Alternative Scenarios

Recapping the Main Solution

My main solution is the following:

• Implement the 32-team FBS Playoff field
• Use the New Year's Six Bowl Games as Quarterfinal and Semifinal Games
• Utilize the Top 4 Non-New Year's Six Bowl Games as Consolation Games for 2nd Round Participants
• Add a secondary 32-team playoff, where a total of 22 bowl games will become involved
• Use the 7 remaining Bowl Games as stand-alone games for teams neither selected in the 32-team FBS Playoff nor 32-team College Playoff Crown

However, you may ask what if we want to implement a 32-team field, but for differing solutions? Let's take a look at the different possible solutions other than the main solution that can happen.

Overall Bowl Composition

If we were to move forward with this, here are the following bowl games that would accept eliminated playoff teams:

Overall Breakdown

If the consolation bowl games are administered for all eliminated first round and second round playoff participants, this is what the overall postseason composition would have looked like:

Further Breakdown

Here is a further breakdown if you are curious:

Overall Revenue Model

FBS Conferences, Notre Dame, and FBS Independents will receive the following payouts of the consolation bowl games:

The total revenue for implementing consolation bowl games for first round and second round participants or second round participants only would be the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

If we only go this route, then the totals would look like the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

Overall Consolation Bowl Games

In terms of bowl composition, while the bowl games for second round participants are still going to be the same, the bowl composition for the first round is going to be different. Here is how it would look:

As you can see, only the Texas Bowl, Music City Bowl, Gator Bowl, and Pop-Tarts Bowl would advance to accept first round consolation participants, but only the higher ranked ones. For example, for the first round, if we had chalk (meaning all higher seeds advanced), only the top eight unseeded teams (aka teams ranked 17-24) would be able to get into either the Texas Bowl, Music City Bowl, Gator Bowl, or Pop-Tarts Bowl.

Wildcard Bowl Series

This is where the next part of the first round consolation games are going to come in. The eight lowest ranked teams eliminated in the first round would participate in the Wildcard Bowl Series. The Wildcard Bowl Series is going to be four bowl games where the neutral site is unknown. The four Wildcard Bowl Games are going to be done at pre-determined neutral sites. However, the following sites would not be eligible for any of the four Wildcard Bowl Games:

These sites are ineligible because they are the sites of either the eight mentioned consolation games or the New Year's Six Bowl Games. Otherwise, any site selected is fair game for the four Wildcard Bowl Games.

College Playoff Crown Bowl Rotation

With the Texas Bowl, Pop-Tarts Bowl, Gator Bowl, and Music City Bowl being promoted as permanent consolation games for the higher ranked first round playoff participants, the bowl rotation in the College Playoff Crown would look like the following:

The Pinstripe Bowl and the Sun Bowl are absent from the table because the Sun Bowl would be an annual host of the American College Playoff Championship Game and the Pinstripe Bowl would be an annual host of the National College Playoff Championship Game.

CPC Consolation Lineup

Each consolation bowl game that is part of the College Playoff Crown will still host one participant from the NCP and one participant from the ACP. The following are the bowl games that would take the first round participants of the NCP and ACP:

Overall Breakdown

By implementing four wildcard bowl games for eliminated first round FBS playoff participants as well as 36 out of the 39 currently existing bowl games, that would leave us with about 3 stand-alone bowl games that would take teams that neither made it to the FBS playoffs nor CPC. In total, it would look like the following:

Further Breakdown

Here is a further breakdown if you’re curious:

Overall Revenue Model

For this scenario, while the bowl payouts for first round and second round consolation bowl games would apply, Conferences, Notre Dame, and FBS Independents will get the following payout for each team making the CPC:

The total distribution for the CPC would be the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

If we go this route, then the totals would look like the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

Alternative Solution: Wildcard Bowl Series for All Eliminated First Round Participants

If we want to do the Wildcard Bowl Series for all eliminated first round participants, that would not be a problem at all.

The following sites would not be eligible for any of the eight Wildcard Bowl Games:

These sites are ineligible because they are the sites of either the second round consolation games or the New Year's Six Bowl Games. Otherwise, any site selected is fair game for the eight Wildcard Bowl Games.

In addition, since we would still be adding 8 more postseason games without really increasing the number of teams that participate in the postseason, the postseason breakdown would look like the following:

The revenue model for the main 32-team FBS playoff field plus the top four non-New Year's Consolation Bowl Games and the current College Playoff Crown Bowl Lineups mentioned in the secondary playoff solution would remain the same. However, for the first round Wildcard Consolation games, the payouts would be a bit different. If we go this route, then the payout for each Wildcard Consolation Bowl Game would look like the following:

The totals would look like the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

As you can see, we see that the total payout increased by $60M than the original proposed system. Why is that? Why did the total distribution increase? This is because by making the Wildcard Bowl Games be at any neutral site (except for the mentioned 10 sites), you increase the payout for those bowl games since it can range from any NFL Stadium to a bigger college stadium.

College Playoff Crown Bowl Rotation

In this scenario, the Citrus Bowl, Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, and ReliaQuest Bowl would be relegated as bowl lineups for the College Playoff Crown. The bowl rotation in the College Playoff Crown would look like the following:

The Citrus Bowl and the Alamo Bowl are absent from the table because the Alamo Bowl would be an annual host of the American College Playoff Championship Game and the Citrus Bowl would be an annual host of the National College Playoff Championship Game.

CPC Consolation Lineup

Each consolation bowl game that is part of the College Playoff Crown will still host one participant from the NCP and one participant from the ACP. The following are the bowl games that would take the first round participants of the NCP and ACP:

Overall Breakdown

Without administering the consolation bowl games, by implementing the College Playoff Crown, there would be 28 bowl games that would be involved in the playoff. That would leave us with about 11 stand-alone bowl games that would take teams that neither made it to the FBS Playoffs nor CPC. In total, it would look like the following:

Further Breakdown

Here is a further breakdown if you’re curious:

Revenue Model

The Revenue Model for the revamped College Playoff Crown would look like the following:

The total distribution for the CPC would be the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

The totals would look like the following (excluding non-Notre Dame FBS Independents):

As you can see, we see that the total payout increased by $6M than the original proposed system. The total distribution increase because the quality of the bowl games became better in the College Playoff Crown. However, because we are also dealing with a very low quality of bowl-eligible teams remaining, a tertiary playoff may need to be added.

Additional Optional Solution: Tertiary Playoff

If a number over 80 teams is still too much, we can incorporate the remaining 11 bowl games into a tertiary 16-team playoff for teams that were neither selected in the 32-team FBS Playoff nor the 32-team College Playoff Crown. The seven bowl games would function as the quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship game for the tertiary playoff. The remaining four bowl games would then function as consolation games for the eliminated first round participants of the 16-team tertiary playoff. However, if at least one of the consolation bowl games becomes discontinued, the consolation bowl slot would function as a Wildcard Bowl Game with a pre-determined neutral site.

In total, it would look like the following:

Here is a further breakdown if you’re curious:

Once again, implementing a tertiary playoff is only necessary if there are no consolation bowl games for eliminated first round and second round FBS playoff participants.