With the Big Ten and Pac-12 moving to only in conference play this upcoming season, there is an opportunity to look at the current 4-team system and make a change that will make more sense. If I had to guess by the time the season starts at least the power 5 and group of 5 conference teams will go to only in conference play.
To preface this even before the pandemic I was in favor of the them expanding the playoff system. But now with the possibility of only playing games in conference, their will not be significant non-conference games such as, USC v. Bama, OH. St v. Oregon, WI v. ND, Mich v. Wash and Penn St. v. VA Tech. This is still a long way off but when it comes to the playoff they should making it eight teams instead of four. One argument against expanding it right now is the amount of games that they are playing, with non conference games canceled that they now have more weeks to work with.
The way to see who makes the playoff doesn’t need to be complicated, if you the NCAA wants to put all of this stock into being in the Power 5 then they need to show it. Give automatic bids to the conference champions from the Power 5 (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, PAC-12), make three more “at-large” bids that the committee chooses, then choose how they should be seeded in the playoff. This way you put some real stock into winning your conference championship and give schools in the Group of 5 or a different school a chance to play for the National Title. With this you are not taking anything away from anyone, you give the talking heads on ESPN more things to argue about, you can keep the New Years Six bowl games in play, and college football fans have more games to look forward to. Also, if your team loses a second game right now with the current system you can pretty much kiss the playoff goodbye. With this system you are giving fans hope deeper into the season, if your team can make it to the conference championship game you still have a shot at the playoffs.
Bowls games are huge for the NCAA, both in viewership and money. The New Years Six bowls are considered as the best bowls in games. Currently, they pick two of those bowls each year to be in the playoff and rotate them out each year. You would still be able to do that with this system, you could make the first four games bowl games and then just have the semi-final then championship. Or you could make all six games bowl games, yes two schools would have two bowls in one year but it’s just another option. This is something that can also be worked out by the committee.
Why is March Madness so exciting? It’s the upsets, the chance that a small school can take down one of the blue bloods. Now, football is a lot different when it comes to smaller schools beating bigger schools. Although it has happened in the past, think of Appalachian St over Michigan, North Dakota St over Iowa, so it has happened before. If you have the top team from the Group of Five playing the PAC-12 champ, that is going to be a very competitive game. Eight teams will be more competitive, more fair when it comes to who should get in and overall better to watch for fans. The season could be on hold with the pandemic, so I think the brain trust of college football should be getting together to discuss these options.
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