SMQ: What would a 12-team College Football Playoff look like in 2021?

Seeding the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket

What a 12-team College Football Playoff will eventually do is put college football more closely on track to capitalize its own version of March Madness. Every spring, even casual sports fans evolve into rabid followers of the NCAA basketball tournaments, filling out brackets and competing for everything from big money to office bragging rights.

So what would that bracket actually look like in 2021 if the 12-team playoff was already in place We already have the three pools organized. Now the task is sorting out matchups.

Looking to avoid rematches of regular-season contests, the College Football Playoff selection committee will focus on pairing teams as they determine the final seedings. Given the teams in the two opening-round pools, here are the likely matchups and how they would be seeded:

• No. 12 BYU at No. 5 Georgia
• No. 11 Oklahoma State at No. 6 Utah
• No. 10 Ole Miss at No. 7 Notre Dame
• No. 9 Ohio State at No. 8 Pittsburgh

Just imagine these four matchups and how they might transpire. We’d likely see all sorts of viewership records broken. Things would get even better in the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals

The opening round then sets up the following quarterfinal contests that would be rotated between the current College Football Playoff-affiliated bowl games. This year the quarterfinal matchups would be played at the Rose, Sugar, Peach, and Fiesta Bowls.

• SUGAR: Pittsburgh/Ohio State vs. No. 1 Alabama
• ROSE: Notre Dame/Ole Miss vs. No. 2 Michigan
• PEACH: Utah/Oklahoma State vs. No. 3 Cincinnati
• FIESTA: Georgia/BYU vs. No. 4 Baylor

While the top seeds don’t get the chance to play at home in the playoff, they would get the chance to select bowl sites in order of their seeding. Alabama would likely head to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl where SEC champions have traditionally played in the postseason. Likewise, Michigan would choose their first Rose Bowl trip since New Year’s Day 2007. Cincinnati might opt for either the Peach or the Fiesta, depending on where fans would travel best.

Semifinals

This year’s semifinals would take place at the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl. In Miami, the winner of the Sugar Bowl would square off against the winner of the Fiesta Bowl. Out in Dallas, the victors in the Rose Bowl would get the Peach Bowl winner.

If this went by chalk, we’d see Alabama and Baylor matched up in the Orange Bowl. Perhaps Georgia advances to set up a rematch of the SEC championship game. Maybe we get complete chaos and BYU takes on Pitt. The other game could feature Michigan against Cincinnati, or Notre Dame against Utah, or Ole Miss, and Oklahoma State.

Any way you slice it, great matchups abound throughout each round before we get to the national championship game.