Yes, you could. It would involve a huge restructuring, but it absolutely could be done.
Proposal for sixteen team playoff in 2026
- Thread starter 85Bears
- Start date
Why is it these days that disagreeing with something or how something is done automatically means you hate it?
Add 10 teams to the FBS, and keep it there. That gives you 144 teams. Divide it into 8 conferences, 18 teams each. Each conference has two divisions. Only division opponents count in the standings. The division champion goes to the conference championship game. The 8 conference champions are in the playoff. That keeps it entirely on the field and eliminates votes, participation trophies, and participation playoff berths. Keep a few bowls around as a reward for good teams that don't make it. You can adjust the conferences from time to time if you want to for competitive balance. I wouldn't. I'd keep it as regional as possible and leave it alone.
Giving any team access that goes undefeated encourages **** scheduling. If you wanted to guarantee an undefeated G5 gets admitted, you'd probably want to condition that on having played at least 3 P4 games.
Let's have a 128 team playoff that starts in August. Setup 8 sixteen team conferences. Each conference breaks up into 2 divisions. You play each division opponent. Then rotating 3 from the other division in your conference and 2 from another conference. The best records in each division then plays a conference championship game. Those 8 winners then play a playoff for the NC.
Get all those rankings and polls out of the way and let it be totally decided on the field.
Get all those rankings and polls out of the way and let it be totally decided on the field.
I think 16 is fine as long as you don't do autobids. Even if the current parity is fleeting, you're probably only going to have 4 bad games out of the first 8. You'll sometimes have a great upset or almost upset of the top 4 and you'll still have some blowouts in the 5 to 12 matchups because those things happen, but you are generally going to have at least half those 8 first round playoff games be good games.
I mean, there is a good argument for 8 instead of 16, and I would have agreed with that argument before this year, but once you're at 14, what's the harm of 16, especially if you can get rid of the autobids. You're going to eliminate two byes and have two more likely bad games the first week of the playoffs. If you can get rid of the G5 autobid, you're only adding one bad game.
If you go undefeated and don't make it into the top 14, that's probably on you for ****** scheduling. Definitely a tough tradeoff because you don't get to set your schedule after you know how good your team is, so you have to just commit to scheduling at least 3 P4 teams before you know how good you'll be, but P4 teams play more than 3 P4 road games every year in order to compete and they don't get 7 or 8 G5 games. There was a fair argument before expanding to 14, but really nobody to blame but themselves if they go undefeated and don't make the top 14 now.
There's this little thing called TV money. Good luck getting everyone to agree when everyone is out for themselves. People have been trying to figure out that sort of restructure for 35 years.
It COULD happen, but it won't. Cody Campbell is certainly pushing it, but only because Tech isn't in the SEC/B1G.
I know. And all these young people that think socialism could work just need to look at college football.
I don't know. Not so sure is there much difference between watching us get blown out by a mid ACC team in the Duke's Mayo Bowl and getting our a s s handed to us in the Horseshoe in Columbus, OH in front of 1,500 Bulldogs who make the trip and a national TV audience.
I think 12 is to many, 8 would be best. If they go to 16/24 they could have teams with as many as 4-5 loses, plus attendance would be hurt depending on locations and weather.
Approximately 20% of teams should make playoffs like every other league in the world. Also, mens basketball should play 4 quarters like every other basketball league in the world.
8 would be best but that ship sailed before it even boarded. Where we are now, it needs to go to 16 & stay there. But I think it will be 24 within a couple of years.
I would keep the bowls (at least some of them) and just let them be like the NIT tournament of the rest of us. Works for basketball.
This really isn't valid concern for a 16 team playoff, especially for a 5 loss team to make it. This year no 4 or 5 loss team would be in with 16 and only 1 would have gotten in with 4 losses (Iowa at 23). Last year no 4 or 5 loss teams would have made in in even a 24 team playoff. In 2023, none in a 16 team, but 4 four loss teams, no 5 loss teams in a 24 teamer. In 2022, again, none in a 16 team, but 6 four loss teams in a 24 (including State at 22). In 2021, none in a 16 team and just 1 four loss team in a 24. So you are correct, some 4 team losses will make it in a 24 team playoff, but almost never in a 16. Not that a 4 could not make a 16 team, but it'd be very rare.
Interestingly without auto bides, in 2021, 2 G5 teams would have made it in a 24 team, but none in 16. In 2022, one G5 would have made both a 16 or a 24 teamer. In 2023, 1 G5 in a 24 but none in a 16 teamer. In 2024, 3 G5 teams make it a 24 team, but just one in a 16. And this year, none in a 16, but 2 in a 24 teamer. Take that what you will.
