What a 32-team bracket might have looked like

[Quaoarsking]

Based on the Big 10 proposal of a 28- or 32-team bracket with no conference championship games and at least 1 bid from every conference, so the first round would be this coming weekend. Rather than seeding strictly 1-32, I think they could have 4 each of 1 through 8 seeds in order to avoid rematches and spread the conferences around.

Personally, I think this would be a lot of fun. There would still be a few bubble teams upset (I considered Illinois and Iowa State), but nobody is going to feel bad about an 8-4 team getting left out.

[parabrave]

Sometging so watered down that no one would watch. Hey they had it right at 4.

[Quaoarsking]

Sometging so watered down that no one would watch. Hey they had it right at 4.

Last year, the SEC and Big 10 Championship Games, which meant very little as all 4 participants were safely in the playoffs regardless, were both in the top 5 most viewed games of the year. The early NCAA basketball rounds get huge viewership too. There's no reason to think this hypothetical bracket would be any different.

[DownwardDawg]

Sometging so watered down that no one would watch. Hey they had it right at 4.

Everyone will watch. Leach always told them it should be 64 teams. Just like baseball, basketball,!etc.....
While I think 64 is way too many, 24 will probably be where it ends up. And everyone will watch. They'll have more viewers than they do now. It's all about the money now and nothing else.

Every State fan on the planet should want a 24 team playoff.

[Quaoarsking]

Every State fan on the planet should want a 24 team playoff.

It's hard to say for sure and it depends on what the exact autobid rules are, but I think there's a decent chance that we make a 32-team bracket in 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022, but miss a 24-team bracket in all 5 of those years. In 2014, we would have been either way.

[DownwardDawg]

It's hard to say for sure and it depends on what the exact autobid rules are, but I think there's a decent chance that we make a 32-team bracket in 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022, but miss a 24-team bracket in all 5 of those years. In 2014, we would have been either way.

Yeah, I meant that as "at least 24 team playoff"

[HoopsDawg]

16 is the correct number. End conference championship games. Move the season start date up a week. All games played on campus until the final 4. Done.

[BlackSailsDawg]

Sometging so watered down that no one would watch. Hey they had it right at 4.

Totally disagree with you.

[BrunswickDawg]

I could go either way. FCS has 24 teams. DII has 32. DIII has 40
The main thing to me is having auto bids for all conferences - just like all other sports.
You win your conference, and you are in. You may be a 32 seed, but you are in. How the conference determines the champ is up to them.
Personally, I think we need to go back to divisions, play 10 conference games, and 2 NONCon (without the P3 requirement) and have a 32 team playoff. And DO AWAY WITH BOWLS.

[Cowbeller]

Selfishly would like a 24+ bracket but I need to see the 12 team play out a little longer. Last year sucked, I watched but it was a joke so psychos like me might tune in still but I think it’ll dip this year.

Teams are starting to level out similar to the pros and as the years go on it should make for better first round matchups. Especially if anything comes to a head on a cap and contracts.

Also I like conference championship games but you need to make them valuable enough to play in. Winner gets a bye and loser cant drop from previous week position, something along those lines.

[Cowbeller]

Gruden just released a video with his idea if we stay at 12 and it makes so much sense theyll never do it.

Have any top 12 ranked teams in conference championship games as locks. Then have 5 neutral site ?bubble? games that are win and in the same weekend. His fix to if UVA lost to Duke is putting in highest ranked loser of the bubble games.

This year would be these matchups:

Oregon/JMU
ND/Miami
A&M/Vandy
OU/Texas (used Minnesota as the neutral site which is hilarious)
Confederates/Tulane

[Tater]

My ideal proposal:

28 teams make the playoff. 4 highest ranked conference champions get byes.

10 conference games mandatory across the board. 12 FBS games, 1 FCS game (yes we need to go to 13 games and only one bye week - FCS is a pseudo bye week).

Army-Navy week is moved up to week 0 and is the yearly official kickoff game.

All 10 conference champs get an automatic berth.

Conference championship week is "tiebreaker" week.

Standardize the tiebreakers across all conferences. Have tiebreakers that get down to two teams. Then if it's two teams that haven't played - mandatory to play in the conference championship game. If they've played, no game and the team that won is the conference champion. A tiebreaker at this point is used to determine the home team (no neutral site).

Final rankings come out on Tuesday before conference championship week. Conference championship week does not move you up OR down. Top 28 most deserving teams based on resume are listed and then the order of teams playing for tiebreaker championships. If 28 is not playing for a tiebreaker but someone not ranked in the top 28 is playing for a championship and wins, then #28 gets bumped from the playoffs. If both teams from a conference are not in the top 28 then slot #28 is listed as the winner of that game. If two conferences or more are completely outside of top 28 then the committees ranking of those teams determine which ones are the higher seed.

Round of 28 - higher seed hosts the week after tiebreaker week on Saturday. (this year would be 12/13)

Round of 16 - higher seed hosts the next week's saturday. (this year would be 12/20)

Round of 8 - New Years games like current. (4 neutral site)

Round of 4 - Games on the next saturday after NYE/NYD at the other 2 of the New Years Six sites. Meaning this year would be 1/10.

Champ game the following Saturday night - 1/17.

Calendar stays roughly the same.

Colleges bump the academic calendar back a week in spring - School starts Monday after championship game so 1/19. Two weeks to add/drop courses - so by 1/30 this year.

High school Spring Enrollment National Signing Day is the same as current - starts 12/3 week of tiebreaker week, but it runs until 1/30. You are not allowed to sign if you are a summer or fall enrollment. This is the best compromise you can come up with to cut down on a coach bolting a playoff team for a recruiting class.

Fall enrollment National Signing Day is the last wednesday in April. April 29th this year and runs until July 31st. The spring / summer transfer portal window is May 1st through July 31st.* Yes that's a 3 month window. All sports are allowed. The caveat is that if your school is still playing in the sport you are under scholarship for - you are not allowed to enter the transfer portal. (Stops paying a baseball player to sit the championship game)

Single semester sport only Transfer portal opens from 1/1 to 1/29 for spring semester. (So football, soccer, baseball is allowed to transfer - basketball is not.) This follows the same piece as above - you are not allowed to enter the transfer portal when your team is still playing.

Signing to a school as an athlete guarantees you 4 years of scholarship for tuition as long as you are in good standing academically and compliant with the moral code of the school. Each school has 100 scholarship slots to offer in football. (Eliminates hoarding talent and protects the player better than being encouraged to leave or stripping a scholarship. Coaches have to be smart with their evaluation and scouting.) 5th year grads are on a year by year basis. All players must wear a unique number. Walk-ons can only suit up in the place of injured / inactive / unused scholarship slots. (So maximum dress out 100 each game - no NIL walk-on scholarship circumvention)

Upon entering the transfer portal - you waive this guarantee. When you transfer to a new school you are only guaranteed 1 year scholarship.

Eliminate the coach firing / retiring additional transfer window. Additionally - if you are staffed to a team still alive in your sport - it is tampering for another FBS school to contact you about a coaching opening subject to a 30% scholarship reduction every year you are employed by the new university. (So LSU would be down 100 to 70 every year under Lane for what they pulled.) Once you are eliminated - all bets are off. Additionally - coaches cannot be fired without cause until the season has completed nor can their contract be renegotiated mid-season.

The same concept applies to NIL contracts for players that are contingent on playing at a specific university. Those cannot be renegotiated mid-season. NIL contracts outside the contingency of playing at X school (think the Dr. Pepper commercials) are not subject to any enforcement. Any player found to be holding out when medically cleared to play is subject to scholarship guarantee loss and automatic suspension for the entire next sport season. (Stops the Kanye Clary types, but set up severe penalties for a school that tries to process a kid in this manner too - looking at you Lawyers and scorned ex university up north).

I feel confident that this covers 99% of all problems in the best possible manner. A team who goes undefeated is a national champion - you have no complaints about being left out because you can earn it. 10 conference games should eliminate the 3 undefeated teams bullshit with scheduling unless these idiots get more bloated. Transfer and signing day windows both make sense for the athletes and allow coaching changes to take place in a manner that makes sense without sabatoging seasons. Roster hoarding and "processing" is virtually eliminated. Not transferring is incentivized in the best way it can be. Playoffs make sense and still reward the best of the best.

Yea this was long winded but I was board walking on the treadmill burning the late night oil tonight so sue me.

[MrCoachKlein]

Sometging so watered down that no one would watch. Hey they had it right at 4.

I'll never understand this mindset.

[The Federalist Engineer]

Boring games. But the team-specific fans would watch this trash.

Just go back to an exiting 2 days of bowls on 12/31 and 1/1.

[Quaoarsking]

Boring games. But the team-specific fans would watch this trash.

Just go back to an exiting 2 days of bowls on 12/31 and 1/1.

The old system of bowls before the CFP were mostly boring except when my favorite team was playing.