24 team playoffs?

[GSU Eagle]

What do you guys think the chances are of expaning the playoffs to 24 teams within the next 5 years?

[Saint3333]

95%. It is only natural to expand further once they expanded to 20. The only thing stopping further expansion would be a mass exodus of teams to the FBS. But there will likely new FCS teams to take their place in the various conferences.

[The Eagle's Cliff]

What do you guys think the chances are of expaning the playoffs to 24 teams within the next 5 years?

It's probably a done deal with the Pioneer getting an Automatic bid and maybe the Great West? 5 week tourney with 8 Byes (Seeds) the first week. 12 Auto 12 At Large. It could be fun, but the downside is expense to the NCAA which might prevent it.

I'd really like to see a return to a completely seeded bracket. 16 teams worked well. You could still seed everyone with 20 by having two play-in games the first week with the winners being the 15th and 16th seeds.

[superman7515]

I thought the Great West was pretty much a dead man walking with the Dakota's leaving?

[TheValleyRaider]

It's probably a done deal with the Pioneer getting an Automatic bid and maybe the Great West? 5 week tourney with 8 Byes (Seeds) the first week. 12 Auto 12 At Large. It could be fun, but the downside is expense to the NCAA which might prevent it.

Great West is dead in a year with everyone but SoDak moving to the Big Sky (Yotes to the MV). Right now, that extra autobid would go to the Pioneer, and they could easily just add another 1st Round game to get up to 24 with 2 additional at-larges. If there's another autobid to be had, then it would require either the Ivy or SWAC (xlolx) asking for it

Really, 24 seems almost inevitable barring 1 of 2 things:
1 - Saint's scenario of a mass exodus to FBS forcing a conference shuffling
2 - MEAC drops its autobid for a "Heritage Bowl" with the SWAC, and the NCAA slots the Pioneer into its place

[The Eagle's Cliff]

Great West is dead in a year with everyone but SoDak moving to the Big Sky (Yotes to the MV). Right now, that extra autobid would go to the Pioneer, and they could easily just add another 1st Round game to get up to 24 with 2 additional at-larges. If there's another autobid to be had, then it would require either the Ivy or SWAC (xlolx) asking for it

Really, 24 seems almost inevitable barring 1 of 2 things:
1 - Saint's scenario of a mass exodus to FBS forcing a conference shuffling
2 - MEAC drops its autobid for a "Heritage Bowl" with the SWAC, and the NCAA slots the Pioneer into its place

Thanks! Wasn't sure about the Great West. I think expense would be the other thing that kills or delays it. There are only @ 20 teams who might participate in the playoffs who average more than 10,000 a game and a 25-50% reduction can be expected at playoff time. Despite our fanaticism, there's really not much of a market for the tournament as it is.

[TheValleyRaider]

Thanks! Wasn't sure about the Great West. I think expense would be the other thing that kills or delays it. There are only @ 20 teams who might participate in the playoffs who average more than 10,000 a game and a 25-50% reduction can be expected at playoff time. Despite our fanaticism, there's really not much of a market for the tournament as it is.

FCS Football makes more money for the NCAA (or comes closest to breaking even) than most NCAA tournaments, I'd bet. At the very least, it out-paces women's tournaments outside of basketball. At this level, the NCAA's priority is on determining a champion, not making money. Sure, the regionalization allows them to save on expenses when possible, but as long as the tournament fits into their notion of "fair," they'll continue to sponsor it. It would have to take a serious contraction of FCS teams for the NCAA to even consider shrinking the playoffs xtwocentsx

[darell1976]

Say they do have 24 teams. how many weeks of playoffs would you have? Could the National Title game be permanately in January?

[bluehenbillk]

It's about 98% that the field expands to 24, once they moved to 20 that was almost a given. I see the NC being played in January for the forseeable future.

[Saint3333]

It's about 98% that the field expands to 24, once they moved to 20 that was almost a given. I see the NC being played in January for the forseeable future.

One of the reasons I wanted to keep the field at 16, it will be a slippery slope and we'll have 6-5 power conference teams in the playoffs, to me it cheapens the achievement.

[th0m]

OT: Why were there 5 seeds this year by the way?

[danefan]

According to Dayton's AD - expansion beyond 20 doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon.

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/springfield-oh-sports/university-of-dayton-flyers/daytons-athletic-director-contributes-to-ncaa-selection-process-1036410.html


Dayton and Jacksonville, co-champs of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League, were seriously considered for an at-large bid before being taken off the board, Wabler said. The PFL is the only FCS conference without an automatic bid, and Wabler wants that to change, although he said there currently doesn’t seem to be any movement to expand the playoffs or change the format.

[Saint3333]

The question was "within 5 years". That is a long time given the current landscape of college football. There could be 12 additional teams move up to FBS and 20 teams move up from D2 or new start-up programs to the FCS by 2015. Probably hasn't been this much instability in college football since 1978-1982 when 1-AA was created.

[TheValleyRaider]

Say they do have 24 teams. how many weeks of playoffs would you have? Could the National Title game be permanately in January?

Structurally, it would be the same length at this year's. The only difference would be 8 first round games with 8 byes instead of 4 games with 12 byes. It would might force greater adherence to seeds as you select the 8 teams who get to wait on their opponents


OT: Why were there 5 seeds this year by the way?

I believe the NCAA's rule requires at least 1/4 of the field to be seeded. Preferably it would be all the teams, but with the expansion to 20, 5 is the minimum

[LeadBolt]

Twenty is an awkward number. I would think 20 is transitory. With the potential cost of jumping to D1 going up significantly, it would appear that fewer teams will be coming up from D2 than might have. Therefore I would expect the number to grow to 24, unless a large number of teams move up from FCS to FBS without teams moving up from D2, in which case I would expect to see it fall back to 16.

[darell1976]

I don't care for the number of teams.....as long as we are 1 of them!!! Sioux playoff bound 2012!!

[WileECoyote06]

I wonder if a more regional format will be adopted, like in D2? With pod-seeding is there truly any difference?