I believe the CFP needs to immediately go to sixteen teams. They will end up there anyhow so why not do it now? Secondly, they need to scrap the plan of first round on campus games. It’s a logistical nightmare for the host schools. Instead, have the current group of bowl communities and possibly new communities bid on hosting the rounds just like you do in basketball. You will see on my simulated bracket (further down) that every game is played at a bowl site.
EIGHT KEYS TO MAKING COLLEGE FOOTBALL MATTER IN DECEMBER AGAIN
Bowl season was meaningless this year. Yes, the CFP mattered but the rest of the season was a shell of its former self. Let’s make some major changes to fix this.
1. Change the calendar. Start the playoffs on the second week in December right after the conference championships. If we did that, the playoffs could end on January 1 and the rest of the changes I am about to suggest could take place.
2. Every player that plays FBS football must sign a contract that if they are paid whether as an employee of the school or receive NIL money, they cannot transfer to another school until the completion of their season which will end after the national title game. Not at the end of the regular season. They must also, if healthy, compete in the post season games to receive their pay. You may opt out for the draft. I disagree with opting out for the draft and here is why. If your game against an FCS team at the beginning of the season mattered, then your playoff/bowl game against a stronger opponent should be a better stage to showcase yourself.
3. If a player must stay, so does a coach. Coaches cannot leave their current job for another job until the completion of the season (national title game). Of course, you can fire a coach, but you can’t take a coach from another school until the end of the season.
4. Pay the players for appearing in bowls or post season activities. If you require them to stay you need to compensate them.
5. Move national signing day to after the conclusion of the season. Signing of high school athletes was pretty much ignored this year and that is a shame.
6. Most of the bowls are meant to fill holiday programming for the broadcasters. This can still be done for teams that did not make the playoff. January 1 could be filled with top bowl games that aren’t playoff games. The day would conclude with the national title game.
7. I disagree with putting teams with a losing record in bowl games, but I am willing to concede on this one.
8. Army-Navy falls on what would be my proposed first week of the playoffs (the week after conference championship games). For those that object to putting playoff games on this date because it may detract from the game or keep the teams out of a playoff spot, Army won the game this season and was bowl eligible but did not appear in a bowl game as the bowl selections were made six days before the Army-Navy game was played.
WHO WOULD WIN A SIXTEEN TEAM PLAYOFF?
My concept for a sixteen-team playoff utilizes automatic bids (a conference champion that is undefeated or has only one loss) and the at large spots filled according to the CFP rankings. The automatic bids this season would have been Florida State (ACC), Texas (Big12), Michigan (Big 10), Liberty (C-USA), Washington (PAC12), and Alabama (SEC). That leaves ten at large spots that would be filled according to the CFP rankings. (This format would have averaged six automatic bids.)
I used my ranking system instead of the CFP rankings for this simulation. You can see in the bracket below how it worked out as well as the results. The games were simulated using the last version of EA Sports NCAA College Football 2014. Amazingly a decade old game is still relatively accurate in its simulations. (Note: Liberty was not an FBS team in 2013 therefore I was unable to produce a score and awarded Ohio State the win.)
In the end we saw some exciting games and mostly close scores. Georgia was the champion of the simulated playoffs with Washington holding their own. Michigan was upset in the first round by rival Penn State.
PAC 12 LEADS BOWL STANDINGS
Heading into Monday’s championship game, the PAC 12 recorded the best bowl record of any of the ten conferences. (Notre Dame is listed as an Independent) The Big 10, Big 12, and SEC are tied for second. The American and C-USA went .500. The ACC was a disappointing 5-6 most likely due to optouts and injuries. The Sun Belt had more teams bowl eligible (12) than any conference but were two losses below. Still quite an accomplishment for probably the most underrated conference in college football.
Conference Bowl Record
PAC 12 5-3
Big 10 5-4
Big 12 5-4
SEC 5-4
Independent 1-0
American 3-3
C-USA 2-2
ACC 5-6
Mountain West 3-4
Sun Belt 5-7
MAC 2-4
Look for my final rankings as well as the results of the picks following the conclusion of the championship game on Monday.
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