Few living personalities embody football’s old school more than Nick Saban.
So when the greatest coach of all time publicly endorses a dramatic change to the game’s traditions, it isn’t a knee-jerk reaction.
Saban gave his approval for College Football Playoff expansion this week. The seven-time national championship winner — three of which came in the initial four-team Playoff format — pivoted from his previous stance. He was staunchly against postseason expansion.
However, with the field moving to 12 teams a season ago and further reformatting approved on Thursday, Saban’s comments marked a high-profile embrace of the inevitable. The Playoff will expand, so we might as well adopt the best possible solution.
College football power brokers Fox and ESPN — excuse me, the Big Ten and SEC — support a restructuring that guarantees them four bids each. Meanwhile, the Big 12 and ACC would receive two guaranteed spots apiece.
The proposal is farcical and serves as a safety net for two leagues that have already shaped the sport’s landscape in their favor. What’s more, it’s needlessly convoluted when other levels of college football offer postseason blueprints that are proven successful, expand access for more participants and still reward the “best” conferences.
Adopting the core format concepts from the Football Championship Subdivision or NCAA Division II postseason makes for a more straightforward College Football Playoff than either the existing or proposed systems.
Each format has its advantages when applied to the FBS, though both come with the caveat that conference championship games would no longer be necessary.
FCS Format
Launched in 1978 upon the split of NCAA Division I into two subdivisions, the former Division I-AA/FCS Playoffs quickly expanded from four participants at inception to 16 by 1986. The tournament remained at 16 teams for 24 years before briefly growing to 20, then settling at its current total of 24 in 2013.
The current iteration invites every FCS conference champion except the Ivy League, SWAC and — since the 2016 launch of the Celebration Bowl — the MEAC. Ten automatic bids leave 14 at-large berths, most of which are occupied by the powerhouse Big Sky and Missouri Valley Football conferences.
That format should appeal to the Big Ten and SEC, offering a trade-off in exchange for opening spots to every FBS conference champion. Based on league standings and Playoff committee rankings prior to conference championship games, a 2024 College Football Playoff using the FCS format might have looked as follows:
Automatic Bids
American: Army
ACC: SMU
Big 12: Arizona State
Big Ten: Oregon
Conference USA: Jacksonville State
MAC: Miami (Ohio)
Mountain West: Boise State
SEC: Texas
Sun Belt: Marshall
At-Large Bids
ACC: Miami, Clemson
Big 12: Iowa State, BYU
Big Ten: Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana
Independent: Notre Dame
Mountain West: UNLV
SEC: Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri
Bracket
First-Round Byes
Oregon
Texas
Penn State
Notre Dame
Georgia
Ohio State
Tennessee
SMU
First-Round Matchups
Jacksonville State at No. 9 Indiana
Miami (Ohio) at No. 10 Boise State
Marshall at No. 11 Alabama
Army at No. 12 Miami
Missouri* at No. 13 Ole Miss
UNLV* at No. 14 South Carolina
Clemson* at No. 15 Arizona State
BYU at No. 16 Iowa State
*The selection committee avoids regular-season rematches in the opening round, so Missouri and Clemson — both of whom faced South Carolina — require reseeding. Mizzou–Ole Miss and BYU–Iowa State are both conference matchups, but the teams did not meet in the regular season.
Division II Format
Participation in the NCAA Division II Playoffs fluctuates more regularly than in the FCS tournament. For the sake of this exercise, let’s use the 2024 season, in which 28 teams qualified.
The Division II playoff bracket is somewhat comparable to March Madness in that it features definitive regions — or Super Regions. While in the basketball tournament a region refers to a host location, the Division II Playoffs use geographic clusters to form their regions.
That’s easier to accomplish in Division II, where conferences tend to have actual geographic footprints. Applied to the FBS, splitting conference representation across regions could be beneficial. The example below from this past season demonstrates how the Big Ten and SEC could each occupy the No. 1 seeds in different Super Regions and thus receive first-round byes.
Conference titles do not guarantee entry into the Division II Playoffs; instead, teams are invited based on rankings. The following uses the same approach.
East
No. 1 Penn State
Louisville at No. 2 Notre Dame
Army at No. 3 Ohio State
Syracuse at No. 4 Indiana
Central
No. 1 Texas
Texas A&M at No. 2 SMU
Illinois at No. 3 Ole Miss
Missouri at No. 4 Iowa State
South
No. 1 Georgia
Memphis at No. 2 Tennessee
Clemson at No. 3 Alabama
South Carolina at No. 4 Miami
West
No. 1 Oregon
Washington State at No. 2 Boise State
Colorado at No. 3 Arizona State
UNLV at No. 4 BYU
Following the templates that already exist within the sport provides the College Football Playoff with sensible solutions for its inevitable expansion. Borrowing from the established roadmaps of the game’s lower levels honors tradition while introducing a clear-cut method of deciding the national championship on the field.
It’s a strategy that perhaps even the most old-school football mind — like Nick Saban — can appreciate.
