12 Team Playoff for College Football

[Rebel-Fan-74]

1. The 12 teams will be the six conference champions ranked highest by the selection committee (no minimum ranking requirement), plus the six highest-ranked teams not included among the six highest-ranked conference champions. So the Conference Championship gains importance by a guarantee to the playoffs AND Notre Dame can never be seeded 1 thru 4!

2. The ranking of the teams will continue to be done by a selection committee whose size, composition, and method of selection will remain substantially unchanged.

3. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and each will receive a first-round bye.

4. The other eight teams will play in the first round with the higher seeds hosting the lower seeds either on campus or at other sites designated by the higher-seeded institution (No. 12 at No. 5, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 at No. 8.

5. The model allows for first-round games to be played on either the second or third weekend in December in a way that best accommodates the format and the participating teams, with at least 12 days between the conference championship games and the first-round games. The Management Committee would make the final determination of the calendar.

6. Subject to reaching agreement with bowls, the four quarterfinal games and two Playoff Semifinal games would be played in bowls on a rotating basis. No real change here, the big bowls still rotate the bigger games!

7. The national championship game will continue to be played at a neutral site. (Which does not have to be a BOWL SITE.)

8. Subject to reaching agreement with bowls, the four highest-ranked conference champions will be assigned to quarterfinals bowls on selection day in ranking order, and in consideration of current contract bowl relationships if those bowls are selected for the rotation. For example, if the Pac-12 champion were ranked #1, the Big Ten champion were ranked #3, and the Rose Bowl were a quarterfinal site, the Pac-12 champion would be assigned to the Rose Bowl and the Big Ten champion would be assigned elsewhere.

9. With the four highest-ranked champions assigned to quarterfinal games in bowls, the opponent from first-round game winners will be assigned by the selection committee based on the bracket.So, if I'm reading this correctly, there could be re-seeding based on first week's games! If say a #10 upsets a #7, they would get the #1 seed.

10. The higher seeds would receive preferential placement in the Playoff Semifinal games.Which means if the final four teams are Ohio State and Georgia as the two highest seeds and Georgia is #1 and Ohio State is #2, Georgia would get sent to the stadium closest to Athens!

Based on these rules, this a current projection for this season if they had implemented this system for this year:

CONF CHAMPIONS
1 SEC.......... Georgia
2 BIG TEN... Ohio State
3 ACC......... Clemson
4 PAC 12..... USC
5 BIG XII.... Oklahoma State
6 AAC......... Cincinnati

1 Georgia.... Sugar
2 Ohio State Rose
3 Clemson... Orange
4 USC......... Cotton

5 Alabama
12 Cincinnati

6 Michigan
11 UCLA

7 Tennessee
10 Ole Miss

8 Oklahoma State
9 Penn State

If the seedings held in those first round games:
1 Georgia.... Sugar ...... 8 Oklahoma State
2 Ohio State Rose ....... 7 Tennessee
3 Clemson... Orange ... 6 Michigan
4 USC......... Cotton ..... 5 Alabama

Personally, I love this idea as it gives us 8 good matchups before we get into the playoffs as we currently have them!

[Rebel-Fan-74]

After the Committee's First Standings, this is what the 12 Team Bracket would look like:


Note: Seedings would be done for the second round games AFTER the first round games according to reported details.





COUPLE OF IMPORTANT NOTES:
Teams 1,2,4,7 get the first round bye due to being the highest ranked of the Six Conference Champions.

Bowl Assignments for the second round are based on affiliations with conferences that are represented by those teams

First round assignments are based on the next the other two Conference champions and the six next highest ranked teams

[Rebel-Fan-74]

The biggest game this weekend (and by far the biggest) will be the Tennessee -vs- Georgia game. However, there are other games that have obvious impact, Clemson is at South Bend to play Notre Dame and there are always those UPSET SPECIALS that toss a monkey wrench into the process that surprise even the experts so this will change (not "may change" but "will change") as we get further in to the season.

[Rebel-Fan-74]

After this week's rankings, this is what the 12 team playoff would look like. It just goes to show how much change can be made in a couple of weeks.

[Rebel-Fan-74]