I see the only legit playoff being an 8 team playoff with the opening round being the CCGs…

My position (Dinosaur-Mentality) has always been…
If you can't win your regional conference, you can't truly be the Natl Champ…

I think it was always kinda neat that conference champs, regardless of overall records, could make it to a NYD bowl… See Cotton Bowl, 1968…

Gives teams an incentive to play better matchups in non-conference games…

This year's Final 8 should have been:
DUKE / UVA
BAMA / GA
TECH / BYU
OSU / INDIANA

FINAL FOUR:
GA / DUKE
TECH / INDIANA

maroonthrunthru said:

---

I see the only legit playoff being an 8 team playoff with the opening round being the CCGs…

My position (Dinosaur-Mentality) has always been…
If you can't win your regional conference, you can't truly be the Natl Champ…

I think it was always kinda neat that conference champs, regardless of overall records, could make it to a NYD bowl… See Cotton Bowl, 1968…

Gives teams an incentive to play better matchups in non-conference games…

This year's Final 8 should have been:
DUKE / UVA
BAMA / GA
TECH / BYU
OSU / INDIANA

FINAL FOUR:
GA / DUKE
TECH / INDIANA

---

I'm of the mentality whenever you have a beauty contest you have a beauty contest.

Get rid of polls deciding things.

Using an example from college football in 1968 to explain how college football in 2026 should work does not pass muster

Hard to take that seriously with Duke in the mix.

Last year Ohio St and Notre Dame beat the Big10 and SEC champs in the quarterfinal, then beat the runner-ups in the Big10 and SEC CCG in the semifinals, and then played eachother for the National Championship.

Limiting the playoffs to just conference champions doesn't make any sense when these large conferences have multiple teams with the same conf record and who plays in the CCG is decided by tiebreakers

Too much disparity in conferences to just go with the champs…

fulshearAg96 said:

---

Too much disparity in conferences to just go with the champs…

---

That's the rationale to get more teams in from a perceived tougher conference such as the SEC. In other words, the perceived tougher conferences want more money.

Im not keeping track but it feels like the SEC hasn't been backing up the perception they sell 24-7.

tk for tu juan said:

---

Last year Ohio St and Notre Dame beat the Big10 and SEC champs in the quarterfinal, then beat the runner-ups in the Big10 and SEC CCG in the semifinals, and then played eachother for the National Championship.

Limiting the playoffs to just conference champions doesn't make any sense when these large conferences have multiple teams with the same conf record and who plays in the CCG is decided by tiebreakers

---

OSU and ND had their chances during the regular season. OSU lost to Oregon and then lost their chance to play them again in their conference championship game. ND lost to a team most never heard of.

Where I come from they call that screwing the pooch.

Sterling82 said:

---

fulshearAg96 said:

---

Too much disparity in conferences to just go with the champs…

---

That's the rationale to get more teams in from a perceived tougher conference such as the SEC. In other words, the perceived tougher conferences want more money.

Im not keeping track but it feels like the SEC hasn't been backing up the perception they sell 24-7.

---

SEC has won 6 of 11 since the inception of the CFP. Big 10 has won 3, ACC has won 2.

I bet 100% of the people on here wish there was a 12 or 16 team playoff back in 2012. That team didn't win a conf champ, but were running on all cylinders at the end of the season

Getting left out of the playoffs as an 11-1 team because of conference tiebreakers doesn't seem fair.
And if no team outside of the top 8 is capable of winning a NC, what's it matter if there are a few weeks of "elimination" games to get down to 8 teams? The big winner there is the fans getting home field games.

The expanded playoffs have made a lot of late season games very important to win unlike when 95% of teams were virtually eliminated with 1-2 games remaining in the season. The expanded playoffs also allow for stronger conferences to have more representation and not leave a team out while teams from weaker conferences qualify. A team like BYU would have no business making the playoffs as a #2 Big12 than Ole Miss or the Ags did as conference #3 and #4s. And the G5s definitely have no business in before Ole Miss or the Ags. And just saying; "get rid of the G5s" isn't realistic. It's not happening. They are going to have representation. It was part of the deal to move past 4 teams.

If the playoffs were expanded to 16 or even 24 teams anyone who doesn't like more than 8 teams could just forego watching the early rounds and wait until it gets down to 8. The cream will always rise to the top when you have to play 3-4 games at that level of competition to win it all.

With that approach all out of conference games will be afainst high schools, bc they no longer matter. I'll go the opposite, follow d1 fcs and make it 24 teams.

get rid of CCG, take 16 total teams no byes. take top 16 teams. 1 vs 16 etc. first round at higher seeded teams him field.

I would counter that teams would have incentive to play better non-con schedule, because a loss wouldn't bankrupt your ability to win the Natty…

Old Man Yelling at Clouds #2

College football has to be about the most unfair, messed up system in sports: Teams with vastly different budgets for players and coaches; players switching teams pretty much at will (no contracts); biased writers (or coaches) ranking teams and impacting seedings/playoffs; biased alumni refereeing games and reviewing calls; different rules for different fan bases (thinking specifically about Miss St allowed to use loud cowbells, but no one else); teams allowed to manipulate the playing surface (like when tu watered down their field years ago) without repercussions. Anything goes. It's ridiculous.

At least the NFL figured out to increase the fan base, there has to be credibility, and things have to be fair. So, the NFL has salary limits for players, player contracts, a draft for the available talent, no ranking system (playoff seedings determined on the field), much better game officials, uniform rules for playing conditions, etc., etc. When you think about it critically, college football is a joke that continually rewards the same "blue blood" programs over and over.

Whaler said:

---

Old Man Yelling at Clouds #2

College football has to be about the most unfair, messed up system in sports: Teams with vastly different budgets for players and coaches; players switching teams pretty much at will (no contracts); biased writers (or coaches) ranking teams and impacting seedings/playoffs; biased alumni refereeing games and reviewing calls; different rules for different fan bases (thinking specifically about Miss St allowed to use loud cowbells, but no one else); teams allowed to manipulate the playing surface (like when tu watered down their field years ago) without repercussions. Anything goes. It's ridiculous.

At least the NFL figured out to increase the fan base, there has to be credibility, and things have to be fair. So, the NFL has salary limits for players, player contracts, a draft for the available talent, no ranking system (playoff seedings determined on the field), much better game officials, uniform rules for playing conditions, etc., etc. When you think about it critically, college football is a joke that continually rewards the same "blue blood" programs over and over.

---

You're not wrong. It is why it was easy for me to give up season tickets and TMF donations (meager though they were) over a decade ago.

There is never any real recourse or action for bad (BLATENTLY BAD) calls. Like the Texas temper tantrum in 2024. Even though UGA was going in dry, the overturned call gave Texas points.

Then there is UGA Kirby timeout earlier this year. He got away with it. Nothing happened.

Hundreds of other bad calls and no calls, and these happen disproportionately to the programs on the other side of the call.

Advertising runs college football. Anyone that thinks otherwise is getting an inner view of their own butt. Fox and ESPN/ABC hold all the cards and make their puppet conference commishes ignore whatever they wish.

You are the product for Big Snack/Big Sugar, Big FinTech, Big Beverage, Big Fast Food, Big Car and Big Pharma.

Paramount and Comcast were out taking a piss when college football money was up for grabs, but Comcast (NBC) took some naked pictures of someone's mom so they are a minor player. ND has benefitted for so long being an absolute relic no one cares about. Now they will be given an auto spot in the playoffs. GMAFB.

12thMan9 said:

---

Sterling82 said:

---

fulshearAg96 said:

---

Too much disparity in conferences to just go with the champs…

---

That's the rationale to get more teams in from a perceived tougher conference such as the SEC. In other words, the perceived tougher conferences want more money.

Im not keeping track but it feels like the SEC hasn't been backing up the perception they sell 24-7.

---

SEC has won 6 of 11 since the inception of the CFP. Big 10 has won 3, ACC has won 2.

---

Just because Alabama and Georgia were great teams it doesn't mean that the SEC #3 is automatically better than say B12 or ACC #2. The whole purpose of playoff games is to prove it on the field but you can't do that if you fill it up with teams based on reputation. But that's what the SEC angle is…we should get more teams in because we're the best! And we should get a bigger piece of the pie!

Now, I'm not talking about this year only. BYU, for example is way overrated this year. I'm just sick of the promotions being driven by individual bonuses of conference commissioners, ie Sankey who continues to get schooled by the B10.

A simple better playoff is the best 4 from the SEC and B1G play in an 8 team playoff. It would provide the most interesting matchups, highest TV ratings, and a legitimate national champion of the the only 2 super conferences.

The other NCAA teams can have their own division and champion.

CCGs have no place in the playoffs. Group of 5 has no place in the playoffs.

Fine. Then ditch all conferences and we'll all go independent.

It's not perceived, it's reality. There are multiple SEC teams with 2-3 conference losses that would be undefeated if the played Technicals schedule, and Tech would have those 2-3 losses or more if they played an SEC schedule.

CFP, NYD bowls and NC results over the last 10+ years prove this emphatically that there is a huge gap between the SEC/B1G and the other two "power" conferences.

The Big 12 has won only 1 or 2 playoff games. Tech never even came close to qualifying for the conf. title game until aTm, OU and cow left the conference…..