Joseph Zucker (Bleacher Report) — The College Football Playoff management committee is expected to recommend a 12-team playoff, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger.
Under the proposal, the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams would receive a playoff berth. The four highest seeds would have a bye in the first round as well.
Dellenger clarified that any changes to the CFP are a “long way from done.”
The new format would address one of the biggest issues with the current system. A four-team playoff doesn’t make sense when there are five major conferences in a class by themselves. Inevitably, somebody gets left out.
Granting automatic bids to conference champions would also provide some additional importance to the regular season and conference championship games. Last year, for example, the Pac-12 title race was largely an afterthought because it quickly became apparent no Pac-12 team was likely to finish in the top four.
Six auto bids would also open the door for at least one Group of Five team to have a shot. That was another concern expressed in 2020 as Cincinnati went 9-0 but only finished eighth in the CFP selection committee’s final rankings. Coastal Carolina was a perfect 11-0 with a win over BYU and wound up 11th.
Simply having a route into the playoff could be a step toward Group of Five teams catching up to their Power Five peers since it’s a carrot they could dangle in front of prospective recruits.
Some will wonder, however, whether 12 teams is too many, with eight being the preferred number instead.
The College Football Playoff has already taken so much attention away from the traditional postseason bowls, and an even bigger playoff will likely accelerate that effect.
This would potentially water down the regular season as well. Going by last year, three-loss Iowa State and Florida would’ve qualified for the playoff. Three losses may not have cost Wisconsin and Auburn in 2019, either.
The incredibly high stakes of each game is what makes the college football regular season so fun. Now, fans will come to believe top programs can lose two, maybe even three games and still be relatively safe.
Perhaps there’s still some more wrangling over the final details before any alterations are finalized.
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LaMarr Fields (sportspac12.com): Three Pac-12 Football Freshmen to Watch in 2021: Glancing ahead at USC’s Korey Foreman and Cal’s J. Michael Sturdivant & Jermaine Terry “Foreman comes in as the nation’s No.1 rated recruit, per the 247Sports composite, after being named to the PrepStar Dream Team as a SR DE at Centennial High in Corona, Calif., in 2020. “At 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, he is an explosive load coming off the edge, being exceptionally fast and athletic for his size. “Foreman is the type of player who could command a double-team, and that puts a strain on offensive lines, as he… Read more »
Colin Cowherd on the 12-team expanded playoff: “This all means that some teams will play 17 games. It’s officially time to pay the players. The aesthetics are gonna be so bad if you don’t pay the players now. The players are gonna see it and they’re gonna stop playing in big games because you’re gonna have multiple networks bidding on this. Right now, ESPN owns the rights. But college football is gonna put this up for bid for all the major networks, like the way the NFL works. “Fox, ESPN, CBS — they’re all going to be paying billions of… Read more »
Jack Follman’s (sportspac12.com) 2021 Pac-12 WR/TE Unit Rankings:
1.USC
Wide Receivers: Drake London, Bru McCoy, KD Nixon, Gary Bryant Jr., John Jackson, Kyle Ford
Tight Ends: Erik Krommenhoek, Josh Falo, Jude Wolfe
The Trojans keep the Pac-12’s best unit despite losing Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyler Vaughns.
It’s all about having the Conference’s clear best receiver in London, a crazy talented Number Two in McCoy, and endless talented depth with some solid veterans at tight end.
2.ORE
3.UW
4.UTAH
5.WSU
6.UCLA
7.CU
8.ASU
9.STAN
10.ORE ST
11.CAL
12.ARIZ
sportspac12.com
I have a hard time accepting there are 4 offensive lines in the PAC more offensive than USC’s.
Jack Follman’s (sportspac12.com) Pac-12 Offensive Line Unit Rankings:
1.UW
2.ORE
3.UTAH
4.ORE ST
5.ASU
6.STAN
7.WSU
8.USC
Tackles: Jalen McKenzie, Courtland Ford, Jonah Monheim
Guards: Andrew Voorhees, Justin Dedich
Center: Brett Neilon
This is far from one of the most talented line groups we’ve ever seen at USC, but it’s still talented for a Pac-12 unit right now.
Voorhees and Neilon are borderline All-Pac-12 players, and it sounds like they’re doing some fixing to their broken offensive line scheme this off-season, which should help.
9.CAL
10.CU
11.UCLA
12.ARIZ
sportspac12.com
Sorry, but he lost all credibility with me. UCLA had the Pac’s #2 rushing offense in 2020 (averaging 224.5 yards a game) and returns its entire OL. USC had the Pac’s #12 rushing offense (averaging 97.3 yards per game) and lost is by far best OL to the NFL. ASU, by the way, had the #1 rushing O with 264.3 yards per game. USC averaged 3.2 yards per carry; UCLA averaged 5.0 yards per carry. USC’s 2020 OL’s rushing both per carry and per game were by far the worst in the Pac. UCLA’s were #2 overall and #4 per… Read more »
I’d say Jack Follman needs to read your post. You definitely win this debate! I thought UCLA was way too low too.
Jack Follman’s (sportspac12.com) Pac-12 Offensive Backfield Unit Rankings:
1.ASU
2.USC
Quarterback: Kedon Slovis
Running Backs: Keontay Ingram, Vavae Malepeai, Kenan Christon
The other elite top QB (in addition to ASU’s Jayden Daniels) in the Conference boosts USC up here, even though their running back group isn’t one of the Pac-12’s best.
The running back group isn’t empty though. Texas transfer Ingram could quickly become one of the Conference’s best, Malepeai is a proven commodity, and they have young talent in the fold.
3.ORE
4.CU
5.WSU
6.UCLA
7.UW
8.UTAH
9.STAN
10.CAL
11.ORE ST
12.ARIZ
sportspac12.com
Now that CFB is feeling some real pain, a 12-team playoff is suddenly completely palatable, and it can’t really come soon enough — at least for me. As things are right now, with an overly restrictive 4-game PO set-up, interest in the game has faltered IMO because just a few teams control everything. Boring. The west coast, my favorite area, has been entirely left out. Boohoo, Allen. Like him or not, Nick Saban (and his unmatched seven national titles, three in the last six years) is so much better than everyone else that no one else can really compare, and… Read more »
Good morning Allen. Or should I say Aloha. 🌴🌊ðŸ. I agree with you 100%. Plus, by not guaranteeing each Power 5Conference Champion a CFB spot it forces everybody to continue to get better. USC will not be able to just get by. If they want to be relevant they will have to get better. Being a top 15-25 team will not cut it. Hopefully a new HC will be in place to usher in the new CFB playoff format. Mike Bohn should compare the Clay Helton record to the new CFB proposal. If that record didn’t qualify USC for the… Read more »
@Trojan5 Has there ever been a more unpopular USC football coach than Clay Helton? Not in my lifetime, at least IMHO. Larry Smith and Ted Tollner also won Rose Bowls before they were canned, but never generated near the vocal pushback that always irritating Helton, the King of the Ugly Wins, has. Paul Hackett was pretty darn bad, but he was only allowed to coach three years, and we always knew disruptive Mike Garrett would yank him yesterday, even if Paul wouldn’t answer his phone (like Robinson II). Helton has been allowed to coach and torture us all for twice… Read more »
with the lowered capacity they will not use attendance figures, they will just say the coliseum looks fuller.
It would be great to know what Mike Bohn is really thinking heading into this season. Frankly, I have no idea, because if Folt and Caruso like how Gentleman Clay looks after this season, then he’s staying for another one.
USC fans have seemingly just become inured to Clay. So many places around the Internet, and in life in general, I see and hear Trojan fans lamenting the current state of USC football, and patiently waiting for a coaching change so they can have hope to eventually play with the big boys again.
First, expanding the playoffs is years away, and by then Helton will be far distant in the rearview mirror
Second, an 8-team playoff makes more sense. No team gets a bye, so the champion would have to win 3 games.
And what ever happened to the idea that these college students would be worn out with that kind of a football work load after a grueling 12-game season?
The FCS divisions handles a 16 team tournament just fine.
This is the best thing to happen to college football since they started the 4 team playoff. Add the NIL and things could get wild. Sure the 10-12 seeds will get slaughtered especially in the first few years. But soon you will see 1st round upsets. A 5-7 seed that gets hot in November could make a run. How great to see an up and coming coach, like a Luke Fickell, take a big name out! Group of 5 schools will up their game in a few years. It will be March Madness in December. So there would be 4… Read more »
We’ll call it December Delirium!
I like it!😜✌
Where did they come up with 12 teams. It seems some years it is difficult to find 4 championship caliber teams, and what happened to that nice round number 8? One thing we have to consider is that if they go with 12, they will never go back. They will juggle things around and try to make a bad decision look good. That is how the ncaa works, make a bad decision, lay the details on someone else, and defend their position that they know what they are doing. Sometimes, not so much. This is one of those times it… Read more »
Jon Wilner (OC Register): The CFP will remain a four-team event at least through the 2021-22 seasons. The playoff could expand for the 2023 season — or not until 2026. A statement issued Thursday by the subcommittee, which is made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners, read as follows: “The four-team format has been very popular and is a big success. But it’s important that we consider the opportunity for more teams and more student-athletes to participate in the playoff. After reviewing numerous options, we believe this proposal is the best option to increase participation, enhance the regular season… Read more »
so long as it is one of the six highest-ranked conference winners
does anyone know of hand how many times the PAC-12 champ would have satisfied this requirement?
Same article — “Six automatic berths would be allocated to the highest-ranked conference champions in the CFP selection committee rankings. “That stipulation would create a path for the Pac-12 champion unless that team is ranked behind all the Power Five champs and two Group of Five winners. “(In other words, a two-loss Pac-12 champion would be safe.)” USC’s 2016 team that beat PSU 52-49 would have made the cut despite losses to ALA and STAN big, plus 31-27 to UTAH. USC was chosen to play in the Rose Bowl that year over CU by the CFP Committee. That was the last time… Read more »
Sadly, this still does not get USC into the playoffs, where if they did they would be hugely embarrassed.
I’m all for increasing the playoff size now. I didn’t used to be, but now, with only four teams in it, the focus in CFB has become way too narrow, and I think interest in the game has declined because of it. There’s too much utter hopelessness in the sport now, and the same teams play each other every year for the title. USC’s main signature last season, in the eyes of many at least, was that it got to mercifully avoid both ALA and ND on its schedule. That said, the increased, watered-down playoff will now have some teams… Read more »
I’m all for increasing the size as well. Sadly with too 12 USC would have been a shoe-in every year under PC. Now, too 29 will not even help.
The USC Curse of Pete Carroll — He was so good for a pretty long while at USC that we always end up lamenting about his good old days. It’ll never end, like people always bring up Howard Jones, John McKay and John Robinson, especially McKay, the all-time USC King of Coaches IMO. I’ll never forget walking into the Coliseum numerous times with PC coaching just knowing USC had absolutely no chance of losing to rivals like ND or UCLA, no matter how good those teams may have been. We seemed to always just be laughing at USC games. Carroll… Read more »
Just imagine the poor soul who has to walk in Coach K’s footsteps at Duke. Oh well, I doubt Coach K will sit behind the bench during Duke home games like Wooden did.
Ya, I can’t imagine little private school DUKE will continue on as some monolith on the hardwood post Coach K. But they sure as hell will try hard!
Losing Coach K is fantastic for UNC Tar Heels hoops though. I’d say that’s a stock that might be worth buying, but I don’t follow hoops closely in general, so I have no idea, really.