24 Team CFP Makes Sense

[Steven A]

I didn't see this mentioned elsewhere.

 

Rob Nelson, former Portland Maverick and inventor of Big League Chew was on Canzano's podcast and suggested the following 24 team playoff.

 

1)  The top 8 teams get a bye.

2)  Those top 8 get a home game in the 2nd round.

3)  9 thru 16 get home games vs 17 thru 24.

4)  The losers of the 9 thru 24 games are eligible for bowl games.

5)  The winners of the top 8 home games move on to the quarter finals.

 

I like it.

[30Duck]

At first, 24 sounds like a lot. But the format works, the Pop Tart Bowl will still be there for The U. 

[Charles Fischer]

With the extra round… Could we skip the damn play-in Conference games?
 

[David Marsh]

On 5/14/2025 at 2:48 PM, Charles Fischer said:

With the extra round… Could we skip the damn play-in Conference games?
 

We'd have to. That's too many games to put players through at that point.

 

I'd also add that each round gets re-ranked. 

[Jon Joseph]

 

This might work if the regular season had ten games. With 24 teams and 12 regular-season games, how do you conclude the season before February? Even without Conference Champ Game weekend, and with every team playing in Week 0, you're running deeper into NFL playoff games.

 

What entity will fund the first round of games featuring the 9 seed vs. the 24th seed, etc.? Visiting playoff teams last season received $3 million in travel expenses for travel to each away game and bowl games. The 4-4-2-2-1-3 format provides the same money for first-round games, with the 9 seed through 16 seed playing at the 1 through 8 seeds.

 

There aren't 12 teams that can win a playoff, let alone 16, but 24? I don't believe the media would pay more for this format than for a 16-team format with no byes. Petitti and Sankey's format has the top eight teams playing a home game in the 1st round. Using this format in 2024-25 would have excluded only CU from the most-watched teams playing in the opening round.

 

Using last season's final committee rankings, I'd rather watch No.1 seed Oregon play No. 16 Clemson in Autzen and No. 9 Boise State play No. 8 Indiana on the road, than watch No. 9 seed Boise host No. 24 seed UNLV, the third time these teams would have played last season. I believe ESPN would agree? And like it or not, money matters.

 

No metric supports giving the 'little guy' a chance in a CFB playoff. A 24-team playoff would give 'the little guy' more money, but at what cost to the more successful, the more viewed programs? I want to see as few B1G varsity sports reduced to club sports as possible. The marketplace has separated the Power 2, and the playoffs should do likewise.

 

A 24-team playoff has a populist appeal, but it is not grounded in today's college sports economics. There is zero financial reason for the Power 2 to keep the Lesser 2 and G6 football programs afloat at the expense of their athletic departments. 

 

 

[Nevada Dawg]

Rare for me to be sure, but I agree and heartily endorse almost all of Jon's many points in the preceding post! My only quibble here is the contention that only the power 2 deserve to be taken seriously as championship contenders. Too much of that favoritism and you could see football becoming a club sport more quickly than you might imagine. But 24 teams/ Not credible to this observer.