Alternative Realities For This Year's College Football Postseason
Credit: The Ringer, 2018
It's been 1 week since the curtain fell on the college football season. This year's Championship was remarkable in a different way from the Championships the 3 years past. Whereas in January of 2016, '17, and '18, we were treated to classic affairs that produced some of the best endings in recent football history. This year, the reason it was remarkable was because it wasn't a classic. All year, #1 Alabama and #2 Clemson were so clearly the best two teams in the country, with some media punditry throwing around the "greatest ever" label, particularly about the Crimson Tide. Naturally, the expectation was that Round 4 of Alabama-Clemson might somehow be even better than its predecessors. Instead, the Tigers, who came in as 6 point underdogs, blew the doors off of Bama. The 44-16 loss represents the worst of Nick Saban's tenure at Alabama, and not even the most diehard Clemson fan could have seen it coming.
In the wake of Clemson's thoroughly deserved coronation, the playoff chatter has been muted. This time last year, Alabama had won the CFP title after not even playing in their conference championship, and Central Florida had just capped off a 13-win perfect season with a victory over the only side that defeated both Playoff Championship participants. In the following days, a large outcry of support for an extended, equitable playoff (which would give teams like Central Florida a chance) came from the majority of college football fans. This year, UCF's loss in the Fiesta Bowl coupled with Clemson's obliteration of all comers led to fewer cries for an alternative. In fact, many have instead pushed back in the opposite direction: Alabama and Clemson were so dominant all season, why would we need more teams for them to beat up on? Well, I don't subscribe to that theory. For starters, for every season like this one, there's one like, I don't know, last season, wherein the Top 2 teams lost in the playoff semifinals and there were at least 4 teams left out of the playoff altogether that had a very legitimate case to be included. Furthermore, who's to say that the playoff would give us the same teams every year? That's the beauty of March Madness, isn't it? The reason it's so hard for teams to win titles in College Basketball as effortlessly as Alabama and now Clemson are doing in College Football is because it's really freaking hard to string together 6 performances against the nation's best teams over the course of 3 weekends every year. If a selection committee handpicked the Final Four in basketball the way they do in football, we'd see Kansas and Duke trading off titles every season. Instead, despite those programs being consistently among the highest seeds in the tournament, they've won 3 championships amongst themselves in the last 18 years. A wider field means just that, a wider chance for everyone, and thus, less of a guarantee that we'd be seeing the same teams atop the podium year after year.
All this being said, 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. It's imperfect, but it's hard to know what else to work with. 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
Play-in round: #3 Notre Dame @ #9 Washington (despite being lower ranked, Washington hosts because of their conference championship), and #6 Ohio State @ #4 Oklahoma
Behind a raucous Seattle crowd, Washington pulls the upset over Notre Dame
Buoyed by Urban Meyer's announcement that this is his final season, the Buckeyes sneak out of Oklahoma with a dramatic win, despite Heisman winner Kyler Murray going for 450 total yards
The semifinals and final would suffer from the same lack-of-drama that this year's actual postseason did, with the two lowest ranked teams in the playoff overmatched against the nation's best. Still, wouldn't it be sufficiently entertaining to watch Washington try to upset unbeaten Notre Dame at home, and watch Dwayne Haskins and Kyler Murray duke it out for the right to go to the semifinals?
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, though if one of the teams is a Power 5 conference champion, they automatically get home-field advantage over an at-large side
Semifinals and Final use current format
How it all went down
Quarterfinals: #9 Washington @ #1 Alabama; #5 Georgia @ #4 Oklahoma; #8 UCF @ #2 Clemson; #3 Notre Dame @ #6 Ohio State (despite being lower ranked, Ohio State hosts because of their conference championship)
Alabama beats Washington by a scoreline that should be illegal in a college football playoff
Clemson beats UCF in a game that sets the record for total points in a playoff game
Buoyed by Urban Meyer's announcement that this is his final season, Ohio State smacks favored Notre Dame
Kyler "Heisman" Murray and Oklahoma get revenge on Georgia in another overtime thriller
Alabama and Clemson, I'm sure, would find their way to the Playoff final again in this format. But still, it'd be interesting to see Bama's defense face up against Murray with just 2 weeks to prepare for him and all his offensive weapons, as opposed to the month they had under the current system. Regardless, I dream of a December Saturday devoted solely to 4 College Football playoff games on 4 college campuses across America. That's the good stuff.
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 Alamo Bowl, the "North" at the Pinstripe Bowl, the "West" at the Holiday Bowl, and the "Southeast" at the Music City 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)
A Bama-LSU rematch in Nashville? A Washington upset in Ann Arbor (after which the fans flood the field to demand Jim Harbaugh's head)? Clemson and Georgia take their rivalry to San Antonio? Syracuse of all teams playing in New York, with a chance to reach the Final 4? Tell me this wouldn't be more fun.
And there you have it: even if a different playoff format would have arrived at the exact same conclusion or champion, which as we've discussed, isn't necessarily how it would have played out, it sure offers the possibility for a much more entertaining or satisfying route there.