Mike Leach is right. We need to go to a 16 or 24 team playoff. FCS can do it. Why can’t FBS?
This is the way a 16 team playoff could work.
https://slapthesign.com/2018/12/04/college-football-playoff-16-team-playoff-look-like-2018/
The ten conference champions get automatic bids to the playoff, just like March Madness. The remaining six at-large berths go to the top six teams that didn’t win a conference title according to the College Football Playoff rankings.
You then seed all 16 teams according to how they are ranked in the playoff rankings. For those teams not ranked, you’d have the committee seed them. For the purposes of this exercise, I am the committee.
As far as where to play the games, you would award the top four universities. Each school would host a regional bracket, meaning the rounds of 16 and 8 would be played on the campuses of the top four teams.
The semifinals would rotate amongst the New Year’s Six bowl sites, just as the do now. Same with the national title game — played at a neutral site at basically any stadium in the country.
Even at 16, it would still be the smallest playoff bracket at any level of college football.
This is what the bracket would look like in 2018.
Alabama regional
No. 1 Alabama (SEC Champion) vs. No. 16 Northern Illinois (MAC Champion)
No. 8 Central Florida (AAC Champion) vs. No. 9 Washington (Pac-12 Champion)
Oklahoma Regional
No. 4 Oklahoma (Big 12 Champion) vs. No. 13 Fresno State (Mountain West Champion)
No. 5 Georgia (At-large) vs. No. 12 Penn State (At-large)
Notre Dame Regional
No. 3 Notre Dame (At-large) vs. No. 14 Appalachian State (Sun Belt Champion)
No. 6 Ohio State (B1G Champion) vs. No. 11 LSU (At-large)
Clemson Regional
No. 2 Clemson (ACC Champion) vs. No. 15 UAB (Conference USA Champion)
No. 7 Michigan (At-Large) vs. No. 10 Florida (At-large)