While the College Football Playoff format debates rage on, maybe it is time to consider a revolutionary change. There is no longer any consensus about the 2026 and beyond format. The SEC and the Big Ten no longer agree, which practically destroys the control the Power Two were given to decide the next format.
In the court of college football public opinion, the eight automatic qualifiers plan designated for the Big Ten and the SEC is the accused. 'Winning it on the field' is the most popular phrase from the undervalued college football regions outside the Power Two. Ignored is that any legitimate 'win on the field' format would require the impossibility of teams having comparable strength of schedules.
Greg Sankey still has the best idea, but it has a major flaw. Sankey has long been in favor of 12 teams and no automatic bids. The 12 highest-ranked teams would be chosen by the CFP Selection Committee. And that is the flaw. As former committee member Scott Strickland recently said, committee decisions will always be challenged for being subjective.
College Football Playoff Novel Idea
Credit for a novel idea goes to Ryan G Thomas. His recent tweet argues it is time to do away with the current Selection Committee process. The Thomas Plan is, "The four team playoff invitational is the best model if it is fed into by conference champions from conference tournaments. ND can participate in the ACC tournament and the top ranked G6 champion based on computer rankings can participate in the Big 12 tournament. Those tournament champions can play the B1G and SEC tournament champions in a four team playoff."
Taking Thomas' idea further, if six team post-season tournaments were used by each conference, 24 teams would compete to win the National Championship. Smaller conferences may opt for a four-team post-season model. The SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 conferences could independently choose how to qualify their teams. Almost all bias charges against the CFP overseers would end. The only decision a Playoff committee would have to make would be seeding the final four teams.
No format is perfect. The Thomas idea would be vulnerable to some losers of conference championship games being considered as a better team than one or more of the final four teams. Thomas also claims ESPN would never support the transition, effectively ending any chance the format had for approval.
Nonetheless, the bold idea is intriguing and probably comes as close as ever possible to 'winning it on the field'.