College Football Playoff: What if a 16-team playoff was launched in 1936?

Which conferences would get automatic passage into a playoff in 1936?

Back in 1936, there was no subdivision separating what we now know as the FBS and the FCS. The concept of splitting Division I between I-A and I-AA teams didn’t come into play until the late 1970s. Back in the interwar period of the 1930s, there was a hodgepodge of conferences as teams of varying quality formed bonds with regional and competitive peers.

The forerunner of the Big 12 was still the Big 6. The Big Ten had 10 teams, but one of them was still the University of Chicago in the days before Michigan State became part of the loop. The Southwest Conference featured seven teams, while the Pacific Coast Conference included Montana and Idaho among its 10 members.

Meanwhile, the Southeast Conference was only five years old and featured 13 teams including Tulane and Sewanee. And the ACC was more than a decade and a half away from coming into existence. Instead, the Southern Conference filled the void for a hodgepodge of teams from Duke and North Carolina to The Citadel and VMI.

In total, there were over three dozen conferences in what then constituted Division I football. Even in a full March Madness-style 64- or 68-team playoff, more than half of the slots would be occupied by automatic qualifiers. At a time when states like North Dakota and Nebraska had multiple conferences for schools just within their own borders, that would have been overkill.

So who would get the nod in a 16-team playoff?

In a 16-team playoff scenario back in 1936, there was still a definite delineation between large and small schools. The Big 6, the Big Ten, the PCC, the SWC, the SEC, and the Southern Conference would all get automatic qualifiers into the field. The Missouri Valley Conference and New England Conference would also make strong arguments for another of the 10 remaining spots.

Out west, there were several conferences that could make similar claims. The Border Conference featured Arizona along with the two state teachers’ colleges in Tempe and Flagstaff that evolved into Arizona State and Northern Arizona. Also in the Border Conference were both New Mexico schools, Texas Tech, and Texas Mines (now UTEP).

The Far Western Conference included Fresno State and Nevada as well as FCS UC-Davis and now-defunct Chico State and Pacific programs. At the time, the Pacific Tigers were a legitimate draw under coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Then there was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The league was anchored in the state of Colorado, with the Buffaloes and Rams joined by smaller schools Denver, Colorado College, the Colorado School of Mines, Western States Colorado in Gunnison, and Northern Colorado. Also in the Rocky Mountain were BYU, Utah, and Utah State. Wyoming and Montana State rounded out the field.

That also does not account for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The SWAC and SIAC were both among the Division I pool of teams at the time. Would the playoff factor in a chance for HBCU powerhouses of the period like Tuskegee or Langston?