Tag: Expansion

5 BIG thoughts on the movement towards a 12-team College Football Playoff

The College Football Playoff is on its way towards expanding. That’s right. According to various reports, there is a recommendation

The College Football Playoff is on its way towards expanding.

That’s right. According to various reports, there is a recommendation on the table for the CFP to expand to 12 teams as early as 2023.

The new format would see the top six conference champions and six at-large teams make the cut. The top four conference champions would then receive a first-round bye as the other eight schools battle to advance in the bracket.

The move’s impact on the sport, its schedule and its postseason is complicated and hard to unpack. But I am here now with 5 big thoughts on what the expanded playoff will do to college football, and what it will to do Wisconsin specifically.

Related: Wisconsin head coaches react to the department’s partnership with Opendorse

Here they are:

NFL expands to 17-game regular season; what Saints fans need to know

NFL ownership voted to expand the regular season to 18 weeks, with 17 games and a bye week for each team. What does it mean for the Saints?

NFL ownership voted on Tuesday to approve a plan adding another week to its regular season, increasing the total number of games played from 256 to 272 — a slate of 17 games per team. That carries serious implications for all involved: the players, coaches and team personnel, and the fans themselves. Here’s what Saints fans need to know.

NFL preseason likely reduced to 3 games as regular season expands

The National Football League is likely to reduce the number of preseason games down to three with the expansion of the regular season to 17.

It’s only a matter of days before the NFL is expected to formally announce the adoption of the 17-game regular-season schedule. The owners are expected to vote during the spring meetings on March 30 and March 31.

So with the increase of one game in the regular season, how will the preseason scheduling be handled?

Many figured the exhibition games in the summer would be reduced from four down to just two with the new expansion. As it turns out, that likely won’t be the case.

As Tom Pelissero explains in the tweet above, the 2020 CBA provides for no more than 20 games total and it appears the owners will be pushing for the maximum, allowing for three preseason games.

The virtual owners’ meetings take place over the next two days so be sure and check back for the latest news on any schedule changes coming in 2021.

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5 ways to enhance College Football Playoff

If we’re being honest, five steps isn’t nearly enough to fully fix the system, but with the following five changes it’d easily be in a better spot without entirely tarnishing the regular season.

The College Football Playoff was supposed to be the best thing to happen to college football when it was installed for the 2014 season, but after Alabama’s destruction of Ohio State came in as the lowest-rated title game in 16 years, it’s obvious that the format could be enhanced.

If we’re being honest, five steps isn’t nearly enough to fully fix the system, but with the following five changes it’d easily be in a better spot while keeping the presence of mind to keep the regular season to being as great as possible.

 

Report: Saints to face AFC South winner as 2021’s new 17th opponent

The NFL plans to expand its regular season in 2021, teeing up the New Orleans Saints to face the upcoming AFC South-champion Titans or Colts

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The NFL plans to expand its regular season schedule in 2021 by adding a 17th game to the schedule, which will do a lot to help alleviate pressure on teams running tight against the salary cap like the New Orleans Saints by bringing in new revenue. And now the MMQB’s Albert Breer reports some clarity on just where the league plans to find opponents for that extra week.

Breer passed along an outline of the one-game NFC-AFC crossover schedule, which will begin in the 2021 season. It has the NFC South facing their counterparts in the AFC South, with the top-seeded Saints matching up with whoever claims this year’s division title — it’s coming down to a Week 17 race between the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts, both owning 10-5 records.

The Titans are traveling to face the reeling Houston Texans, while the Colts will host the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s uncertain just yet where this 17th game between the Saints and the AFC South champions (whoever they are) will be played, whether at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans or in Tennessee’s Nissan Stadium or Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.

And we also don’t know yet how the rotation will change in the future. Whatever the case, the NFL’s regular season schedule is soon increasing from the usual 256 games to 272. And the Saints will be preparing accordingly.

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College Football Playoff to remain 4 teams

Even in these strange times during this odd season we aren’t going to see expansion to the College Football Playoff.

Despite a plea from the Pac-12 the College Football Playoff won’t be expanding beyond four teams for the 2020 season.

That news came out Wednesday afternoon after Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott suggested the move for this season.

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports was among the first to report the news and in his piece released on Wednesday, gave the following information:

CFP sources told CBS Sports that Scott merely “mentioned” expansion in terms of asking, “Is this something we should consider?” during a call with the committee. The discussion among the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick was not contentious.

Well at least everyone is getting along and not getting contentious so that part is good.

I’m usually the most anti-expansion person when it comes to postseasons in sports.  Whether it’s the NCAA Tournament, the Major League Baseball or NFL playoffs, I don’t like the idea of more teams having a shot at a title.

Except in this case.

How are we supposed to judge the Pac-12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC, and Big 12 against each other if they don’t play anyone from the other Power Five conferences?

I know the Big 12 has looked awful against the powerhouse Sun Belt but are we supposed to just say if Texas goes unbeaten that they don’t deserve a shot because the conference schedule they played wasn’t strong?

Or are we going to say that Ohio State, the team seen as the best in the nation before the year doesn’t get a shot after a possible unbeaten regular season?

I’m usually against expanding playoffs but in this case we have no real way to fairly do this.  In this strange season I’m against the decision to stay at just four teams getting in.

A problem we can save for another time is if we think these CFP games are actually going to be played on the dates their currently set to play on.

Through 2 weeks, Saints still haven’t protected a practice squad player

The New Orleans Saints have not protected a practice squad player through the first two weeks of the 2020 NFL season, despite having depth.

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The second week of the NFL regular season is in full swing, and the New Orleans Saints have again chosen not to protect any of the 16 players on their practice squad. After appearing in the season-opening win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, both defensive lineman Margus Hunt (21 snaps on defense, 4 on special teams) and wide receiver Bennie Fowler (7 snaps on offense, 12 on special teams) reverted to the practice squad. They can each be called up one more time before they must be signed to the roster full-time.

So the decision to not protect any of their practice squad players is, on its surface, puzzling. Teams have the option this year to block up to four players from being poached by other teams each week; it’s a first-year change along with the expanded practice squads (which grew to 16 from 12, as ruled in the new CBA and adjusted for the COVID-19 pandemic). But Saints coach Sean Payton put some thought into how much he’s willing to give away on the daily transactions wire.

“Yeah, a number of teams didn’t. We were one of them and just chose to go that route,” Payton said in his Sept. 11 conference call. “There’s pros and cons. Obviously, you put a protection tag on someone, you’re alerting 31 other teams maybe of a player that that you might have plans for. I think it’s just one of those things where I don’t know how many teams, 14 or 15, but I know we weren’t the only ones [to not issue protections].”

Ahead of Week 2, all but 12 teams chose to protect at least one practice squad member from poaching; the Kansas City Chiefs protected defensive tackle Braxton Hoyett, while the Minnesota Vikings blocked kicker Chase McLaughlin. So they aren’t as worried about tipping their hand.

We’ll see whether the Saints choose to activate any players from the practice squad again this week. As Payton suggested, opting to not protect anyone during the week could give teams an edge on game day once it’s time to whittle down the roster for players who can dress out.

That’s a player the opposing team wouldn’t have studied game film for. And it clearly paid off for the Saints, when Hunt blocked a field goal and Fowler recovered a fumbled ball. Maybe it’s a stunt they can pull off again.

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Big 12: Exploring Conference, College Football Playoff expansion

Ivan Maisel of ESPN thinks now is the best time for conference expansion. Longhorns Wire explores how to expand the Big 12, playoffs.

Is there a better time than right now to explore the idea of conference expansion? ESPN’s Ivan Maisel doesn’t think so. In a recent post on ESPN Maisel stated now may be the best time to have that conversation. After all it wasn’t that long ago that Nebraska was looking to play football despite the Big Ten’s stance on a postponement of the season.

Hey, here’s a great idea during a pandemic: Let’s have West Virginia fly 1,400 miles to play a Big 12 game at Texas Tech on Oct. 24, but let’s not allow West Virginia to play Pittsburgh. After all, the Panthers, 75 miles away, are in the ACC.

Before the Pac-12 broke the emergency glass on its 2020 season, the conference approved of Colorado flying 1,300 miles to play at Washington but thought it too risky for the Buffaloes to drive 100 miles to play at Colorado State.

And there’s Nebraska, which a decade ago sued for divorce from the Big 12 (née Big Eight), dissolving a marriage consummated in 1928 to grab the money and security and money and money offered by the Big Ten. Last week the Big Ten told Nebraska it couldn’t play football this fall, which went over in the Cornhusker State like, oh, I don’t know, stalk rot.

Maisel brings up a good point about traveling during a pandemic. Teams can’t play those who are reasonably close but yet are expected to fly across the country to participate in a conference game that is deemed safer. For instance any Big 12 team traveling to Morgantown, West Virginia doesn’t seem like the best move. So in the interest of shaking things up, we look at how the Big 12 could expand.

First is the new North Division.

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Superdome officials report 32 positive coronavirus cases amid renovations

32 construction workers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome renovations project tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

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Renovations on the Mercedes-Benz Superdome began immediately after the LSU Tigers won their Jan. 13 national title game, taking the first steps to ensure the New Orleans Saints will continue to play in a cutting-edge venue rivaling any stadium around the NFL.

Back in May, WDSU-New Orleans reported that construction on the Superdome (most of which is happening behind the scenes, where fans won’t see it, in this first phase) had not been impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. However, a recent statement from Superdome officials to WDSU confirmed that nearly three dozen workers received positive tests.

The statement to WDSU reads: “We can confirm that in the last few weeks, 32 of the 275-plus daily workers on the project have tested positive for COVID-19. This post-Memorial Day increase is consistent with what 21 other states, not including Louisiana, are experiencing at this stage of the pandemic as more restrictions have been lifted for travel, shopping, and work.”

Those staffers are employees of Broadmoor, LLC, a contractor that is spearheading the Superdome project. According to the statement, affected workers were sent home to self-isolate and must clear testing before they can return. In the meantime, their coworkers received personal protective equipment to wear on the job in an attempt at limiting further infections.

Broadmoor and Superdome management are also working together to enhance health and safety procedures, detailed as, “access to handwashing stations, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and that all workspaces are cleaned and sanitized daily. In addition, medical technicians administer temperature screenings for all workers who enter the Superdome each day, and Broadmoor has instituted social distancing measures, including staggered starts and breaks.”

It remains to be seen whether this will affect the project’s construction goals, which are staggered to account for the expected start of the NFL season. These extensive renovations to the Superdome were drawn up in a yearslong plan to work around Saints games and other big events, but organizers may have to adjust on the fly if the pandemic continues to trip them up.

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NFL approves expansion of playoffs starting in 2020 season

The NFL owners have officially approved the expansion of the postseason, providing for two extra wild-card teams beginning in 2020.

The NFL playoffs will look dramatically different following the 2020 season and the changes have nothing to do with the current COVID-19 outbreak.

Clubs around the league have now voted to expand the playoffs by two additional teams starting this year.

Owners voted during a remote league meeting on Tuesday to follow the recommendation of the Competition Committee, Management Council Executive Committee and Media Committee to increase the playoff teams from 12 to 14.

The two extra teams will play in the wild-card round, one each from the AFC and NFC. Only the top seed in each conference will receive a first-round bye. The remainder of the wild-card round will proceed as follows: No. 2 seed will host the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will host No. 5.

This is the first time since 1990 the NFL has expanded the postseason. NBC and CBS have the broadcast rights to the additional wild-card games.

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