You’d be forgiven for not keeping up with every report filed recently about upcoming changes to the College Football Playoff.
But of course, this format could help generate the one thing everyone in college football wants more of: money.
5, with the winners advancing to the College Football Playoff via the conference’s auto-bid.
As such, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has already considered giving the conference’s regular season champion one auto-bid into the College Football Playoff, while having the No.
And for a sport as steeped in tradition as college football, that’s a shame.
You can excuse yourself for not reading all of the recent reports about the College Football Playoff’s impending changes. Since the postseason has changed so much, it makes sense that people would begin to ignore it. This is especially true in the present era, when it seems like a conference commissioner invents a novel concept or format that fixes every problem every other week—but it never does.
However, the format that is supposedly the most popular in the clubhouse is now so blatantly ridiculous that one of the best college football writers in the country is raising the alarm.
Stewart Mandel of The Athletic wrote a piece on Sunday regarding the utterly “nonsensical” format that Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and his Power-2 counterpart Greg Sankey of the SEC had implicitly approved. The current 12-team playoff, which only started last season, will be replaced by Petitti’s proposed playoff, which would feature 16 teams. In contrast, the new format offers the Big Ten and SEC four automatic berths each, the ACC and Big 12 two berths each, a Group of 5 team an auto-bid, and three committee-made at-large selections.
Since more than 80 percent of playoff spots are already secured, Mandel contends that this arrangement is wholly at odds with the spirit of college football and would render regular season games—especially those played outside of conferences—feel completely pointless.
No big U. S. There are postseasons in sports where some conferences or divisions are assured more spots than others, according to Mandel. Even by Big Ten and SEC standards, it is astounding how arrogant the organizations were to even suggest this, much less implement it.
“Historical data that indicates their current members would have averaged even more than four bids annually will be used by those conferences to support their arguments. Regarding that, they are not incorrect. Thus, there’s no need to put it in writing. “”.
The postseason’s structure, however, Mandel believed to be even worse than the switch to a 16-team format with 13 auto-bids. The 16-team playoff would not have a symmetrical bracket under Petitti’s proposal. On the weekend that is normally set aside for the Army-Navy game, teams ranked 13–16 would essentially play “play-in games.”. The three to twelve-seed teams and the two teams that advanced from the “play-in” round would play six more games the following weekend. When the top-seeded teams finally play their first game on New Year’s, the winners of those games advance to the quarterfinal round.
Quite simple, isn’t it,?
Of course not. Naturally, though, this format might contribute to the production of money—the one thing that every college football player desires more of.
Increased revenue can be generated by the additional inventory that comes with adding four teams to the playoffs, but that’s only the beginning. Restructuring conference championship weekend is the true driving force behind these modifications.
See, the Big Ten and SEC would be free to choose their four teams however they see fit, as they would have four automatic berths under the proposed format. Additionally, the Big Ten wants to use conference championship weekend as a play-in to the College Football Playoff, according to people familiar with Petitti’s thinking. This would result in even more game inventory to sell to television partners.
The Big Ten’s top two finishers would compete for a conference championship in this hypothetical scenario. That weekend, however, teams three through six would also play. No. 3 would have to deal with No. six, and no. No would be played by 4. 5. Through the conference’s auto-bid, the winners advance to the College Football Playoff.
The commissioner “must have reason to believe Fox, CBS, NBC, or perhaps one of the umpteen streaming services will pay good money for the rights to these showdowns,” Mandel writes, adding that almost everyone The Athletic has spoken to about the matter in recent months claims that Tony Petitti is the mastermind behind the whole cockamamie scheme. “.”.
Naturally, it’s easy to see that the SEC would probably do the same if the Big Ten did.
With their two bids apiece, the ACC and Big 12 may also be affected. Other than for pride and seeding, the championship games of those conferences would have no significance under the suggested format. Because of this, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has already thought about offering the regular season champion of the conference a one-auto bid into the College Football Playoff, with the No. two and no. On conference championship weekend, three teams compete for the second automatic berth.
This is not something that anyone is requesting. Lastly, ardent supporters of college football.
Mandel ends by saying, “I can’t stress enough how much damage a predetermined, crazy bracket will cause for not just the CFP’s credibility but college football’s popularity.”. “It will alienate a lot of existing fans and not attract any new ones. Politicians and antitrust attorneys, who are concerned about two conferences banding together to rig a national tournament in their favor, will also probably scrutinize it. “”.
No one is requesting this again. However, when teams are in dire need of money and Petitti, a seasoned television executive, is making the decisions, this is what occurs.
A few extra dollars will come at the expense of the product. And that’s unfortunate for a sport with as much tradition as college football.
