We Could Solve the Playoff Nonsense

[Vol in Buckeye Land]

There’s no need to expand the playoff even further, adding to an already lengthy, taxing season for the student-athletes. The solution to avoid the chaos and endless debates is simple:
mandate OOC games with other power 4 teams.

6-game conference schedule.
3 games against a team from each of the other P4 conferences
3 patsies.

Notre Dame would have to join a conference, figure something out to play 9 P4 opponents, or be left out in the cold.

For example, our schedule in a given year could be:
Cupcake
Wake Forest
Cupcake
Kansas State
Florida
Auburn
Alabama
Michigan State
Cupcake
Kentucky
Texas
Vandy

You get that many cross-conference matchups, and it would dispel any illusions about the relative strength of the conferences. The potential for big TV numbers would be there too.

Every player who stayed only 3 years would get to play every SEC opponent at least once, and every Power 4 team would play every other Power 4 team about once in a generation, unless you did home/home, in which case it would take 35 years or so to get through everyone. That’s still pretty good considering there are other historic programs we’ve only played once all-time, have never played, or haven’t played in 50 years.

 

[KINGSVOL]

There’s no need to expand the playoff even further, adding to an already lengthy, taxing season for the student-athletes. The solution to avoid the chaos and endless debates is simple:
mandate OOC games with other power 4 teams.

6-game conference schedule.
3 games against a team from each of the other P4 conferences
3 patsies.

Notre Dame would have to join a conference, figure something out to play 9 P4 opponents, or be left out in the cold.

For example, our schedule in a given year could be:
Cupcake
Wake Forest
Cupcake
Kansas State
Florida
Auburn
Alabama
Michigan State
Cupcake
Kentucky
Texas
Vandy

You get that many cross-conference matchups, and it would dispel any illusions about the relative strength of the conferences. The potential for big TV numbers would be there too.

Every player who stayed only 3 years would get to play every SEC opponent at least once, and every Power 4 team would play every other Power 4 team about once in a generation, unless you did home/home, in which case it would take 35 years or so to get through everyone. That’s still pretty good considering there are other historic programs we’ve only played once all-time, have never played, or haven’t played in 50 years.

I agree with most of that, how about 2 cupcakes so you could have a bye week.
The bye week for ALL conferences would week 6 or 7 to keep it even.
And to add to the money maker and to make it fair....all the OOC games have to be neutral site games. Imagine going to see the Vols play PSU in Green Bay, Syracuse in Dallas and Colorado in Las Vegas!

 

[Voltopia]

Wait, so ... less SEC games each year, less regional relevance, less control over the system, and then more games that make Tennessee and our fans travel further?

Mmm. That's a hard no from me, dog.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

It’s a clown show.

 

[DaddyChad]

Notre Dame. Join a conference or lose a game to a team like NIU and sit your ass at home.

What will happen is Notre Dame will get a team like Penn State in the first round. SEC teams will be matched up against each other to eliminate each other.

 

[Carl Pickens]

F Notre Dame

 

[stolitonic]

Nope.

6 conference games just means you're gonna have more chaos when it comes time to declare a champion


If anything we need 9 conference games by this point.

I would not be opposed to a 13 game regular season either. At this point, you probably need the extra OOC home games to pay for your own infrastructure. Require one of them to be a P4 school and go from there.

Nobody is even bothering with the student athlete nonsense anymore so lets call it what it is and be done with it. A minor league football organization for the NFL where the teams are roughly attached to colleges.

 

[VolnGermany]

Drop automatic bids to conference champs, and drop having the top G5 team in. Go by top 12 only.
That may not solve all the problems, but what I guarantee is that it will change in some way within 3-5 years.

 

[Dadof2Vols]

How about just top 16 strength of record….no byes

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Just replace one OOC game with one more conference game. That would take care of a lot of it. It would help with conference record gridlock too.

 

[Oldvoldad]

There’s no need to expand the playoff even further, adding to an already lengthy, taxing season for the student-athletes. The solution to avoid the chaos and endless debates is simple:
mandate OOC games with other power 4 teams.

6-game conference schedule.
3 games against a team from each of the other P4 conferences
3 patsies.

Notre Dame would have to join a conference, figure something out to play 9 P4 opponents, or be left out in the cold.

For example, our schedule in a given year could be:
Cupcake
Wake Forest
Cupcake
Kansas State
Florida
Auburn
Alabama
Michigan State
Cupcake
Kentucky
Texas
Vandy

You get that many cross-conference matchups, and it would dispel any illusions about the relative strength of the conferences. The potential for big TV numbers would be there too.

Every player who stayed only 3 years would get to play every SEC opponent at least once, and every Power 4 team would play every other Power 4 team about once in a generation, unless you did home/home, in which case it would take 35 years or so to get through everyone. That’s still pretty good considering there are other historic programs we’ve only played once all-time, have never played, or haven’t played in 50 years.

I prefer a mandated 9 game conf schedule. That way less chance of avoiding good teams inside your own league.

 

[deatojl]

I like the idea of what you are saying. I would like to see something like this for each conference who wants to qualify for the playoff:
8 Conference games
3 OOC-must be one from each other P4 conference
1 OOC G5 opponent
1 FCS payday game-must be an in state school or closest proximity if in state is not available

If the G5 leagues want to be considered for the playoff, they must play 1 team from each P4 conference. G5 teams do not get a "payday" from P4 teams. If they want a seat at the big table, they need to operate like a big table team. If they want the "payday" games, they can compete with lower level teams in the postseason.

No conference championship games
16 team playoff with no automatic conference champ qualifier and no first round byes
That gives everyone a 13 game schedule with the same amount of rest between end of season and postseason

 

[Sudden Impact]

You can't emulate a NFL playoff Schedule without balance scheduling.
Figure it out but to appease everybody the Top 16 teams is the only way to go in a playoff.
Doesn't fix anything because there will be a 17th team that deserves to go.
We never expect a team in the NFL to go undefeated in the regular season.
It has happen twice in the history because of balanced scheduling and any given Sunday
You are either going to emulate the NFL or not.
We are in the halfway house with Committees, history and money.

 

[sami]

There’s no need to expand the playoff even further, adding to an already lengthy, taxing season for the student-athletes. The solution to avoid the chaos and endless debates is simple:
mandate OOC games with other power 4 teams.

6-game conference schedule.
3 games against a team from each of the other P4 conferences
3 patsies.

Notre Dame would have to join a conference, figure something out to play 9 P4 opponents, or be left out in the cold.

For example, our schedule in a given year could be:
Cupcake
Wake Forest
Cupcake
Kansas State
Florida
Auburn
Alabama
Michigan State
Cupcake
Kentucky
Texas
Vandy

You get that many cross-conference matchups, and it would dispel any illusions about the relative strength of the conferences. The potential for big TV numbers would be there too.

Every player who stayed only 3 years would get to play every SEC opponent at least once, and every Power 4 team would play every other Power 4 team about once in a generation, unless you did home/home, in which case it would take 35 years or so to get through everyone. That’s still pretty good considering there are other historic programs we’ve only played once all-time, have never played, or haven’t played in 50 years.

I don't like the less regional approach, but the only way you could do this is if the conference championship games were eliminated. Reducing the amount of conference games only makes the conference championships that much more meaningless, and with the playoffs those games are superfluous other than the $$$$$.

I'd rather have 9 SEC games and eliminate the SECCG.

 

[sami]

I agree with most of that, how about 2 cupcakes so you could have a bye week.
The bye week for ALL conferences would week 6 or 7 to keep it even.
And to add to the money maker and to make it fair....all the OOC games have to be neutral site games. Imagine going to see the Vols play PSU in Green Bay, Syracuse in Dallas and Colorado in Las Vegas!

Couldn't disagree more. Fair or not, games at campus sites are one of the last of the things that make college football the greatest sport. It's becoming more like the NFL every year, and having a bunch of sterile neutral sites games week in and week out would kill the sport.

 

[youre no daisy]

brought up in prev thread , but kinda same model I mentioned before , 8 conf games and your ooc games with the other power conf would be schd as conf champs play each other the following year , 2s play 2s , 3s play 3s and so on and the cupcake instate game

 

[VOLfrombama]

16 teams fixes the auto bid nonsense. We will see that format sooner than any other.

4 auto bids plus the top 12. Of course #13 will still cry but there's no end to that.

 

[camp_steveo]

Make it 32 team playoff like Coach Mike Leach said.

RIP CML

Go Vols!

 

[17Vols]

Nope.

6 conference games just means you're gonna have more chaos when it comes time to declare a champion


If anything we need 9 conference games by this point.

I would not be opposed to a 13 game regular season either. At this point, you probably need the extra OOC home games to pay for your own infrastructure. Require one of them to be a P4 school and go from there.

Nobody is even bothering with the student athlete nonsense anymore so lets call it what it is and be done with it. A minor league football organization for the NFL where the teams are roughly attached to colleges.

This. The problem isn’t the CFP format, it’s the conferences inability to determine its internal ranking without requiring an elaborate tiebreaker system. More conference games helps. Or going back to divisions. I’d rather see a 9 or even 10 game conference schedule, however I don’t see 10 games working with only 12 total games across the NCAA.

 

[Nationdom]

11 conference games and then one game against another power 4 program that is equal to your program historically(we would play Penn state). All games are fun and meaningful and no more wasted Saturdays with Kent state and Utep

 

[sami]

Know what I would love in a fantasy world? A 12-game SEC schedule, and then a four team SEC playoff to determine the SEC, and therefore national champion. No wasted games against FCS teams or low level "P4" teams, no "committees" and worrying about pretenders like Indiana, Penn State, BYU, Boise State, and whoever else bumping a team that has gone through the SEC meat grinder at 10-2.

Honestly, I have no need whatsoever to see any football outside of the only conference that matters.

 

[ntxVOL]

Ok, no one else has said this so I will.

You can't mandate that every P4 team schedule 3 P4 OOC teams from 3 different conferences.

The conferences are different sizes, the scheduling won't work.

 

[GreveHaller]

Only conference winners play in the cf playoff. Your championship game is your first round

 

[youre no daisy]

Ok, no one else has said this so I will.

You can't mandate that every P4 team schedule 3 P4 OOC teams from 3 different conferences.

The conferences are different sizes, the scheduling won't work.

n dame to the acc ,and g5 top 4 fill out the rest

 

[Big Al Orange]

F Notre Dame

Penn State to !!