Was the first 12-team playoff a success?

With the first 12-team College Football Playoff ready to come to an end, it’s time to see if the first edition of the expanded playoff was a success or not.

Darian Capobianco

There is certainly room for improvement, but overall, the first 12-team format of the college football playoffs should be considered a success.

It allowed for a wider variety of teams to get a postseason appearance under their belt, which made for some atypical matchups. Different teams like SMU, Boise State and Arizona State got national recognition when they likely wouldn’t have in years past.

However, the one area of improvement should be the seeding, as each team that received a bye week lost their first game.

On the bright side of seeding, though, borderline top-four teams were finally able to get their time to shine. Fans of these teams no longer had that lingering question of “what if” my team was in the playoffs.

Holding the first round of the playoffs on campuses was also a hit despite some of the lopsided scores of the games. Bringing the college football home-game atmosphere to the playoffs was surreal.

Brooke Casey

As college football comes to a close, it can be said that the first 12-team format of the college football playoffs can be a success, with some improvements and adjustments.

Coming into this season, the 12-team CFP was received with harsh criticism and yet its new expanded format provided an exceptionally entertaining series of college football. We got two exciting semifinal games, and now two teams — Notre Dame and Ohio State — will decide a national champion.

These two teams likely would not have been selected for the playoff in the old system, further proving this expansion provides a better equal opportunity for the best team in college football to win the national championship.

Having the opportunity for first-round games to be held on campus for many teams and their respective schools was a rewarding and thrilling experience that brought some new life to college football fans across the country.

One major area for improvement, however, comes in the CFP seeding, as a result of each team that was awarded a bye week preceding to lose their first game. While the seeding did provide teams who just missed top four rankings with the chance to prove themselves, a better system in the future could provide the CFP with thrilling and deserving matchups across all rounds.

This year's college football playoff showed that a 12-team format is something that fits well, and with some ironing out, could truly provide a bright future for college football.

Evan Pochas

For me, I would definitely say that the first 12-team College Football Playoff was a success. In saying that though, it is not a perfect system and will need further tweaking in the future.

In my opinion, this playoff has produced a worthy championship game. Ohio State is the best team in the country and in the old four-team system, would not have been awarded a shot based on its final CFP ranking.

On the other side of the bracket is Notre Dame, who had to grind its way through Indiana, Georgia, and Penn State to get the right to face Ohio State. The Fighting Irish have rightfully fought their way to the championship game.

With all of that being said, there are some problems with the way the bracket is set up.

The five auto-bids are fine. However, I do not believe that these should determine the four teams that get the bye weeks in the first round. All teams should be ranked accordingly from one through 12 and the top 4 are the teams that get the byes.

Re-seeding should also take place after each round. In no way should the previously undefeated and Big Ten champion Oregon Ducks get rewarded with playing the Ohio State Buckeyes. We all saw how that game went.

I believe it should be like the NFL where the lowest remaining seed ends up playing the highest seed and so on. If it is done that way, it will make having the No. 1 seed an advantage, unlike this year where it was going to be a tough matchup.

Overall with this new system, I’m happy that these teams get to battle it out on the field, instead of having to settle with the hypothetical arguments that so many fans get into online, or analysts on ESPN.

Andrew Deal

Similar to the other three opinions, I do believe the first season with the 12-team playoff was a big success.

The 12-team playoff gave fans a really good semifinal. It was four blue bloods or top-of-the-line programs in the entire country, and it would not have become this final four had it been a four-team playoff.

Ohio State and Notre Dame are playing in the National Championship, and they wouldn’t have even been in the four-team playoff. The 12-team playoff was put in place to take away some of the hypotheticals, despite the SEC fans continuing to hypothetically believe that it would be an Alabama and Ole Miss National Championship.

There are definitely problems with the 12-team playoff. The five auto-bids should stay. It allows for the conference championship games to still have meaning. For example, Arizona State would not have been in the playoff without the auto bid and without fully playing and competing in the Big 12 Championship Game. With that, it gave one of, if not the best game of the playoff between the Sun Devils and Texas.

However, the conference champions should not decide the top-four seeds. Oregon should have been rewarded for not only going undefeated but winning the Big Ten, as well. However, it completely screwed over the Ducks by giving them Ohio State in the quarterfinal matchup.

In my opinion, the playoff was a success, but the auto bids should just be seeded as they are in the rankings rather than the top four getting the bye.

Darian Capobianco is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email dpc5734@psu.edu.

Brooke Casey is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email bec5457@psu.edu

Evan Pochas is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ejp5753@psu.edu.

Andrew Deal is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email asd5765@psu.edu