Re: Reasonable fix for CFP playoffs

Since this is the topic of the week, thank god we got off of the “loss” we suffered last week, I have been giving it a lot of thought.

Expanding to 8 while maintaining the same number of regular seasons games is a long shot. Making conference champion automatic qualifiers won’t work either. What do you do with Notre Dame?

The only real plausible solution is to “fix” the disparity in scheduling you have throughout the season. Right now their is a huge difference in how each team, and to some extent, how conferences schedule regular season games.

Regular season games should mean something and have playoff implications. Simply have the CFP committee say that if you want to be considered for the CFP playoffs you must schedule 10 Power 5 conference opponents and you cannot play more than 1 FCS opponent. That would level the scheduling and force teams to play competitive games throughout the season and it will make it much easier for the CFP to select the top 4 teams. It also fixes the SEC built in bias (like now having 8 teams in the top 25 - give me a break) because they play NO one outside of their conference.

Reaction?

Rw43

Orange Blooded [3616]

TigerPulse: 96%

Posts: 3791

Joined: 1/21/16

Google needs an update.

Nov 29, 2018, 7:52 PM [ in reply to According to the ole google box there are currently 128 "FBS ]

130 FBS teams.

1 or 2 FCS schools move up every year, usually at the invite of CAA or Sunbelt Conferences. With a conference affiliation, 7-9 of your games are immediately scheduled for you, so a newly minted FBS team only has to become fodder--or find fodder--for 3-5 games in their initial season. Then you have a case like Liberty, who had made all their plans to go FBS this year, only to be voted NO by their "friends" in the Sun Belt. They did not choose to stay FCS. Since they only had 5 games scheduled, they had to scramble to find 7 more opponents to complete their first schedule as an FBS Independent, but they did.

This is something the casual fan has no grasp of. The movement up the FBS ladder cannot be frozen.

You cannot make iron clad scheduling rules for college football. The college football ecosystem is a ladder, and yes, it's boring when the top of the ladder doesn't change. But there is constant change occurring farther down the ladder. It is not the NFL, with a fixed number of teams, where parity of talent can be achieved through salary restrictions, and where central scheduling makes everyone somewhat equal.

The NCAA attempts to regulate over 1000 independent member institutions (only about half have football programs.) All have different traditions and rivalries, but it is football that inspires the fan base. It is the lifeblood and money tree of college sports. (Also the biggest cost, by far, so schools are constantly evaluating which direction to move their programs.)

Every rule you legislate to effect scheduling affects every school on that ladder and their ability to climb or drop on that ladder.

What we see as 'easy fixes' have tremendous ripple effects throughout the ecosystem.

BTW, the best place to see a listing of all 130 FBS schools that I've found is espn.com>NCAAF>Standings.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Reasonable fix for CFP playoffs