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ESPN's College Football Playoff Survey

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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27961116/the-college-football-playoff-survey-62-coaches-opinions-jim-harbaugh-plan

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As the first official College Football Playoff ranking is revealed on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN App), so begins the annual hand-wringing over which team -- and conference -- will be left out. With only four teams in the current system, which is entering its sixth season of a 12-year contract, at least one Power 5 conference champion will be excluded, continuing to fuel the discussions about expansion.

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Thirty Power 5 coaches think the College Football Playoff should expand, with the most support coming from the Big Ten and Big 12, according to an ESPN.com survey this past offseason of 62 of the 65 head coaches. The survey included Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, while three other coaches -- LSU's Ed Orgeron, Alabama's Nick Saban and UCLA's Chip Kelly -- declined interviews through school spokespeople.

The coaches don't have the power to change the system -- that's in the hands of the university presidents, 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. The coaches, though, are the ones tasked with winning the CFP. Here's where they stand on the current system, conference championship games, the selection committee and scheduling:

 
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Should the field expand to eight (or more) teams?

 

ESPN.com

With nine of its 14 coaches in favor of expansion, the Big Ten had the most overwhelming support, possibly reflective of the fact that its conference champion has been left out of the top four in each of the past three seasons.

Gus Malzahn, Auburn: I'm a former high school football coach, and I think eight teams, I think you'll see that in the future. I don't know how quick.

EDITOR'S PICKS

Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State: There should be eight. If you win your conference, there's five of us, you win that, you're in. Then the Central Floridas of the world, the Boises of the world, who are 12-0, or whoever is the highest-ranked team, they should be in. As it sits right now, there's not ever a school at that level that's going to get in the playoff. Not gonna happen. You had Central Florida go 12-0 twice. And they didn't get in, so that proves it's not gonna happen. If Central Florida were to get in, you take them and you play them against the No. 4 team. You don't put them against the No. 1 team. Let's just say if they come in as the 8, they play the 4. That way it will be a more exciting and competitive game for the country to watch on TV.

Scott Frost, Nebraska: Yes, it should expand. Any sport [where] a championship can be decided by a committee in a room, it's subjective and is not the right sport to me. Gymnastics would frustrate the crap outta me. People love the Cinderella, they love Loyola of Chicago in the basketball tournament or Butler.

 

ESPN.com

It should come as no surprise that the most opposition to expansion came from the SEC, where nine coaches continued to praise the system in which their league has been included in every season of its existence. "I think it works," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "It's better than it was during the BCS. Being at four, it allows us to get to a real champion."

Kirk Ferentz, Iowa: No. I don't know what we've gained by expanding it other than the obvious, financial [reasons]. It's almost become an industry, this whole playoff deal. I don't know how the game of football is any better right now. I'm not sure we've gotten a truer champion. What I don't like about the playoff system is that there's kind of a pull that if you're not in that final four, what you're doing really doesn't matter that much. It takes away from a lot of really good experiences that are going on in college football. I think we're creating a mentality that, to me, takes away from what the game is all about.

Dabo Swinney, Clemson: Everybody focuses on the playoff games and the national championship. The way we have it right now, every game we have, especially once we were positioned, every game was a playoff game. Every game. Duke was a playoff game. South Carolina was a playoff game. Pitt was a playoff game. We have layers of playoffs. The more you expand, the less the season matters, especially if a team so-called already in the playoff, well, now you're going to have people not playing guys, just like you have in all these other sports. All of a sudden, games don't matter because everybody is just playing for the playoff and they're in. What we have is the best of both worlds.

Dino Babers, Syracuse: If it expands, I think it gives a huge advantage to the traditional powers. If you want a Cinderella team to win it one of these times, you can't have a Cinderella team going against traditional powers more than two weeks in a row. If it's three weeks, or four weeks of contests, it's going to be so physical, there's going to be so much carnage going on, that a team that doesn't have a lot of depth will never win it.

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The Jim Harbaugh playoff plan

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has clearly put some thought into expanding the playoff.

"I came up with my own structure," he said this past spring. "I can take a picture of it and send it to you."

And so the Harbaugh Plan emerged: 15 games, 11 teams, starting with each Power 5 conference champion, determined within a 12-game regular season by conference record and tiebreakers, similar to how the NFL chooses its division winners. He then suggests using the BCS system to rank teams 6-11 to determine the rest of the field.

The No. 1 seed would be the highest-ranking BCS Power 5 champion. The No. 1 and 2 seeds get a bye. There's also room for a top-ranked, non-Power 5 team like Notre Dame, and a worthy Group of 5 champion. On the first Saturday of December, instead of playing conference championship games, the playoff begins.

Here's how the field would have shaped up, based on the 2018 season, on his phone-photographed bracket:

 

Jim Harbaugh

"To play each other, to have tiebreakers, within those 12 games, you should be able to determine who your conference champion is," he said. "If you don't have the conference championship games, then you can expand your playoff to at least eight."

To have won it all last year under the Harbaugh Plan, Clemson would have played a total of 15 games, ending with the national championship on Jan. 7.

"You'd still have the same bowl structure that you have now, and teams that lost on Dec. 1, it's like they would've been in a championship game and then they play in a bowl game," he said. "Nobody would play 16 games."

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Do coaches believe the process is transparent?

 

ESPN.com

Washington State coach Mike Leach, whose team finished No. 13 at 10-2 last season, is skeptical.

Mike Leach, Washington State: No. No. The purest evidence that you can't trust them to get it right is the fact we weren't in the top eight last year. In the end you look at the votes, and it pretty well reflected where the members of the committee were from.

Mack Brown, North Carolina: I trust them more than the computers because they've got eyes. I've always said the computer wasn't at the game. They don't see who's hurt, they don't see the emotion. The committee's got an impossible job of pleasing everybody, but I think they've done the best possible job to this point.

Gary Patterson, TCU: I don't think anybody trusts them. I don't mean that in a bad way, but the people you have on it, I don't trust anybody to recruit for me. If I just followed all of the recruiting services, I'd be fired by now.

Pat Narduzzi, Pitt: I think they've done a good job the last few years of getting the right teams in there. All you have to do is get the one right team. There's one best team; there's three other teams that are going to take a shot and swing at 'em.

 

ESPN.com

The Big Ten had the highest percentage (57%) of coaches who said they didn't understand the ranking system.

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern: No. I do not. I thought I knew, and I don't believe I know now.

Matt Campbell, Iowa State: You certainly understand it a lot better than the coaches' poll or the media poll. At least there's somebody explaining the why to it.

James Franklin, Penn State: No, nobody does. Each year it looks like there are different variables that are going to factor in because there are different people sitting in the room. That's going to happen. One person is going to have a bias toward one thing. It's natural. Somebody will have a bias toward another, and some people are going to feel like this is a more important metric.

Herm Edwards, Arizona State: I don't know why people would even want to be on that. It's always going to get second-guessed. They gather information, and they try to figure out the scheduling. That's hard. They can never be right. They won't ever satisfy all of the fan bases, but they get that. They do the best they can.

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Should you have to win your league to be eligible?

 

ESPN.com

This question was based on the current system, in which the value of a conference championship has been called into question after both Alabama and Ohio State have landed in the top four without winning their leagues. "The only league that really matters if they have a championship game is the SEC, and it's because of money," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. "Everybody else it doesn't make any difference."

Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia: No I don't, because the current Power 5 conferences in any given year are playing at different levels. Sometimes a conference champion isn't as good as a second-place team in another league.

Lovie Smith, Illinois: Yes, I do. I thought that when Penn State won it and didn't go. I think as a general rule, if you're the champion of one of the major conferences, yes, you should go. Why do we have conferences anyway if you're not going to let the champion go there?

Tom Herman, Texas: Our conference, you can go 12-0 and your starting quarterback rolls his ankle in the conference title game and you stub your toe and you don't recover from it, and you're not rewarded with anything. Being your conference championship game winner should factor in, but I don't think it should be a requirement nor should the winner be an automatic bid in this form of playoff system.

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Should all Power 5 schools have to play the same type of schedule?

 

ESPN.com

There is even more backing across the country for uniform scheduling than for expanding the playoff, with the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 providing the strongest support (29/36).

Manny Diaz, Miami: Someone's got to become the mighty commissioner and force everyone to do the same thing. Everyone has the ability to do what's best for them right now.

Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee: I worry a little bit about getting rid of the old rivalries. It's already now in the SEC, you're not guaranteed as a student-athlete, if you come to Tennessee you're not guaranteed to play at Texas A&M in a four-year period. By not being able to do that, it possibly eliminates some of the experience, or somebody coming to play at Neyland Stadium. But I do think from a conference standpoint, I think we have a great system in what we use to determine a champion, and I think it's fair.

Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech: I'd hate for us to go too far down that road because I do think what makes college football special is hosting teams from either your region or other parts of the country on your campus or traveling to another campus. That's a unique experience. It's very hard to make uniform rules for a group of people that are completely non-uniform. Our leagues are not the same; our regions are not the same.

Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma: Yes. Absolutely. I'd love to see us get to a point where every league, their conference championship game is 1 vs. 2. I think that's healthier for the sport. To me if you're going to do divisions, everybody needs to do divisions. If you're not going to do divisions, everyone needs to do 1 vs. 2. That's what creates the best conference championship games and the most valuable [résumé] the committee can evaluate on somewhat of an even playing field.

And what about Notre Dame?

Steve Addazio, Boston College: Notre Dame? I think they need to get in a conference. That's not college football's problem. That's Notre Dame's problem. I coached there, I have no ill feelings, I think it's a wonderful, fabulous place. But they choose to remain independent because of the revenue stream. I get that. But it can't work all ways. So then does the conference championship matter, or does it not matter? Which one is it?

 
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Pat Narduzzi, Pitt: Why does Notre Dame get into the playoff if they didn't play in a championship game? They've got one foot in the door in the ACC. How come they didn't have to go beat Clemson like we had to at a certain point?

Brian Kelly, Notre Dame: If you're going to be independent, that means you're going to go around the country and play the best teams. You're not going to be independent to play the teams that don't matter. That's our challenge, and that's why we've accepted that. [Athletic director] Jack [Swarbrick] and I have already had that discussion. We would, in fact, play a 13th game so we could eliminate that narrative that, 'Let's keep all things equal.' We would schedule a team that met the test across the board in our schedules. We would back that statement up.

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How many games is too many?

 

ESPN.com

We asked coaches whether their players could handle 16 games. This was one of the most difficult questions for them to answer. Some compared it to the NFL; others said they would have to change the way they practice, and other routines, to make it happen.

Mario Cristobal, Oregon: I think so. I figure there has to be some reprieve on either the front end or the back end. I'll never forget this; this hit me like a ton of bricks: We win the national championship [when Cristobal was an assistant] at Alabama, we get on the plane, and we're on our way back, it's a happy moment, and as soon as we get off the plane, the academic coordinator hands out class schedules for that next day. Congratulations, you have to be up at 6 in the morning. They understand their responsibilities, they get it, but at some point they need to catch their breath. I think it would have to be a true analysis of the entire calendar and where is the relief, where is the reprieve when you put together something like that?

Chris Klieman, Kansas State: No. I really don't. I think that's extremely hard. If you could get to 14, that would be doable. Even 15... 14, I think, would be the most that kids could probably handle.

Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: I think so. I think we would have to adjust. We're a big user of the data analytics and the wearable technologies. I think we would make educated decisions on how to manage their chronic workload like we do now. It would just be taken up another level, monitoring that and making sure we're taking care of our players' health.

College Football Playoff rankings: The biggest questions for the committee

 

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With many Heisman front-runners idle on Saturday, Clemson's Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne had Heisman-worthy performances in a blowout win. (1:20)

Nov 2, 2019
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    Heather DinichESPN Senior Writer

It's time to retrain your brain, as fans conditioned to the old poll mentality of the Associated Press Top 25 need to forget any previous rankings and preconceived notions about college football's pecking order.

The 13 most powerful people in the sport will decide that on Tuesday at the Gaylord Texan resort in Grapevine, Texas, where the College Football Playoff selection committee will reveal its first of six weekly rankings (9 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN App).

Although it's not the final answer, Tuesday's top 25 will provide important clues as to how Selection Day (Dec. 😎 might shake out. Eleven of the past 20 semifinalists have appeared in the committee's initial top four. In each of the past two seasons, three of four teams in the first rankings were in the top four on Selection Day.

Here's a look at the biggest questions facing the committee in its first meeting and how Tuesday's answers will help shed some light on which teams are in good shape and which have work to do:

1. Who's No. 1?

 

Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields has thrown 24 touchdowns and just one interception this season. Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The debate will likely center around LSU and Ohio State, with LSU winning the résumé comparison and the Buckeyes wowing committee members on film with their sheer dominance. Ohio State is No. 1 in offensive efficiency and No. 2 in defensive efficiency. If the committee ranks Cincinnati, which needed a field goal as time expired to beat a six-loss ECU team, it will help Ohio State's nonconference and overall strength of schedule. The same can be said of Texas, which could help separate LSU's résumé, but LSU also has wins against Florida and Auburn. LSU is No. 1 in ESPN's strength of record metric, which reflects the chance that an average top-25 team would achieve the same record or better, given the schedule. On paper, neither Clemson nor Alabama has accomplished as much as LSU. The committee is instructed to ignore last season, which means Clemson's title as defending national champion should be irrelevant in the room. Speaking of Clemson ...

 

ESPN Stats and Information

2. How do Clemson and Alabama compare?

Alabama's brand name and history don't earn the Tide a pass when it comes to résumé scrutiny from the committee members, and Alabama's only win so far against a Power 5 opponent with a winning record is against Texas A&M, a team Clemson also beat. Clemson has three road wins to Alabama's two, including against a much-improved 5-3 Louisville team. The question is if committee members are impressed by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his talented group of receivers enough to compensate for the weak schedule, especially without knowing the status of the injured Tagovailoa (ankle).

Clemson has been criticized at times this season for looking vulnerable. Some of that has been warranted (a 21-20 win against North Carolina or Trevor Lawrence's eight interceptions), but the Tigers are still beating opponents by an average of 31 points per game and rank No. 1 in defensive efficiency. There could be more of a debate between Clemson and Alabama than some think. Both have looked good enough to earn a top-four spot, but what about undefeated Penn State?

3. Who's on the bubble?

 

Pat Freiermuth and Penn State are undefeated (8-0) and No. 2 in strength of record. Will that make up for a lack of star power? Adam Ruff/Icon Sportswire

It starts with Penn State (8-0), but that doesn't mean the Nittany Lions won't get top-four consideration from some committee members. PSU is No. 2 in strength of record and has three straight wins against Iowa, Michigan and Michigan State -- teams that have combined for a record of 17-8 to this point. Where does the committee rank those opponents? With no Heisman hopeful, Penn State has lacked star power and has been statistically average on offense. Defensively, the Nittany Lions have been among the nation's best.

Can any one-loss teams make the case for No. 5? Wins Saturday by Oregon (against USC) and Georgia (over Florida) kept playoff hopes alive, but it would be surprising to see either team ahead of Penn State or higher than sixth. The Bulldogs' Oct. 12 double-overtime loss to South Carolina is an ink stain, but any team with a chance to win the SEC has a chance to finish in the top four. Georgia also has its win over Notre Dame still working in its favor after the Irish found a way to beat Virginia Tech on Saturday. And what about those one-loss Sooners? ...

EDITOR'S PICKS

4. How much did Oklahoma's loss hurt?

Many were quick to write off the Sooners after their shocking loss at Kansas State on Oct. 26 (the last game they played before the first ranking), but how damaging was it in the eyes of the committee? It might not be that bad if K-State is a top-25 team Tuesday, especially considering that was a close road loss. What might hurt Oklahoma more is the lack of a true statement win. The Sooners' best win right now is a 34-27 victory against Texas, so where the Longhorns are ranked will matter for Oklahoma, too. If the committee thinks OU (7-1) is still a top-10 team, a top-four finish isn't inconceivable, but are the Sooners even the highest-ranked team in the Big 12?

5. How good are undefeated Baylor and Minnesota?

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Doubts continue to swirl around both programs' viability as national title contenders, despite their unblemished records. Do the committee members have similar concerns, or do they give Baylor (7-0) and Minnesota (8-0) more credit? Before you argue brand-name bias in Selection Central, consider this: Neither team played a Power 5 nonconference opponent, Minnesota's Big Ten opponents are a combined 15-25, and Baylor needed double-overtime to beat five-loss Texas Tech and struggled to beat five-loss West Virginia. The committee doesn't look ahead, so Tuesday's rankings are based only on what teams have done to this point. Is that enough to leapfrog one- and possibly two-loss teams?

6. Who's the highest-ranked two-loss team?

We've seen the committee consider two-loss teams before -- at least from the SEC -- and Auburn was one of them in 2017. Much like in that season, Auburn (6-2) will again have an opportunity to face both Georgia and Alabama during the regular season, but the Tigers are highly unlikely to win the West at this point. Auburn's 12-game season will have to stand on its own merit. Would wins against Oregon, possible Pac-12 champs, and Alabama and Georgia be enough to earn a semifinal spot if the Tigers run the table? Let's first see how far they have to climb and which teams they're already ahead of.

7. How deep is the Pac-12 in the eyes of the committee?

Things couldn't have gone better for the Pac-12 on Saturday, as Utah and Oregon both won what should be their most difficult remaining games of the regular season. Oregon's win at USC also helped Utah because the Utes needed USC to lose to help their position in the Pac-12 South race. (Utah's only loss so far came Sept. 20 at USC.) Oregon also benefited a bit from Auburn's win against Ole Miss, as the Ducks' narrow, season-opening loss to the Tigers certainly isn't a deal-breaker.

Oregon and Utah (both 7-1) are favored by at least 80% in each of their three remaining games, according to ESPN's FPI, and are on a collision course to meet in the conference title game. Although a one-loss Pac-12 champ will be considered for a top-four spot, its résumé will be compared to that of other Power 5 conference winners, which is why it's important to see if the committee ranks any other Pac-12 teams besides Oregon and Utah. If not, it's possible that the only ranked team each will face all season is the other.

 

ESPN

8. Who's leading the Group of 5 race?

The highest-ranked Group of 5 conference champion is guaranteed a spot in a New Year's Six bowl. With Appalachian State's loss to Georgia Southern and SMU's loss at Memphis, there are no more undefeated teams remaining, which leaves the door wide-open for the committee to hit the reset button on ranking them all.

Cincinnati's only loss is to Ohio State, but the American Athletic Conference is proving to be an exciting race with UCF, SMU, Navy and Memphis each having just one loss in league play. UCF has lost to Cincinnati and Pitt, though, likely eliminating it from the conversation. Boise State and San Diego State are also one-loss teams in contention from the Mountain West Conference.

 

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5530

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LOL!   Noticed they only published one response from an SEC coach about scheduling.   

Really the question should have been..... Should the SEC, SEC SEC be allowed to schedule  non conference cupcakes in order to  pad   poll positions throughout the season.  

At least they DID ask the question about Notre  Dame refusing to sack up and play in a conference and the special consideration they are given.

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C-Man

C-Man 27071

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38 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

LOL!   Noticed they only published one response from an SEC coach about scheduling.   

Really the question should have been..... Should the SEC, SEC SEC be allowed to schedule  non conference cupcakes in order to  pad   poll positions throughout the season.  

At least they DID ask the question about Notre  Dame refusing to sack up and play in a conference and the special consideration they are given.

And they published Brian Kelly's reasoning that if that were the case they'd scheduled 13th game against an opponent to make up for that. Um, there's no way you can guarantee that 13th team is anywhere near the caliber that teams will face in their respective conference championship games.

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5530

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1 hour ago, C-Man said:

And they published Brian Kelly's reasoning that if that were the case they'd scheduled 13th game against an opponent to make up for that. Um, there's no way you can guarantee that 13th team is anywhere near the caliber that teams will face in their respective conference championship games.

Correct.    

At least UGA and Michigan did us a favor and ended their chance to participate this year.     But you can be certain you will see them listed in the Top 10 in the pre season polls again next year and the media will try their best to build them up.  

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Huckleberry

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I am pleased that the majority was right in every single aspect of that poll.

Well, almost right, but absolutely right as far as what reality will dictate. The other right thing would be that a real playoff needs to include every single conference champ. If your system allows for the possibility of a team going undefeated for the entire season against teams in your "league" then it's not a real playoff. The other option, which I'd prefer, would be a P5 breakaway.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54011

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Is there a smarmier, more selfish asshole in college football than Dabo Swinney?

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Dabo Swinney, Clemson: Everybody focuses on the playoff games and the national championship. The way we have it right now, every game we have, especially once we were positioned, every game was a playoff game. Every game. Duke was a playoff game. South Carolina was a playoff game. Pitt was a playoff game. We have layers of playoffs. The more you expand, the less the season matters, especially if a team so-called already in the playoff, well, now you're going to have people not playing guys, just like you have in all these other sports. All of a sudden, games don't matter because everybody is just playing for the playoff and they're in. What we have is the best of both worlds.

 

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54011

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We asked coaches whether their players could handle 16 games.

Chris Klieman, Kansas State: No. I really don't. I think that's extremely hard. If you could get to 14, that would be doable. Even 15... 14, I think, would be the most that kids could probably handle.

In 5 years at ND State, Klieman's teams played 16, 15, 14, 15, and 15 games.

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hpslugga

hpslugga 4049

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Good lord. TXHSFB goes up to 16, NFL goes up to 20 (about to go up, too). But 16 is too many for college players. So they’re tougher in their HS days, get soft in college, and get tougher again in the pros.

That’s what it takes to be opposed to an 8-16 team format: beg and plead like crazy for people to believe what cannot be believed by a serious person.

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Iceman

Iceman 2646

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Don't forget the college rosters are at a minimum 60% bigger than the NFL and some of the smaller high schools MIGHT have 40 players, tops; most of whom were most certainly not hand picked premium talent.

It's bullshit and it's yet another reason I hate the ADMINISTRATION of the greatest game on the planet, at that level.

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youdunnf'dup

youdunnf'dup 2147

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21 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

I am pleased that the majority was right in every single aspect of that poll.

Well, almost right, but absolutely right as far as what reality will dictate. The other right thing would be that a real playoff needs to include every single conference champ. If your system allows for the possibility of a team going undefeated for the entire season against teams in your "league" then it's not a real playoff. The other option, which I'd prefer, would be a P5 breakaway.

All of this, man. I’ve said it for years. What’s the point of even having conferences and divisions if the winner of the divisions don’t get an automatic spot in their sports postseason? Just separate P5 and non P5 schools all together, and have two separate playoffs. From that point (At least for P5) you can either do 8, or 6 with 1 and 2 having bye weeks. Every P5 conference champ and either 1 at large team or 3 at large teams. 

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LTtxfan

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https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-Football-Tom-Herman-uniform-scheduled-needed-prior-to-College-Football-Playoff-expansion-147704271/

 

Tom Herman: Uniform scheduling needed prior to expanding the CFP

ByJEFF HOWE 4 hours ago

Texas head coach Tom Herman is among the group of FBS coaches and administrators who would like to see the College Football Playoff expand.

Longtime college football reporter Brett McMurphy reported in April that a survey of 112 athletic directors revealed 88 percent favored expanding the CFP. Among the 88 percent, 72 percent preferred an eight-team model while 66 percent felt the Group of Five schools should receive a guaranteed bid.

“I would love it,” Herman said in April during Horns247’s Texas Tailgate virtual chat when asked to share his thoughts on an eight-team playoff. “I think the more the merrier.”

The current CFP contract runs through 2025, meaning potential expansion isn’t too far off on the horizon. The way Herman sees it, the CFP growing would merely be FBS falling in line with how champions are decided in other sports across the collegiate landscape.

“Every other collegiate sport has some kind of expanded playoff,” Herman said. “We've got the Regional, Super Regional, College World Series in baseball; we've got the NCAA Tournament in basketball. We’ve got tournaments, basically, in every other sport, so eight teams would be great.

“My nirvana would be four 16-team conferences,” he added. “The math adds up. We're at (64) Power Five schools. You take the four conference champions, you take the top-ranked Group of Five team and then the other three at-large, if you will, then you still have a role for the committee to decide who the three at-large teams would be.”

Before the CFP expands, however, Herman wants the issue of uniform scheduling tackled. It’s one topic Herman has been vocal about whenever opportunities arise to address subjects across college football where he’d like to see change because, as he put it, “we're literally comparing apples to oranges” otherwise.

“Our first two years here, us and USC were the only two teams in the country to play 11 Power Five schools in back-to-back years. That takes its toll,” Herman said. “There are some conferences where they won't go more than four straight weeks without having a bye week or playing a non-Power Five school. Where we (Big 12 teams) play only three conference games, one of those being a Power Five school — we play 10 Power Five teams this year and we play nine straight — our bye week is after non-conference — Power Five schools.

“That takes its toll significantly on your players and your staff and everything affiliated with your program, so until every conference schedules the same, has the same amount of bye weeks — I mean, in those two years that we played 11 Power Five schools in back-to-back years in a 12-game season, there were some schools that only played eight,” he added. “You play two FCS schools and two Group of Five schools, you go 4-0, you go 4-4 in your league and you're an eight-win team. You're 8-4.

“I just think there has to be some way that we can devise some kind of uniformity, not only in how many conference games were playing but in how many Power Five opponents we're playing and then how many consecutive weeks is each team playing a Power Five opponent.”

Edited by LTtxfan
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Neonmoon

Neonmoon 38127

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Stop involving people in the process. Four 16 team super conferences, each with two divisions. The division winners play for conference championship. The conference champions play each other in playoff. That’s it. Every conference plays 9 conference games. 3 OOC. ND has to join a conference or get left out. 

That is fair to everyone. I don’t think you need to include the non power 5. The non power 5 teams can have their own playoff 

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Comfort Hire

Comfort Hire 12

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18 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Stop involving people in the process. Four 16 team super conferences, each with two divisions. The division winners play for conference championship. The conference champions play each other in playoff. That’s it. Every conference plays 9 conference games. 3 OOC. ND has to join a conference or get left out. 

That is fair to everyone. I don’t think you need to include the non power 5. The non power 5 teams can have their own playoff 

How unbelievably easy does it get?  Take out the politics and settle it on the field.  All pro sports do this....

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