BS Report: The Playoffs Shakeup

I have been wholeheartedly against the expansion of the College Football Playoff from 12 to 24 teams. I think 24 teams is simply too much. I think 16 is the good number to have. There are some things, however, about this new format that, whether I like it or not, is going to be in place. That I do like. And I do like the fact that there is no guarantee for the conferences to have a set number of teams that will be in the College Football Playoff.

I was very concerned that, for example, the big 12 or the ACC would demand as part of this plan to have a certain number of teams guaranteed every year to be in the College Football Playoff field of 24. Well, that is not the case. The only four teams in the power Four conferences that will be guaranteed will be the conference champions.

And of course, there will not be any conference championship game. So how they determine that will be up to them and how that happens, I don’t know. The fifth team that will be guaranteed a spot will be the best team from the Group of six conferences, like the Sun Belt that has Georgia State and Georgia Southern. And I think that is a grave mistake that to me, having a team from the Group of six really disqualifies this whole plan.

There is no way, for example, that the Georgia Southern, if it were the best team in the Group of six conferences, should be in a playoff with Georgia and Ohio State and those types of teams. The Group of six conferences should have their own playoff. They should determine their own champion. I had a Georgia Southern fan tell me several years ago, he said, Bill, I’m not the same fan of the Eagles that I used to be because there’s no way for us to win a championship any longer.

And when Georgia Southern went to Division One, they killed that chance. But the Group of six conferences should get together and form their own playoff with 16 or 24 teams to determine their own champion. That should happen, and therefore that would not allow one of the group of six teams, like a Georgia Southern, if they were the best team in the Group of six conferences, to be part of this field of 24 teams.

But at least there’s not a guarantee that a bad conference or a conference having a bad year like the ACC, for example, had in 2025 would be guaranteed a certain number of teams in the field of 24. That is at least a good thing. It is weird that there are not going to be conference championship games, and even though I don’t like that, I understand that to a certain extent it’s not needed anymore.

Now, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz made a point on Tuesday that if we’re not going to have conference championship games, what’s the point of having a conference in itself? Which is kind of a good question, really. But nonetheless, the field of 24 is going to be in place, and I hope it’s not too big. I hope it’s not too many teams.

I do like the fact that the first two rounds are going to be on the home fields, and that will be on campus, which will be a good thing, but they really missed an opportunity to to do some things I think would have been better. Now they aren’t going to have that. All the conferences are going to have nine conference games and then one more game against a fellow power four conference team.

For example, Georgia already has that in place with their nine conference games. Of course, the SEC and then their game against Georgia Tech. The other two games can be against a group of six team or even a team from another level, which they need to knock that out. We do not have to have cash for clunkers games any longer.

That needs to go away. So there are some good things about this, but some bad things as well that they’ve got to work through and hopefully it will mean better football. I thought that there should be some type of tie in with the conference championship games to make the regular season relevant. The worry with this 2014 playoff is that the regular season might not be relevant.

There may be some games that aren’t going to be as important, because a team may think, well, if there’s 24 teams and I go nine and three, I’m going to get in no matter what. But if they are tied in the conference championship games to the fact that if you’re the two best teams in the SEC, for example, you would be guaranteed a spot in the field of 16.

And my plan. And then if you were able to win the conference championship game, you would have a home game. Well, that went away, but that would have been at least a way to keep the regular season relevant. So like this is going to be different. It’s going to be a learning curve. We’re going to have to see how it goes.

I hope it works out. I’m looking for better football and the best way to find the best team in college football each and every year, where the playoffs. And I hope they’ve done that.