The College Football Playoff Needs to Expand

My brother is in a Mr. Fix It mode and, I must admit, it’s inspired me.

He’s taking on a very big project — the awful AFC South — in a four-part blog series. So far he’s come up with some pretty nice ideas, starting with the Colts. (I won’t bog this thing down with all four links, you can see the rest of his project through that one.)

My project is one I’ve been railing at for more than a decade now, all the way back to my high school days. A college football playoff. Yes, I’m aware that one exists now. And yes it is better than the Bowl Championship Series, just like the BCS was better than not having any National Championship Game at all. 

Walking is also better than crawling, which is better than not being able to move. It still isn’t a very fast way to travel. It’s time for college football to speed down the highway. It’s time for an eight-team playoff.

I used to advocate for 16 teams, but that’s too many (though I do believe greed will one day take college football to 16 playoff teams). Eight is the perfect number. And if college football plays it cards right, it just might get a defacto 16-team playoff.

Here’s how it can do it.

Step 1: Tweak the bowl rotation

With an extra four games, college football would need an extra four bowls to host quarterfinal games. This is the easy part, just convert all “New Year’s Six” bowls into College Football Playoff bowls.

I understand each bowl has a conference tradition, but the reality is all that is long gone. The days of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Rose Bowl are over, the BCS killed that. And quite frankly the tie ins are so fluid and muddled that nobody really cares what two conferences are playing.

But people care about playoffs, and brand these bowls playoff games and they’re instantly a cut above the rest. I’d be in favor of eradicating the rest of the bowl games, but they’re largely harmless and if a few people care about them, then who cares. It’s not my money.

Right now the Rose/Sugar; Orange/Cotton; and then Peach/Fiesta rotate as semifinal hosts. Keep that exact same rotation and presto! The other four bowl games are the quarterfinal host sites. It’s just that simple.

The only complicated part is the New Year’s Day tradition. Do the quarterfinals get played on New Year’s Eve/Day? And then the semifinals a week later? Or does college football keep its New Year’s Day semifinal tradition and make the other four move up a week?

The Rose Bowl would throw a fit about that, but what leverage does it really have? Scream and pout and threaten to not be part of the gravy train? I don’t think it would risk losing out on being one of the six bowls when college football has plenty of other bowls eager to get in on the action.

As I said before, the bowl traditions are dead. Playoffs are all that matters. The bowls will need to wise up and realize this or college football will just leave them behind.

Step 2: Establish the qualification process

Right now it’s simple, a committee picks the four best teams and places them in the bracket. I still think the committee would have a place in this new world of eight teams, but I’d also incorporate an element that decides bids on the field.

That’s right, automatic bids.

Each champion from a Power 5 conference — ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — would receive an automatic bid. Why do this? Because it would be an epic money grab. Think about how much more important winning a division would be, and think about how much bigger those conference championships would be. This is the defacto 16-team playoff I alluded to earlier, those conference championship games go from being a nuisance to a necessity.

I love rewarding champions. It’s the main reason I defended baseball’s current MLB Playoffs format. Would a team get in that doesn’t deserve it by record? Yes, but that team would be a Power 5 champion, and it would make for some amazing drama.

And yes, the Big 12 would definitely jump at the chance to expand and get in on that drama. It would also give teams like BYU and Notre Dame more of an incentive to join a conference.

Now relax, I said five automatic bids. That still leaves three other seats at the table. One would be designated for the highest rated champion of a non-Power 5 league, as long as that team wins 10 games.

The committee would then select two at large bids (three in the instance no non-Power 5 teams are eligible for an automatic bid).

(Side note: I like that the CFP included the highest rated non-Power 5 champion rule, but I believe that team should also have 10 or more wins. I don’t think a 9-3 or 8-4 non-Power 5 champion should be considered for a New Year’s Six bowl or, under my plan, a playoff spot.)

I know, most little guys don’t deserve to be there, but the conference champions have usually done enough to prove they at least deserve a shot. Besides what makes March Madness fun? The little guys.

This dynamic of conference championship busters and at least one little guy in each field would create a ton of drama. And don’t tell me a 12-1 or 13-0 Memphis, Temple, Houston or Toledo team doesn’t deserve to have a chance to prove itself. I’d rather see any of them in a field of eight than some recycled two or three loss Power 5 team.

TCU and Utah were considered outsiders not so long ago, and now they’re proving that the best of the little guys can compete in a Power 5 league if given the chance and access to the same resources. (How’s Colorado faring in the Pac-12 by the way?) I’m sure Boise State would have success in the Pac-12 or Big 12 if invited. These teams are better than people think.

The committee would then take the eight teams, seed them, place them in the quarterfinal bowls and assign which semifinal bowls the winners would feed into.

Imagine the fun

Just take the 2014 rankings and apply my method.

Automatic Bids — Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State, Baylor (by virtue of head-to-head win over TCU), Boise State (highest ranked non-Power 5 champ, went 11-2).

At-Large Bids — TCU and Mississippi State (ranked No. 6 and No. 7 in final CFP rankings).

Quarterfinals:
Peach Bowl — Alabama vs. Boise State
Cotton Bowl — Ohio State vs. Baylor
Orange Bowl — Florida State vs. TCU
Fiesta Bowl — Oregon vs. Mississippi State

Semifinals:
Rose Bowl — Orange vs. Fiesta
Sugar Bowl — Peach vs. Cotton

Last year’s playoff ride was fantastic, but this ride would have been so much better. The playoff made 2014 arguably the best season of college football I can remember. And not just because my Buckeyes won, but because under the old BCS system the people would have had to see Alabama trounce Florida State in the championship, the two semifinal losers.

Oregon and Ohio State wouldn’t have made it if there wasn’t four slots and they proved to be the two best teams. Just imagine how many other possible champions have been lost in time.

My method may keep one or two really great teams out, but I hate people who cry for really good teams that didn’t do enough. The best teams take care of business. I want to restore meaning to the bowl games and enhance the meaning of winning a conference title. This method does just that.

College football needs to give more teams a chance to prove themselves. It’s time to expand to eight.