College Football Playoff: What would a 16-team playoff look like in 2018?

What would a 16-team College Football Playoff look like in 2018?

I write this article every year. In fact, a lot of college football writers put out this article every year, just with some subtle differences. What makes it work is the perennial controversy of the College Football Playoff system. Someone is always getting screwed over or left out, depending on which fan base you ask.

My plan involves season-long success, the eye test and on-field achievement. It’s perfect.

You include the current College Football Playoff selection process as well as all ten FBS conferences.

The ten conference champions get automatic bids to the playoff, just like March Madness. The remaining six at-large berths go to the top six teams that didn’t win a conference title according to the College Football Playoff rankings.

You then seed all 16 teams according to how they are ranked in the playoff rankings. For those teams not ranked, you’d have the committee seed them. For the purposes of this exercise, I am the committee.

As far as where to play the games, you would award the top four universities. Each school would host a regional bracket, meaning the rounds of 16 and 8 would be played on the campuses of the top four teams.

In 2018, you’d get three games over two weekends played in Notre Dame Stadium. Think of the revenue for the local community!

The semifinals would rotate amongst the New Year’s Six bowl sites, just as the do now. Same with the national title game — played at a neutral site at basically any stadium in the country.

Even at 16, it would still be the smallest playoff bracket at any level of college football.

This is what the bracket would look like in 2018.

Alabama regional

No. 1 Alabama (SEC Champion) vs. No. 16 Northern Illinois (MAC Champion)

No. 8 Central Florida (AAC Champion) vs. No. 9 Washington (Pac-12 Champion)

Oklahoma Regional

No. 4 Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. No. 13 Fresno State (Mountain West Champion)

No. 5 Georgia (At-large) vs. No. 12 Penn State (At-large)

Notre Dame Regional

No. 3 Notre Dame (At-large) vs. No. 14 Appalachian State (Sun Belt Champion)

No. 6 Ohio State (B1G Champion) vs. No. 11 LSU (At-large)

Clemson Regional

No. 2 Clemson (ACC Champion) vs. No. 15 UAB (Conference USA Champion)

No. 7 Michigan (At-Large) vs. No. 10 Florida (At-large)

And there you have it. It’s clean. It makes sense logistically. It’s beautiful. It rewards both champions and the best teams in the country that were not able to win their respective conferences (or were independent).

This system gives every FBS team in the country a path to the College Football Playoff and a shot at a national championship — something not every team has now, even if they went undefeated for two-consecutive seasons.