Press Box: The CFP sucks

Illustration by Killian Goodale-Porter.
Kyler Gilliam, Contributing Writer
I have been disappointed with the new 12-team format for the College Football Playoff. Blowouts, nonsensical seeding and prolonged time frames are hurting my joy of College Football. I don’t want to sound like the old man yelling at change, but the CFP needs to revert in some ways.
First, there are not 12 teams in College Football that deserve to compete for a national championship; this is not the NFL that thrives off of parity. College Football is the biggest showcase of the haves and have-nots.
It is nearly impossible to break the glass ceiling of a national championship. With 134 Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams supposedly playing for one championship without a draft system, it is unrealistic for certain teams to be able to rise to national championship status.
Cutting the field down would benefit the competitive imbalance that the 12-team playoff introduced.
Second, the seeding of the playoffs makes no sense. After a committee of officials from different schools come together and rank the teams one through 25, they take the five highest-ranked conference champions and give them an automatic bid to the playoffs. The top four conference champions get automatic bye weeks. This has created wonky seeding which ultimately hurts the number one seed.
The University of Oregon and Penn State University played in the Big Ten Championship Game, and Oregon won and secured the bye putting Penn State as the sixth seed.
Oregon then had to play higher-ranked teams due to the bye system. Instead of playing either Indiana University or Boise State University, they were faced with the winner of Ohio State University and University of Tennessee, both top-six teams, while Penn State received a home game against Southern Methodist University.
Oregon was believed to have the harder road by many in the College Football community, and it proved true when Oregon was down 34-0 before halftime against Ohio State, and Penn State found their way to the semi-final after two blowout wins.
Lastly, the playoffs last too long. College Football would usually have a champion by New Year’s Day, but now we have pushed the title game to Saturday, Jan. 20. The playoff started two weeks after the conference championships, leading to a disadvantage for the teams that received a bye. All teams that received a bye fell behind early in their games and ultimately lost their matchups.
Pointing out the rest vs rust argument, having to play against a team that played the week before after having a three-week hiatus might be a disadvantage, even if the rest gets your team healthier.
I have two solutions to fix this problem:
First, drop the number of teams to six, no auto bids for conference champions. Then give the top two teams in the rankings byes. The third seed and the sixth seed play each other and seeds four and five play each other, and then reseed after round one so the one seed would have to play the lowest seed remaining. All games — except for the championship — should be home games for the highest seed. Rotate the National Championship with a New Year’s Six bowl game site every year.
Second, if the 12-team model has to stay, auto bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions, but no automatic byes. The rankings will be the seeding for the playoff. This format will follow the current bracket of the CFP. All games are home games for the highest-ranked teams except for the semifinal and national championship. The semifinals will be two of the New Year’s six bowl games of the highest-ranking teams choosing. The losers will play in the other four New Year’s Six bowl games to end their season. This playoff would start the week after the conference championship.
Now, I don’t think the College Football Playoff committee will look at my solutions, but if they did, it would be for the best of the sport.