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Showing posts from June, 2021

College Football Analysis: Fixing the 12-Team Playoff

In early June, A sub-group of the College Football Playoff's management committee presented a proposal to expand the current four-team College Football Playoff into a 12-team tournament. Over the last week or so, a few details have started to emerge. Here are the key points of this proposed expansion: The six highest ranked conference champions would automatically qualify for the tournament The four highest ranked conference champions would be seeded No. 1 through No. 4 and given a first round bye. The remaining two conference champions and six additional at-large teams would be seeded No. 5 through No. 12 and would play in a series of four first-round games on the campus of the higher seed at some point in mid-December The quarterfinal round would be played on or near January 1st, and the report suggests that teams would be assigned to their traditional bowls in the quarterfinal rounds. The semifinals and finals would be played at some point in January, but the bowls or stadiums t

College Football Playoff Expansion: A Modest Proposal (Eight is Enough)

 Now that the calendar has turned to June it is time to start looking ahead to the upcoming college football season. One topic that has made headlines over the past few weeks is that of a possible expansion of the college football playoffs. It was announced this week that consensus is building to expand the field from the current four-team format to a 12-team tournament. Additional details of this proposal have begun to emerge. Notably, the top six conference champions would automatically qualify (which may or may not include all five Power Five champions, but which would necessarily include at least one team from the Group of Five conferences). The remaining six at-large teams would be selected by the Selection Committee, assumingly using a similar process to what is used today. Furthermore, the teams would be seeded from one to 12, with the top four teams receiving a first-round bye and the teams seeded No. 5 to No. 12 playing in an opening round sometime in mid-December, most l