Gateway Conference Calls for Expansion of FCS Playoff Field

[guinzone]

I was on Google News looking for articles to post and I spotted this one from "The Southern," which I would assume is the paper of the Southern Illinois Salukis.

Viverito said the championship cabinet of the NCAA has asked the football committee to study options of expanding the playoffs. The committee is scheduled to meet in January of 2008.

Good Read, I encourage you to check it out!
Link: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/200 ... 982174.txt

[SuperHornet]

I hope they listen, but they probably won't. I'd love to see a 64-team field with each conference champ getting an auto bid.

[NDSUFREAK]

I hope they listen, but they probably won't. I'd love to see a 64-team field with each conference champ getting an auto bid.

64??!!!! I couldn't myself imagining 64 teams in a football playoff.

[MrTitleist]

That would be about the whole season. I actually think that the number now is adequate. Most conferences are represented, and in the case of some conferences, an autobid isn't necessary. Granted, the Great West has provided some top notch, quality teams, there's not enough teams to justify an autobid. Same with Pioneer. Look what happened to San Diego once they played a real team.

[CitadelGrad]

I hope they listen, but they probably won't. I'd love to see a 64-team field with each conference champ getting an auto bid.

64 teams!?!?!?! Think about what you are saying. The two teams in the championship game would have played 6 playoff games before a champion is crowned. The regular season is only 11 games. We aren't talking about the NFL here. We are talking about college students.

[ronbo]

20 teams tops with 4 play in games the first weekend the other 12 get byes.

[guinzone]

I hope they listen, but they probably won't. I'd love to see a 64-team field with each conference champ getting an auto bid.

First and foremost I think you are crazy for thinking it would be a 64 team field, because nowhere in the article does it even say they want that. They said a 24 team field would be an adequate field.

[ronbo]

I'm against expanding the playoffs as it dilutes the field. 20 tops just to make room for the Big South and Great West with a couple extra for those 2 good teams that get left out every year. My God this Division is already diluted by allowing low to non schollie programs. We can't expand this thing to the point where there are four 6-5 teams making the playoffs. Even 20 will add a couple 7-4 teams I'll wager. If you make it too easy it cheapens it. You go to 24 and watch the outcry when the Gateway or the CAA get five teams in.

[Sly Fox]

To nobody's surprise, the coaches in the Big South were also extolling the virtues of expansion yesterday as well.

[bluehenbillk]

I vote NO. A 7-4 team shouldn't get into the playoffs, 7-4 isn't special, it's mediocre.

[SuperHornet]

I understand the disgust (is that a little strong?) for the 64-team idea. I just wanted to make it like the hoops tournament AND to compete with the FBS, showing the world that our brand is better than theirs. I could see 32, but 24 seems to have a weird bracket. I still remember weird hoops brackets just before they went to 64 there. I like nice, even brackets.

I kinda agree with the 7-4 isn't special idea, but with caveats. If the majority of those losses came in a stepped-up sched against decent FBS teams, then that should be taken into consideration. Given Cow Poly's undie snub back in the late '90's as precedent, I'd take such a 7-4 team over an undie that hit up a bunch of D-II, D-III, and NAIA teams in OOC.

[GOKATS]

64 would be an absolute joke. I could maybe support going to 20, but would prefer it stay as is.

[lifesapuntreturn]

As with seemingly everything else, if there's enough money in it, the powers-that-be will find a way to create an expanded playoff field. I would assume that would mean some sort of tv deal that would guarantee enough money to make feasible a 20 or maybe 24 team field and the resulting additional week of playoffs. Until there's enough money in it, I don't think it'll happen for the reasons mentioned in the article.

I don't think it's a priority for the NCAA to expand the FCS playoffs just so a few more coaches each year can claim to be a playoff coach on their resumes, or to prevent a few more coaches from getting fired every year.

[skinny_uncle]

I was on Google News looking for articles to post and I spotted this one from "The Southern," which I would assume is the paper of the Southern Illinois Salukis.

Viverito said the championship cabinet of the NCAA has asked the football committee to study options of expanding the playoffs. The committee is scheduled to meet in January of 2008.

Good Read, I encourage you to check it out!
Link: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/200 ... 982174.txt

Assume no more. http://www.thesouthern.com is the website for a local newspaper called the The Southern Illinoisan. The SIU campus newspaper is called The Daily Egyptian. You may run across that one when Googling Saluki stuff.

As far as expansion, I think 24 is a reasonable number at this point. You could seed the top 8 and give them a bye the first week. The percentage of FCS teams in the postseason is lower than for any other division of college football.

[Saint3333]

The playoffs aren't a revenue generator and IMO the playoffs are in place to decide a national champion. I can't recall a snubbed team that was a national champion contender.

Keep it at 16, this isn't little league (or the bowl system) where teams are rewarded for a .500 season.

Unless the Great West and Big South grow to 6 teams and earn an autobid, and then only move to 20 teams 2 more at-large and 2 more auto-bids.

[ronbo]

When the Great West and Big South are eligible for an auto bid, then and only then will they expand the playoffs. When can the Great West qualify? When all 6 teams are playoff eligible? That would be about what 2013 for ND and SD.

[guinzone]

I was on Google News looking for articles to post and I spotted this one from "The Southern," which I would assume is the paper of the Southern Illinois Salukis.
Good Read, I encourage you to check it out!
Link: http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/200 ... 982174.txt

Assume no more. http://www.thesouthern.com is the website for a local newspaper called the The Southern Illinoisan. The SIU campus newspaper is called The Daily Egyptian. You may run across that one when Googling Saluki stuff.

As far as expansion, I think 24 is a reasonable number at this point. You could seed the top 8 and give them a bye the first week. The percentage of FCS teams in the postseason is lower than for any other division of college football.

That's what I meant lol.. I didn't mean literally the paper of SIU, just a paper covering the town.

[GreenDay17]

I would love to see the playoffs expanded to either 20 or 24 teams. Either expansion would require only one extra week of games.

[skinny_uncle]

Assume no more. http://www.thesouthern.com is the website for a local newspaper called the The Southern Illinoisan. The SIU campus newspaper is called The Daily Egyptian. You may run across that one when Googling Saluki stuff.

As far as expansion, I think 24 is a reasonable number at this point. You could seed the top 8 and give them a bye the first week. The percentage of FCS teams in the postseason is lower than for any other division of college football.

That's what I meant lol.. I didn't mean literally the paper of SIU, just a paper covering the town.

The Southern Illinoisan is not just a town paper. It is a regional rag covering the whole area from about I-64 south to Cairo. Their main office is in Carbondale, though.

[FargoBison]

Here is my expansion plan.....

Turn the playoffs into a 24 team playoff with of course the top 8 getting byes. Push the title game back to sometime after Christmas so an extra round can be added. This would do a couple things it would allow for a bye week to be put in place and it will also move the title game away from the same weekend the lower divisions decid their champ. Of course now the game would compete against bowls but that is when a DI title should be decided. Also the bye week would give fans more time to travel and give players some time to rest.

As for the 7-4 teams more and more FCS teams are playing FBS games so I don't think that record means quite what it used to. If the playoffs go to 24 its what 20-25% of the FCS making the playoffs, I'd hardly call making the playoffs easy. It's not like the FBS were half the subdivision makes it.

[guinzone]

My Plan:

20 Teams
Top 4 get Bye's
Bye after Semifinals
Title weekend after Christmas

The extra four teams, the snubs, will get in and the debate could hopefully end!

[Saint3333]

It doesn't matter if you stop at 16, 20, 24, etc. the 17th, 21st, or 25th team will always be "snubbed" or "woofed" and an article will be written.

[enicmt]

I think a lot of it will come down to the TV deals that they can get. ESPN televises at least the title game so I think they would have to do a lot with it. With that in mind, I dont think they will expand because it is Bowl Week on ESPN & ESPN2 and they wont want to mix that in with our title game.

[GreenDay17]

I posted this on another site on the date shown. It was met with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" logic. Naturally it is not a perfect scenario and not all (or maybe any) will agree with this, but I think it has some merit.

<<<<<<<<<<
01-07-2007, 10:48 PM
I posted this in an earlier thread (similar idea to kardplayer)

12 Autobids:
Atlantic 10 (CAA), Big Sky, Big South, Gateway, Great West, Mid American, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Pioneer, Southern, and Southland

12 At-large (selected by current "at-large process"):


Seed the first 8 teams and those seeds receive a first round bye.

The first, second, third, and fourth (Semifinal) rounds could be played on the same dates that they currently are played (Semifinal would be on the weekend of the current Championship Game) with the games being played at sites as currently determined. The FCS Championship game would then be played on the Sunday night of the opening of the AFCA Convention at a site in/near the convention city. This is typically LA/Anaheim, Dallas/San Antonio, New Orleans, and Orlando.

This 3 week period until the FCS Championship game would allow fans of the two participating teams to better be able to attend. It could also be treated like the NCAA Final Four by providing complementary tickets to at least all the FCS coaches and at most all the DI coaches. The FCS Championship would be in the spotlight the day before the BCS Championship is played.


The 2007 season FCS Championship would look like this:

First Round—November 24 at on-campus sites (BYE for 8 seeded teams)
Second Round—December 1 at on-campus sites
Quarterfinals—December 8 at on-campus sites
Semifinals—December 14 at on-campus sites
Championship Game—January 6 at site in city of 2007 AFCA Convention
>>>>>>>>>>

Fire away!!!

[guinzone]

First Round—November 24 at on-campus sites (BYE for 8 seeded teams)
Second Round—December 1 at on-campus sites
Quarterfinals—December 8 at on-campus sites
Semifinals—December 14 at on-campus sites
Championship Game—January 6 at site in city of 2007 AFCA Convention

You won't find any team that would be a fan of waiting 3 weeks to play for a National Championship and you will not see the I-AA get any coverage whatsoever 2 days before the BIG BCS Title Game. The time the game is played now is met with literally no competition from the other sports.