How would a 16 team playoff look?

[bennyl08]

I could BARELY go for 8 in a football playoff but not 16.  I honestly don't see that many years if any, where any team ranked perhaps higher than 8 had a "legitimate" claim to be considered good enough to be in a playoff, much less win it.

Now we completely agree. I'm generally in the camp of 8 teams, but I could be convinced of a 6 team as well. Four is just too small to do what it claims. The entire reason of switching from the BCS to this is to "crown a true champion." So if the format is too small, what's the point of a change (I know, it's to gradually get people used to the idea of a playoff as well as see if it makes enough money and such).

[Inhogswetrust]

Now we completely agree. I'm generally in the camp of 8 teams, but I could be convinced of a 6 team as well. Four is just too small to do what it claims. The entire reason of switching from the BCS to this is to "crown a true champion." So if the format is too small, what's the point of a change (I know, it's to gradually get people used to the idea of a playoff as well as see if it makes enough money and such).

I don't like any idea of six because of some teams getting a bye.

[HogBreath]

I don't like any idea of six because of some teams getting a bye.

Exactly...that bye business is just flat out ridiculous.  Seed 'em  and have every one play...NO BYES!

And 8 is enough.

[Iwastherein1969]

Too crowded....if we need 16 teams for us to make the playoffs, well, we aren't good enough to win it anyway. Word up, Bert is good enough to get us in the top 4 within 3 years...Book that !

[rzrbaxfan]

10 conf champions, 6 at larges. I tried to draw it out from this past season. This is what i got.

#1 Alabama vs #16 Ul Lafayette
#8 Mich St vs #9 Ole Miss
#5 Baylor vs #12 Boise State
#4 Ohio State vs #13 Marshall

#2 Oregon vs #15 UCF
#7 Mississippi State vs #10 Arizona
#6 TCU vs #11 Kstate
#3 Florida State vs #14 NIU

Playoffs are more than just crowning a champ, it's also just as much about money.  America does love football, but if 1/4 of your 16 teams are mid-majors, most people will show interest (in TV ratings and ticket sales) in round 2 when the match-ups are more interesting. 

Your scenario has at most 3 1st round games that are somewhat interesting, and one is a rematch.  Most years, the SEC will have 2-3 teams in the top 16, and the Big10 and Pac12 will also have a couple.  This is a logistic nightmare for potential rematches.  Would you really be interested in seeing Bama vs MSU again?  OSU vs MSU? Oregon vs AZ?  Rematches devalue the regular season and more importantly, they devalue the money making championship games.  That's why I think there will never be a D1 playoff of more than 8 teams.

[DeltaBoy]

I don't want to see College Football become NFL lite.

[MountieDawg]

I like a 12 team playoff with the Top 4 seeds getting a bye for their great season.

[SooiecidetillNuttgone]

I could be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time), but it seems to me that the underlying premise of the major bowl matchups and the recent playoff goals are vying to pit highly successful major college teams of considerable interest from differing conferences against one another.

Politically correct sporting equanimity do gooders and arbiters are adamant about ceding a few spots to the little guys and the independents; but not many nationwide fans get all lathered up about a proposed matchup between Sari State and Yoo Hoo U - even if both DID go 11 and 0.

No.  I think you nailed it.

The only untouched aspect of this situation, at least for me, is this pornographic love affair that Americans seem to have with ''Cinderella'' victories.  When they are true ''Cinderella'' wins:  UA vs UNC (Pine Bluff game), the Dayton Flyers with Roosevelt Chapman vs I can't remember, Notre Dame vs UCLA, etc. they are fantastic. 

But it seems like there's an attempt at engineering them now with the eroding factor of minimizing season long quality.
Go 12-0 but lose in the conf championship, say like Hogs/Mizzou/Ok State?  Could be sorry, Charlie.  Make room for that 11-1 Pineview Platypusses that have become media darlings though.......

More =/= Better.
Ok America, please keep saying this and back away from the edge.

[SooiecidetillNuttgone]

TBH, I didn't want the playoffs, but wasn't adamantly opposed either.   They rarely settle anything cause of what happens during the season: differing schedules, injuries, rigged officiating, politics, a piss poor game, or a game vs a team that has their ''Game of the Century''.

I guess it's fine for the NFL, despite seasons where Atlanta goes to the Super Bowl over Minnesota, but it just seems forced,  pandering, ill-suited for college.

[NaturalStateReb]

I think arkansas has a much better shot at winning with the playoffs than the BCS setup. Because first and foremost, they have to win the SEC which they have yet to do. If it was an 8 team playoff in those times, arkansas would have qualified in 2010 and 2011 and have a better shot than trying to squeeze in the top 2. Ohio proved to us that its way easier to win a title with a playoff than with the BCS

I agree.  The biggest names in college football were generally the big winners of the BCS era.  In order to even have a shot at a title, you'd have to finish in the top 2.  Arkansas only made it to a BCS-level bowl once.  The chances of Arkansas finishing the season in the top 2 in any given year are vanishingly small.  That's just a fact, and it has just as much to do with the college football landscape as it does with Arkansas (or basically all but an extremely small number of programs).

The big winners in an 8, or even 4, team playoff are teams like Arkansas.  With a 4-team playoff, you've already doubled your chances, although you'll still probably have to run the table in the SEC, since one conference champion is going to get left out. 

An 8-team playoff pulls that pressure down considerably.  With an 8-team bracket you could drop a game--perhaps even two--in the insanely competitive SEC West and still potentially get your chance.  There have been years where the 3rd place finisher in the West would have been considered a top-8 team. 

IMO, teams like Arkansas have the most to gain in an 8-team format.  Arkansas might never make a 2-team format, and it's likely that Arkansas will go many, many years between appearances in a 4-team format.  With 8 teams in a bracket, though, you maximize your chances while not creating a format so big that it becomes meaningless or squeezes the regular season.