SI: Barry Alvarez Calls for Expanded Playoff System

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per SI:

The College Football Playoff is almost here, but several notable figures within college football are calling for an expanded playoff system with eight teams, according to a report by The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.

"Everyone has the same feeling; expansion is inevitable," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told The Athletic. “When you can do it, and I think we need to serve more people. I think four was the right way to get started. In my opinion, we need to take a look of adding more teams into the playoff, giving more opportunities."

Alvarez, who sat on the CFP's selection committee from 2014 to ’16, expressed his concern that the SEC is getting a regular spot in the playoff while other leagues spend multiple years on the outside looking in.

"I don’t know whether we’re serving all of our people now, when you have some leagues—our league (the Big Ten) as an example," Alvarez said. "Two years in a row, we don’t have anyone represented. The Big 12’s been the same way. The Pac-12’s been the same way."

The playoff began in 2015, and Alabama has been a participant each year. The Big Ten champion has been left out of the playoff for the past three seasons, while the Pac-12 has missed it in three of the last four.

https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/12/12/playoff-expansion-teams-barry-alvarez-wisconsin

Go Gophers!!
 

I agree with Barry.

We can believe Alabama is the best team annual, and they have won it more times than not, but the fact is you are skipping the PAC12 and part of the midwest every year.
The teams in those divisions might not be any worse, but with the small cross section of games being played between the conferences, it's hard to really justify if a league is up or down.

With most games being against conference opponents, it's hard to say if a league is up or down. At best what you have is a league where teams are competitive from top to bottom or you have a top-heavy league like the ACC and SEC seem to be the last couple years, where Pac12 and Big Ten have been more balanced top to bottom.
 

I think an eight team playoff makes sense. Put it together like this:

SEC Champion
ACC Champion
B1G Champion
B12 Champion
PAC Champion
GO5 Highest Ranked
WC1
WC2

Notre Dame would have to be a Wild Card (WC) which would also allow for the highest rated team outside the conference champs. Could call this the SEC runner-up spot but eventually they will lose their dominance. Group of 5 would get their chance against the top seed! And we would need a committee to rank the 8 teams to see who gets the home games and the extra revenue.

So this year we would have:
#1 Alabama hosting #8 Washington
# 4 Oklahoma hosting #5 Georgia
#3 Notre Dame hosting #6 Ohio State
#2 Clemson hosting #UCF

This would be fun.
 
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8 is possible. 6 would be more likely. Baby steps, is how deals get made, between opposing agendas/factions.

The big, big debate is going to be exactly that: do you have auto-bids for P5 champions, or not? The P5 (especially the PAC, Big Ten, and Big 12) will push hard for yes. TV networks will push hard for no, wanting the best possible ratings for every game.

Will be interesting.


The really, really interesting thing would be if they did 6 with five P5 champions plus one wild card, say the highest rated non P5 team or Notre Dame. Would that be enough to force Notre Dame to join a conference in football???
 

8 is great. 4 games on January 1st. Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Rose Bowl. Semi Final is the week after, the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl. Then the Championship Bowl.
 


8 is great. 4 games on January 1st. Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Rose Bowl. Semi Final is the week after, the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl. Then the Championship Bowl.

I'd rather see a "Plus 3" than a true 8 team bracket. They're similar. Here's how it works:

1) "Semi Finals" -- this just the regular bowls, as they're meant to be played. Big Ten vs PAC champions in the Rose, SEC champion in the Sugar, ACC champion in the Orange. Fill in and contracts with conferences (and Notre Dame) for the rest. Play the bowls through NYD.

2) Re-rank the teams after the bowl games

3) then you have a 4 team bracket after that, with the three games going to bid out stadium sites (just like the championship game does now)



I like giving the bowls their own, traditional attention, as they deserve, then doing the playoff separately, after that.
 

I'd rather see a "Plus 3" than a true 8 team bracket. They're similar. Here's how it works:

1) "Semi Finals" -- this just the regular bowls, as they're meant to be played. Big Ten vs PAC champions in the Rose, SEC champion in the Sugar, ACC champion in the Orange. Fill in and contracts with conferences (and Notre Dame) for the rest. Play the bowls through NYD.

2) Re-rank the teams after the bowl games

3) then you have a 4 team bracket after that, with the three games going to bid out stadium sites (just like the championship game does now)



I like giving the bowls their own, traditional attention, as they deserve, then doing the playoff separately, after that.

I actually love this idea.
 

8 is possible. 6 would be more likely. Baby steps, is how deals get made, between opposing agendas/factions.

The big, big debate is going to be exactly that: do you have auto-bids for P5 champions, or not? The P5 (especially the PAC, Big Ten, and Big 12) will push hard for yes. TV networks will push hard for no, wanting the best possible ratings for every game.

Will be interesting.


The really, really interesting thing would be if they did 6 with five P5 champions plus one wild card, say the highest rated non P5 team or Notre Dame. Would that be enough to force Notre Dame to join a conference in football???

Why go 6?
Six barely solves anything.
 

12 team playoff. All 10 FBS conference champions and 2 wild cards. Top 4 get first round byes. Seeded kind of like March Madness with the small conference schools most often assigned the worst seeds. But they are given a chance.

A lot of the magic of the basketball tournament is that anyone in theory has a chance. Both at the start of the season and in the tourney if you qualify. This format would put to rest the (real) concerns that half the NCAA has no shot even if they go 13-0.
 



per SI:

The College Football Playoff is almost here, but several notable figures within college football are calling for an expanded playoff system with eight teams, according to a report by The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach.

"Everyone has the same feeling; expansion is inevitable," Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told The Athletic. “When you can do it, and I think we need to serve more people. I think four was the right way to get started. In my opinion, we need to take a look of adding more teams into the playoff, giving more opportunities."

Alvarez, who sat on the CFP's selection committee from 2014 to ’16, expressed his concern that the SEC is getting a regular spot in the playoff while other leagues spend multiple years on the outside looking in.

"I don’t know whether we’re serving all of our people now, when you have some leagues—our league (the Big Ten) as an example," Alvarez said. "Two years in a row, we don’t have anyone represented. The Big 12’s been the same way. The Pac-12’s been the same way."

The playoff began in 2015, and Alabama has been a participant each year. The Big Ten champion has been left out of the playoff for the past three seasons, while the Pac-12 has missed it in three of the last four.

https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/12/12/playoff-expansion-teams-barry-alvarez-wisconsin

Go Gophers!!

Shocking!
 

Eight is the bare minimum to provide legitimacy. It's also the maximum, due to the number of games required.

JTG
 

Why go 6?
Six barely solves anything.

Just depends on what "problem", if any, you think should be solved.

Alvarez is just making a thinly veiled complaint that the Big Ten has been shut out for two years. He thinks the Big Ten should automatically be in the playoff every year. That's all.
 

6 would be fine with me. All 5 conferences get one in. A wild card which SHOULD go to the best non power 5 team. In 2 of the last 10 years, that would be ND. But would also get the Boise's, and UCFs in there for a shot as well, which is what I really want. Every FBS team should have a chance at the start of the year to win the national championship. That's all I care about.
 



6 would be fine with me. All 5 conferences get one in. A wild card which SHOULD go to the best non power 5 team. In 2 of the last 10 years, that would be ND. But would also get the Boise's, and UCFs in there for a shot as well, which is what I really want. Every FBS team should have a chance at the start of the year to win the national championship. That's all I care about.

I'd like this too. I think this is the best possible "baby step", if one can be taken.

Not sure if TV will go for it ... or at least, they won't want to pay a considerable amount more for it.
 

6 would be fine with me. All 5 conferences get one in. A wild card which SHOULD go to the best non power 5 team. In 2 of the last 10 years, that would be ND. But would also get the Boise's, and UCFs in there for a shot as well, which is what I really want. Every FBS team should have a chance at the start of the year to win the national championship. That's all I care about.

The top two non power 5 teams should play to get the 6th spot.
It would be their ‘conference championship game’.
I don’t think a team should get that last spot without playing the extra game.
 

I think an eight team playoff makes sense. Put it together like this:

SEC Champion
ACC Champion
B1G Champion
B12 Champion
PAC Champion
GO5 Highest Ranked
WC1
WC2

Notre Dame would have to be a Wild Card (WC) which would also allow for the highest rated team outside the conference champs. Could call this the SEC runner-up spot but eventually they will lose their dominance. Group of 5 would get their chance against the top seed! And we would need a committee to rank the 8 teams to see who gets the home games and the extra revenue.

So this year we would have:
#1 Alabama hosting #8 Washington
# 4 Oklahoma hosting #5 Georgia
#3 Notre Dame hosting #6 Ohio State
#2 Clemson hosting #UCF

This would be fun.

Exactly what I want
 




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