregon State



1999

East
2 Virginia Tech vs. 8 Michigan
4 Alabama vs. 5 Tennessee

West
1 Florida State vs. 7 Wisconsin
3 Nebraska vs. 6 Kansas State



1998

East
1 Tennessee vs. 8 Florida
3 Ohio State vs. 6 Texas A&M

West
2 Florida State vs. 7 Arizona
4 Kansas State vs. 5 UCLA

If you make conference champions the way to decide who goes, you make OOC games meaningless.

That would be a travesty.

Also winners of the conference championship game waters down the season even more.

A 8-4 team could be in the playoffs.

Do not want.

quote:

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Also winners of the conference championship game waters down the season even more.

A 8-4 team could be in the playoffs.

Do not want.

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Right again. If we had an eight-team playoff where the eight teams are chosen regardless of conference affiliation, look at the SEC title game and assume it's Alabama and South Carolina.

If Alabama wins, South Carolina is eliminated from playoff contention, and Alabama gets an overall #1 seed and gets to play two playoff games at home before the national title game. HUGE.

If South Carolina wins, the Gamecocks play themselves into the playoffs, and Alabama loses at least a home game. Also huge.


Big Ten championship game. Undefeated Ohio State with a home playoff game on the line vs. Michigan State with a chance to play itself into the top 8 and the playoffs. Enormous.