Gary Patterson comes out of the closet for expanded playoff

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[Juan]

“To me, it makes no sense to have four playoff spots and then have five conferences,†Patterson told ESPN.com. “This way gives everybody a chance to have their champion or their best team be a part of the playoff, and a sixth team that could be from any conference, and then you get down to that final four pretty quickly and still not change the way we do things. 

“I don’t want the bowl games to go away. I think that would be a loss to college football if we ever allowed that to happen. But doing it this way might make everybody happier.†
 
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Under Patterson’s plan, the No. 3 seed would play the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed would play the No. 5 seed the first weekend in December. The winners would advance to play the top two seeds on New Year’s Day in the semifinals, and the championship game would be 10 days later. 
 
“I think you would probably make more money on the playoff games in December than you would with the conference championship games,†Patterson said. “Other than the SEC, there were a lot of empty seats that I saw at those conference championship games. The teams playing on New Year’s would have basically the same amount of time to get ready, and you wouldn’t take away from everybody’s recruiting or interfere with final exams.†
 
Just like the Horned Frogs felt spurned this year, Patterson understands somebody is going to be disappointed, no matter how many teams are in the playoff. 
 
“We could go to eight, and there will be a ninth that thinks they should be in,†Patterson said. “There are always going to be one or two more teams who think they should be in.†
 
As for the likelihood of other conferences with split divisions doing away with their championship games, Patterson said it shouldn’t matter because the teams in those leagues don’t all play each other anyway. 
 
“To me, when we went to this whole committee thing, it was to find the four best teams and not wait and see how they did in their championship games,†Patterson said. “As a general rule, you already know who the best teams are by who they beat and strength of schedule. 
 
“There’s no perfect way. But with this, you would never have it happen again that a conference would not have a representative in the playoff.†
 
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been a supporter of the four-team model but sees merit in Patterson's six-team suggestion. 
“That is certainly a model that has merit, and it’s an interesting academic and intellectual undertaking, even if it doesn’t ultimately end up being practically what people want, but it’s certainly another model," Bowlsby said. "Having said all that and being open-minded about the consideration, it’s also going to have a seventh and eighth team that think they should’ve been in. It doesn’t solve all problems, and no model does. Gary is a very bright, thoughtful guy, and there have been a lot of models thrown around that aren’t even worth talking about, but that one is worth talking about.â€
 
-----LINK ABOVE ^^^^^ ---

 

[JT-in-MS]

In a perfect world the NCAA would realign Division 1 into eight conferences whose champions would be part of a playoff.  Bowl games would be consolation prizes for the rest.  It will probably never happen but wouldn't it be wonderful to say if you don't win your conference you have no complaint about being left out the playoff.  No computers, No committees.  Just conference champions playing for the NCAA championship.

 

[Mike Garland]

Patterson makes sense. 

But no matter what the number is there will always be that team that feels they got robbed. 

 

[Juan]

Math tells us that having only 4 slots for 5 Power Confs will always leave at least one team out (design flaw?)

Perhaps more with the prevalence of SEC-love out there

We will see what those other conferences have to say about this when their time comes

And it will come

 

[echeese]

So Patterson wants to play the weekend of conference championship games. . .yeah, that's real well thought out.

BTW, Gary, if you have an odd number of teams, you will need to have a bye game to get down to the final 2.   Here's an idea, don't expand the playoffs because you and your defense choked vs Baylor. . . . .

Or if you are going to propose an idea, at least think it through. . . 

As said, in a perfect world, NCAA creates a 64-78 team Division 1 with 8 divisions/4 conferences.    NOW you can use the conference title games as your "quarter final" round the 1st weekend in Dec, let the students focus on finals. . .keep the rest of the bowls intact .. . and our current system is as fixed as it can be without the regular season being watered down.

 

[doc longhorn]

In a perfect world the NCAA would realign Division 1 into eight conferences whose champions would be part of a playoff.  Bowl games would be consolation prizes for the rest.  It will probably never happen but wouldn't it be wonderful to say if you don't win your conference you have no complaint about being left out the playoff.  No computers, No committees.  Just conference champions playing for the NCAA championship.

This is the way to do it.  It would eliminate a few minor bowls, but so what?

 

[streettopeschel]

where does it say every conference champ needs to be in a playoff? there will come a year where a non-playoff worthy 8-4 team wins their CCG over an 11-1 team.  should they make the playoff over a team like say the '08 Horns who were obviously one of the 4 best teams in the country?

four teams is fine. hey gary...stop blowing 4th quarter 20-point leads and you won't have to worry about it.

 

[Growler]

I've always been in favor of 8 teams. The 5 Power Conf Champs are auto then 3 at large. In that manner your 12-0 team that is suddenly upset by the 8-4 team in the Conf Champ and is suddenly 12-1 still can get in, as can a Notre Dame/Boise State type that runs the table.

If they are worried about cutting into finals, cut the regular season back to 11 games rather than 12. Do we really need to see Fla. A&M get hammered by 3 different SEC teams? I know this will cause most programs to say no, because they lose the revenue from an early season cupcake game etc.

 

[harpethhorn]

Even though I think the playoffs are eventually expanded to eight, I prefer going to six teams max.

Except choose the six AFTER the conference CG's, not in lieu of...... which would keep the "other" few deserving teams after the regular season (those ranked 7-10) in position to grab a slot depending on the CG outcomes. And likely making those too-often meaningless CG's have more national impact. 

 

[java]

I've always been in favor of 8 teams. The 5 Power Conf Champs are auto then 3 at large. In that manner your 12-0 team that is suddenly upset by the 8-4 team in the Conf Champ and is suddenly 12-1 still can get in, as can a Notre Dame/Boise State type that runs the table.

If they are worried about cutting into finals, cut the regular season back to 11 games rather than 12. Do we really need to see Fla. A&M get hammered by 3 different SEC teams? I know this will cause most programs to say no, because they lose the revenue from an early season cupcake game etc.

I prefer realignment, as well, but in lieu of that, my preference is the 8 team playoff.

Hook 'em!

 

[Juan]

where does it say every conference champ needs to be in a playoff?....

Clearly nowhere.  This is what happened to TCU.  But, a slightly different make-up of that panel, and it could have just as easily been tOSU left out.

Above I raised a scenario where 2 SEC teams make make the Final 4 leaving at least two of the P5 Conferences left out (possibly even more).  No one really responded to that directly.

Taking it one step further would not be much of a stretch --  imagine a season where 3 of the Final 4 were from the SEC.  This would leave three of the P5s out of the playoffs completely.  It is not farfetched.  As a matter of fact, there were several weeks during the 2014 season where this looked to be a likely outcome.  Will you still be down with it when that happens?  Personally, I dont want to see that and probably would not watch.

 

[MikeV73]

So if the playoff expanded to 6 teams and Patterson finished 7th would he then lobby for an 8 team playoff? Everyone doesn't get a trophy my friend. PS: coach better and don't lose an insurmountable lead to Baylor.

 

[streettopeschel]

Clearly nowhere.  This is what happened to TCU.  But, a slightly different make-up of that panel, and it could have just as easily been tOSU left out.

Above I raised a scenario where 2 SEC teams make make the Final 4 leaving at least two of the P5 Conferences left out (possibly even more).  No one really responded to that directly.

Taking it one step further would not be much of a stretch --  imagine a season where 3 of the Final 4 were from the SEC.  This would leave three of the P5s out of the playoffs completely.  It is not farfetched.  As a matter of fact, there were several weeks during the 2014 season where this looked to be a likely outcome.  Will you still be down with it when that happens?  Personally, I dont want to see that and probably would not watch.

would i be down for 3 teams from the SEC or any conference? in 2008, ut, ou and tech all had claims to top-4 status at the end of the year.

the conferences aren't always equal every year. yes, some years two or even 3 of the best teams in the country will be from one league. so what?

 

[JT-in-MS]

Even though I think the playoffs are eventually expanded to eight, I prefer going to six teams max.

I don't like the 6 team concept because it requires the granting of byes to two teams,presumably the top 2, to make it work.  The subjective ranking of teams is part of the problem.  I can live with a lesser team upsetting the better team on the field.  I can also live with a better team getting left out of the playoffs because they didn't win their conference.

There is never a perfect solution that will satisfy every possibility.  The beauty of a 8-team playoff of conference champions is that all of the participants and the champion will be determined on the field.  Disputes as to who should participate will be determined by established rules and tiebreakers and not by subjective opinions and agendas.  It will probably never happen though since it would require the NCAA to grow a spine and take control of it's championship process in the FBS.