Does Lane Kiffin Have The Best College Football Playoff Proposal?
Lane Kiffin Has Sensible CFB Playoff Proposal
The last few weeks around college football have been dominated by discussion about the future of the College Football Playoff. And as usual, the SEC has been the driving force behind those discussions.
There seems to be widespread agreement that the current format will be changing, and quickly. Already, the seeding process has been adjusted for this upcoming season. But there's more expansion and changes to come, along with debates over automatic qualifiers and where they'll come from.
The SEC floated a 4+4+2+2+1+3 model, which on its face, seemed to be heavily biased towards the big conferences. Four automatic bids to the SEC, four to the Big Ten, two to the ACC and Big 12, one to the top Group of Five team, and three at-large bids.
The Big 12 has seemed to favor a 5+11 model, five auto-bids for conference champions and 11 at large spots. Though is it possible that such a scenario would also benefit the SEC?
There are merits, and cons, to all solutions. But does Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin have the simplest, and ultimately best, proposal?
Head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)
Lane Kiffin Suggests Best 16 Teams Should Make It
Kiffin this week at SEC media days gave his thoughts on the competing proposals with a much simpler solution: "The best system would be 16, and it would be the 16 best."
Does that make the most sense? In a way, it might.
The 5+11 model being supported by the Big 12 could be a massive own goal, and it's something the SEC and Big Ten are well aware of. It's virtually impossible for the ACC or Big 12 to compete, strength of schedule wise, with the SEC and Big Ten as currently constructed. Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, USC, Washington, Penn State, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Auburn, LSU, Michigan State, Nebraska, UCLA, Missouri, Texas A&M.
That's what, 90 percent of the national interest in college football concentrated in those two conferences? As well as routinely competitive teams that create tough strength of schedules. It's going to be hard for the ACC or the Big 12 to match the difficulty that Oregon or Florida faces, week in and week out.
On its face, just going to a straight, "best 16 teams" model seems the most fair. Let the committee rank the best teams, and wherever they happen to be from, so be it. Of course, more likely than not, the SEC and Big Ten wind up overrepresented there too. And the other conferences aren't going to accept years where say, a Group of Five representative finishes the season ranked 17th and misses out entirely.
Still, there's something to be said for just letting the rankings fall where they may. It's just hard to see it actually coming to fruition with the amount of money on the table, and several different groups looking to grab some of it.