Josh Pate's Ideal College Football Playoff Format: 14 Teams with AQ

The Case Against a Large Playoff Field

• 🏈 Josh Pate personally prefers a system with no playoff, focusing on the regular season and bowl games, or even the old BCS model.
• ⚠️ He argues that expanding to 14 or 16 teams without structure erodes the urgency of regular season games and saturates their value.
• 📉 A large field, like the proposed top 14 or 16 teams, would likely lead to four-loss teams potentially making the playoff, diminishing competitive integrity.

The Preferred 14-Team Playoff Model

• 🎯 Pate advocates for a 14-team playoff model with Automatic Qualifiers (AQs), which he believes maximizes urgency in conference games.
• 🔑 The proposed structure is the 4-4-2-2-1-1 model: SEC gets 4, Big Ten gets 4, ACC gets 2, Big 12 gets 2, G5 gets 1, and one at-large spot (often for Notre Dame).
• 🚫 He dislikes numerous at-large spots, preferring a format where teams play their way into the playoff through conference championships.

Reimagining Championship Weekend

• 🗓️ The first Saturday in December would be crucial, featuring conference championship games for the SEC and Big Ten.
• 🏠 In the SEC and Big Ten, the top two teams would automatically qualify, with their championship game determining seeding and potential first-round byes.
• ⚔️ Playoff games (e.g., 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5) should be played on campus sites, adding significant stakes to regular season performance.

Conference Championship Game Dilemma

• ⚖️ For the ACC and Big 12, this model might mean doing away with their conference championship games in favor of play-in games to determine their two playoff spots.
• 🤷 Pate acknowledges this is a trade-off but believes it's necessary to preserve regular season meaning.
• 🚫 He notes that the ACC and Big 12 championship games historically haven't carried the same weight as those in the SEC and Big Ten.

Minimizing Committee Influence

• 🧑‍⚖️ The proposed format minimizes the role of the selection committee, reducing their involvement to determining the G5 spot and seeding after conference championship weekend.
• 🏆 Winning the conference is emphasized, with the potential for top seeds (even non-SEC/Big Ten) to earn first-round byes and home-field advantage in subsequent rounds.
• 📈 This system aims to shift focus from committee rankings to league standings and on-field performance throughout the regular season.