The college football playoff is set. Some controversy. Notre Dame has been left out. Alabama is in. Miami is in. Tulane and JMU are in. They tweaked the seedings for this year, not giving automatic 1st round byes to conference champions. I like that. Here’s what the seedings look like:

Playoff seedings

Seed Team
1 Indiana (13-0)
2 Ohio State (12-1)
3 Georgia (12-1)
4 Texas Tech (12-1)
5 Oregon (11-1)
6 Ole Miss (11-1)
7 Texas A&M (11-1)
8 Oklahoma (10-2)
9 Alabama (10-3)
10 Miami (10-2)
11 Tulane (11-2)
12 James Madison (12-1)

Alabama or Notre Dame?

Who should Notre Dame replace in the playoff? It can’t be Tulane or James Madison, They won their conference championships and were ranked higher than the ACC champion Duke. It can’t be Texas A&M. Notre Dame lost to them this year. It can’t be Miami because Notre Dame lost to them also. So it really comes down to Oklahoma and Alabama. And Oklahoma beat Alabama, so it really comes down to Notre Dame and Alabama for the last spot. And lets be honest. Both of these schools get the benefit of the doubt. All the time.

Alabama had big wins over Georgia and Vanderbilt. They lost to Oklahoma. And they lost to Florida State. That one is bad. Notre Dame lost to Miami and Texas A&M. They beat USC. That’s it. That’s their schedule. Sure, they dominated their remaining opponents. But Pittsburgh might have been the next strongest team on their schedule after the three schools I mentioned. Notre Dame finished #10 in my rankings and Alabama finished #11, but that included the loss to Georgia. Having said that, only three schools ranked ahead of Notre Dame had easier schedules – Texas Tech, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M. I would probably have given the slightest of edges to Notre Dame over Alabama. But I guess the committee values good wins over bad losses. Alabama had a better win then Notre Dame but they also had a worse loss.

My solution

I have a solution. But its a multi-step plan:

Eliminate conference championship games

Conferences have expanded too much. There is too much disparity in team schedules within a conference to determine the real two best teams. Let your regular season champion be your conference champion. If there’s a tie, go head to head or use the playoff rankings to determine your champion.

Automatic qualifier for any conference champion that is ranked in top 25

Give every conference champion an automatic bid to the playoff. Even the MAC, Sun Belt, AAC and Conference USA. However, only give the automatic bid if the conference champion finishes in the top 25.

I like giving the smaller schools a chance. We have Tulane and JMU in this years playoff. Tulane probably shouldn’t make it in with two losses. JMU probably shouldn’t make it in with one loss. If one of them was undefeated, I say yes, they should be a top 25 team and should qualify for the playoffs.

Expand the playoffs to 16 teams

Expand it out to 16 teams. Bring them in based on their playoff ranking. If only 3 conferences qualify, so be it. If 5 conferences have a champion ranked in top 25, all 5 get a bid.

Here’s the playoff seeds based on my rankings before the conference championship games

Seed Team Conference Champion
1 Ohio State (12-0) *
2 Indiana (12-0) *
3 Texas Tech (11-1) *
4 Oregon (11-1)
5 Georgia (11-1) *
6 BYU (11-1) *
7 Ole Miss (11-1) *
8 Oklahoma (10-2)
9 Alabama (10-2) *
10 Texas A&M (11-1) *
11 Notre Dame (10-2)
12 Utah (10-2)
13 Texas (9-3)
14 Vanderbilt (10-2)
15 Miami (10-2)
16 USC (9-3)

Notes:

  • Ohio State gets automatic Big 10 bid over Indiana

  • Texas Tech gets automatic Big 12 bid over BYU

  • Georgia gets automatic SEC bid over Ole Miss, Alabama and Texas A&M

Under my system, Tulane and JMU would be left out of playoffs this year. Virginia would have been the ACC champions but were not ranked in my top 25 to qualify for an automatic bid.