BYU Football: A case for a 20, yes 20 team playoff

Jan 12, 2020; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; The National Championship trophy seen before the head coaches press conference for the CFP with LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron and Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney at the Sheraton New Orleans, Grand Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 12, 2020; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; The National Championship trophy seen before the head coaches press conference for the CFP with LSU Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron and Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney at the Sheraton New Orleans, Grand Ballroom. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
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Michigan linebackers David Ojabo, right, and Nikhai Hill-Green celebrate a play against Iowa during the second half of the 42-3 win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in Indianapolis.
Michigan linebackers David Ojabo, right, and Nikhai Hill-Green celebrate a play against Iowa during the second half of the 42-3 win over Iowa in the Big Ten championship game on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in Indianapolis.

Automatic Bids

The first six bids would be automatic bids going to the conference champions of the P5 leagues and the highest ranked G5 champion. These seeds would automatically take up seed numbers 1-6.

For example, we could see something that looks like this from this year.

  1. Alabama (SEC)
  2. Michigan (BIG 10)
  3. Cincinnati (AAC)
  4. Baylor (BIG 12)
  5. Utah (PAC 12)
  6. Pittsburg (ACC)

The top four teams overall would get a first round bye while the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds would play the No. 12 and No. 11 seeded team in the bracket.

Seeds No. 17-20 would also be automatic bids from the other G5 conferences that aren’t in the Top 6. They will be seeded based off of computer rankings. This year, those teams would be:

  • 17 – Utah State (MWC)
  • 18 – UTSA (CUSA)
  • 19 – App St (SUN BELT)
  • 20 – Kent St (MAC)

The exception of course would be if a conference champion is ranked inside the Top 16, then they would take that seed and the auto bids would begin at No. 18 overall.

Schedule

Schedule