Since the inception of the College Football Playoff in 2014, there have been plenty of suggestions as to how to make the selection process better. This year could be a preview of what’s to come, as with so much uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season, the committee might just have to alter their methods. After all the Big 10 and Pac-12 have already gone to a conference only schedule while the other Power Five conferences are looking at potential conference games plus-one schedule.
The college football staff at CBS Sports all gave their suggestion as to how they would make adjustments to this years College Football Playoff. Starting off with Barrett Sallee, who suggests expanding the field to 8 teams due to the decisions from the Big 10 and Pac-12 altering their schedules. Sallee would like to see each Power Five conference champion get an automatic bid while 2 of the other open spots go to at-large teams. He would like to see the top Group of Five team get in as well, making it six automatic bids. Sallee does see an issue however, and it deals directly with the Irish as he says “unless it’s (Notre Dame) a full member of the ACC in 2020, its only chance should be through an at-large.” With Clemson most likely being the heavy ACC favorite, this would make sense.
Ben Kercheval would like to see the playoff field stay at four teams, but the committee would make their selections post-Bowl games. This allows the selection committee to get another data point to make an assessment on teams after many, if not all of the out of conference games will be canceled. Tom Fornelli would like to see conference-only tournaments with the top 4 teams and go back to the old ways of having the polls dictate a champion.
The final idea comes from David Cobb, who suggests a six-team playoff with a twist. Each of the Power Five conferences’ champion would get the automatic bid but the final spot would go to a Group of Five team. For that Group of Five team to get in, the team would have to win a “wildcard” type game to get in, pitting the top two highest ranked teams together for the final spot. What would be interesting is that a Group of Five champion would be crowned, the winner of the “wildcard” game.
All of these ideas are farfetched at the current moment but still very fun to entertain. For the Irish, the best scenario would be Sallee’s, as with two extra spots the chances for a return to the playoff for Notre Dame would be much greater. What do you think of these ideas for a playoff in 2020?