Would A College Football “Champions League” Format Work?
Yesterday, Auburn beat writer, Justin Ferguson, wrote an article explaining the need for a better College Football Playoff. I agree with Justin on this. I think the four team playoff is stale and we are getting more and more top heavy as the years go on. The one seed is significantly better than the four and the two-three matchup splits between a blowout and a nail biter. The CFP essentially can’t find a good balance of competitiveness and originality.
Ferguson, however, came up with a solution on how to crown a champion.
College football needs a better postseason.
Two tiers. Full round-robin conferences. Playoff spots for second-tier teams. Group stages. An unseeded 16-team knockout tournament.
No polls. No divisions. No committees.
Welcome to the CFB Champions League.https://t.co/MtVoTCFrxz
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) March 30, 2021
Would a CFP x UEFA Champions League work? The short answer is no. I love the idea from Ferguson. I am not the biggest soccer fan but I do generally like the Champions League and find myself watching a few matches here and there. But the difference between the Champions League and College Football is professionalism. The 16th best team in UEFA won their countries league. Whereas the 16th seed in College Football last year was Iowa at 6-2. These two aren’t the same.
Ferguson’s article does bring up some good points where he says this would be a “open and exciting way to crown a national champion.” He proposes a two tier system. In tier one, you would have the the Power 5 conferences and then a made up “western” conference. These would feature your big money teams and most likely top 8 seeds. Then tier two would be your smaller “mid-major” teams who consistently struggle to impress the CFP Committee. I get what he is saying and I like the idea that after the group stage it redraws for a random outcome. But you will still have some similarity to what you already have now. No matter how many teams you add, you are still going to get the same five or six teams in the hunt.
Like I said, I don’t hate the thought and idea but this isn’t it. It could come out where a first round game is FIU vs. Alabama… Now who wants to watch that?! The answer is simple. Instead of adding more and more teams to water down the competition, make it less. Yes, I said it! Bring it back to 1 vs 2 or 1 vs the winner of 2-3. At the rate we are going, Alabama/Clemson will always beat the Oklahoma’s and Notre Dame’s at the four seed. As much as you hate seeing the same five/six teams in the CFP, they are the teams who are good! Yet, we still see number one beat the number four by 20+ each game. And we still think that next year will be different. We still have delusional people think that 4 or 8 or 16 teams will fix an already watered down playoff. The answer is simple, go back to 1 vs. 2 and you’ll have competitive games.
-John (Uncle_mac4)
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