March Madness 2020: Predicting a 64-team College Football Playoff

Elite Eight

South Region

• No. 1 LSU 44, No. 3 Utah 31

West Region

• No. 2 Oregon 38, No. 4 Alabama 37

Midwest Region

• No. 1 Ohio State 26, No. 2 Baylor 17

East Region

• No. 1 Clemson 37, No. 3 Penn State 21

Final Four

• No. 1 LSU 45, No. 2 Oregon 27
• No. 1 Clemson 29, No. 1 Ohio State 23

National Championship Game

• No. 1 LSU 42, No. 1 Clemson 25

So, in this imagined rendition of 2019’s 64-team playoff, the final result isn’t any different. Throughout the season, it was abundantly clear that Ohio State, Clemson and LSU were the top three teams in college football.

Cinderella stories happen more frequently in a sport like basketball than in football, but that doesn’t mean it would be impossible to see a team make a run of upsets in the postseason. The fun of a 64-team playoff format would be that it gives teams that chance. It would give upstart teams like No. 5 seed Memphis and No. 11 Hawaii from non-Power 5 conferences to prove their mettle against the big boys. It also gives the FCS level schools a shot (though it’d be fulfilling enough to merely witness a first-round upset).

Lastly, a 64-team playoff moves the postseason inclusion debate to many more teams and makes the best team prove it on the field against all comers, not just a few creampuffs and then the best teams in its conference before the CFP. In 2019, the pundits would be debating the merits of including Temple, Wyoming and Pitt instead of another decent Mountain West team or a mediocre SEC squad.

In short, LSU would have had to plow through four more rounds of postseason opponents on its way to a 2019 national title.