William J.
Selection sunday has come and passed and even in this crazy college football season where two group of 5 teams- Coastal Carolina and Cincinnati -went undeafeted; the biggest playoff suprise is a one-loss Notre Dame. College football fans have wanted a new playoff for years and the cries have only strengthened with each passing season. The four teams that made it this year- Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Notre Dame -accout for 18 of the 28 CFP appearances in the seven years of its existence. There is almost no variety in this four-team playoff. This year the most likely result is Alabama vs. Clemson in the National Chamionship for what seems like the millionth time in the playoff era.
The 8-team playoff has two likely formats that the NCAA might use. One of them would just be letting in the top eight ranked teams at the end of the season. This year that would look like this:
- Alabama vs. 8. Cincinnatti
- Clemson vs. 7. Florida
- Ohio State vs. 6. Oklahoma
- Notre Dame vs. 5. Texas A&M
The other, more probable option for the 8-team playoff is to have all the power 5 champions, the best group of 5 team, and two at-large spots. There are many ways the NCAA could choose these matchups, but if we were going strictly by the rankings of these teams, this is how it would look in 2020:
- Alabama (SEC champ) vs. 20. Oregon (Pac-12 champ)
- Clemson (ACC champ) vs. 8. Cincinnatti (best Group of 5)
- Ohio State (Big Ten champ) vs. 6. Oklahoma (Big 12 champ)
- Notre Dame (at-large 1) vs. 5. Texas A&M (at-large 2)
This change in the playoffs will make it much easier for Group of 5 teams such as Cincinnatti to make the playoffs. But even then an undeafeated Coastal Carolina who has two top-20 wins would be left out. Does that mean CFP voters need to change their mind set? Yes, but until we get there will the playoff have to expand even more?
I don’t think that the NCAA will transition straight from a 4 to a 16-team playoff, but this is a possibility in the future. One of the biggest problems with this is how long this expanding will continue. Could we see the playoff go from 4 teams to 8 to 16 and maybe even 32? Probably not. I think that once you get to 8 it is pretty easy to get in if your team is actually good enough to win a championship. If Coastal Carolina goes undefeated again they will probably get into the top 8. I also think that if the format changed to eight teams then CFP committy members would put a lot more thought into their top-8 rankings. Hopefully the NCAA will make the right decision and let in eight teams next year and in years to come.
Backwards Hat Sports 