Jon Joseph Moderator No. 1 Share Posted 6 hours ago One of the Big Network's college football go-to folks, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, is a voice of 16-team playoff reason amidst the 'This Will Kill the Sport!' insanity. A 16-team College Football Playoff wouldn't be catastrophic; it would fix things WWW.YARDBARKER.COM The worst part of the 12-team playoff is the automatic byes for the top four conference champions. This article notes that as part of the 16-team playoff, the flex-week playoff play-in games are coming. These games will eliminate the stand-alone conference champ games, although one versus two may still be played at a neutral site, and end the season one week earlier. The play-in format is expected to bring in more money than one stand-alone conference champ game. Last season, OBD would have played Penn State for the title, possibly in Autzen, with Iowa visiting Indiana, and Illinois visiting Ohio State. NO rematch regular season games would have been played in 2024. The B1G's first and second-place teams would play one another, with both guaranteed one of the conference's four playoff bids. Three plays six and four plays five for the other two spots. Mega-conference 'hit and miss' top opponents scheduling, and every CFB metric supports a 4-4-2-2-1-3 format. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 2 Share Posted 6 hours ago This format makes perfect sense, is that the problem? 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Administrator No. 3 Share Posted 4 hours ago I hate the play-in games...hate them. I just KNOW in the future that Oregon will face a team in conference final of No. 1 vs. No. 2, (Like Ohio State) that the Ducks have already played before during the regular season schedule...and then there will be a good chance of playing them again, a third time in the playoff? So THIS is progress? 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeotechDuck No. 4 Share Posted 4 hours ago This makes too much sense, so it will never happen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 5 Share Posted 3 hours ago On 5/13/2025 at 12:42 PM, Charles Fischer said: I hate the play-in games...hate them. I'm with ya! Oregon went UNDEFEATED during the regular season, but had to win the conference championship game? They did, over Penn State, because Michigan beat osu2. Oregon wins the CCG, then gets screwed in the CFP, meanwhile PSU and osu2 make out like bandits, before PSU trips up. In "March Madness" the conference tournament works, if somehow a lower ranked team wins, they get a trophy, but probably a lower seed than the regular season champ gets as an at large selection. People say they don't watch college basketball much until March, but the regular season means more than football's does. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Author Moderator No. 6 Share Posted 1 hour ago On 5/13/2025 at 4:07 PM, 30Duck said: I'm with ya! Oregon went UNDEFEATED during the regular season, but had to win the conference championship game? They did, over Penn State, because Michigan beat osu2. Oregon wins the CCG, then gets screwed in the CFP, meanwhile PSU and osu2 make out like bandits, before PSU trips up. In "March Madness" the conference tournament works, if somehow a lower ranked team wins, they get a trophy, but probably a lower seed than the regular season champ gets as an at large selection. People say they don't watch college basketball much until March, but the regular season means more than football's does. I understand the umbrage over PO play-in games. However, as it so happened last season, both the champ game winner, Oregon, and the loser, PSU, made the PO field. The 4th-place B1G finisher, Ohio State, made the field. With a 16-team field, the loser of the play-in game, B1G representative No. 2, is going to be highly seeded in a 16-team postseason tournament, a tournament with no 1st round byes. Rarely, if ever, will the team that finishes 2nd in the B1G be seeded lower than No. 8, and with a 1st round home game. Come 2026, seeding will equate with the PO committee's final ranking. Oregon got a double dose of format blues last season. With a four-team PO still in effect, in the semifinals, OBD rematches with PSU, and Georgia rematches with Texas. Ohio State is still debating whether to fire Ryan Day. In any and likely every postseason tournament ever played anywhere, No. 1 Oregon plays the winner of No. 9 Boise State at No. 8 Indiana in the Rose Bowl. Likely wins the game and moves on. With mega-conference in-conference strength of schedule being all over the place, I think the B1G team in second place after the 11th game of the regular season, could well be better than a first-place team that played a far easier conference schedule. Consider OBD's schedule in 2027. OBD plays at Michigan and hosts Ohio State and Penn State. OBD also draws Iowa at home, and plays at Nebraska, UCLA, and UW. 6 home games with an OOC game in Waco, Texas against Baylor. I have not parsed all of the 2027 B1G schedules, but if Oregon is second in the conference standings with this schedule after game 11, I believe OBD will be more than worthy of a shot at the conference championship. If every team had the same in-conference strength of schedule, then I'd also be against the play-in format. I also do not know how much more revenue the B1G will receive with a play-in format compared to a one-off championship game that is likely to feature the B1G's biggest brands. But it is odds-on to be more money, or Petitti and Sankey would not be pushing a 16-team field and play-in games. Respectfully submitted, JJ. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
