College football: Imagining a 64-team playoff from 2022 season

Forget about expanding the College Football Playoff to just 12 teams! Let’s imagine if the playoff committee made the jump to create a 64-team postseason playoff format for all Division I schools (both FBS and FCS).

It’s March again, which means that it’s time to imagine the 64-team College Football Playoff that you’ve been dying to see.

A 64-team College Football Playoff from 2022 would feature 10 FBS conference champs, 15 FCS conference champs, and 39 at-large bids.

It’s that time of year again when “March Madness” basketball brings us the improbable upsets, the late-game drama, and the firm resolve of the champion. With the tears, the celebrations, and the new names that emerge to the forefront of the U.S. sports consciousness, it’s always fun to imagine the ultimate what-if scenario for college football: the 64-team playoff that encompasses all Division I college football programs.

25 conferences got automatic qualifiers for this spring’s 64-team bracket from the 2022 football season — 10 from the FBS and 15 from the FCS. The remaining 39 teams got at-large bids and were seeded by considering their CFP and AP poll rankings.

So, even with some very deserving FCS teams like Incarnate Word and Sacramento State that failed to win their conferences outright, it’s unlikely that these two squads would be highly rated enough to displace an at-large FBS program. Although some FCS programs have scored impressive wins against FBS teams in recent years, consider the 2022 FCS runner-up North Dakota State: The Bison lost 31-28 to Arizona, a team with five consecutive losing seasons that finished 2022 with a mediocre 5-7 mark (including 3-6 in the Pac-12).

If conferences still had title games with the expanded playoff, this scenario imagines that the title game winner would get that league’s automatic CFP bid. This tournament field was also set after the 2022 Week 15 rankings before the postseason bowl games occurred.

Another great argument for the 64-team playoff is the number of meaningful postseason games. Opening up access to playing for a national championship late in the season would significantly decrease the number of opt-outs and star players resting/preparing for the NFL Draft. College football would benefit overall by getting rid of the inconsequential bowl games.

Here are the same rules for this year’s bracket:

The rules

Each conference champion is granted an automatic bid to this fictitious 64-team Division I playoff.
Four regions will be used.

The first and second rounds take place at the home field of the higher-seeded team, and the Regionals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight) take place at the designated major bowl game site similar to the “New Year’s Six” sites.

The Final Four would rotate in different locations each year.

Teams from the same conference cannot be in the same ‘pod’ of four teams.

The overall Nos. 1 through 4 teams would be seeded (so that the top-ranked and the second-ranked team overall would be on separate sides of the bracket).

2022 FCS Automatic qualifiers:

Jacksonville State (Atlantic Sun)

Montana State (Big Sky)

Gardner-Webb (Big South)

William & Mary (Colonial)

Yale (Ivy)

North Carolina Central (MEAC)

South Dakota State (Missouri Valley)

Saint Francis PA (Northeast)

Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley)

Holy Cross (Patriot)

St. Thomas MN (Pioneer)

Samford (Southern)

Southeastern Louisiana (Southland)

Jackson State (SWAC)

Abilene Christian (WAC)

FBS Automatic Qualifiers: 

Tulane (American)

Clemson (ACC)

Kansas State (Big 12)

Michigan (Big Ten)

UTSA (Conference USA)

Toledo (MAC)

Fresno State (Mountain West)

Utah (Pac-12)

Georgia (SEC)

Troy (Sun Belt)