Thoughts on new CFP format: Just a Minute
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00:00 Welcome into Bama Central's Just a Minute. I am Blake Beiler joined by Katie Windham.
00:07 Today we're going to be talking a little bit about the college football playoff and the fact that a couple days ago, the committee or the board or whoever it was approved a new format, a new system for the college football playoff.
00:20 As the playoff moves to 12 teams next year in 2024, the old model was a 6+6 model and the model has moved to now 5+7 which just got approved which means there are going to be five automatic bids into the playoff.
00:36 The five highest ranked conference champions and since the Pac-12 no longer exists we assume that's going to mean the Power 4 now with the SEC, the Big 10, the ACC, and the Big 12.
00:48 And then the highest ranked group of five champion will get an automatic bid with seven at-large teams.
00:54 So basically the seven next highest teams will be going to the 12-team playoff next year.
00:59 Katie, with these changes and with the format, what are your thoughts on it? Do you think it's a good thing? What do you think about the automatic bids?
01:07 What do you think about the potential buys that are guaranteed for conference champions? What are some of your thoughts on this new format?
01:15 Yeah, I mean I think it was kind of inevitable that we were going to see some sort of change with all the conference realignment that's also going on.
01:22 Overall my first instinct or reaction is just how different this college football season is going to look for so many reasons.
01:30 Like the fact that this is finally the year that Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC.
01:35 I feel like we've been talking about it for forever even though it's really only been like two years.
01:38 This is the year of the 12-team playoff from an Alabama perspective.
01:41 Obviously this is the first year in almost two decades that Nick Saban is not going to be on the sidelines as the head coach and this is the year one for the Caelan-DeBoer era.
01:49 So it's just so many changes going on.
01:52 But I think if they wanted to stick with that old format of having automatic qualifiers, which obviously they did, then this makes sense because there really is kind of one less conference now.
02:03 I think the main reason I'm kind of in favor of or would be in favor of the automatic qualifiers is for those teams and the double-Is,
02:14 for the teams that play in the conference championship games that first weekend in December because that basically will be their first round of the playoff.
02:22 But like we were talking about before we recorded, who it will be unfortunate for is those teams that lose their conference championship game
02:29 but are maybe one of really the best teams in the country.
02:31 Like we've seen happen in the SEC multiple times where two conference teams have gotten in.
02:36 But then if a team loses in their conference championship game and they're a 5-seed, they're about to have to turn around and play again right away.
02:44 So it's just going to be something different to get used to.
02:47 And you know what, with the way the college football playoff has evolved and changed over the years, I won't be surprised at all if this format gets a one- or two-year run
02:58 and then they make some more changes when somebody gets left out or the seating screws someone over from hosting or getting a bye or something like that.
03:05 I already saw tweets about Notre Dame and kind of where they fit into this because they're not in the conference.
03:10 So therefore it's literally impossible for them to get a top-four seed and a double-bye technically by the rules,
03:16 even if they were undefeated and the number one team in the country and had beat all these good teams.
03:20 So will it put pressure on them to finally join a conference?
03:23 Who knows, but it's going to be a different year to see all this play out.
03:29 Yeah, it definitely will be.
03:32 I think I have always fallen on the side of being anti-automatic bids just because, again, like we were talking about before we started,
03:42 there could be a team that is kind of lower in the top 12 that wins their conference, wins a weaker conference,
03:49 whether that's the ACC, the Big 12, something like that, and they would be given a top-four seat over a team that might potentially deserve it more.
03:58 But also I understand the reasonings for it because you want to incentivize conference championship games.
04:07 You want there to be build-up and hype for those games.
04:11 And so it's definitely going to be interesting.
04:13 Like you said, there's going to be a lot of new changes.
04:16 I'm really excited to see it all unfold.
04:19 But yeah, I mean, that's the new format as of now.
04:22 And as the years go by, we'll see what changes happen to it.
04:25 But as of now, it will be the five plus seven model for the 12 team playoff next year.
04:29 But I think that's going to wrap it up for today's Just A Minute.
04:33 Once again, thank you all for listening.
04:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]