Is the expanded College Football Playoff already... BROKEN?

Let's take a second to talk about how we feel about the expanded 12 team College Football Playoff so far. With the conversation centering around format, rankings reveals, seeding, scheduling, deserving, best teams, byes, auto-bids, conference strength, home sites, weather, and so much more, we try and figure out how we feel about the whole shebang so far as we enter into the semifinals. This means talking Oregon's road, the Indiana discourse, three team losers in the SEC like Alabama, Ole Miss, and South Carolina, Ohio State's mulligan dream, among other topics. Where do you stand on the success and/or challenges the 12 team playoff has faced so far?
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#collegefootball #collegefootballplayoff #notredamefootball #pennstatefootball #texasfootball #ohiostatefootball #oregonfootball #cfp

[@Fear-Da-Beerd]

I’ve never had more fun watching a season of football. Everyone complaining is just due to the loss of control in rigging the game

[@gavinsheridan4680]

I agree. I think this playoff has been very entertaining.

[@scottfitz6582]

Only one game has been one possession. The entire first day people turned most of the games off by half time. That's the most fun you've ever watched?

[@vikinghawk3358]

Same here. It makes the season mean more when you can be in the running for a possible playoff at least until later in the season , otherwise you just have a regular minor bowl game to go to .

[@mattw7976]

My question (as an Oregon fan so absolutely take this with bias) is: Are we more concerned with adding more teams to the playoff so we DO see upsets, are do we want to crown a national champion? None of the remaining teams (except ND... just join a conference already...) won their CCG and it has completely removed the value of the regular season. The bye week looks to be like a total loss with the long layoff, bouncing these games around to different bowl venues across the country is endlessly stupid, and the seeding makes no sense. I mean looking back on it, It would have been a much better situation for a team like Oregon had they sat all their starters during the B1G CCG and just let Penn State win for an easier path in the playoff. That's unacceptable. Whoever wins this year's championship will have earned the title by winning the games in the playoff, but of the teams that remain, did they really earn the right to be a true national champion? Texas lost to Georgia twice, Ohio State lost two conference games, Penn State lost two conference games. None won their conference. And that should matter. Now as an Oregon fan I potentially have to watch an Ohio State vs Penn State National Championship game? Twilight zone season.

[@brandonjordan4596]

Also as an Oregon fan, that is just how it goes. The regular season still mattered, that's why Alabama, South Carolina, and Ole Miss got left out. They did not win enough regular season games. The only issue I see is that Oregon got punished for having a better regular season and that needs to get fixed. Winning a regular season game does not void the loss in the playoff. We lost, we don't get to claim the national title this year. I think the 12 team with Ohio St already proved why the expansion was needed. They wouldn't have been in a 4 team playoff yet they are likely to beat all those teams that would be.

[@80zBaby]

22:05 I don't buy that, either. For all of the reasons Ty mentioned and more. Love you though, Dan!

[@swoesteban5570]

In order to get the smaller conferences to sign on for these playoffs, they had to give 2 of them byes as well as the SEC and B1G. After 2 years they can/will change the format.

[@brandonjordan4596]

Either do a NIT style playoff with the next 16 teams. Have it start at the beginning at December so it ends before the Semi-finals of the CFP playoffs. It would be a fun to watch all the teams that complain about being left out to play each other. How embarrassing for Ole Miss, or Alabama when they can't even win the consolation tournament. It also gives teams a reason to keep playing. If that is too much do a mini tournament that includes just the first four out.

[@bigplayray1625]

Have to have 12 teams. Otherwise, you'll have the Boise St caliber conference winners auto-in and the Ohio St level teams from major conferences left out. But that might work if you get rid of byes... can't have both. Plus the top teams will get rewarded with that home game and less rust (although risking possible injuries and needed rest).

[@jaymacpherson8167]

The current system is inherently flawed because of the existence of unequal conference variables (e.g. in conf/out conf games of 8:4 or 9:3) for which the outcomes affect rankings, along with the existence of an independent team that somehow is bestowed a birthright (or is that just 10+ decades of throwing money around?). Further insanity in that context is the attempt to shoehorn conference championships’ results in playoff seeding. Potential solutions: have conferences with uniform variables (other than team quality) that have their own playoffs (e.g. 2 conf teams get to go to Nationals) and no access for independents; dissolve conferences entirely; if conf variables continue, rank only based on in-conference game results (any committee members who watch an out-of-conf game has an imbedded explosive in their head detonate); throw up our hands while PSU beats ND and OSU beats Texas, then PSU wins the Natty over OSU, with their only losses being to the team they just conquered in the Natty and that backwater upstart from the wilds of the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers.

[@Thaleck]

Two ways to fix this. Include more bowls in the playoff, or increase the number of teams in playoff.

[@Thaleck]

No home games. "Vs" All home games.

[@67L48]

Absolutely not. We already have too many teams in the playoff. The playoff for Div 1-A football is for one purpose: finding the best team in the nation. Period. Clemson wasn't the best team in the nation. No way. Shouldn't be in the CFP. SMU, Indiana, Alabama, etc. also definitely not the best team in the nation. Shouldn't be in the CFP. All of those teams had great seasons and should earn some respect and recognition for having those great seasons. We already have that. They're called bowl games. The CFP is NOT for an atta-boy, good job accolade. Its only goal is to take the small number of teams each year that have legitimate claim to the best team title and play it out. That conversation only realistically includes 2-5 teams each year. For mathematical balance, 8 teams works best ... even though at least 2 of those teams really don't belong. You can spend time designing objective systems to slot those 8 teams, but we never, never, ever need more than 8 teams. Ever.

[@Thaleck]

@@67L48Clemson proved they belong. You know who didn't. Oregon... My favorite team -- The most deserving team in the nation. Sixteen is fine, with all home games, but twelve, or fourteen is fine with added bowls and no home games. Tell me why any of those bowl games mattered. They don't.

[@67L48]

@@Thaleck 3-loss teams aren't the best team in football. Period. The best team in football is never outside of the top 6. Never. Ever. Not a thing. Has never been a thing. Won't ever be a thing.

[@jimbeaux89]

The teams that want to make it all the way are going to have to play the best teams sooner or later.

[@fellknight]

Alls I'm saying as a Boise fan is that the whole "make conference championships matter" thing was spearheaded by the former power 5 conferences. Just because it benefitted an outsider this year, don't blame us for the system y'all set up. Second, While I wish the season could have gone just a little bit better, I am still super ecstatic at having borne witness to the playoff run and runs of Jeanty this season, and even a fairly convincing loss changes that very little.

[@gavinsheridan4680]

Any team who played an FCS school should be disqualified from playoff consideration. How tough is the citadel, huh Alabama?

[@67L48]

You guys are jumping into the "what's wrong with the system" conversation without addressing the most important and most fundamental question first: what is the purpose of the system? Before you discuss what's wrong, before you discuss what's working, and before you discuss what better looks like, you need to establish the goal ... what the system is intended to do. In every other college sport, the end of the year tournament serves a dual purpose: (1) it rewards teams for having had a good season by inviting them to play in the postseason and (2) it serves as a mechanism to find the best team among a large group of good teams that played imbalanced, unequal schedules. Div 1-A football is the only sport I know of that has decoupled these purposes. There is already a well-established mechanism by which to reward a team for having had a good season by inviting them to play in the postseason: Bowl Games. There is both financial gain and prestige associated with these bowls (some more than others). Thus, the tournament can be and should be relegated exclusively to the task of finding the best team, the national championship. This is critical. This is the singular fundamental truth that shapes the entire conversation of what the CFP should be and how it ought to be designed. If you start there, you'll never, ever get beyond 8 teams included in the CFP. The only real debates will circle around whether you can fairly and equitably have a 6-team tournament or whether you have to balance the bracket by inviting totally undeserving seeds 7 and 8.

[@pumpkineder]

Lakers? You all are definitely in the running to be Charlotte Hornets though!

[@markgatica12]

My thoughts: Scrap it and and go back to four teams. That's enough. We don't need 12 teams playing for four weekends. That is longer than the 68 team basketball tournament. If expansion must continue, then eight teams is enough. That's three weekends, which is more than enough to determine a champion. Also, get rid of conference championship games. They are unnecessary if there is going to be a three or four week tournament that follows. Next, seed according to rank. No automatic seeds. Finally, if the goal is to reward conference champions, then give them first round home games, but not artificial seeds.

[@cmigbear]

Sure, it’s fixable. Just do what I’ve been saying for literally nine years now: eight teams, P4 champions plus one non-P4 champion plus the three remaining highest ranked teams. Committee seeds the teams. There.

[@cmigbear]

Of course, to do this, Notre Dame needs to join the ACC. I’m sure they’d be willing to do that. /s