Rich Eisen on How/If the College Football Playoff Can Fix Its Blowout Games Problem

[@jahnvantuttlesma8215]

We got three good quarterfinal games (1 classic) with only one blowout (which happened to be the most anticipated game). There isn't a crisis like many are suggesting.

[@RobertLopez-yx3co]

One classic? I assume you're referring to the UT-ASU game. From the punt return TD until the 4th quarter, that game was garbage. So there have been ZERO classics.

[@adamredden2007]

​@RobertLopez-yx3co WTF do you want? Games are played, and they happen how they happen. Jfc

[@Johnrl21]

We have had one decent game. The rest have been subpar at best.

[@Elite67ty]

What games did you watch?

[@Johnrl21]

@@Elite67ty ASU/ Texas ended up being the only good game. The rest haven’t been very good.

[@BigTimeGG]

Hasn't college football always been filled to the brim with blowout games? The problem is the talent gap between teams, it's not an even playing field.

[@ShimmyD-u7g]

Exactly, massive talent gaps. College football has always been about the few haves and the lots of have nots. It's why we see Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Ohio State, etc every year in the top. It's not the NFL with a draft and a salary cap. Instead its pure capitalism, and even more so with the recent uncontrolled free agency that is the NIL and transfer portal. I'm glad they have a playoff, maybe we will see a Cinderella story of some smaller school go the distance. Probably not, but now at least there is a path.

[@DawgPoundStoner1252]

Explain the talent gap between Ohio State and Oregon or Tennessee I'll wait

[@AdamsGoingGhost]

Yeah no not at this point. If Alabama is playing Tennessee tech in week 4 you’d expect a blowout, but you don’t expect OSU to put up a 34 point lead in under 20 minutes against 13-0 Oregon. Especially in a bowl game.

[@ld4974]

@@DawgPoundStoner1252 That's exactly why the 4 team playoff was sufficient. Expansion just leads to the big dogs blowing out the other teams.

[@anthony.spencer]

tough to have lots of similar caliber teams with rosters that can essentially be as big as the teams want.

[@julianwatts9024]

Why do we act like blowouts are indicative of anything other than one team played way better that day. The nfl has blow outs in the championship games and Super Bowl all the time

[@Je-Razor]

Exactly. The only solution to fix potential blowout games would be to not have a playoff at all and no National Championship game.

[@CompetitionSportsNetwork]

100% correct, but guys like Rich, need to create drama so they can have topics to talk about while the rest of us sit here going "ok Rich"

[@bradytom5468]

All the time in the last 2 decades??? Only Carolina v. Denver comes up.... are u still living in the 80s or 90s???

[@toddcunningham3213]

​@@bradytom5468 2021: TB 31 KC 9 2014: Sea 43 Den 8 2010: NO 31 Ind 17 2003: TB 48 Oak 21 2001: Bal 34 NYG 7 I don't necessarily consider 14 points a "blowout", but you mentioned Carolina Denver which was also only 14 points. 24-10.

[@Lonely.Chrome]

@@toddcunningham3213blowouts to me are really when games are out of 2 possessions. So essentially 17+ leads are blowouts but then again you have to go and look at when that team when up 17+ bc that doesn’t mean the whole time the game was out of reach

[@GENOTALKSCOMICS]

There are two points that often get lost in this conversation: 1. The match-ups matter. You can have rankings, seeding, win-loss records, conference championships, bye weeks, etc. But sometimes you go into a game where none of those metrics tell the story of 1v1 player match-ups on the field, offensive vs defensive units and each team as a whole. 2. Sometimes, it just isn't your day. Just as Dan Lanning said after they lost. College football coaches, players, fans and media know that well.

[@kyledabearsfan]

rankings are part of the problem, we shouldnt have a system that gives a pre-season ranking that weighs as heavy as it does. But, regardless. This season isnt really different, people just crying more.

[@TyForReal5]

I agree on those points. The one about the bye week is absolutely a valid complaint, though. You should get a competitive advantage if you finish 1-4. These teams currently get the benefit of playing a hot team while they sit for 25 days. That is actually criminal and is a reason all 4 bye teams got beat. Seed 1-12 off the CFP final rankings for better matchups and actually reward 1-4 by having home games in the 2nd round with a shorter rest period.

[@GENOTALKSCOMICS]

@@kyledabearsfan I agree about the rankings. I like individuals making their own rankings preseason or early on. It's great for conversation and coverage and to see different people's reasoning. But there shouldn't be any official ranking for at least a month into the season.

[@kyledabearsfan]

@@GENOTALKSCOMICS oh, i dont disagree about the crowd draw, i think it weighs far too heavy on the season. How often do we see teams in the top 10 at the beginning of the season completley drop out. I agree, at minimum it should wait til after the first week after we at least have some (admittedly) arbitrary details.

[@GENOTALKSCOMICS]

@TyForReal5 Even as a Buckeye guy, I think Oregon got screwed by the design. So I'd have no problem with re-seeding. And I like having playoff games on campus. Great for the schools, fans and the sport overall. The one piece I'm brainstorming is how does the bowl game system get reworked to gel with having home games. You could remove the bowl games from the playoff system entirely. Then the concern becomes having less than stellar match-ups in once top tier bowls. A lot of people are agreeing on the Rose Bowl being a great site. Could make that the national championship game.

[@RandomYNG]

This year is exactly why the sport needed an expanded playoff. Without it, the best team in college football wouldn't have made the playoffs. A 4 team playoff is too subjective

[@benclemens5311]

Penn State and Texas were both ranked in the top four though, so yeah they would have made it with a four team playoff, just sayin’. I do agree with you, I like the expanded playoffs better (I think they should have capped it at 8 though).

[@gregjross852]

If the 12 team didn’t exist we wouldn’t have gotten Texas vs ASU. Media making things a big deal that aren’t.

[@kyledabearsfan]

yeah just fan bases crying because they didnt have a good year, nothing has changed

[@Tommy9834]

I don't see what the issue is. Blowouts happen in a sport. The only way to prevent a blowout is to have fixed matches.

[@broadnerdmike6450]

Absolutely. Plus this is some BS bias against smaller schools. If the big schools got blown out they wouldn’t be asking all these questions.

[@aswerty911]

Yep. If they want less blowouts, ok, the underdog gets to play at home. THen they'll cry that's not fair!! But the better team plays at home and smashes the underdog, well something's wrong!!! LOL

[@sladebygaming]

This year is still better than anything we've seen in the past and has a ton of room for improvement. I think the biggest area of improvement is the regular season. I think the lopsided games are a result of how little is determined from teams mainly playing in meaningless games all season. Most weeks there are 1-3 games featuring 2 ranked teams.

[@chadturner7653]

I think this season was one of the best seasons across the entire nation in every conference I have seen. Every team from about 1-8 in each major conference had a real chance to win each week. And a lot did. I like seeing that much talent and coaching come into the game.

[@sladebygaming]

@chadturner7653 Too many teams filling out the schedule against weak opponents still and seemingly those weak schedules increased chances to get into the playoffs.

[@kyletucker3811]

Dont have teams wait a month to play, dont force your TOP 4 SEEDS to play neutral sight games while others get to have home games for having worse records, and dont artificially boost the seeding of teams so the team that worked the hardest to have the best record has to face one of the best teams in the tournament in its first game after a month off.

[@johaw105]

Corporate America has to ruin everything as much it possibly can

[@beckayshaw6083]

You’re right. Get rid of the extra time when they could be playing. Also top 4 teams should get a home playoff game. Only semi final games and natty should be neutral site

[@markosekulic119]

Isnt bye week better then playing home? I really dont understand why is problem in college bowl but not in nfl?

[@beckayshaw6083]

@ all 4 of the bye week teams lost to the 4 teams seeded lower than them who got to play a home game the week prior

[@markosekulic119]

@@beckayshaw6083 that happened this season. You need way bigger sample size for any comparation .

[@1971kona]

In The last 6 years, national championship games have ALL been blowouts. The closest game was 33-18 back in 2022.

[@chs_ambs8356]

Yeah. That was total hypocrisy not letting Florida State in last year, then turning around and giving Georgia no. 2 this year.

[@robert2k9]

Lol it was 12 teams in the field unlike 4 teams from years past. Arguing this point is ridiculous

[@samplautz5586]

Not really. Florida state proved that they weren’t ready when Georgia beat the crap out of them

[@Mmmmmk247]

Georgia beat Texas after losing their QB, a much harder opponent than Louisville, however I agree because consistency matters

[@robert2k9]

@ The criteria changed. Auto-bids for conference champions were a result of that change. Consistency has nothing to do with these two different situations folks keep trying to compare.

[@outta_the_blue]

The goal of the playoff isn’t to have close games. While it’d be nice, the goal is to find ONE deserving winner

[@xiaxi]

Nah. The goal of the playoff has and always will be to make the most $$$ possible for the committee.

[@knutearmstrong5252]

The old playoffs and new years six were full of blow outs. The point of the expanded playoff is it will help level a recruiting gap and make more competitive games in future years

[@Pcbdude82]

Glad to see some people here have brain cells. You'll always going to have blow outs. But thus system needs time to cook. And it's already working. Because 2 of the 4 teams left, were out of the 4 team system. And frankly Texas should have been out of refs did their job.

[@mosart7025]

Will it level it if the smaller schools don't have the money/visibility that the big schools have? And what's to keep a guy that you pay a million at your school if another school offers him 2 million?

[@Johnnyhamcheck1]

@@mosart7025those smaller teams wouldn’t have competed in the past either.

[@grobble8954]

THE CFP expansion has nothing to do with closing recruiting gaps, it's about money. Other levels of fball have has a playoff for 40 years. FBS schools only wanted it when they were shown they can make more money than standard bowls. FYI. the gap is most likely going to get wider b/c of NIL directly from schools under the new rules coming and the NIL collectives are suing to make sure they have no regulation. NIL collectives(booster groups) are just going to pay kids whatever to come to their school. If a kid goes to G5 or a not so high profile power conference school, and say they have a good freshmen year, they will be paid to transfer to the big schools with deep pockets and massive NIL collectives.

[@danielrutstein2316]

Funny the new format would’ve been amazing if conference realignments never happened

[@bigbadjohn7053]

Reseed the 2nd round based on pre playoff ranking. If that were done this year, Oregon vs Arizona St, Georgia vs Boise St, Penn St vs ND, and Texas vs Ohio St. You can even the top 4 conference champs a bye week, but seed them appropriately.

[@BiggieTrismegistus]

I think the top 4 conference champions getting a bye but reseeding the second round based on the final playoff rankings is the way to go.

[@alwaysplaythegame]

Reseeding is fine, but you still have the problem of how those seeds are decided. You have Ohio State as a low seed but they were the #1 per Vegas (and probability of winning).

[@ChosenPlaysYT]

We’ve seen national champion games that are 30+ blowouts. NFL playoff games are 20+ points all the time. March Madness has 30+ blowouts every year. People are way overreacting to this year’s CFP.

[@Foggydidwhat]

The difference is that with the 12 team playoff format, the 5-6 teams that can actually win the natty from the preseason knowledge dwindle down to whatever number of teams that can actually win the natty at the start of the post season. (Using this year for reference, the realistic preseason contenders were Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Ohio st, and ND. 2 of them missed the playoffs, which is fine. But now there was a 12 team playoff that (if someone only knew the teams in the playoff and did not know how easy some paths were), only had 4-5 realistic teams that could string multiple quality wins together to win it all (Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Ohio st, and ND). Now with 4 teams left, 3 of the preseason/postseason realistic contenders are left, with the final spot attained to a Penn St team that got to play 2 G5 teams in SMU and Boise st to get to the semis (if given the Penn st playoff path, it is highly likely that 75% if not all 4 teams in the eliminated teams from the other bracket half consisting of Oregon/tenn/asu/georgia would have resulted in a semifinal birth (not to take credit away from psu for handling business against way lesser competition)). I agree that people are overreacting to blowouts. Since 2000, the 68 team playoff format for college basketball and the BCS/4 team playoff format for college football have resulted in the same amount of different schools winning the national championship. More playoff games does not mean the lesser teams actually have a chance of winning the national championship, it simply increases the chance for upset early on.

[@michaelknapp8961]

I’m an Oregon ducks fan and I think the lag time before games is way too long. The last time Oregon played in a game before OSU was December 7th. January first is almost 3 and a half weeks later. That’s too long of a wait. The committee has to make some changes with that.

[@scottwerner279]

Dude, byes are statistically good for well coached teams. Was ASU rusty? Or did the Bye week help a well coached team game plan for a really talented Texas?

[@a.p.5906]

Coaching and preparation is the key. Oregon's coaching and preparation was poor.

[@silastodd2668]

Ohio State played Tennessee 3 weeks after Michigan and looked great. Time off isn't the problem

[@SOLEFULkinn]

No excuses. It’s college also. Still have class to attend. Oregon got hit from start & froze up

[@nileswillis7992]

Nah..rust or not, Ohio State was just better.

[@careyfreeman5056]

Not just win a home game, but also pocket millions of dollars in revenue and exposure from said home game. I can't believe nobody brings this up. I'd feel cheated with a bye.

[@collinsjon13]

"Who's going to look at Greg Sankey in the face and say 'Your team doesn't make it'...?" So you're admitting that the SEC has impartial influence over the selection process? Who woulda thunk it?

[@casualarrogance]

Thought.

[@SenorHomeslice]

@@casualarrogance Thinkeried

[@roris5882]

No different then the SEC players who aren't allowed to be called for Targeting in the playoffs by the ESPN Playoff Review Officials.

[@CompetitionSportsNetwork]

Follow the money, the SEC has plenty of it.

[@calicojack3628]

Need to get the Bowl games out of the playoff. Playoffs should be in December and only the Championship game being a neutral site game. Oregon should have got a home playoff game.

[@t.k.1319]

All I know is Oregon shouldn’t have had to play OSU in the quarterfinals, and the top seeded teams should have had their Quarterfinal games at their home stadiums.

[@markosekulic119]

Its Ohio state fault that fell to 8place. Not Oregon. If Ohio state won against Michigan and even lost to Oregon they would be maybe 5,6 place on leader board.

[@kyledabearsfan]

OSU lost thats why they were seeded low enough to play Oregon. Thats a good system. Oregon was just overranked.

[@gsmegaphone]

Yeah this whole thing is a non-issue. We fans wanted the 12 team expansion because there were kids that deserved a shot than were previously getting in with a 4 team system. They got that shot this year. Sure, THIS year wasn’t as competitive, but unless that same thing happens year in and year out going forward the next 4-5 years, there is no reason to change it right now.

[@AntiMTVMovement]

It’s nonsensical to think that we should go back to not having a playoff. The regular season was never a playoff, and it’s nonsensical to ever think it was.

[@keaganmusic]

Top 4 RANKED teams get a BYE and get a home campus game in the QF. Campus games in the First Round and QF (which would be awesome).

[@greenlantern7959]

For a hundred years the “national champ” was ONE team that managed to win all their games. The only surprise so far is Oregon, and they lost to the OVERALL favorite up until the last week of the season. 4-team format, and UGA’s losses and having a backup QB might have left them out under the FSU rule. It’s Oregon, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and then an argument. You’re getting EXACTLY what everyone wanted. Unless you’re the SEC in a down year.

[@Daniel_Robinson]

Respectfully I think everyone is misunderstanding the “FSU” rule. The reason they were left out wasn’t because their qb got injured, it’s because they looked completely lifeless after that. For example, say I left out peanuts and you, allergic, eat them and die. It’s true I directly caused the end of your life, but it isn’t murder, because the real culprit was you eating them. If FSU looked even semi-good after the qb injury, they would have got in, but you can’t disagree they were clearly a much worse team. With Georgia, their qb went down, but they still looked great, so it’s a completely different situation. It’s why I get annoyed when commentators like in this video go “Georgia’s qb went down why aren’t they out?” It’s because they didn’t look like trash and a completely different team AFTER the qb went down. Now I do feel bad for FSU, as despite looking significantly worse they did win their games including the ACC champ, but if you watched that Louisville game you’d understand FSU was nowhere near a top 4 team in the nation

[@markosekulic119]

Buddy they played 2 games after loosing qb. Tell me what team has two great qb on their rooster ready set to go? No way would any good/top qb sit a year to be back up. ​@@Daniel_Robinson

[@ChristopherMcCloud-y4x]

@@Daniel_Robinsonthis is crap, FSU had a dominant defense, and proved it was deserving by winning its conference championship. Look at what Verse is doing in the NFL this year. Von Miller once shut down a MVP Cam Newton in the Superbowl. FSU should’ve been in the playoffs last year and these SEC teams that were supposed to be sooooo great, have turned out to be mediocre. FSU was screwed and I hate FSU but can still admit they were screwed.

[@alwaysplaythegame]

Just make the field 16 teams please. Solves most of these issues and gives us more football.

[@kyledabearsfan]

no it doesnt lol 12 is good enough, there already arent 12 teams that are good enough to be the champion. 16 just becomes stupid.

[@asentientroomba8054]

Simple format: 16 teams, no byes, top 5 conference champions plus 3 highest wild card teams host. Bring back the BCS (or some variation) for the rankings or go off the AP/coaches polls. Winning a conference should be valued (and will help create parity and avoid the tournament becoming the SEC invitational, which nobody living outside Alabama, Georgia, and Florida wants). Or conversely, make all the games neutral site and give automatic bids to all the conference champions, with seeding based on rankings.

[@fmfbrestel]

No conference championship games. No byes, 16 teams. First round on higher seed's home field.

[@alwaysplaythegame]

This is the way!

[@kwall337]

I was just about to write this. Then for the 2nd round on, all the games would be played in bowl games. They would just have to add another bowl or 2 in the rotation with the existing ones.

[@Lonely.Chrome]

Can’t get rid of conference championship games lol might as well not have conferences at that point

[@kyledabearsfan]

I think people are crying too much. "blowout" games happen. Its part of football. Even between 2 great teams, maybe one has a bad day. I think its a lot of crying for what weve seen every single year EVER. People need to stop whining.

[@Skyvernius]

if you want to fully fix the issue of the CFP you'd first have to get all the teams aligned into 4 or 8 conferences that each play the same amount of regular season games leading into a conference championship. That's where the NCAA and CFP selection committee needs to start if they want to minimize blowout games. Otherwise the four major bowls should be for the first four playoff games and if the bowl committee doesn't like it then they can pound sand and not be included in the playoffs at all. The second round should be bye teams home game. Third round the highest seed remaining gets home game. Championship predetermined neutral site.

[@TeezyHadaBaby]

I mean not all games across all sports are competitive. We’ve literally seen teams get blown out in superbowls, swept in the finals and eliminated by lesser teams during March madness.

[@nathanstruble2177]

Am I watching the same college football playoffs as everyone else? I feel like I'm not, cause I've seen exactly 1 blowout, meanwhile half of the games have been within 2 scores.

[@Alexwns33]

As an ASU fan the bye is a huge disadvantage. The first round winner played 10 days prior, meaning they are both rested and fresh. The bye didn't give us jordyn tyson back all it gave us was 30 days without a game. We got jumped on 17-3 then outplayed texas for the next 3 quarters. We couldn't execute in the red zone, Texas played great redzone d to be clear, but the timing just wasn't there

[@maikotter9945]

In the "bye weeks", the teams seeded 1to 4 in the playoffs, could have TEST GAMES, against those teams, not seeded 5 to 12 in the playoffs!

[@johnmcho]

If you want the regular season to matter, reward conference champions with an advantage. It's not hard.

[@roris5882]

So just give them a guaranteed playoff slot.

[@kyledabearsfan]

a playoff spot and first round bye arent enough? what else should the conference champions get? Should we maim any opposition player too? maybe tell the opposing teams they cant run during the game? How many more advantages do the conference champions deserve? lol such a deluded take

[@johnmcho]

@kyledabearsfan Not more. Just keep it the same.

[@okapi3202]

​@@kyledabearsfanI mean, having a home game for the quarterfinal seems fair for a conference champion. I think it's fair to reward a conference champion heavily.

[@sp33dygonzales1]

The teams that get a bye should get home field advantage

[@alexramage4840]

Or at least let them pick their bowl game. Multiple Bowl trips is a lot of traveling to do. Penn St just played in Tempe, next in Miami, and if they win, they go to Atlanta.

[@DK412724]

Football is unpredictable and fans love it. Who expected Army to win the AAC in their first year? Who thought Indiana would be a top 10 team? ASU was picked finish last in the Big 12 and won the conference, taking Texas to the wire. That's football and I wouldn't change a thing.

[@cambodennis]

It’s not fair to fans that they would have to go to 3-4 road games to support their team. We need more home games.

[@alfcmccoy]

Even if it's not what we expected, no one really complains about the NFL playoff because of the way it is structured. If the powers that be(it would have be NCAA but they don't care anymore) should set a structure where everyone can't come up with their own excuses to justify why they didn't like the outcome of the games.

[@BackyardAquatics-o2m]

i say no bye weeks for anyone, no conference champs automatically getting in, they could even get rid of conference championship games to make more room for the playoffs, bowl games are playoff games or just get rid of bowl games altogether. top 16 teams period by rank. #1 plays #16 etc. etc. top 8 teams get home field advantage in round 1.

[@hazegraystudios]

This is by far the biggest improvement we've ever had in NCAA football. Can't we just enjoy it?

[@pizzabatman2137]

One year is too small a sample, at least that’s what I think.

[@jamesjuneau6445]

Saying 7 of the 8 were blowouts shows you didnt watch them, boise vs penn state and texas vs clemson were pretty close u cant just look at the final score

[@nickh2935]

Problem? What problem is there? Teams are getting exposed and it’s great.

[@kyledabearsfan]

fr, but their fanbases cant take it. None of these scores are out of the ordinary, people just dont like the results. Conferences like the SEC have gotten so much favoritism for so long, people dont believe it when they arent getting sucked off

[@CamoJack-v9b]

I think penn st should have come to Boise n played on the blue…. We went to the fiesta bowl. It’s an awesome venue…but these bowls games should be reserved for the final four

[@johngetz8585]

Sure...and Boise should go to State College, in a whiteout, and get mauled.

[@kenyattaclay7666]

A couple weeks ago Night Cap did a segment on how important a bye week is for the playoffs and I left a comment saying that this whole bye stuff is way overblown. I got so much pushback and was told I didn’t know what I was talking about. Well, I’ll say it again, this whole bye stuff is overblown mostly because there’s no definitive evidence that it helps or hurts teams. Some teams handle it well & use it to get healthy but with other teams they get rusty. To me it’s like the old adage about momentum in baseball, it’s the next days starting pitcher. What if next year all four teams that get a bye win, then the year after that they go 2-2. Maybe we should see how things play out for a few seasons before talking about failures & changes.

[@andrew.van5]

The five conference champions SHOULD get an automatic bid BUT NOT a bye. Then (this might be controversial), I think reseeding after round 1 would be an interesting idea. That way it rewards the teams that are ranked #1 or even #2 more. For example, Oregon would've played the lowest ranked remaining team (idk who that would've been) but it rewards them for their season and they don't get screwed with bad matchups. Just an idea...

[@tidmarshXC]

Would've been: Arizona State-Oregon Boise State-Georgia Ohio State-Texas Notre Dame-Penn State

[@mikdavfle]

Arizona State alum here just to declare my bias in advance. I agree with all of that, but I would give the conference champs a guaranteed top 8 seed, meaning they either get a bowl game or a home game. Also, I suspect this will be a 16 team playoff soon because of what we saw in the first round games and Del Tufo's idea of making the 1st round games bowl games will never be accepted unless every game in a bowl game.

[@Pcbdude82]

For starters. The teams on a bye already got rewarded. They had to play one less game. Amd 2nd. Oregon played the highest remaining seed. Which was Ohio State. So even if you did reseed. Oregon vs Ohio State would have been the match up. Ohio State was seeded where they were because they lost to Michigan. Yeah it kinda sucks Oregon got the short end of the stick. Ohio State took the time to fix the problem. But if Oregon wants to win the national championship. Guess what? They were going to face Ohio State anyways. Whether it was q finals, Semi finals or the championship.

[@Pcbdude82]

​@@tidmarshXCArizona state was on a bye. So no they wouldn't have matched up with Oregon

[@andrew.van5]

@Pcbdude82 Your first point is valid. I don't think I made my idea very clear which is on me, but in this fake scenario (taking the top 5 conference champs and NOT giving them a bye) and then reseeding after the first round would've probably put Oregon vs Boise or Arizona State because they wouldn't have been a top 4 seed (in my scenario). And with the reseeding, there could be instances where a team is the so-called 8 seed but for the next round could be the 6 seed based on other matchups and who is remaining. Idk if that made any sense but that's the idea (it definitely would need more clear guidelines).

[@jameskingsbery3644]

There's no good way to do a college football playoff system without a deep overhaul of the system. College football still has the system of an amateur competition, while practically being a professional minor league.

[@wyattboyer5780]

Teams like Boise State and Arizona State don't want the bye. They would prefer a first-round game on national tv they can reliably win. Better exposure means donors and recruits.

[@masterflex2349]

First and second round home games then the final four and championship bowl games

[@camicawber]

This is a much better idea that moving the New Year's bowl games up to before Christmas. It might require the playoff to start a week earlier, but that feels like a much better idea than moving the New Year's Day bowl games to December 20.

[@brians23]

Ohio State had a home and home scheduled with Oregon, I believe the game at Oregon was originally scheduled for 2020 and this was a makeup for that turned conference game

[@thecommish1976]

I really like this format. Love the first-round games on campus. It is almost better to host one of these first-round games from a financial standpoint as the school can rake in a lot more money in terms of concessions, hotels, restaurants, etc. Blowouts are going to happen, and people are going to be upset that their team is out of the 12, but it was good to see schools like SMU, Boise, Arizona State get a fair chance.

[@bwcbiz]

Before you change anything you have to decide: Is the problem the format of the playoff or that the bye teams were overrated?

[@benjymartinios]

- Extend to 16 teams - Purely based on top 25 ranking - don’t have a bye week for top seeds - remove conference champions lock into the top 4 - Same amount of weeks, nobody has bye week issues, and the top 8 teams get home field for the first round - then the remaining games are the quarter finals bowl games and semi finals and championship game are all at neutral sites

[@nathanaelboyd2017]

The 12 team playoff worked how it was designed to. The teams with bye weeks just weren’t as good as the teams without it

[@alanmartin6436]

A bye means you can't lose in that round.

[@kdhawk02]

The bye-week teams didn't sit an extra week from their last game compared to the first-round teams. It was only an extra 3-4 days (23-24 days vs 20-21). The advantage the bye-week teams have is they only have to win three games to win the National Championship while the other 8 have to win four. That's a huge advantage in football where injuries play a big factor in success.

[@nankam]

It's hard to make a good playoff format when so many compromises are needed to appease all the conferences, the conference championship games, and the bowl system. I don't see it improving unless the SEC and B1G end up making that super conference one day and decide to do their own exclusive playoffs.

[@michaelreilly7106]

To make it short, Rich Eisen was not entertained. ‘Are you not entertained?!!’

[@DennyJr22]

The bye isn't that big of an advantage. First round teams all received between 10 and 13 days of rest after their first game instead of the standard 7. That's plenty of time to recover and prepare for an opponent. I understand trying to keep big games around the historically big game New Year's Day and Christmas being exactly a week earlier making timing difficult, but making the time between games closer to a week would give bye teams a bigger advantage.

[@Outlaw8908]

Unfortunately it has a companion problem. NIL and the portal have been allowed to create an actual problem. There needs to be new rules that limit tampering, transfers, when transfers happen, a cap on eligibility, and getting exposure to smaller schools so they can compete with the bigger schools. As for seeding problems, bringing back conference divisions, winning the conference, and of course breaking up Super conferences.

[@BrandonH321]

Treat it like basketball. Top 5 conference champs are guaranteed a spot, but their seeding is based on talent.

[@charliemirus4124]

Just like the NFL, and people wanting to change that playoff with the Lions/Vikings situation this year, there’s no need to change anything. Reward champions. If you’re going to do anything, give the conference champions the chance to waive the buy. If you’re going to change anything, and you give give the top 4 seeds (regardless of conference, etc.), you need to make sure any other conference champs AT LEAST get a home game round one.

[@KleyDeJong]

Blowouts in the first round is not a problem. The 1 seed usually blows out the 16 seed in MM. Whoever wins the natty earns it by winning games. Good system.

[@adamredden2007]

What problem? You guys are the best out there, and even you insist on making a problem where there isn't one.

[@kyletucker3811]

There's no way to equitably structure the games without getting rid of the conference championship games. The best format I could suggest is this: - First two rounds are on campus games. - the first round begins the week after conference championships - Top 4 seeds get bye's. - Once it's down to 4x teams, you have the games on neutral sites at two of the NY6 Bowls. The highest seeded eliminated teams go to the remaining NY6 bowls. - National Championship Game on Neutral site. In the end, I just think the conference championships need to go. Contrary to what it might feel like, having an actual game to determine the conference champion is actually new. If you don't hold those the process is a lot smoother: - After final week, teams are ranked and seeded. The Top 4 seeds get a first round bye. - A week after the season (normally Conference Championship Week) the first round happens, higher seeds get home games. - Round 2 the Top 4 host playoff games at their stadiums. - Two week break until Round 3, hosted at 2x NY6 bowls. Similar to the first scenario, two of the other bowls will host the four highest seeded eliminated teams. - National Championship the next week. It's far more efficient, far more equitable, and still incentivizes teams to get into the playoffs so they can play in a major bowl. If I had my druthers, the seeding would fall in line with the rankings.

[@Pcbdude82]

While I agree with a lot of what you said. Conference champion game needs to stay. And winning your conference needs reward. We need to take control away from the committee. Just doing 4 highest ranking teams. Let's them decide who gets the bye. I think the only way that truly works is by forcing all conferences to play 9 games. And then each conference has to play 1 game against an another p4. So Oregon for example has to play a sec team, acc team and Big 12 team. This unfortunately pushes out teams like Boise. And forces ND to join a conference. But it will gives everyone a true understanding of who's best 12 and more deserving

[@evancovello1932]

I don’t love adding more teams but I’m sick of bye weeks in every sport. I don’t want to hear excuses of “the bye week hurts more than it helps.” Add enough teams to eliminate the BYE.

[@brians23]

There were blowouts with 4 teams. Fact is some years there are only 1-2 worthy teams. Throwing more teams would make it even worse.

[@josephcernansky1794]

2016...Big 10 Champ Penn State that beat anOSU in regular season gets excluded by "Committee" because, "We think anOSu is better, even though Penn State BEAT them on the field." First Round....Clemson 31....anOSU (the "better team") - ZERO!!!

[@roris5882]

​@@josephcernansky1794 Penn State had 2 regular season losses and Ohio State only had 1. But Penn State was the better team that season.

[@BooAndLittlezDaddy]

I did analysis on playoffs back in 2010 based on the issues facing the bowls in the 2000’s… seemed to me that there was never more than 5 or 6 real legit contenders for a national champ… my suggestion was top 6 final ranked teams compete in a 3 round playoff…3 v 6, 4 v 5, with winners moving on to play 1 and 2, who earned byes. Making the playoffs larger than that is trying to enable Cinderellas…and I just don’t think CFB lends itself well to that.

[@riddikk187]

It doesn't matter what happens because people will still bitch about some undeserving SEC team not getting in.

[@matthewklug9061]

What we forget is that these are very young men playing. Any break with a bye can make a team rusty. Should have been an 8 team playoff no byes

[@mitchtillison]

Participating conferences should follow the same guidelines for championship games and number of inter-conference matches. Seed the tournament according to a weighted system that looks at all three major polls. A conference champion that is crowned without a championship game should be weighted lower than those that do. Top 22 teams that play fewer than 9 conference match-ups should also be weighted lower.

[@givem110]

Can go round and round about all this forever but it's been made this way because the networks needed more games. There's never going to be a year where there's more than 4 elite teams or a year where 12 teams deserve a shot at the title. The regular season was kinda pointless when Oregon gets beat immediately after being #1 and undefeated and Georgia wins the sec with the toughest schedule by far out of the playoff teams. The conferences are so lopsided that it's now a big disadvantage to be in the sec. That's the lesson of this year.

[@ld4974]

How is it a disadvantage to be in the SEC? The conference still got 3 teams in. Hard to argue that any of the SEC teams left out should have been in the CFP.

[@roris5882]

The SEC isn't as dominant as they used to be.

[@iamtheeldestboy]

I thought it was really weird that the first round losing teams didn't get to play in a bowl game at all. What if Tennessee, Clemson, SMU, and Indiana got matched up accordingly between two bowl games. Let's just say it's the Fiesta and Peach. Then the second round is also hosted at the top 4 seeds stadium. Then, the losing teams Oregon, Georgia, Boise St, and Arizona State get matched up between the Rose and Sugar Bowls. Then in the semifinal is a neutral site between the final four teams. And these obviously rotate every year. Meaning next season Orange and Cotton will be the first round bowls of the losing squads and so on.

[@johnkerry6312]

The first year you can go 10-2, lose a late game, not win a conference and make a 'ship run

[@Kevo193]

I’m fine with the first round bye for conference champions but I don’t think they deserve the 1-4 seeds so there should be reseeding after the first round. Also do away with the dedicated stadiums for Bowl games and have them on campus

[@sirpihbalot]

New years day should be the national championship game...playoff teams don't need to get a one month break. The NFL can work their schedule around all of it

[@shawnhenderson2091]

I keep saying it, the Vegas oddsmakers should decide the final playoff rankings, they are unbiased and rank IAW team ability and quality.

[@littlebittycustoms923]

The only way it ever works out fair is to have the top three teams from each P4. rankings are bias BS. Let the G5 have their own champ.

[@roris5882]

The G-8 Conferences can't compete with the Super 2.

[@manuelmedina8427]

The time off was advantage Georgia, time to install a backup as a starter. Boise st played Oregon better than Ohio state did the first time. Both were one point losses but the broncos held Oregon to less points.

[@ringostarrBestBeatle]

georgia also lost their starting qb. if they had beck i bet they win or it's a neck and neck game. asu deserved a win also and that changes the narrative drastically.

[@ld4974]

The narrative from Georgia fans was that Gunner was an upgrade. Just saying.

[@ringostarrBestBeatle]

@ and they were wrong

[@roris5882]

ND would have probably won by 30+ against Beck.

[@nathanstruble2177]

The committee has me convinced that losing your starting QB is a kiss of death...

[@MarkLillvis]

You just made a great argument that the current system worked

[@jerryjones2818]

In the New College Football, with the transfer portal and NIL, comparing this year to last year is almost apples and oranges. Gollege teams no longer stay mostly the same for 2 or 3 year intervals, they can change overnight now. Let the new playoff system run for a few years , collect more data., before demanding changes. Ratings, of course, will determine what is :successful"

[@VRKyurem]

I think the more you think about the current playoff rules the more it actually makes sense

[@LakeFX]

Rich Eisen isn't affiliated with ESPN anymore.

[@Donkor640]

My solution is to send the non conference winning teams to the first round bowl games that count as the first round of the playoffs. Then make round two home games at the conference winners field. Get rid of the Conference Championship games so we don’t end up having to see those games repeat a couple weeks later.

[@detroitbucknut]

maybe the top four ranked teams should have played better?

[@alexramage4840]

Did the bye matter? Not when everyone effectively has bye weeks. A bye matters in the NFL b/c the season ends and the next week starts the playoffs. In college, season ended and everyone got 2-3 weeks off. Some teams played in round one which helps shake off rust/get timing back. After winning round 1, those teams still got 10-11 days of prep. So a bye in college, the way it’s currently structured, isn’t as big a deal

[@Revolver1701]

Georgia’s backup quarterback was good, but not first ever start being a playoff game against Notre Game “good.”

[@PerfectNeon_]

Do people forget that OSU, Tenn, PSU, IU and ND all had the same amount of time off by not playing in a conference championship? Last time i checked 3 of those teams made the final 4...

[@mikejohnson7225]

The system is perfect the way it is.

[@chrisc6015]

They need a 16 team playoff. 20 days or more is too long of a rest. And there’s going to be some years where a team is coming on strong with the potential to win it all, but had some mess ups before and will not make the top 12.

[@shysgarage2405]

All of these college football games need to be done by no later than the beginning of the second week of January... And the NFL needs to be done by the end of January...

[@dennisgannon]

24 days off is too long for most teams, it wasn't just "a week" off. The seeding in March Madness is better than the current College Football seeding. Top seeds should play the lowest seeds. The long postponement is stupid, they should have the playoffs sooner.

[@Alexdad84]

Everyone keeps saying "bye week" when it was a bye month. The teams that won got a good scrimmage/game in and weren't rusty. A month is a long time. Just shorten the time.

[@garse70]

Give the conference champions a home game. They’ve earned it.

[@bilba5406]

Oregon wasn’t screwed by the format. Oregon was screwed because Ryan Day choked against Michigan resulting in Ohio State being underseeded.

[@MrBrunoGI]

What's wrong, the teams with bi weeks had the advantage abd they blew it. They came out flat thats on them. Next time have a plan to circumvent the rust.

[@roris5882]

Ohio State didn't have rust after getting humiliated by Michigan and being off 3 weeks.

[@PureBleachFilms]

The 4 team playoff had blowouts…since there isn’t actually 12 good teams what do you expect lol

[@Kinlochbervie50]

whatever the solution is, it needs to be based on a system of merit and not opinion. that may mean figuring a quota of places per Conferences that qualify for the CFP at the very start of the season. In soccer in Europe, there is a 'coefficient' system which determines how many teams from each national league get to qualify for the European-wide Champions League. the better teams from a nation do in the Champions League itself, the more it contributes to that respective national league's coefficient and it means the better teams qualify, and there is a more competitive tournament. also, it means everyone knows what they are competing for at the very start of the season.

[@grobble8954]

Simple, seed properly. If you seeded 1 thru 12 with no regard for conference champs, then the match ups look way better. ...ie... you would have gotten a Boise/Indiana 1st round match up, etc...Conf championship should guarantee a spot only (like they do in NCAA bball), shouldn't be related to byes. Also, all the teams with byes lost. I mentioned this prior, not playing for 3 1/2 weeks is not good. All the bye teams looked rusty. While playing a first round game you have a chance to lose, you don't get rusty sitting around for 3 to 3 1/2 weeks