With the news of potential changes to the College Football Playoff format, it makes sense to think about some changes that would benefit Notre Dame and many other teams across the country.
In the first year of the 12-team format, there were plenty of aspects of it that worked out well, but some of them didn’t. While there could be more expansion on the way, as I will get to that in just a bit. We could see two more teams or even four more, which could be good or bad.
The Irish are in a great position going forward, as no team will have to be perfect to play for a championship. The NFL-like schedule was much different than we have seen, and here are five changes that would make sense for the CFP.
Bye remain the same, but only for top ranked teams
It really didn’t make sense to see Arizona State and Boise State earn byes, as they weren’t ranked among the top teams. Sure conference automatic bids should be part of the selection process, but the top-four should get rewarded. This clearly would change if byes aren’t part of the format going forward, but only two of the four teams really earned a bye this past season.
Quicker turnarounds between games
So far in the 3 quarterfinal games the team that played in the first round has out-scored the team with the bye 58-10 in the first half of these games.
PSU led 17-7 at halftime
Texas led 17-3 at halftime
Ohio State is up 24-0 in the second quarter— Bryan Driskell (@CoachD178) January 1, 2025
I completely understand trying to work around games on New Year’s Eve and day, but it was three weeks from the last game played for Notre Dame and others, ten days between games from the first-round to the second, and almost a month off for the bye teams. There is no need to take that much time off between rounds when it’s typically a week between games in the regular season. Some of the games lost their excitement due to the longer layoff.
Games should be played on Friday and Saturday on campus
College football is all about tradition, and to see only five of the eleven games being played on Friday or Saturday. I get how the schedule won’t always work to do that, but let’s look at what it would look like this coming December. Games on the weekend of the 12th and 19th would lead to a break until New Year’s Eve and day. The championship game would be on Jan. 10th, ten days before it ended this past season.
How exciting was it to see the firs-round in front of students, the environments were electric. I’d personally like to see more of it, and with that you could rotate the bowl during the semifinals with the traditional locations and then give teams that may not have had a chance to play in the other ones an opportunity. I know this won’t happen due to the increase in revenue for those locations, but it would be great to see.
Schools that advance keep the revenue
Notre Dame raked in the most money of all the CFP participants due to its independence, but the other teams had to split the purse with its conference mates. If you host a game at home, you should reap the rewards of the game, not having to split it with the conference and CFP. There has to be other rewards for earning a home game, so keeping the bulk of what a game takes in should be it.
The field should stay at 12-teams
Clemson, SMU, and Indiana never really had a legit chance to win a title, as each of them look losses on the road in the first-round. Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss and South Carolina were next up, and it’s doubtful any of those teams would have held up the championship trophy at the end of the year. Watering down the field just doesn’t make sense, for the most part those teams lower in the top-12 aren’t serious contenders. Add more teams in my eyes would dull the excitement, make the CFP even longer taking away from some of the juice. Twelve teams is more than enough, and a good number considering how it played out this fall.
This article originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire: college football playoff format changes expansion notre dame
