I’da been just fine with the CFP staying with a four-team format. I thought it played out exactly the way it should have this past season. I maintain the Committee got the four teams right and seeded them in the proper order. The Committee’s charge was to identify the four best teams at the time it released its final rankings. While I was emotionally sympathetic to the plight of the 12-0 Florida State Seminoles, the loss of their star quarterback to injury clearly lowered them below the four-team threshold. Actually, Georgia had a stronger case, even after losing the SEC Championship to Alabama.
But I digress. I had long since resigned myself to expansion of the CFP field. There’s just too much money to be made, and as we know, that renders any other factors or considerations moot. My preference would have been an eight-team format, but I can live with the creative 12-team system that has been unanimously adopted by the CFP Board of Managers. The so-dubbed 5-7 format will send the five highest-ranked conference champions—from any conferences—to the tournament, along with the next seven highest ranked teams. The four highest-seeded schools will get first-round byes, with #5 facing #12, #6 facing #11, #7 taking on #10 and #8 meeting #9. In each case, the higher seed will host the game at its home stadium. The quarterfinal and semifinal games will be conducted within the framework of the bowl system, with the CFP Championship played at a neutral and pre-determined site.
It will be interesting to see how the first-round byes affect the four highest seeds. I predict at least one of them will fall in their playoff opener, with rust proving to be a bigger factor than rest, and a more regular and rhythmic schedule working in favor of an underdog.
Oh, don’t think this format will be in place permanently. There’s yet more money to be made with yet another expansion. And wait till you see the fight over how that money will be split up and distributed. It will make a “zero blitz” look like a love-in.
Is there still such a thing as a love-in?
Finally, a salute to retiring Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater. Sixteen seasons with the same team, 13 of them as a captain. Ten Pro Bowl selections. His head coach, Bill Belichick, calls Slater “the best core special teams player in NFL history.” Even with an appreciative nod to guys like Bill Bates and Steve Tasker, I agree. Slater was the most “special” of the special.
