College Football Playoff: How an Eight-Team Would Have Played Out in 2014

The college football playoff has four teams. For financial and competitive reasons, it will move to eight after a grace period to bring the presidents around. Here’s a look at how that fully-formed playoff would have played out. For the hypothetical’s sake, we imposed a few probable parameters.

* Automatic bids for the top five conference champions. There’s no foolproof way to compare scant data across conferences. The next system will let top conference champions prove their merit on the field. Most years it will be the power five. But it leaves a door cracked open for a Boise State-type. Notre Dame gets an auto bid if they are higher than the 4th conference champion.

* The first round is at home stadiums. The top four conference champions receive home field advantage. The blazered set can like it or they can have the graft taps cut off.

* No same-conference pairings in the first round. We’ll take that one from the Champions League. It’s good for entertainment and novelty. It’s also reasonable. Alabama shouldn’t have to beat Mississippi State at home, only to play Mississippi State at home in the first round.

* The committee ranks the teams, chooses the three at large teams. We like an objective formula. Not sure that would happen. Using pure SRS also would lead to Florida State squeaking in as 8-seed and teams such as Auburn, Ole Miss and Georgia still being relevant. That may be a bit radical for this hypothetical.

Here’s a projection of how the committee would have seeded an eight-team with those parameters. The TCU/OSU/Baylor dilemma plays out differently, if all three teams can make it.

1. Alabama vs. 8. Michigan State
2. Oregon vs. 7. Mississippi State
3. TCU vs. 6. Ohio State
4. Florida State vs. 5. Baylor

Discussion season has been great, but count us in for more football. That first round would be the best sports weekend of the year.