4 Team College Football Playoff

[Cartierfor3]

Contracts change all the time. I know it means I'm racist but I'm agreeing with MIR on this one.

[Rage Against the McKee]

Eight is better because that format would include all of the power conferences, and you could even give the midmajors a path to a championship, if say their conference champion finishes ranked higher than a power 5 conference champ. It's much more inclusive, and would make everyone happy.

[MakeItRain]

8 is a great number. The butthurt would not be the same as it is with 4. Every year there are about 5-6 teams that can make a claim that they are the best team. The 9th best team in the nation will probably be butthurt about being left out, but they can't really think they are the best team like the #5 and #6 teams can.

I think this is accurate. You'll still have complaining, just not legitimate complaining. Also, to any Power 5 rep the retort is easy: just win your conference and you wouldn't have had to leave it up to the pollsters.

Honestly did anyone expect this to stay a 4 team playoff? I always thought this was like a transitional thing to work out logistics and wean people off of the BCS en route to having a legitimate playoff.

It won't happen before the contract is up.  This has been discussed by the talking heads on ESPN.

You keep talking about the contract as if it can't be renegotiated. If the power 5 wants to go to 8 ESPN will happily redo the contract because they want the inventory. Monday Night Football is the only product they have that out rates college football. Renegotiating the contract would also give ESPN more controlling years of the CFP.

They basically said it would open up the contract to other networks and would cost much more.  They got a sweet deal and they don't give a eff about who gets in is fair or not.

Without seeing the contract, and I can assure you that whatever ESPN talking head you are referencing hasn't seen it either, the only way it would be up for rebid for renegotiating is if there's a provision in the contract stating it so. In sports media rights deals that would be highly unusual.

[catastrophe]

1. Any contract can be renegotiated--even if the contract says it can't be.  That's like having a law that says it cannot be repealed.  That provision can't stop you from making a new contract that says the old one goes away.

2. ESPN may have gotten a sweet deal for 4 teams, but I don't think an 8-team playoff was ever on the table.  If NCAA / power 5 conferences are on board with it, it will happen.  Why in the world would ESPN say no to having 7 big-time games to broadcast instead of 3?  Even if you make only half the profit, you're making way more money.

[pissclams]

i hope the big 12/bowlsby flies a banner around both games "we would beat you guys if we were playing in this game"

[Trogdor]

Officiating crews

Rose Bowl: SEC
Sugar Bowl: P12
Champy Bowl: BigXII

[john "teach me how to" dougie]

8 is a great number. The butthurt would not be the same as it is with 4. Every year there are about 5-6 teams that can make a claim that they are the best team. The 9th best team in the nation will probably be butthurt about being left out, but they can't really think they are the best team like the #5 and #6 teams can.

I think this is accurate. You'll still have complaining, just not legitimate complaining. Also, to any Power 5 rep the retort is easy: just win your conference and you wouldn't have had to leave it up to the pollsters.

Honestly did anyone expect this to stay a 4 team playoff? I always thought this was like a transitional thing to work out logistics and wean people off of the BCS en route to having a legitimate playoff.

They should go to 6 teams nest year with the top 2 getting a first round bye. Could take all of the P5 conference champs plus 1 at large.

[MakeItRain]

Officiating crews

Rose Bowl: SEC
Sugar Bowl: P12
Champy Bowl: BigXII

You really don't want your conference officials working that game. You'd rather have a team there.

[Steffy08]

2. ESPN may have gotten a sweet deal for 4 teams, but I don't think an 8-team playoff was ever on the table.  If NCAA / power 5 conferences are on board with it, it will happen.  Why in the world would ESPN say no to having 7 big-time games to broadcast instead of 3?  Even if you make only half the profit, you're making way more money.

If it diminishes the regular season (that is, fewer people watch between September and December) more than the increase in viewership related to having more playoff games, it would be a bad financial decision.   For instance, what if there were 64 teams that made the college football playoff?  Would that really be in ESPN's interest?  There is a line that they don't want to cross; once you cross that line, you can't really go back, either.  Arguably, college basketball has already crossed this line.  You have a bunch of people watch for 3-4 days in March, but you don't get near as many people watching college basketball from November through February.

[Steffy08]

Personally, I think ESPN loves the butthurt and controversy of having 5 power conferences and 4 playoff spots.  It gives us all something stupid to talk about and debate.

[Demo158]

2. ESPN may have gotten a sweet deal for 4 teams, but I don't think an 8-team playoff was ever on the table.  If NCAA / power 5 conferences are on board with it, it will happen.  Why in the world would ESPN say no to having 7 big-time games to broadcast instead of 3?  Even if you make only half the profit, you're making way more money.

If it diminishes the regular season (that is, fewer people watch between September and December) more than the increase in viewership related to having more playoff games, it would be a bad financial decision.   For instance, what if there were 64 teams that made the college football playoff?  Would that really be in ESPN's interest?  There is a line that they don't want to cross; once you cross that line, you can't really go back, either.  Arguably, college basketball has already crossed this line.  You have a bunch of people watch for 3-4 days in March, but you don't get near as many people watching college basketball from November through February.

An eight team playoff would not cross this line that you speak of, and it most certainly wouldn't hurt regular season viewership. In fact, it would probably bolster regular season viewership for the mid-major confys and thier teams since they will have a better chance of getting to the National Championship game.

[catastrophe]

2. ESPN may have gotten a sweet deal for 4 teams, but I don't think an 8-team playoff was ever on the table.  If NCAA / power 5 conferences are on board with it, it will happen.  Why in the world would ESPN say no to having 7 big-time games to broadcast instead of 3?  Even if you make only half the profit, you're making way more money.

If it diminishes the regular season (that is, fewer people watch between September and December) more than the increase in viewership related to having more playoff games, it would be a bad financial decision.   For instance, what if there were 64 teams that made the college football playoff?  Would that really be in ESPN's interest?  There is a line that they don't want to cross; once you cross that line, you can't really go back, either.  Arguably, college basketball has already crossed this line.  You have a bunch of people watch for 3-4 days in March, but you don't get near as many people watching college basketball from November through February.

An eight team playoff would not cross this line that you speak of, and it most certainly wouldn't hurt regular season viewership. In fact, it would probably bolster regular season viewership for the mid-major confys and thier teams since they will have a better chance of getting to the National Championship game.

Yea, I don't dispute that there probably IS a line to be crossed, but 8 teams isn't it.  I agree it could bolster viewership for the group of 5 conferences, but I think the same could be said for the power 5 conferences.  What if Florida State had lost one of those regular season games to a sub-par team?  The ACC championship would have been meaningless from a playoff perspective.

A 4-team playoff can practically make the last quarter of a season meaningless for most teams.  If anything, it's probably not the viewership of games that would be impacted so much as the viewership of the countless shows analyzing the rankings.  Still, if they could make a big fuss about which TWO teams would get in, they should still have a good time talking about which three non conference-championship teams get in as at-large teams.

[catastrophe]

Also, I think the player safety argument is ridiculous.  Aside from the fact that high school and all other college divisions do it, if you make the conference championship the main determination of who gets a playoff berth then teams won't need to schedule the 3-4 pud non-conference games.  Change it to one or two interesting games and you've just built in the ability to extend the season.

[8manpick]

Also, I think the player safety argument is ridiculous.  Aside from the fact that high school and all other college divisions do it, if you make the conference championship the main determination of who gets a playoff berth then teams won't need to schedule the 3-4 pud non-conference games.  Change it to one or two interesting games and you've just built in the ability to extend the season.

In going from a 4 to an 8 team playoff, you are extending the season by just 1 game for 4 of the 128 Division 1 (or whatever we are calling it now) teams.  If less than 3% of players are playing an extra game, is it really a significant player safety issue?

[nicname]

player safety is such a ridiculous argument, as is academics

[TownieCat]

The Big 12's one voice on the CFP committee, Oliver Luck, is leaving WV for a job with the NCAA. Hopefully his replacement on the committee will be a bit more invested in the success of the conference. 

[cas4ksu]

If you really want the playoff to expand to eight before their contract expires, just one thing really needs to happen. The SEC getting shut out in consecutive years.

Won't probably happen though. (in regard to the SEC getting shut out or the contract being altered either way)

[ChiComCat]

Also, I think the player safety argument is ridiculous.  Aside from the fact that high school and all other college divisions do it, if you make the conference championship the main determination of who gets a playoff berth then teams won't need to schedule the 3-4 pud non-conference games.  Change it to one or two interesting games and you've just built in the ability to extend the season.

In going from a 4 to an 8 team playoff, you are extending the season by just 1 game for 4 of the 128 Division 1 (or whatever we are calling it now) teams.  If less than 3% of players are playing an extra game, is it really a significant player safety issue?

They certainly aren't going to shorten the season for 128 teams because 4 need to play an extra game.

[Katpappy]

8 is a great number. The butthurt would not be the same as it is with 4. Every year there are about 5-6 teams that can make a claim that they are the best team. The 9th best team in the nation will probably be butthurt about being left out, but they can't really think they are the best team like the #5 and #6 teams can.

I think this is accurate. You'll still have complaining, just not legitimate complaining. Also, to any Power 5 rep the retort is easy: just win your conference and you wouldn't have had to leave it up to the pollsters.

Honestly did anyone expect this to stay a 4 team playoff? I always thought this was like a transitional thing to work out logistics and wean people off of the BCS en route to having a legitimate playoff.

It won't happen before the contract is up.  This has been discussed by the talking heads on ESPN.

Why College Football Playoff Expansion Won't Be Happening Anytime Soon


 By Barrett Sallee , SEC Football Lead Writer
 Dec 18, 2014
 
USA Today


ATLANTA — Proponents of College Football Playoff expansion are like kids on Christmas this holiday season.

They've ripped the wrapping paper off the gift, but before they open the packaging and play with the toy, they've moved on to unwrap the next present.

Here we are in mid-December, with the inaugural national semifinals and College Football Playoff National Championship Game looming, and calls for expanding the four-team playoff have already started.

ESPN.com polled 103 FBS coaches, and 44 percent of them were in favor of the postseason expanding to eight teams. That's not surprising, as bonus money would probably be owed to most or all of those in favor if they earned a playoff spot.

President Barack Obama even chimed in on the side of eight teams on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio earlier this month (via AL.com). "[Expanding to four] was the right thing to do," he said, "and I suspect it'll end up being eight teams, and that'll be just about right."

If you're hoping for the playoff to be expanded anytime soon, you're going to be disappointed this holiday season.

It's not happening. Not for this generation of college football players, anyway.

"It's a four-team tournament for 12 years," College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock told B/R. "There hasn't been any discussion in our group about expanding."

[Katpappy]

CASE CLOSED!!!

[steve dave]

4 is perfect anyway

[Katpappy]

4 is perfect anyway

We better get used to it.  Personally, I think it's great fun to have one of the conferences left out.