Are you talking about the national championship or just the first game each played? ASU is making it very interesting.
Several possibilities to consider... The negatives with what we have... 1. No more byes. Either go with 8 or 16. 2. Conference champs should not get the top 4 seeds as a guarantee. I'd be okay with a top 8 seed in a 16 team format so they get a home game in the first round as a reward for winning their conference. 3. The higher the number of seeds, the less the conference championships will matter. If we have a conf champ game against two highly ranked teams, they both know they are getting in since the selection committee does not want to hurt a team for playing the extra game. If we kept it at 8 teams, then an 8th ranked team will not want to look bad in a conf champ game. Positives of an 8 team playoffs......(My personal favorite) 1. Everyone needs to win 3 games with no byes. Time off is more consistent. 2. I'd go with top 4/5 conference champs and the highest 3/4 ranked teams remaining. Committee assigns matchups with conference champ bowl affiliations. 3. Fewer teams in puts a higher priority to win your conference champ for the power 4. Positives of a 16 team playoff.... 1. 8 home games on college campuses. Helps feature the stadiums and traditions on some of colleges best hallowed grounds. 2. More money to spread around and more teams in from the best conferences. 3. Another big week of college football to enjoy right before Christmas.
Tough topic to completely flush out. I love some of the suggestions... IMHO the selection committee needs to come up with a way to analyze team schedule strengths and include that in the selection process. Undefeated teams with weak schedules worry me and deny stronger teams that were challenged all season. 16...I don't know. Eight, maybe is a sweet spot. But what about the championship games, will they become a thing of the past? The system really needs tweaking, NIL needs salary caps, and someone with a brain needs to run the show. The corporate sponsors will always be there, but 50 logo's on the field sucks big time. That pop tart cluster was fugly. And the announcers mentioning pop tarts every 2 seconds OMG, really? There needs to be a cap on that crap too. Not that I have an opinion. "Bill, what are your favorite Pop Tarts?" "Well, Bob, the ones I tossed in the garbage!" Go Gators.
For me, I think you have to remove the human element from the choosing. The technology is out there, the ncaa just needs to set up the criteria that goes with choosing and feed it into the computer and let it spit out the top 8, 12,16 teams amd seed them. As long as we have a committee making the decision, then the CFP is really nothing more than an Invitational
I thought ASU looked good to me. Texas had a few explosives early but thought ASU looked pretty legit. They were a 4th and Grantham from the semis. That was the best playoff game yet.
I like the current format now and would even be in favor of expanding it to 16. This college football post season has been far more entertaining than watching meaningless bowl games in past seasons.
Best playoff effort came from the lowest seed that wouldnt have been in an 8 team playoff unless the 4/5 conference thing got them in which would have eliminated the 8 seed. Thats the reason i like 16 as the upsets are the best thing for fans that their team is sitting home. Clearly the top 4 seeds this year arent deserving. ASU was probably robbed and should still be standing had they made tge proper targeting call but that would have hurt the big money team for tv. That was either intentional corruption or they were just scared to make the call.
I think people are confusing setting up close, competitive games with what it means to have the sport championship settled on the field to reduce the qualitative nature div 1 football has been in the past. Its not about who is the "best" team, its who showed up when it mattered in the moment. The better team doesn't always win. That is why we like sports. Having blowouts in the first round of a one game elimination playoff is not unusual. It is also notable that this is the first year, so our sample size is limited.
First off, I think that the top 8 teams is enough to determine who the best team is. 12 is what we got now and I don't see it being reduced so clearly 12 is enough. IF they go to 16 it's just for money. Does anyone know how many get into the playoffs in the FCS level? We could just copy that. Second of all, the seeding definitely sucks. I think the conference champs should all get in but they don't necessarily deserve to be in the top 4. Include them but seed them appropriately maybe using the old BCS formulas if the committee doesn't want to do it.