December 8th, 2024 was the first Selection Sunday for the new 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP Playoff). The first field was set and great anticipation has began for the very first of the new format.
Many are gonna write and debate over which teams got in that shouldn’t have or who was left out that was more deserving. That is not what we will discuss here. Instead, lets discuss what is right, what is wrong, what should stay, and what should go about the new CFP Playoff.
12 teams seems perfect
I love that we were debating two and three loss teams for the last spot. In my opinion, allowing any more teams in would only open the door for potential four loss teams in the CFP Playoff. This would only water down the playoffs. The college football regular season has always had more value than any other sport. Allowing too many three and four loss teams devalues the regular season.
Head to Head matters
Playing games against one another and coming out with wins has to matter, if not, why are we playing the games. Alabama and Ole Miss being ahead of identical record South Carolina had to happen because of the Gamecocks losses to both schools. This notion of a team “playing better” down the stretch is “fool’s gold”. College football gold standard is the value of the entire season which means playing against other top teams and winning has to mean something.
Not punishing Conference Championship game teams has to continue
Again, the regular season and why we play the games has to matter. We simply cannot lose the significance of being at the top of your conference at the end of the regular season over teams who did not. I love the importance of conference championship week and do not want to see conference championships go away. The CFP Playoff committee got this right.
The Opening Round home games was genius
The energy and anticipation of home games on campus is fantastic for the pageantry and traditions of college football. Earning home playoff games is a great show of pride for teams and schools. This is one of the best decisions in this new format. Teams five through eight in the seeding have something to play for, it has tremendous value to have the advantage to play these games at home on the field and to the athletic departments.
Seeding must be changed.
I love the 5 highest ranked conference champions automatic bids. I just don’t believe those should be tied to the top four first round byes. Does it really matter that at-large teams get the byes if they are the top four ranked teams? The top four ranked teams must get the first-round byes because they are deserving, not teams ranked ninth and 12th. Imagine how much better the bracket would be with Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Penn State with the byes.
Strength of schedule (SOS) needs a higher evaluation in the rankings
Not everyone will play top 30 schedules and I’m not saying it’s the top thing in the metric, but it needs a higher value. Teams in the 60’s to 80’s in the SOS with fewer losses need to play their way in through conference championships. It’s only fair to teams and conferences with a much tougher path than those who are fortunate with a more favorable path. Teams within the same conference have massively varied SOS ranging from 30’s to 80’s. There should be a value for conferences to make more evenly matched scheduling within their leagues.
The CFP Playoff Committee should use a top metric tool
The old BCS metric tool was not far off. In my opinion a small tweak to that formula for a touch more inclusion on SOS and it could be the perfect tool to help guide the committee. We need more than human error deciding the fate of the 12 teams. College basketball has the NET rankings and quadrant wins and losses. I’m suggest something similar for college football that gives value to quality wins and bad losses while giving a slightly more of an edge to SOS.
It is an exciting time heading into the very first 12-team CFP Playoff and home opening round games. Six new team that have never made the CFP in its ten year run existence are in this new format. Six new schools have a chance to bring home a National Championship. Most have wanted to see how the first year of the new format would go before making any changes. Now that the inaugural selection of the 12-team CFP Playoff format is complete these are the things that should stay and things that should go.
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