Alternative Realities For This Year's College Football Postseason
It's been 3 nights since the epic finish to the College Football season, but the chatter about it hasn't stopped. Much of that has to due with the fact that, for the 3rd consecutive year, we were treated to an absolute thriller of a national championship; for the 2nd consecutive year, the title was won on the final play of the game. Indeed, 4 years through, it's difficult to label the 4-team playoff anything but a smashing success. 3 of its 4 years have seen all-time classic national championships, and even though the inaugural championship was a snoozer, its preceding semifinals were incredible: a Rose bowl triumph for the ages, and a wire-to-wire thrilling upset of the #1 team.
Yet, much of the chatter since Monday night has also been about the failures of the playoff, and this year's playoff in particular. The most prominent complaint centers around the fact that national champions Alabama were even in the playoff field, a complaint this blog shares, to be transparent. Obviously, the Crimson Tide proved themselves in the postseason, but do the ends justify the means? Even if they did end up winning it all, should they have had a bye to the semifinals despite no conference championship and no Top 15 wins?
Fans of many teams say "No," but none more so than fans of Central Florida. The Golden Knights won a high-octane Peach Bowl over Auburn, accomplishing two things: 1. Finishing as the only undefeated team in college football, and B. beating the team that destroyed both Alabama and Georgia, the two eventual national championship teams. The team's players, coach, and fans were outspokenly critical of the fact they didn't get a shot at the national title, and the outrage reached a level so great that in retaliation, the school's athletic department has now officially recognized the team as "2018 National Champions."
This move by Central Florida is brilliant: the extent to which they've taken it has angered many the Alabama fan and even many neutral college football fans. But college football needs a gadfly, and that is what UCF is: provoking the thought that, perhaps, we need a different system of determining a national champion in College Football. As you may recall, this is the exact mantra The Couch held to last year, introducing several different alternative playoffs. Well, now I thought it'd be fun to examine how some of those playoffs would have transpired this year.
Specifically, I thought we'd look at the NFL-Style, 8-Team, and 32-Team ideas, as those are the 3 formats the social medias seem to have spent the most time bandied about. In terms of how these alternate realities played out: there's no point in arguing hypotheticals, so I just went on bowl results. if the bowl results were comparable, I looked for tiebreakers like home-field advantage, or, you know, ranking.
ALTERNATE REALITY 1: THE NFL-STYLE PLAYOFF
Brief refresher of the format
6 teams
5 conference champions
One at-large team, the highest ranked non-champion (or Non-Power Conference Champion)
Top 2 teams would receive a first-round bye
In the semifinals, the #1 team would host the lowest-ranked team left, while the #2 team would host the second-lowest-ranked team.
Championship played at a neutral site.
How it all went down
CHAMPIONSHIP: Alabama beats Georgia in OT thriller
This obviously borrowed heavily from the actual playoff events. Still, wouldn't it have been neater to see Alabama earn their way in to the semifinals by way of a road win in snowy Columbus? And would they have dominated Clemson in Death Valley the way they did in New Orleans? Who knows.
ALTERNATE REALITY 2: THE 8-TEAM PLAYOFF
Brief refresher of the format
8 teams
5 Power Conference champions, plus 3 at-large teams
If a non-P5 team is unbeaten, they get a bid
Quarterfinal round played at the higher seed's home field
Semifinals and Final use current format
How it all went down
Quarterfinals: #8 Central Florida @ #1 Clemson, #5 Alabama @ #4 Ohio State (my guess is if it were determining home-field advantage rather than who makes the postseason, the committee would have ranked Ohio St ahead of Alabama), #7 USC @ #2 Georgia, #6 Auburn @ #3 Oklahoma (the committee likely would have swapped OU and Georgia in order to avoid a 3rd Auburn-Georgia game)
UCF upsets Clemson
Georgia smacks USC
Oklahoma beats Auburn
Alabama wins an overtime thriller against Ohio State
CHAMPIONSHIP: Alabama beats Georgia in OT thriller
This ultimately would have arrived at the same final result, probably, but in this hypothetical, we get the Bama-UCF matchup most everyone has been clamoring for. A 13-0 Central Florida team would be the hottest picks to win, but would they be able to come out unscathed from Death Valley AND New Orleans?
ALTERNATE REALITY 3: THE 32-TEAM PLAYOFF
Brief refresher of the format
32 teams
All 10 Conference Champions
22 at-large teams
Split into regions, a la March Madness, with the "Regional Finals" being held at bowl sites
For instance, the "South" Region would culminate at the Cotton Bowl, the "North" at the Motor City (QuickLane) Bowl, the "West" at the Fiesta Bowl, and the "Southeast" at the Orange Bowl
Semifinals and Final use current format
How it all went down
So it wouldn't take forever, I just picked up the simulation at the Round of 16. I did go through the first round though, trust me.
Round Of 16 and Quarterfinals (winning teams are bolded)
Semifinals and Final (winning teams are bolded)
It pained me to eliminate wonderful UCF this early, but 13-1 Wisconsin (a feel-good story in their own right) had an equally impressive postseason performance, and would have had the home-field advantage in that one. Other than the Badgers, not too many surprises here, but undoubtedly what would have been a fun postseason.
And there you have it: even if a different playoff format would have arrived at the exact same conclusion, or even champion, which isn't exceedingly likely, it sure offers the possibility for a much more entertaining or satisfying route there.