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"Old Dominion University president John Broderick said Thursday morning that the NCAA is moving forward with plans to expand the Football Championship Subdivision playoff pool from 20 to 24 teams.But it might not happen until 2013."

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/10/odu-pre ... xpand-2013

My take, more isn't always better. I guess this will include some additional auto bids, maybe the Ivy and PFL. The NCAA needs to help with the cost, thru sponsorship. Why should NCAA games cost so much and do you ask team which don't even give scholarships to fork over +$50K to play in the playoff games.

DaBigBlue wrote:"Old Dominion University president John Broderick said Thursday morning that the NCAA is moving forward with plans to expand the Football Championship Subdivision playoff pool from 20 to 24 teams.But it might not happen until 2013."

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/10/odu-pre ... xpand-2013

If true I'm not at all surprised. Once they expanded the playoffs beyond 16 teams I predicted that this would happen. I think it is only a matter of time before they expand to 32.

BlueHen86 wrote:

DaBigBlue wrote:"Old Dominion University president John Broderick said Thursday morning that the NCAA is moving forward with plans to expand the Football Championship Subdivision playoff pool from 20 to 24 teams.But it might not happen until 2013."

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/10/odu-pre ... xpand-2013

If true I'm not at all surprised. Once they expanded the playoffs beyond 16 teams I predicted that this would happen. I think it is only a matter of time before they expand to 32.

You need another week for 32, right? I don't think that's going to happen.

24 makes sense.

The PFL gets its AQ and maybe the NCAA can convince the Ivy League to get on board.

danefan wrote: You need another week for 32, right? I don't think that's going to happen.

24 makes sense.

The PFL gets its AQ and maybe the NCAA can convince the Ivy League to get on board.

No, it's still a 5 round playoff. I doubt they'd go to 32, though, unless a lot more conferences form.

The main goal of expanding the playoffs is to give auto-bids to all the qualifying conferences that want auto-bids. As it looks now, that should be accomplished with a 24-team field (or even a 22-team field if the Ivies stay on their clouds).

I think some of these auto-bid's for partial-scholly conferences is pretty stupid. Just because they have the FCS label doesn't mean they can compete in the FCS. Some of these conferences would struggle against the likes of Grand Valley State of D2 or Mount Union of D3.

Not surprised, the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament expanded by 3-4 times with the "First Four" and that turned out pretty well in Year 1 so they are probably hoping the same happens in the FCS playoffs.

Isn't it funny to watch the NCAA expand the FCS playoffs while the BCS schools moan about how they couldn't have playoffs messing up the academic year of their teams?

danefan wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:
If true I'm not at all surprised. Once they expanded the playoffs beyond 16 teams I predicted that this would happen. I think it is only a matter of time before they expand to 32.

You need another week for 32, right? I don't think that's going to happen.

24 makes sense.

The PFL gets its AQ and maybe the NCAA can convince the Ivy League to get on board.

No. You needed 4 weeks for 16. 17 through 32 teams would take 5 weeks. Once they broke the 4 week barrier there was nothing to stop them from going all the way up to 32.

93henfan wrote:Isn't it funny to watch the NCAA expand the FCS playoffs while the BCS schools moan about how they couldn't have playoffs messing up the academic year of their teams?

Yup. That and playoffs would make the regular season meaningless.

Of course, if FCS expands their playoffs too much, the FCS regular season will be meaningless.

BlueHen86 wrote:

93henfan wrote:Isn't it funny to watch the NCAA expand the FCS playoffs while the BCS schools moan about how they couldn't have playoffs messing up the academic year of their teams?

Yup. That and playoffs would make the regular season meaningless.

Of course, if FCS expands their playoffs too much, the FCS regular season will be meaningless.

Yep. I thought 16 was the perfect number, although I can live with 20.

Grizalltheway wrote:

BlueHen86 wrote:
Yup. That and playoffs would make the regular season meaningless.

Of course, if FCS expands their playoffs too much, the FCS regular season will be meaningless.

Yep. I thought 16 was the perfect number, although I can live with 20.

With these expanded fields, the likelihood of a 6 D-I win at-large team or two making the field is going to increase greatly.

Dumb.

93henfan wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:
Yep. I thought 16 was the perfect number, although I can live with 20.

With these expanded fields, the likelihood of a 6 D-I win at-large team or two making the field is going to increase greatly.

Too bad it didn't happen last year.

93henfan wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:


Yep. I thought 16 was the perfect number, although I can live with 20.

With these expanded fields, the likelihood of a 6 D-I win at-large team or two making the field is going to increase greatly.

If that happens the teams that would benefit most would be those that just miss getting a bye. They would be rewarded by facing a team against which they could win while resting a lot of players for a large portion of the game.

guinzone wrote:I think some of these auto-bid's for partial-scholly conferences is pretty stupid. Just because they have the FCS label doesn't mean they can compete in the FCS. Some of these conferences would struggle against the likes of Grand Valley State of D2 or Mount Union of D3.

So would a lot of the scholarship conferences. DII is closer to FCS than FCS is to FBS. The best teams in DII would be in the upper half of FCS, possibly even on the low end of the Top-25. Even the best teams in DIII could win some games.

MadMaxMonarch wrote:

93henfan wrote:
With these expanded fields, the likelihood of a 6 D-I win at-large team or two making the field is going to increase greatly.

If that happens the teams that would benefit most would be those that just miss getting a bye. They would be rewarded by facing a team against which they could win while resting a lot of players for a large portion of the game.

Nobody's going to rest players in the playoffs. The teams that played in the opening round last year included Georgia Southern, Northern Iowa, and NDSU. Do you think they would have rested anyone against a 7-4 Montana squad last year in an expanded playoffs?

I like 24 better than 20, if only because the bracket looks nicer. For me, though, a power of 2 is always best because byes are eliminated, thereby giving more opportunity for an early big upset.

But I agree that 32 is probably too many for the current size of FCS. Maybe if we can get some of the FBS bottomfeeders to drop down. Or, if the B(C)$ gets their way and gets all non-B(C)$ shut out of their "show," then we could have a merged FBS/FCS with a 64-team playoff ending on 1 JAN. That would be way cool. But not likely, either.

No more than 20. It doesn't need to be expanded. If you consider that the two teams that make the championship game played at least 15 games (possibly 16 if one of them played in the first round), that is a lot of games to be played. These guys are student-athletes, first and foremost.

EWURanger wrote:No more than 20. It doesn't need to be expanded. If you consider that the two teams that make the championship game played at least 15 games (possibly 16 if one of them played in the first round), that is a lot of games to be played. These guys are student-athletes, first and foremost.

You do realize that expanding to 24 teams (or even 32) wouldn't really change the number of games being played per team, right?

It's still a 5 round playoff.

guinzone wrote:I think some of these auto-bid's for partial-scholly conferences is pretty stupid. Just because they have the FCS label doesn't mean they can compete in the FCS. Some of these conferences would struggle against the likes of Grand Valley State of D2 or Mount Union of D3.

When the biggest selling point of FCS over FBS is equal access to a true championship, you can't turn around and deny the lesser conferences access to the championship. With FCS moving the championship game on ESPN to the night before the BCS championship, it's worth money every time the broadcast team can say "every team in FCS has a fair shot at the championship." Without that differentiation from the BCS, FCS may as well be Division II.

If this comes to fruition I suspect this is the NCAA trying to remain relevant - they are large and in-charge at the home office and working for YOU to 'improve' college athletics.

I think 24 would be fine. I just hope they don't go beyond that number any time soon.

A UND vs NDSU playoff game is looking more of a reality with 24 teams.

jcmanson wrote:I think 24 would be fine. I just hope they don't go beyond that number any time soon.

I agree and think most fans of the lower tier conferences would as well.

24 gives the PFL a AQ and I'm all for that.

It also saves an AQ for a new conference to be formed (AEast?) or in the alternative the Ivys if they change their mind.

Anything beyond 24 is expansion for the sake of expansion and I don't really see any compelling reason for it.