I just read the rules for the 12 team play-off

[tapsgator]

they suck and in typical NCAA fashion no longer would work as intended. Also in true NCAA fashion they didn't write in any flexibility so we'll probably be stuck with this format for 8-10 years and in the meantime they'll put in a bunch of "unwritten rules." Anyways here's roughly what the 12 team playoff would look like based on the current rankings and then factoring in re-alignment and the automatic bids. The only thing I'm not clear on as I review the NCAA website (https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2023-12-03/how-12-team-college-football-playoff-will-work-teams-schedule-bids) is if the top 4 automatic qualifiers get a bid or it's just the top 4 teams. This section certainly reads like it's the top 4 automatic qualifiers:

"The new 12-team College Football Playoff field will include the six highest-ranked conference champions, which will receive automatic bids. The top four teams will receive a first-round bye to the quarterfinals.

The six highest-ranked teams remaining will round out the 12-team format. "

I don't know if they re-seed. Here's your potential playoff in 24:

1) Michigan (bye) (calling Michigan big 10 champ because they're ranked higher than Washington)
2) Texas (same deal with SEC because they're ranked higher than Bama based on 3 months ago which is really stupid but whatever)
3) FSU (ACC champ because nobody wants them in the Big 2)
4) Oregon State (Pac 2 Champ)

there's your 4 highest ranked conference champs

5) Liberty- Conference USA Champ, if they don't consider a 2 team conference a qualifier Liberty would get their much deserved bye, SMU moves up, and troy is the new 6 seed, take out Oregon State
6) SMU- AAC champ
7) Washington
8) Alabama
9) Georgia
10) Ohio State
11) Oregon
12) Mizzou

Round 1- Either Liberty or Troy plays Mizzou and loses, SMU plays Oregon and gets fucking smoked, Washington plays Ohio State where they beat the hell out of each other and whoever survives goes on to play Texas, Bama and Georgia rematch.

Round 2- Michigan v. Alabama Georgia winner; Texas v. Ohio State Washington Winner; FSU v. Oregon, Mizzou v. Oregon State or Liberty

Semis- Georgia, Bama, or Michigan (huge advantage) v. either Mizzou, Oregon State, or Troy
Texas/Ohio State/Washington v. Oregon/FSU

Finals- Real team v. Oregon whose path would have been SMU/Liberty then FSU then Mizzou/Oregon St./Troy

Sooooo, yeah, that is not a "solution," but you heard it here first.

[g8rfan]

I didn’t realize it was that complicated. How bout top 12, and just play football.

[tapsgator]

Dec 4, 2023 15:30:19 GMT -5 g8rfan said:

I didn’t realize it was that complicated. How top 12, and just play football.

It’s not quite as bad as I thought per the example on the website (which doesn’t factor in realignment), but it’s still pretty bad because of the stupid automatic bids and not factoring in realignment plus no way to easily adjust. So they take the 12 and then seed them based on rankings. The only thing that makes sense for the PAC2 (an actual thing because CFB!) of Oregon and wash st are considered part of the mountain west since they’re playing a mountain west schedule. SEC is losing divisions and I think the big 10 might be as well. Basically you’re going to get the sec champ, b1g champ, acc champ, probably the big 12 champ, and then two random conference champs ranked somewhere between 15-30. Then 6 teams that will likely be from the Power 2, maybe an acc team here or there. The at larges will buggy whip the bottom 3 conference champs in round one (which will be 20+ point underdogs) making the first round just money making, but oh well. Hopefully we are part of those discussions at some point

[bimigator]

Definitely preferable to what we have now.

[tapsgator]

Dec 4, 2023 16:48:38 GMT -5 bimigator said:

Definitely preferable to what we have now.

For sure, just about anything would. Some teams are gonna need to be careful what they wish for, but the best team at the end of the year should win the championship. I think the ideal number is 6 with 2 byes because it feels like every year there are 6 solid candidates, but 12 is just free football. Don’t really get the 6 automatic bids especially when we’re down to 4 conferences with 2 head and shoulders above the rest but it’s all good

[Rock Gator]

12 team playoff gives 12 fan bases reason to watch after the first of December. Because really, bowl games have become, not just virtually, but actually 100% worthless. As one article said, they are a glorified spring practice. So little reason to watch, so many reasons to do something else. Except for 4 teams' fans, which will now be 12 teams' fans, and that's the reason for it.

Oh, and there will be no cinderellas like in March Madness. If someone squeaks by into the second round, that'll be the end of that cinderella story. No Liberty, nor TCU, nor FSU, is going deep into a 12 team bracket.

[tapsgator]

Dec 5, 2023 17:50:31 GMT -5 Rock Gator said:

12 team playoff gives 12 fan bases reason to watch after the first of December. Because really, bowl games have become, not just virtually, but actually 100% worthless. As one article said, they are a glorified spring practice. So little reason to watch, so many reasons to do something else. Except for 4 teams' fans, which will now be 12 teams' fans, and that's the reason for it.

Oh, and there will be no cinderellas like in March Madness. If someone squeaks by into the second round, that'll be the end of that cinderella story. No Liberty, nor TCU, nor FSU, is going deep into a 12 team bracket.

I think what it will eventually evolve into unless they fix it (and the only way they fix it is if Greg Sankey decides he wants it fixed and says either fix it or we're going to withdraw from the playoff and have our own postseason tournament to determine the real national champion) which based on history won't happen for 10 years is:

1) SEC champ
2) Big 10 champ
3) SEC Runner Up
4) Big 10 Runner up

Then you'll have 4 conference champs, one of those will usually be the ACC at least until FSU, Clemson, Miami, and UNC leave to join the SEC or Big 10 like they have been trying to do for years. After that it's a complete crapshoot. At least 2, most often 3, and sometimes all 4 remaining at larges will be from the Power 2 especially since there are no more divisions so that championship game will generally be between undefeateds and it would be really tough for a team to make the championship game of a 16 team conference with more than 1 loss. The end result which will be a fun unintended consequence is something like this for round 1:

SMU has it's best season since the Pony Express, wins the AAC or whatever title with an undefeated season. Rolls into round 1 and gets beat by the #4 team in the SEC LSU 63-10. It'll be a classic careful what you wish for experience.