Week 9 CFP Rankings 2018

The first CFP rankings came out in week 9 of the 2018 season and they were as follows,

1		University of Alabama	8-0
2		Clemson University	8-0
3		Louisiana State University	7-1
4		University of Notre Dame	8-0
5		University of Michigan	7-1
6		University of Georgia	7-1
7		University of Oklahoma	7-1
8		Washington State University	7-1
9		University of Kentucky	7-1
10		Ohio State University	7-1
11		University of Florida	6-2
12		University of Central Florida	7-0
13		West Virginia University	6-1
14		Penn State University	6-2
15		University of Utah	6-2
16		University of Iowa	6-2
17		University of Texas	6-2
18		Mississippi State University	5-3
19		Syracuse University	6-2
20		Texas A&M University	5-3
21		North Carolina State University	5-2
22		Boston College	6-2
23		Fresno State	7-1
24		Iowa State University	4-3
25		University of Virginia	6-2

At this point with Clemson's remaining schedule they were a shoe in, Alabama was headed to #4 LSU the following week and the thought was if they won that game they were more or less a lock for the CFP, so in late October there's already only 2 CFP spots left and as history shows if you have 2 losses your season is already over. Outside of Bama and Clemson there remained 9 Power 5 teams with 1 loss or less. UCF was undefeated but under the current system no G5 team has ever made the CFP and never will unless it's expanded. So again, by late October of the 130 FBS teams, only 9 are playing meaningful games. 

Those 9 teams were LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington State, Kentucky, Ohio State and West Virginia. 

LSU played Bama 

ND played Northwestern 

Michigan played Penn State 

Georgia played Kentucky in a CFP elimination game in week 9 

Oklahoma played Texas Tech

Washington State played Cal 

Ohio State played Nebraska 

West Virginia played Texas 

In week 9, the first week in November, these were the only games that had an implications in the college football world because of the fact that the playoff as it stands is a paltry 4 teams. 

If the playoff was moved up to 12 teams then P5 teams with 2 losses or less remain squarely alive and in some cases depending on performance and strength of schedule teams with 3 losses or less may hold onto hope as well. G5 teams with 1 loss or less on the cusp of the top 25 also have hope in this circumstance. With these teams on the bubble their 4 games to close out the year are all now effectively playoff games. 

Across the nation, fan bases are excited, teams are alive and playing with juice now knowing that, this could be their year. This could be the year they make it into the CFP and have a chance to make some noise. Under a 12 team playoff in week 9 rather than have 9 teams playing meaningful games, you would now have 25-30 teams hoping they can run the table and launch themselves into the top 12. Here's what's interesting about that. In the past decade there have only been 3 teams in the P5 to not crack the top 25, Wake Forest, Indiana, Purdue. With that said in theory only 3 P5 teams over the past decade wouldn't have had a single season where they thought they had a chance at the CFP. Imagine the excitement and parity this could create? 

Why The College Football Playoff Should Expand to 12 Teams

With the current system being the way it is, it has created nothing but boring college football. Parity is non-existent and by November only about 10 teams are playing meaningful games, the rest of the nation is just waiting for the season to end. Why 12 teams though?

In a 12 team structure the top 4 seeds would get 1st round byes much like the NFL and 5 would play 12, 6 would play 11, you get the picture. For the blue-blood prognosticators who cry that expanding the playoff would water down the regular season, your argument is falling on deaf ears as you try to preserve your status as top dog without anyone having a chance to compete. Here's where I think we could take college football to the next level, and here's exactly how I would structure it.

Playoff Week 1: Top 4 seeds byes, 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9.
Playoff Week 2: The top 4 get to select their opponents with the #1 seed getting the first selection.

Do you think the top 4 will rest players the last regular season game and throw in the towel, not so fast my friend. On top of this I would require every conference to make sure their schedule has everyones rival the last week of the season. Is Alabama going to rest players against Auburn? No. Are they even going to consider resting players if it means not getting a first round bye OR not getting top seed to select their opponent? No.

Playoff Week 3: Top seed remaining picks their opponent, and the other two teams play each other. Here's where it gets interesting. Talk about bulletin material. The top seed could only pick one team to play and they picked you? This game would have an extra level of juice to it.

Playoff Week 4: National Championship

Spare me the bullshit that these kids can't handle this many games. Why can D3? Why can D2? Why can FCS? Greg McElroy's argument when I asked him this was, "dude FBS is so much more physical". If that's the argument how does the NFL survive 4 pre-season games, 16 regular season games and 4 rounds of playoffs? Spare me.

What would a 12-team playoff do? It'd do nothing but make college football better.

- More teams would be alive, more teams could compete for top recruits and pitch the goal being to make the CFP
- More regional recruits would stay home knowing there's a chance they could make it to the CFP while staying at home rather than heading to Bama or Clemson
- It would create parity in a sport where there's very little right now
- More teams would have the balls to schedule tougher out of conference games.

With the way the current system is, where a 2 loss team has never made the CFP, there is ZERO incentive to schedule a legitimate out of conference early season opponent. What happens if you lose that game? If you lose you then have to run the table to make the CFP, so it incentivizes schools to schedule cupcake out of conference opponents and FCS opponents in late November, pathetic.

What if in the last week of the season there was 16-20 teams playing meaningful games rather than 6? In my next post I will go week by week from the 2018 CFP rankings to show you exactly how the importance of games would greatly increase with a 12-team playoff. We have a litany of irrelevant bowl games, why not just turn some of those into bowl games for the 12-team playoff? It's for the best.