The College Football Playoff triples in size this winter, and for the behind-the-scenes professionals in charge of making the games happen, the workload will... what's the word for multiply by nine? Nonuple?
CFP director of operations Danielle Tyler led a presentation on the logistics of the super-sized Playoff at the DFO annual meetings on Thursday, and here's what we learned.
The field: The bracket goes from four to 12. This is obvious. Within that, there are a number of details to be aware of, some of which were new to even me, a complete nerd for this stuff.
For starters, the Selection Committee will continue ranking its top 25 teams, but the field will differ from the rankings. The four highest-rated conference champions are guaranteed the top four seeds. The fifth highest-rated champion is guaranteed a spot in the field, nothing more. The collapse of the Pac-12 has made this wrinkle much less, ahem, wrinkly.
When originally announced, this format was known as a 6+6 model: six conference champs (the Power 5, plus the highest-rated Group of 5) plus the six highest-ranked at-larges. It's now a 5+7. Most likely, this means the Power 4 champs will claim the four first-round byes and the highest-ranked G5 champ will be somewhere between 5 and 12, and more likely closer to 12 than 5.
The schedule: Bahamas Bowl and Las Vegas Bowl weekend is now CFP first-round weekend. Those games will go head-to-head with NFL regular season games. Three quarterfinals on New Year's Day will be friggin' great. The championship game on Jan. 20 will be odd.
And I know I'm in the extreme minority here, but I'm looking forward to weeknight semifinal games.
Also, teams can opt out of hosting first-round games if logistics (i.e., graduation) or the weather makes moving the game to a neutral location more optimal. Chances are, every team that earns the right host a CFP home game will do so. But we'll have to wait and see.
The bracket: Because the CFP was expanded during the original 12-year contract, the original rules still apply. The SEC and Big 12 are still under contract with the Sugar Bowl, the Big Ten with the Rose (RIP Pac-12), and the ACC with the Orange. This means conference contracts trump team proximity.
In practice, this means in 2022 No. 1 overall seed Georgia would go to the Sugar, and not the Peach, due to SEC's contract with the New Orleans-based game. If and when Stanford secures the No. 1 seed in the 2024 tournament, as proud, longstanding ACC members the Cardinal would play in the Peach Bowl, not the Rose.
The 2022 bracket is instructive for a couple different reasons.
First, notice how TCU, who was undefeated until losing in overtime to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship, is seeded above K-State. Winning the Big 12 title guaranteed the Wildcats a spot in the field but, coming in below SEC champ Georgia, B1G champ Michigan, ACC champ Clemson and Pac-12 champ Utah, they are not guaranteed to come in ahead of Big 12 runner-up TCU. Again, this wrinkle became much less interesting with the death of the Pac-12.
Second, once the bracket is set, it's set in stone. This means that if all hell breaks loose in the quarterfinals and No. 5 TCU emerges as the highest-seeded team remaining, the Frogs are still packing their bags for Miami instead of making the drive down Interstate 30 for the Cotton Bowl.
The logistics: Two words -- holy crap.
The bracket is announced Dec. 8, and two days later, representatives from four first-round visiting teams are on the ground conducting site visits at the locations where they'll play a week and a half later. At the same time, the four conference champs with first-round byes will head to Phoenix, Atlanta, Pasadena or Nola to conduct site visits for their quarterfinals.
The format will be a bit like the NCAA Tournament, where hardly anyone knows where they're going until Selection Sunday.
However, that doesn't mean the CFP and its teams will start flat footed. Teams are invited to upload all relevant information a visiting team would like to know, and beginning in November the CFP will make visitors' guides for all teams ranked in the committee's top 15.
Keep in mind when examining the above: finals, graduation, recruiting, and the bulk of the Transfer Portal action will be underway simultaneously with everything you see above. Thankfully, Signing Day has been moved ahead of Selection Sunday.
Travel Days: Here's the schedule each CFP team will be asked to keep in their quest for the Golden Lipstick Tube on Jan. 20.
As you can see, there's not much time for the frivolity of a typical bowl trip. The Lawry's Beef Bowl and Disneyland trip that were once hallmarks of a Rose Bowl invite have been replaced by the pressing need to win that game, then win another just to reach the national championship. Still, teams can only practice and meet for so many hours in a day, so Tyler said the CFP is "trying to bring the city into the (hotel) ballroom." In Houston, organizers had each team fitted for custom cowboy hats and held armadillo races.
Teams will be required to book and pay for 200 hotel rooms for two nights for the first round. The bill goes up from there.
The CFP will foot the bill for transportation once teams are on the ground.
Game day: First-round games will toe the line between a traditional home game and a neutral site game. For instance, the host team can of course incorporate its traditional pageantry of a standard home game, but the visiting team has the option to use the run-out it uses for its own home games.
Additionally, "no commercial advertising or sponsorship recognition" will be played on game days, and video promotions or on-field presentation cannot be linked to a sponsor. For instance, if Home Team X plays a Victoria's Secret Kiss Cam during the first media timeout of the second quarter during each regular-season home game, that has to stop for a home playoff game. The CFP will be bringing in its own sponsorships, branded graphics, et cetera.