I would have adopted the Division II and FCS formats at 24 teams. I have always been a proponent of a 16 team format with all Division I conference champions getting an auto bid and then have 6 at large . I am sticking with my UCF roots and believe in a system that is more inclusive and ultimately leads to more parity across college football. Why shouldn't Coastal Carolina or Northern Illinois have a shot if they win their conferences?
100% agree. I'll one-up you....
16 teams doesn't even have to get retardedly complicated. It's already greatly in place. Nobody gets a bye-week. You already have 10 teams playing in conference championship games. Just have the "next 6" play each other on conference championship weekend and treat them like "play in" games. They are seeded 1-6 and the higher-rated team hosts OR randomly draw those matchups...whatever. This makes the conference championship games even more prestigious..."win and you're in!". That's the first weekend of games....the round of 16.
People will whine and go, "Hey, my team lost in the conference title game and is better than this or that play-in team." Well, you know what. Too bad. It's never going to be perfect. Be thankful you are even getting an opportunity as a team not playing in a conference championship game.
That means 5 of the first 8 games would have already been played during conference championship weekend anyways. It's 3 extra games.
Then you have the Super 8. You re-seed based on previous weekend results. Higher seed hosts. Conference champs get preference over any "play in" team. Conference champs get seeds 1-5. "Play-in" team get seeds 6-8. Yes, that means however the chips fall three highly-touted teams then have to go play road games. One conference champ gets the shaft (seed #5) and has to play a road game but it would be against the #4 seed. This way when "the powers that be" rank 1-5 to the Conference Champs and they give the shaft to the AAC and SunBelt champs, they are then guaranteeing one of them makes it to the Semi-Finals. This makes it more likely they actually rank the teams appropriately.
You reward being a conference champ. Totally thrilling for fans as well.
Then the Semi-Finals and Final are played just like they are now. It ends up being a total of 7 extra games, and one extra weekend of games (stagger the Super 8 games so all 4 are played Saturday, or play one Friday night, then 3 on Saturday....whatever). This really isn't difficult. Just a bunch of children fighting over whether they get 15 or 20 million per game to do this.....just do it. Make some decisions (that are never going to be perfect) and make the game the best product it can be!
This 12 team format they are going to use now is a sham as well, giving teams bye-weeks. Having The Committee pick which 4 of the 6 auto-bids gets bye-weeks...it's still garbage. You can shine that turd up all you want but it's still a turd.
