COLLEGE PLAYOFF EXPANDED? WHAT IF?

Since the College Playoff was instituted in 2014 there has been a lot of controversy and new scenarios that have popped up. Now in 2021 a proposal for a 12-team College Playoff format will be discussed next week in Chicago.

According to ESPN, the proposal would include a twelve(12) team playoff with the top six teams being conference champions (assumingly) and the next top six highest ranked teams decided by the college football playoff committee. More importantly, no team or conference would have an automatic qualifying bid.

With that being said, since the College playoff has been in existence the question has been what would a six, eight, ten, or even twelve team format would look like? Well based on the format from the many playoff bracket scenarios we have an idea (see picture below).

                                                        ( photo courtesy of si.com)

We all know that in the world of college football there has been controversy, chaos, and the debate. What we didn't know was who was right? The answer to that is no one! I say that because in every college football system we have seen in the last 150 years is that there is always someone unhappy with the results at the end of the season. The NCAA has tried many times to come up with a solution to the problems and yet we still have the same issues at the end of the season, controversy, chaos, and the debate. 

Don't believe me?

well the CFA(college football association)  tried to keep things in order. Their result was a 1997 split national champion that was shared between Michigan and Nebraska which led to the formation of the Bowl Championship Series( BCS for short), A format in which every teams performance in games, margin of victory, and strength of schedule were taken and put into consideration in the form of computer points. To make it simple, for ever good team you beat, when they won... You won. That format was flawed to say the least as even the best teams and sometimes the undefeated teams didn't make it to the national championship game. The best example of this was in 2004 what the Utah Utes led by qb Alex Smith went finished the season 12-0 and won the Fiesta Bowl in blowout fashion. Yet, they were left out and coined the term "BCS Buster"! A term used for teams nobody expected to make it into the BCS rankings. Another example of the BCS Buster was the 2007 Hawaii Warriors team led by the great Colt Brennan. Yes their final result was different from that of Utah's as Hawaii got thrashed by Georgia 41-10 but, after this game BCS Committee started shutting the now "group of five" conferences out as they felt they couldn't contend with the "power five" schools.

                                           

That of course led to the College Playoff. A system where the best teams ranked 1-4 at the end of the season will play in their respective bowl games as a semi-final to see who will play in the national title game. This by no means is a bad idea. After all, the FCS, division 2, and division 3 have used this format for decades with little to no complaints, and if there was a issue it was fixed before the following season. So why did the Division 1 bowl Subdivision take so long to institute this format? Some would say money, as the bowl games give out millions of dollars annually. Others say stubbornness. I'm not here to debate that part, but what I will say is that this has been the better format since 2014 and I have actually grown up through the CFA and the BCS formats.

Personally, I LOVE this idea! Not just for the teams who may get the chance, but for the aftermath. Teams that claim they want a shot now have that chance. The schedules have been getting tougher, and the debates have gotten better. Now you as fan have to cheer even harder for your team to go undefeated, And as always a surprise upset is always waiting in the wings. Should the twelve team playoff format be approved, it most likely wouldn't be incorporated until 2025. Which means a few more years of seeing the top four teams. Although the big wigs are against it and have the "if it ain't broke don't fix it " mentality,  what if... WHAT  IF this proposal is better than  the four team format? What if we as college football fans finally get the matchups and answers we have been trying to get for decades? what if this gives major college football the shot in the arm that's been missing from the debate part of the equation?

As far as those questions go, we won't get a answer unless this proposal is approved. For now we will just have to live with the "what if's"?