2025 College Football Playoffs

jerseyborn1971 · Jan 12, 2026

Top 16, no Autobids. On campus games until the semi finals.

greyhammer90 · Jan 12, 2026

jerseyborn1971 said:
Top 16, no Autobids. On campus games until the semi finals.

This is the way

irishff1014 · Jan 12, 2026

Jiggafini19Deux said:
FCS was 16 and expanded to 24. I am not a huge fan. I think 16 is fine, but they want more teams for more eyes and more dollars. It isn't so much about participation as it is about the ability to draw TV ratings and revenue. Every sport is doing this now.

March Madness used to be 64 teams. Now there are multiple play in games because watching Hofstra play Minnesota for the privilege of a 12th seed is must see TV. UEFA now has Champions League, Europa League and Conference League tournaments. What smore, they've expanded the amount of teams in all of them, too. Yes, let's watch Real Madrid destroy some club near Prague in the group stages because I've got the free time.

Whatever. Notre Dame wins a National Championship, I'm not going to care, but that's where my interest lies.

24 teams is Strictly about money. No wants to see an 8-4 or a 7-5 team in the play offs.

rtrn2glory · Jan 12, 2026

jerseyborn1971 said:
Top 16, no Autobids. On campus games until the semi finals.

Won't happen b/c of the bowl games.

Black Irish · Jan 12, 2026

The committee needs to stop including acting conference commissioners and school ADs as members. That was always a head-scratcher to me, having people involved in making the rankings whose job is to act in the best interests of their conferences or schools. That just begs for self-dealing and corrupt decision-making.

IRISHDODGER · Jan 12, 2026

Black Irish said:
The committee needs to stop including acting conference commissioners and school ADs as members. That was always a head-scratcher to me, having people involved in making the rankings whose job is to act in the best interests of their conferences or schools. That just begs for self-dealing and corrupt decision-making.

Regardless of recusals, acting ADs & conf commissioners should not be members for the reasons you stated as well as the fact most conferences revenue share so even the poverty programs get a cut of the CFP payout from their fellow members. The more conference members that make the CFP (i.e., five for SEC), the more revenue poverty programs (like Arkansas) share so the douchebag AD (Hunter Yuracek) made sure the SEC teams were in no danger of dropping in the final poll to ensure his payday

stlnd01 · Jan 12, 2026

irishff1014 said:
24 teams is Strictly about money. No wants to see an 8-4 or a 7-5 team in the play offs.

I'm curious whether the conference championship games, or the first round of a 24-team playoff, would do better TV ratings/revenue.

jerseyborn1971 · Jan 12, 2026

Black Irish said:
The committee needs to stop including acting conference commissioners and school ADs as members. That was always a head-scratcher to me, having people involved in making the rankings whose job is to act in the best interests of their conferences or schools. That just begs for self-dealing and corrupt decision-making.

Bring in the best odds makers from Vegas?

sixstar · Jan 12, 2026

Jiggafini19Deux · Jan 12, 2026

rtrn2glory said:
Won't happen b/c of the bowl games.

Exactly. There is no way they're going to be cut out and lose their piece of the pie. Especially those January 1st top tier bowls. Isn't going to happen.

On campus will be first round at the most, regardless of how many teams this expands to. After that, you're traveling.

NDWarrior · Jan 12, 2026

This is just the school rag, but the sentiment that if we remove ND (really, any tough early season OOC opponent) then we can tip toe our way into the CFP.

OPINION: Should Purdue pause scheduling Notre Dame?

Man have the P4 teams gone soft in the expanded CFP era.

This makes me reconsider a field of 24 for the same reasons DillonHall pointed out, because P4 teams are getting so scared to schedule anything more challenging than 2-3 moderately competitive conference games. Of course, that has to be weighed with argument against a field of 24 (too many mismatches, too many 3- and 4-loss team, a too long post season, and one that makes the regular season less important, etc.

DillonHall said:
The more I think about it, 24 makes sense. It wouldn’t affect the best teams because the top 8 would get byes in the first round. There’s too much variability in schedules, might as well get every decent team in the tournament and let them battle it out. There may be even more blowouts but it’s not going to be drastically different compared to 12 or 16

rtrn2glory · Jan 12, 2026

Purdue is going to lose 5 games minimum in the Big Ten likely for the foreseeable future.

jerseyborn1971 · Jan 12, 2026

Purdue??

Yeah, the ND game is what's keeping them out of the playoff.

burmafrd1944 · Jan 12, 2026

N_D_Fighting_Irish said:
Everything isn’t some conspiracy? You sure. Was the CFP committee decision to keep ND out rather conspiratorially?

Cignetti did come out of nowhere!? Coming out of James Madison, IUP, and Elon is the definition of out of nowhere. He isn’t an innovator on the defensive nor offensive side. So what is his magic formula that transforms mid level players to outcompete 4-5 star athletes nearly every play. Accountability, execution, take one play at a time…gimme a break. I sometimes I feel like he is method acting …google me I win…who says that cringe shit.

NIL and portal seems to be a convenient cover for the real unknown reason for the turnaround. IMO they are juiced while others seem to claim they are spying ala Michigan. It might be a combination of the two. What strikes me is that they NEVER make simple mistakes and are hyper focused throughout games. Not one game but multiple games playing nearly perfect mentally…which is extraordinary considering their mid level talent.

I doubt we will ever know for sure, but I am curious what these super 3 stars do in the pros.

Wow the sour grapes here would fill the stadium

NotKoon · Jan 12, 2026

Everybody schedules soft for a reason because that’s what the committee rewards and cares about. Let’s say a team loses only 2 games in conference in a p4 conference, but plays 3 teams of like talent in the OOC slate instead of solely focusing on playing the sisters of the poor. They manage to back door their way into the conference championship and win. Now this 5 loss team will not make the playoff despite winning a major conference, but some g5 team with only one loss will.

That’s what happened with Duke who lost to Illinois, UCONN and Tulane. Replace those 3 games some bottom feeder CUSA teams and they make the playoff with no questions asked….as does Notre Dame but that’s another discussion about a different reason the system is broken and corrupt

stlnd01 · Jan 12, 2026

NDWarrior said:
This is just the school rag, but the sentiment that if we remove ND (really, any tough early season OOC opponent) then we can tip toe our way into the CFP.

OPINION: Should Purdue pause scheduling Notre Dame?

Man have the P4 teams gone soft in the expanded CFP era.

This makes me reconsider a field of 24 for the same reasons DillonHall pointed out, because P4 teams are getting so scared to schedule anything more challenging than 2-3 moderately competitive conference games. Of course, that has to be weighed with argument against a field of 24 (too many mismatches, too many 3- and 4-loss team, a too long post season, and one that makes the regular season less important, etc.

I think with a 24-team playoff, the power conference teams will really have no incentive to schedule good out of conference games.

The top six or so teams from the B1G and SEC will be in, and everyone will just focus on clearing that bar. No point in risking an extra loss.

Yes the tournament itself would be more fair, perhaps, but the regular season would be pretty weak.

jprue24 · Jan 12, 2026

IrishBryan77 said:
Fucking participation trophies. I swear to God the downfall of america started with squeeze cheese from a metal container.......then participation trophies.....then boys wanting to play in girls sports but NO girls at all that want to play in boys sports (which is weird to me 🤔).......now 39 genders when there's really only 2.

What next america....what next.

Next?

The US President has been demanding he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the actual winner is willing to just give it to him. FIFA literally created a peace award because the US President has demanded he receive one.

Go on about how much you care about participation trophies ruining everything, though

edit - Also, more than a few trans men want to and have served honorably in the US military. iS tHaT wEiRd To YoU?

NDWarrior · Jan 12, 2026

stlnd01 said:
I think with a 24-team playoff, the power conference teams will really have no incentive to schedule good out of conference games.

The top six or so teams from the B1G and SEC will be in, and everyone will just focus on clearing that bar. No point in risking an extra loss.

Yes the tournament itself would be more fair, perhaps, but the regular season would be pretty weak.

Sort of kind of what I was saying... P4 teams tipping around their regular season games to ensure they will get into the CFP.

The problem is whether it's 12, 16 or 24 teams, the teams are like this, tip toeing around.

So, there is an argument that if they're all looking to skate through the regular season, then you might as well expand the field since the real head to head battles, and how good a team really is will only be decided in the actual CFP itself; hence, expand the field so the greatest amount of teams get a chance to do that in the CFP rounds.

All options have downside. I'm happy with 16, even w/ 12 teams as long as the P4 conferences find a way to force each P4 team is play 1-2 tough OOC games.

burmafrd1944 · Jan 12, 2026

jprue24 said:
Next?

The US President has been demanding he be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the actual winner is willing to just give it to him. FIFA literally created a peace award because the US President has demanded he receive one.

Go on about how much you care about participation trophies ruining everything, though

Always figured you were a lefty
you probably thought Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize just for being black
which is the whole reason he got it by the way

burmafrd1944 · Jan 12, 2026

burmafrd1944 said:
Always figured you were a lefty
you probably thought Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize just for being black
which is the whole reason he got it by the way

I am disappointed; I expected at least a dozen limp whiners by now

InKellyWeTrust · Jan 12, 2026

burmafrd1944 said:
Always figured you were a lefty
you probably thought Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize just for being black
which is the whole reason he got it by the way

This is bannable, get this crap out of here

NorthDakota · Jan 12, 2026

stlnd01 said:
I think with a 24-team playoff, the power conference teams will really have no incentive to schedule good out of conference games.

The top six or so teams from the B1G and SEC will be in, and everyone will just focus on clearing that bar. No point in risking an extra loss.

Yes the tournament itself would be more fair, perhaps, but the regular season would be pretty weak.

In FCS they do 24 teams, its very common for the "power conference" teams to play each other, because at 24 teams...if you dont make it, its because you arent good and probably lost 4 games.

The regular season in FCS is truly ass even with those matchups..because again...you can lose 4 games and still might get an at large bid lol

IRISHDODGER · Jan 12, 2026

NDdomer2 · Jan 12, 2026

NorthDakota said:
In FCS they do 24 teams, its very common for the "power conference" teams to play each other, because at 24 teams...if you dont make it, its because you arent good and probably lost 4 games.

The regular season in FCS is truly ass even with those matchups..because again...you can lose 4 games and still might get an at large bid lol

D3 is 32!

IrishinSyria · Jan 13, 2026

ShamrockOnHelmet said:
I mean, if CIGNETTI himself came out of nowhere, I might believe it. But he had success at IUP and James Madison, not quite so much at Elon, but not a disaster. The guy DOES win. And I’m sorry, the likelihood he had some super cheating golden scam at IUP is extraordinary low.

He’s good at what he does, and he figured out how to use NIL and the portal in D1 first. That’s why this looks and feels different. Everything isn’t some grand conspiracy and scandal. Ffs.

Oh thank god somebody had a non retarded take about this.

NDWarrior · Jan 13, 2026

Oh boy...

NDWarrior · Jan 13, 2026

NorthDakota · Jan 13, 2026

NDWarrior said:

Obviously the Covid year should be eliminating the most egregious abuses of this but the NCAA would do well to just implement 5 years to play 4 seasons and grant zero waivers.

If you get hurt in game 5 or 6 twice... well that happens. Sorry buddy. I hear the local General Motors dealership is hiring.

ShamrockOnHelmet · Jan 13, 2026

rtrn2glory said:
Won't happen b/c of the bowl games.

Fuck the bowls

IrishinSyria · Jan 13, 2026

NorthDakota said:
Obviously the Covid year should be eliminating the most egregious abuses of this but the NCAA would do well to just implement 5 years to play 4 seasons and grant zero waivers.

If you get hurt in game 5 or 6 twice... well that happens. Sorry buddy. I hear the local General Motors dealership is hiring.

It’s harsh but yeah age is a huge advantage for certain positions.

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