2025 College Football Playoffs

[Bane]

BYU would be a 12pt neutral field dog to ND. Laughable this is a conversation.

But a couple of computer programs have them real close to us.

 

[burmafrd1944]

I’m excited for the arguments when the field expands to 24

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

 

[Irish4life]

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

You could say the same for every sports league in the US. Who believes 16 NHL/NBA teams can win it all...or 12 MLB teams....or 14 NFL teams...or 68 college basketball teams. Every level of football in this country from HS to D3 college, to D2 college, to D1 FCS college all have extensive playoffs with teams that don't realistically have a shot to win it all. But having the opportunity is everything...I would have no problem with a 24 team CFP for a sport that has 136 FBS teams.

 

[T-Boone]

I've got a big feeling that the Mich beats the OSU which is going to be troublesome.

 

[dankgesang]

You could say the same for every sports league in the US. Who believes 16 NHL/NBA teams can win it all...or 12 MLB teams....or 14 NFL teams...or 68 college basketball teams. Every level of football in this country from HS to D3 college, to D2 college, to D1 FCS college all have extensive playoffs with teams that don't realistically have a shot to win it all. But having the opportunity is everything...I would have no problem with a 24 team CFP for a sport that has 136 FBS teams.

I understand this take, obviously. As you note it's the operating paradigm of almost every major sport. But I grew up preferring college football because it was different, and within that not a little because the idea at least was that the national champion was the best the team in the country that season, not the team that won a tournament at the end.

 

[Notre Dame Joe]

I understand this take, obviously. As you note it's the operating paradigm of almost every major sport. But I grew up preferring college football because it was different, and within that not a little because the idea at least was that the national champion was the best the team in the country that season, not the team that won a tournament at the end.

It was supposed to be about which team had the best season.

 

[NewEnglandGuy]

You could say the same for every sports league in the US. Who believes 16 NHL/NBA teams can win it all...or 12 MLB teams....or 14 NFL teams...or 68 college basketball teams. Every level of football in this country from HS to D3 college, to D2 college, to D1 FCS college all have extensive playoffs with teams that don't realistically have a shot to win it all. But having the opportunity is everything...I would have no problem with a 24 team CFP for a sport that has 136 FBS teams.

But unlike all those other sports, CFB has the best regular season.

As an example - when Texas is preseason #1 and loses to Ohio state to open the year, plays like crap against a couple teams but pulls off wins late, only to get upset by Florida followed by a blow out L to Georgia. Boom you’re out. Sorry, the year wasn’t good enough to come all the way back from that and be the “champ.”

Don’t play UTEP, Sam Houston, San Jose St….sleep walk to a 16-13 OT W vs a bottom dweller like Kentucky and play 1 quarter against another in Miss St….Mess around in the 4th and give up 21 straight to Vandy.

They played quality football against Oklahoma. Held Ohio St to 200 yards, but Arch looked bad in that game. Even the Arkansas win wasn’t a complete game. D gave up over 500 yards of offense to mostly their back up QB. That type of team should be able to just turn it on for the last 4 games and win a title?

24+ playoff teams suggested by the BIG is a pretty bad idea. 16 teams. Max. This year would be the top 14 plus ACC Champ and highest group of 5 champ. (I guess Vandy losing to Tenn and Michigan losing to Ohio St opens the door for Texas getting in with a top 3 win vs A&M but I digress). Also Power 4 title games are out dated and stupid. They become really obsolete with playoff expansion and the removal of byes. 18 team conferences with unbalanced schedules are just as stupid, so improving schedules and increasing data points will help separate teams.

- 9 conference games with 18 BIG, 17 ACC, 16 SEC and Big12 teams.
- 1 cross over game vs another conference of same place in the standings the year before ie: 16 BIG vs 16 SEC 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, etc of 2025 play in 2026. 16 ACC vs 16 Big12 do the same. The bottom 2 BIG play non league game vs each other (like what NC St and Virginia did this year as well as Wake Forest and UNC in 2019 and 2021). The bottom ACC team can do whatever vs group of 6 team or play UConn. Alternate the years the conferences get home games per the seeding - ie BIG gets 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15 HOME in 2026 and 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16 HOME in 2027.
- No FCS games - plenty of teams to play in the same division (group of 6). There are 136 FBS teams who can have up to 105 players on scholarship, FCS maxes at 63, 40% less. It almost isn’t the same sport. This year through Week 12, FBS teams are 118-4 against FCS opponents (.967), with an average margin of victory of 33.1 points. Power 4 teams are 56-0. It is a built in bye, pads stats, and shouldn’t count the same in the W-L column.
- Fix the calendar for schedules. Early signing day 12/3 - 12/5. No conference title games. Playoffs start immediately after regular season like the NFL. Play Army Navy game to start the year instead of an entire weekend by itself after the season.
This year 12/5 - 12/6, 16 teams - 8 games, 2 Friday at 4PM, 8PM followed by Noon, 4, 8 Sat with two games a time slot. All on college campuses.
12/12 - 12/13, 8 teams - 4 games, 1 Friday at 8PM follow by Noon, 4, 8 Sat. Again ON CAMPUS.
Start other bowl games 12/16 Tuesday
12/20, 4 teams - 2 games. Saturday 4PM and 8PM. These could alternate between Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta. The Peach goes back on par with Holiday, Citrus, Gator, ReliaQuest(Outback), and Alamo bowls…I mean they did drop Peach entirely from the name between 2006-2013 when it was just the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Continue bowls until championship on 1/1 and always have it be at the Rose Bowl.
Transfer portal opens the following Monday after New Years Day, so 1/5/26 for this example. Single transfer window for 2 weeks.
- Establish a CFB Commissioner office with authority granted by the conferences to investigate and enforce penalties when agreed upon laws/rules such as NIL guidelines, team salaries, tampering with players, poaching coaches before playoffs, faking injuries, etc are broken. In realtime, not in 2 years like Michigan - where they can pick which games their coach misses.

 

[stlnd01]

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

12th probably not, but only because of the G5 autobid. But we could easily wind up in 10th or 11th (and we would not make an eight-team field). And we're quite capable of winning it all.

I dunno. 12 seems about right. It's big enough that you can have slots for conference champions, which gives potential access to a lot more teams (i.e. the ACC), and that a good team can stumble once or even twice and not have to scrap their whole season (hi!). But it's small enough that the regular season still matters. Ask Texas or USC if losses in the regular season don't matter. And then whoever wins it all has run a three-or-four-game gauntlet to get there. The ultimate winner is probably the best team (or at least close to it).

I understand the capitalist impulse to make everything bigger, but a 16 or 24 (WTF?) team playoff would only cheapen the regular season to allow more actually mediocre teams in. I'm not sure the point of that beyond a few more games to sell TV ads against.

 

[Irish#1]

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

True but look at the buzz 12 teams is generating. You add more teams and the bigger the buzz.

Even though they don’t have a realistic shot, schools get excited just getting invited to the NCAA tournament.

 

[DillonHall]

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

How is 12 dumb? Our season would've been over in mid-September if 12 teams didn't get in. ND is currently ranked 9th - that doesn't mean ND is the 9th best team

12-16 is the sweet spot IMO. There are so many college football programs, you still have to be a really good team to get in (besides G5 and maybe ACC but it'll depend on the year). Plus with the wide disparity in scheduling, you might as well let a decent number of teams in and then they can decide the championship on the field

 

[peadeam]

Why is anyone wasting head space on if 1 loss BYU makes the CFP when a win and they are in and a loss makes them a 2 loss team. 1 loss at large BYU is a non-existent contender

Because there would more than likely be two big 12 teams in and I’m not sure where ND would be placed in that mess. This is especially troubling if Alabama wins the SEC

 

[ab2cmiller]

How is 12 dumb? Our season would've been over in mid-September if 12 teams didn't get in. ND is currently ranked 9th - that doesn't mean ND is the 9th best team

12-16 is the sweet spot IMO

So if there was an 8 team playoff, our season would’ve been over mid-September despite us being currently 9th. Got it.

 

[DillonHall]

I understand this take, obviously. As you note it's the operating paradigm of almost every major sport. But I grew up preferring college football because it was different, and within that not a little because the idea at least was that the national champion was the best the team in the country that season, not the team that won a tournament at the end.

ND wasn't even close to the 2nd best team in the country in 2012. It's almost impossible to determine which two or four teams are the best just based on the regular season because the schedules are so different

 

[DillonHall]

So if there was an 8 team playoff, our season would’ve been over mid-September despite us being currently 9th. Got it.

Depends on the format, but if a G5 gets in and conference champs get in, then it'd be very unlikely for ND to get in this year. We'd have to be ranked 6th at worst

There's a reason Swarbrick fought to make it 12. If ND wants to stay independent, it's better if there are at least 12 spots

 

[IrishLax]

Depends on the format, but if a G5 gets in and conference champs get in, then it'd be very unlikely for ND to get in this year. We'd have to be ranked 6th at worst

There's a reason Swarbrick fought to make it 12. If ND wants to stay independent, it's better if there are at least 12 spots

The 12 team playoff was also designed for 5 normal sized "Power Conferences" ... now you have 4, with the Big 12 being a bunch of G5 teams in a trench coat. So the G5 is significantly worse than ever before, and an 8 team playoffs with AQs would be a disaster.

Going back to a system with a 4 team playoff + NY6 games would unironically be better than any sort of 8 team playoff. 16 is probably the right number, 24 is too many games. In fact, 16 would be darn near perfect this year when you look at where teams are shaking out. There are ~4 teams trying to lobby their way in (BYU, Utah, Vandy, Miami) who all somewhat have a case because of a lack of crossplay and difficulty in comparing teams.

 

[allenm5333]

The 12 team playoff was also designed for 5 normal sized "Power Conferences" ... now you have 4, with the Big 12 being a bunch of G5 teams in a trench coat. So the G5 is significantly worse than ever before, and an 8 team playoffs with AQs would be a disaster.

Going back to a system with a 4 team playoff + NY6 games would unironically be better than any sort of 8 team playoff. 16 is probably the right number, 24 is too many games. In fact, 16 would be darn near perfect this year when you look at where teams are shaking out. There are ~4 teams trying to lobby their way in (BYU, Utah, Vandy, Miami) who all somewhat have a case because of a lack of crossplay and difficulty in comparing teams.

someone on the athletic did an article about what 24 teams would look like using FCS rules. Bama v western michigan and ND v western kentucky....yea hard pass

 

[thekid33]

12 with no automatic bids would probably be perfect.

16 with the current number of automatic bids wouldn't be terrible.

They better not go past 16 and I hate the idea of a set number of multiple automatic bids per certain conferences.

 

[Dale]

Because there would more than likely be two big 12 teams in and I’m not sure where ND would be placed in that mess. This is especially troubling if Alabama wins the SEC

That’s a comparison to Texas Tech then at that point. Nothing to do with BYUs resume

 

[MPClinton22]

12 is dumb to begin with; who believes any team that is 12th best ever winning it all
But I can see the idiots doing it

12 without auto bids is fine. This year, that 12th team could be Miami, who is talented enough to beat anyone, but poorly coached enough to lose to anyone. 16 is the absolute max this thing should go to.

 

[CoachB]

Admittedly, I didn't spend any time reading all that BYU stuff. Why are we talking about BYU. They are irrelevant. They are in the same boat as Tulane in my eyes. If they win out in their average league, they get a bid and a chance to get smoked game one. If they don't they arent in. Not sure what the discussion is, to be honest.

 

[MPClinton22]

The 12 team playoff was also designed for 5 normal sized "Power Conferences" ... now you have 4, with the Big 12 being a bunch of G5 teams in a trench coat. So the G5 is significantly worse than ever before, and an 8 team playoffs with AQs would be a disaster.

Going back to a system with a 4 team playoff + NY6 games would unironically be better than any sort of 8 team playoff. 16 is probably the right number, 24 is too many games. In fact, 16 would be darn near perfect this year when you look at where teams are shaking out. There are ~4 teams trying to lobby their way in (BYU, Utah, Vandy, Miami) who all somewhat have a case because of a lack of crossplay and difficulty in comparing teams.

100% this - except with one small update. ACC is arguably worse than the B12 at this point. The whole sport truly is two power conferences, two mid conferences and all the rest.

 

[pumpdog20]

I remember when H2H didn't matter in '93, so fuck 'em.

 

[burmafrd1944]

No automatic bids

top 8 teams go in. committee uses a very public criteria on how teams are chosen

this would be fine since no team that is really worthy of a shot at the NC is going be left out. Win your games. The teams that do and also beat teams that matter will get in. Yeah now and then someone will get shafted but nothing is perfect

 

[Bane]

As I've stated before, my perfect system is play bowl season. After the last bowl is over, put out rankings, #1 plays #2 for the title. That keeps the special nature of bowl season which is now totally watered down and meaningless.

Since I know in reality playoffs only ever expand (we had the 83 win Reds in the baseball playoffs this year), 16 is the max to me and no autobids. If your league sucks so bad it's champion (or any team) can't find it's way to the top 16 well you don't deserve a seat at the table.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Let the G6 form their own league.

No more FCS games. Yes, that means some FCS programs will have to fold but schools shouldn’t be entitled to a football program. If they’re entirely dependent on being subsidized by P4 programs, then maybe they shouldn’t focus on football. If G5 wants to play them fine but they aren’t getting million dollar pay days like they do from P4 programs.

One option for FCS would be for P4 teams to pay them to be a Spring Game opponent but no more regular season games.

No more conference championship games. They’re pointless with conferences having close to 20 teams (ex: OSU hadn’t played Illinois in a decade until this year). They’re now a TV property plain & simple. I’m sure the conferences (esp SEC/B1G) would demand to be compensated for eliminating one of their revenue streams but if they formed a mega conference(s), maybe it could just go away.

It’s pretty obvious that they’re headed to a mega conference or two. Whether it includes all P4 teams is unknown but w/ NIL there truly is a hierarchy of teams so think of P4 as MLB, G6 as AAA, FCS as AA & D2 as A, etc. They’re all “professionals” but some get paid more than others.

 

[NDFAN2008]

It should be either 12 teams with no automatic bids, or 16 with automatic bids. No G5 school has any business getting in this year so there needs to be something put into it. If your a G5 and ranked outside the top 15 you don’t get in.

 

[stlnd01]

No more conference championship games. They’re pointless with conferences having close to 20 teams (ex: OSU hadn’t played Illinois in a decade until this year). They’re now a TV property plain & simple. I’m sure the conferences (esp SEC/B1G) would demand to be compensated for eliminating one of their revenue streams but if they formed a mega conference(s), maybe it could just go away.

I'll be surprised if they're still playing conference championship games in five years.
It was one thing when they served as a play-in to the four-game playoff.
But now, if your conference is good (SEC, Big 10), they are purely about seeding.
If your conference is not good (ACC), maybe it's still a playoff play-in, but between two mid-majors with limited TV draw, and in that case they're boxing out the actual best team in the conference anyway.
The only conference championship game with any juice this year is the Big 12, and that's a rematch of a blowout.
At some point viewers will tune out, and then you won't even have the TV money as an argument for them.

 

[IRISHDODGER]

I'll be surprised if they're still playing conference championship games in five years.
It was one thing when they served as a play-in to the four-game playoff.
But now, if your conference is good (SEC, Big 10), they are purely about seeding.
If your conference is not good (ACC), maybe it's still a playoff play-in, but between two mid-majors with limited TV draw, and in that case they're boxing out the actual best team in the conference anyway.
The only conference championship game with any juice this year is the Big 12, and that's a rematch of a blowout.
At some point viewers will tune out, and then you won't even have the TV money as an argument for them.

Yup. It was made clear when a 2-loss OSU got an at-large bid despite not even qualifying for CCG. And then they won it all.

 

[Islandboi]

250K views · 4.7K reactions | "They're a different looking team than just about anybody else." Notre Dame might have stumbled out of the gate, but Coach Gruden thinks they can win it all. | Barstool Sports

"They're a different looking team than just about anybody else." Notre Dame might have stumbled out of the gate, but Coach Gruden thinks they can win it all.

www.facebook.com

 

[ND88]

If I were a BYU fan I'd hate it, but I'd hate that we wasted a week with Portland State and ECU a lot more.

I would hate being a BYU fan. Period.