My CFP Selection Fix (long-ish)

[twohourtour]

Here’s how I would alter the CFP. I think we all agree the tie breakers for the conference championship need to be fixed first.

• The first round of the playoffs starts after the regular season concludes. (Conference championship games and the win or go home games, listed below, are round 1).
• In addition to the conference championship games, Friday/ Saturday will also have the 8 highest ranked teams not playing in a conference championship play each other. (eliminate the ‘idle’ argument Bama had)
• Re-rank the top 25 after the weekends games are played (the results/ how you played those games matter) Blowout losses will move you down the same it would if it happened middle of the season.
• The 5 highest ranked conference champions move on to round 2 automatically, just like they do now.
• The winners of the 4 win and you’re in games that weekend move on to round 2.
• The 4 highest ranked conference champion gets a bye (keep the importance of winning your conference championship).

The field of teams eligible to move on to round 2 this year (again determined right after the regular season) would have been 19 teams vying for 12 spots. I realize that 20 teams played in relevant games I list below, but I don’t include Troy as a potential team even if they won. It was James Madison or bust for the SBC. Most years it would be 18 teams to fill 12 spots, but the ACC screwed itself this year which allowed the SBC winner to be ranked over the ACC winner.
Here’s how this weekend’s relevant games would have looked:

SEC Championship: GA v. Alabama (blowout loss by Bama)

Big Ten Championship: OSU v. Indiana (close loss by Ohio State)

Big 12 Championship: Texas Tech v. BYU (blowout loss by BYU)

ACC Championship Virgina v. Duke (close win by Duke)

American Championship: Tulane V. N Texas (Tulane win)

SBC Championship: James Madison v Troy (JMU win)

Win and you’re in games this year. Presumably the higher ranked team would be the home team.

G1. Oregon v. Vanderbilt

G2. Ole Miss v. Texas

G3. Texas A&M v. Miami

G4. Oklahoma. v. Notre Dame

For this year these teams move on to round 2 (this is not the rankings, just a list of who would be in):

• Indiana (Big Ten) Round 2 bye
• Georgia (SEC) Round 2 bye
• Texas Tech (Big 12) Round 2 bye
• Tulane Round 2 bye
• James Madison
• Winner GM 1
• Winner GM 2
• Winner GM 3
• Winner GM 4
• 1st highest ranked losing team from the weekend (ex. this year would be Ohio State)
• 2nd highest ranked losing team from the weekend
• 3rd highest ranked losing team from the weekend

Ohio State would assuredly move on as an at-large bid because they’re the highest ranked of the hypothetical teams that lost. Bama got blown out but at least we can compare their resume vs the other 7 losers of the weekend’s games without them *****ing it’s unfair because those teams didn’t play a game/ were idle.

9 of the 12 spots will be winners from Friday/ Saturday’s games and the Sunday rankings will decide 3 the highest ranked teams that lost this weekend. I understand that then the final 3 at-large spots would still be subjective (this year Ohio State getting an at-large bid, for all intents and purposes, isn’t as subjective as it is a guarantee). Would a close loss by Notre Dame to Oklahoma be enough to get them to jump Alabama who got crushed to a higher ranked Georgia team that they already beat earlier in the year. And Alabama also lost close to Oklahoma. But now Alabama can’t say anything about Notre Dame not playing at all.

As far as how those 12 teams are seeded after the final 12 are decided, that would be up to the committee.

Go ahead, pick it apart.