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College football playoffs expand from 4 to 12 teams starting in 2024

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12 is a weird number. Regular brackets go 2-4-8-16-32-64-128.

I'm assuming they plan to have some sort of play-in bracket, like having the bottom-8 play a round and then matching the winners with the top-4, then playing it off from there. That would be 4 rounds, a whole month of playoffs. Are they planning to play way into January?
 
tarheelhockey said:
12 is a weird number. Regular brackets go 2-4-8-16-32-64-128.

I'm assuming they plan to have some sort of play-in bracket, like having the bottom-8 play a round and then matching the winners with the top-4, then playing it off from there. That would be 4 rounds, a whole month of playoffs. Are they planning to play way into January?
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Yeah I would think either the Top 4 get a bye or the bottom 4 play-in?

But for all we know it could be 4 teams playing "5 Degrees of Nick Saban" or something for the right to move in.
 
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The 12-team format should divide the bracket along the Mason-Dixon Line.

The top 6 teams in the final CFP rankings from the South as defined by the US Census Bureau (that includes Maryland) would compete to fill one berth in the CFP title game in the Bowden bracket.

The top 6 teams from outside the South would compete in the Osborne bracket to fill in the other title game berth.
 
Should limit the amount of teams from any conference to 2 or 3 max because we all know they want as many SEC teams in as possible.
 
I know that the NCAA is top-heavy, but this is good. FCS and Division III have long had expanded playoffs without any issue whatsoever. And let's be honest, the importance of bowl games was already inherently undercut by any form of playoff, so I frankly don't care about the tradition of random corporate sponsorship bowls.

12 teams seems like a purposefully awkward half-measure before eventually growing to 16 teams, though.
 
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Kirk Van Houten said:
College football regular season is dead with this change.
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Reminds of my local high school football. When I was a kid there was 10 schools in our local conference (all schools in same area) and ONLY the league champion went to the state playoffs. By the time I was in HS they had added another classification and expanded the playoffs though our conference only fell to 9 teams so I still got most of the rivalries but now the top 3 went to playoffs. A few years after I graduated they added another classification and expanded the playoffs in each classification and our local league fell to 6 schools and the top 4 now make the playoffs. Then they wonder why we went from packed stadiums and local rivalry games to a meaningless regular season played in front of half full small HS stadiums and all the schools right next to eachother don't even play anymore.

Of course each time they added a classification and expanded the playoffs they sold it as "it gives more kids a chance to experience the playoffs" but then you check the fine print and realize the state HS athletic association only makes money on state playoff games and there you go.
 
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No Fun Shogun said:
I know that the NCAA is top-heavy, but this is good. FCS and Division III have long had expanded playoffs without any issue whatsoever. And let's be honest, the importance of bowl games was already inherently undercut by any form of playoff, so I frankly don't care about the tradition of random corporate sponsorship bowls.

12 teams seems like a purposefully awkward half-measure before eventually growing to 16 teams, though.
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It’s a compromise, of course.

16 was never going to fly because the TV networks want reasonably good games every weekend and two conferences want all the at-large bids… or, really, all the bids.

Whereas 3 of the old P5 wanted autobids. And in the end, after the B1G poached LA and everyone in the sport thought the big 2 were fixing to destroy other conferences, for which the lawsuits would be presumed to start flying, compromise. Unless you buy the premise that the big 2 offered the larger playoff in the first place before the LA schools were announced… as a proactive throw ‘em a bone scenario (I’ve heard people at ESPN sell it that way). It makes political sense, anyway.
 
Big Z Man 1990 said:
The 12-team format should divide the bracket along the Mason-Dixon Line.

The top 6 teams in the final CFP rankings from the South as defined by the US Census Bureau (that includes Maryland) would compete to fill one berth in the CFP title game in the Bowden bracket.

The top 6 teams from outside the South would compete in the Osborne bracket to fill in the other title game berth.
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That makes no sense at all. You’re basically handing 4 spots to the Big Ten, at minimum. Absolutely nobody cares about the Mason-Dixon Line being some kind of arbitrary line of demarcation. Not one person.
 
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No Fun Shogun said:
I know that the NCAA is top-heavy, but this is good. FCS and Division III have long had expanded playoffs without any issue whatsoever. And let's be honest, the importance of bowl games was already inherently undercut by any form of playoff, so I frankly don't care about the tradition of random corporate sponsorship bowls.

12 teams seems like a purposefully awkward half-measure before eventually growing to 16 teams, though. 95% of the bowls were pointless anyways
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Kirk Van Houten said:
College football regular season is dead with this change.
Click to expand...
Right because the miniken car care bowl in Detroit by 6-6 teams that no one has heard of is so special
 
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joelef said:
Right because the miniken car care bowl in Detroit by 6-6 teams that no one has heard of is so special
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Today system is not good but I rather have teams in bowl games with not much meanning that Playoffs so big the usual regular season upset become meaningless. For example the two upsets South Carolina pulled would change who Clemson faces insted of eliminating them from contention.
 
GKJ said:
That makes no sense at all. You’re basically handing 4 spots to the Big Ten, at minimum. Absolutely nobody cares about the Mason-Dixon Line being some kind of arbitrary line of demarcation. Not one person.
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You should be more open minded. In fact, once ESPN inevitably collapses, the Osborne bracket should go to Comedy Central, and the Bowden bracket package should go to CSPAN 2. The national championship can be on CNN with Wolf Blitzer doing play-by-play. If you think college football is popular now, ho boy...
 
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Jeez get over it, people. Lower divisions (and EVERY OTHER TEAM SPORT in the NCAA essentially) have had playoffs of 16 teams and more for decades. This finally shuts up the "they get voted on, it's a beauty contest" people and their split champions, who were followed by the "wah, why are there only 2 teams? we were undefeated" people, who were then followed by the "wah, why does the SEC get two of the four spots?" people....now, if you're #13 and don't get it in -- face it buddy, you didn't earn a spot.

Don't worry, there will still be 25 bowls no one cares about except for the teams in them. Just like now!

In the 90s, when the Rose Bowl held the Big 10 and Pac 10 out of an early attempt at a championship game, we in the Usenet college football forum used to refer to the Rose Bowl as the IYB, which stood for "Irrelevant Yawner Bowl"... Pasadena you had a whole century in the sun(set), times change. Change is good.
 
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Kirk Van Houten said:
College football regular season is dead with this change.
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who cares about regular season. This always was the dumbest argument made for college football. In no other sport (college or pro) do you have such an absurd system to determine a champ. Most schools schedule 3 or 4 cupcakes on the regular season docket anyway. Would you rather see Alabama vs Austin Peay or Alabama vs Michigan at Michigan in December?

LadyStanley said:
sports.yahoo.com

Official: College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024 after Rose Bowl agreement

The College Football Playoff is expanding after one more season with four teams.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

Money grab. Bragging rights.
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Good, anything to get away from this stupid way college football determines its champ at the highest level.
 
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tornadowarning33 said:
You should be more open minded. In fact, once ESPN inevitably collapses, the Osborne bracket should go to Comedy Central, and the Bowden bracket package should go to CSPAN 2. The national championship can be on CNN with Wolf Blitzer doing play-by-play. If you think college football is popular now, ho boy...
Click to expand...

Imagine the audience that could be reached if LSU vs Penn State was put on Nickelodeon? The CW would also be a perfect fit for Notre Dame vs Texas.
 
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tarheelhockey said:
12 is a weird number. Regular brackets go 2-4-8-16-32-64-128.

I'm assuming they plan to have some sort of play-in bracket, like having the bottom-8 play a round and then matching the winners with the top-4, then playing it off from there. That would be 4 rounds, a whole month of playoffs. Are they planning to play way into January?
Click to expand...
Until they added the seventh team in each conference, the NFL playoffs (overall when accounting for both conferences) were a twelve-team bracket.
 
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oknazevad said:
Until they added the seventh team in each conference, the NFL playoffs (overall when accounting for both conferences) were a twelve-team bracket.
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I also thought that one was a weird system, a consequence of trying to develop a baseball-style division winner system into a proper bracket by adding wild cards. To me, that's not something one would deliberately come up with if starting from scratch.
 
tarheelhockey said:
12 is a weird number. Regular brackets go 2-4-8-16-32-64-128.

I'm assuming they plan to have some sort of play-in bracket, like having the bottom-8 play a round and then matching the winners with the top-4, then playing it off from there. That would be 4 rounds, a whole month of playoffs. Are they planning to play way into January?
Click to expand...
The NFL had a 12 team format for years. The top 4 teams get a bye
This year would have had UGA, Michigan, TCU and Ohio St. with byes
Alabama playing Washington, Tennessee playing Penn St., Clemson playing USC, and Kansas St playing Utah.
 
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