Would This Proposal Fix College Football And Broken Playoff Committee?

The College Football Playoff system is broken.

Expansion was supposed to fix the issues with the four-team playoff format, where deserving teams like, say, the Florida State Seminoles in 2023 who went 13-0 and were left out. Or trying to weigh differences in schedules between teams all with one loss. Moving to a 12-team format would get rid of those concerns; after all, who could really debate the 13th best team in the country? Or who could complain about Group of 5 teams being included when we already had an expanded field?

Well, fast-forward to year two of the playoff, and boy oh boy, have the arguments and debates not gone away. In fact, they've gotten even louder and more common. In part because the committee does such a poor job explaining their logic, or lack thereof, and in part because, turns out, there's a lot of teams that finish 10-2 with very comparable resumes. Which resume you value, or which traits you prioritize, are a personal preference. Which, naturally, makes these debates even more difficult.

So how can we fix it?

RELATED: College Football Playoff System, Committee, Is A Joke And Needs A Complete Overhaul

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning says teams can control their own destiny by winning, that expansion will only push those arguments down the road. He's partially right, and partially wrong. But instead, what if we think about the format, and college football's conference alignment, completely differently?

INDIANAPOLIS - Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks celebrate winning the Big Ten Championship Game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Oregon Ducks on December 7, 2024 at Lucas Oil Stadium.  (Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire)

New Proposal Has Interesting Solution For CFB Playoff Problems

The College Sports Only account on X posted this week a proposal for a whole new arrangement for teams, conferences, and the postseason format. 

Its idea? Set up college football in an 80-team "league." Those 80 teams would then be broken up into eight 10-team conferences, eliminating the disparity in size between conferences, and ensuring more schedule parity. Each team would play nine conference games, instead of some being eight and some being nine. 

Importantly, the conference championship games would actually still matter under this format. In 2025, the SEC Championship game essentially functioned as a meaningless exhibition. The Georgia Bulldogs were in, regardless of the outcome, with seeding being the only variable at stake. Turns out, the committee had also decided that the Alabama Crimson Tide would be in, regardless of the outcome. So after a humiliating performance where they gained -3 rushing yards and had 143 yards of total offense until garbage time, they too were included.

Other conference championship games matter, but the SEC's no longer does, thanks in part to ESPN and the SEC's power and lobbying. 

So under this proposal, the conference championship games would essentially function as the first round of a 16-team playoff. The top two teams in each 10-team conference would play each other, with the winner advancing to the playoff. That's eight teams, eight conference winners, that then get a shot at a title.

Which, and this is the best part, would be played at the Rose Bowl. The best college football venue in the country.

Here's how they broke up the eight 10-team conferences. 

There are, of course, any number of tweaks that could be made. But instead of the absurdity of Cal and Stanford being part of the ACC, we'd return to regions determining which team plays where. Is it perfect? No. But at least there would be clear criteria that would determine the field, instead of this ridiculous committee format where anything goes and the logic changes week-to-week.

In a 10-team conference with nine conference games, each team would play each team, eliminating vast disparities even in conference schedules as a result of massive "supersized" leagues. Head-to-head results would function as tiebreakers. We'd prevent the arguing and debating, and programs like Notre Dame would be forced to compete in a conference full-time. 

It's worth a shot. Anything is better than the farce we have now.