Your very unofficial 16-team D-1A playoff

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

I'm actually a fan of a full-up 16-team playoff like every other NCAA Division does. So let's get started.

Seeding rules:
A conference must have at least 8 teams for an auto-bid (no problem with any of them now)
No more than 25% of your conference can get bids (12+ team conferences get 3 bids, <12 teams gets 2. A 16-team conference would get 4)
The BCS standings are used for seeding. (We won't have this in the future so some new metric would be used in the future)
If an at-large bid goes behind an auto-bid if the auto-bid is 5 or fewer places behind (e.g. Alabama is seeded lower than Mich St., Stanford, and Baylor even Bama is higher in the BCS standings). This rewards winning your conference but only if your conference is pretty good. The Sun Belt champ ain't jumping anyone.
Two teams from the same conference cannot play in the first round.

Seeds:
1 ACC-C Florida State 13-0 (8-0)
2 SEC-C Auburn 12-1 (7-1)
3 B10-C Michigan State 12-1 (8-0)
4 P12-C Stanford 11-2 (7-2)
5 B12-C Baylor 11-1 (8-1)
6 SEC-A Alabama 11-1 (7-1)
7 B10-A Ohio State 12-1 (8-0)
8 SEC-A Missouri 11-2 (7-1)
9 AAC-C UCF 11-1 (8-0)
10 P12-A Oregon 10-2 (7-2)
11 B12-A Oklahoma 10-2 (7-2)
12 ACC-A Clemson 10-2 (7-1)
13 MWC-C Fresno State 11-1 (7-1)
14 MAC-C Bowling Green 10-3 (7-1)
15 USA-C Rice 10-3 (7-1)
16 SUN-C Louisiana-Lafayette 8-4 (5-2)

First round games on campus (Weekend of Dec 21. Maybe have some Thursday and Friday night games too)
16 ULL @ 1 FSU
9 UCF @ 8 Missouri
13 Fresno State @ 4 Stanford
12 Clemson @ 5 Baylor
15 Rice @ 2 Auburn
10 Oregon @ 7 Ohio State
14 Bowling Green @ 2 MSU
11 Oklahoma @ 6 Alabama

The top three seeds get easy games: a reward for winning your conference. I could see Fresno State shocking Stanford. The rest of the games look like fun ones to watch. Even that UCF@Missouri game would be entertaining.

The TV ratings for many of these games would be nuts (OU@Bama and Oregon@Ohio State would be huge). And they would only get better as the tournament went along (OSU/Oregon @ Auburn and OU/Bama @ MSU would draw huge numbers aGAIN).

 

[aTotal360]

16 teams? Add another 4 games to a teams schedule?

If you are not in the top 4, you don't even deserve the opportunity to play for a championship. 4 is plenty. If you are outside of the top 4, you either lost a game you shouldn't have, played a joke of a schedule, or play in a joke conference.

 

[patdog]

Way too many undeserving teams. Not to mention, that's most likely 5 postseason games for the 2 finalists. At most, we need an 8-team playoff. 5 major conference champs, highest ranked mid-major conference champ, and 2 at large. This year, we'd have:

Dec 20-21:
#7 Ohio St at #1 FSU
#15 UCF at #2 Auburn
#6 Baylor at #4 Michigan St.
#5 Stanford at #3 Bama

Jan 1:
OSU-FSU vs Stanford-Bama
UCF-Aub vs Baylor-MSU

Jan 11:
Championship Game

 

[seshomoru]

I've been like a falling tree in the forest on this for years.

It would be the most bad *** amateur tourney ever. There are playoffs in high school and all division winners get to go. There are playoffs in the NFL and all division winners get to go. There are bowl games in Division I football because of money, and the NCAA doesn't have the sack to tell it's corporate partners no, even when the broadcasting rights to something like this would be in the billions.

 

[os62]

Way too many undeserving teams. Not to mention, that's most likely 5 postseason games for the 2 finalists. At most, we need an 8-team playoff. 5 major conference champs, highest ranked mid-major conference champ, and 2 at large. This year, we'd have:

Dec 20-21:
#7 Ohio St at #1 FSU
#15 UCF at #2 Auburn
#6 Baylor at #4 Michigan St.
#5 Stanford at #3 Bama

Jan 1:
OSU-FSU vs Stanford-Bama
UCF-Aub vs Baylor-MSU

Jan 11:
Championship Game

I'm with you, patdog. 8 team is the most I want to push it to. 16 is too many. And the argument that lower classifications do it is stupid too. Who cares what D2 does? I certainly don't. Doesn't mean I won't watch it occasionally, but let's get real -- its D2/D3.

8 teams still keeps the regular season relevant. Plus, it's not too many extra games.

I wish they would cut the regular season back to 11 game schedules (I know they won't because of the money involved in playing an extra game), have the championship games, have the bowl games, and have the 8 team playoff. That puts the maximum amount of games played 15 I believe. I think that can done without it being too much strain on the "student-athlete".

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

I'm fine with 8 too and it's tons better than 4, but as we discussed in the thread about the Beef O'Brady's Bowl and the whatever-the-17-they-call-it-in-Boise-Idaho Bowl, the more football the better.

 

[BiscuitEater]

There has to be more ...

No more than 25% of your conference can get bids (12+ team conferences get 3 bids, <12 teams gets 2. A 16-team conference would get

Criteria than just 'auto bids' for all conferences. THIS will never get approval. Example ... ACC has an horrendous year and sends 3 teams while SEC has 8 teams in the top ~ 20 and also sends 3.

 

[futaba.79]

don't see how a State fan.........

can be for a system that lets the mid-major champs in. If USM's conference gets a bid then they will suddenly become viable. All those automatic qualifier conference teams will pass us by. I'm all for a playoff but I want one where we can have some hope of getting a bid.

 

[Negative Waves]

I agree. The CUSA, MWC, AAC, MAC, and the Sun Belt should only be let in if they're ranked in the top 16. Those teams play absolutely no one. Boise was the exception and and started scheduling tough schools to play during the season. If they are allowed in just for winning the conference championship, over time those teams will start poaching the talent from the mid to lower level BCS schools.

 

[Miss.Stake]

6 team playoff top 2 seeds get byes. This is best imo*

 

[patdog]

This is why I say only let the highest ranked mid-major champion get a playoff bid. This forces them to play a decent OOC schedule because if they don't, they won't be the highest ranked mid-major champion and also doesn't water down the field with a bunch of teams that couldn't finish .500 in a real conference.

 

[aTotal360]

32 team double elimination round robin.

 

[MittRomney]

6 team is the only way to go.

6 team playoff top 2 seeds get byes. This is best imo*

I agree with this. 6 team max. This will keep the regular season relavant. One (of many) things I hate about NFL. Sitting starters late in the season if your playoff spot is locked up. If Bama/Ohio State/FSU know thier spot is locked up, sit thier starters to save them for the play offs. You end up with half-arse meaningless games at the end. If they know they could lose thier bye, or potentially drop out completely, every game still counts.

One of the good things about college ball is it's basically a playoff that runs from Aug to Jan.