College Football

CFP's missed opportunity: What a 12-team playoff would have looked like this season

Updated Dec. 5, 2023 11:44 a.m. ET

It didn’t have to be this way. It didn’t have to be like this.

There didn’t have to be pain in Tallahassee.

There didn't have to be unease in Ann Arbor at earning the No. 1 overall seed, only to be matched up against the program that has won the tournament more than any other.

The College Football Playoff is set in stone for this remarkable season, but the chaos it created on Selection Sunday only underscores the simple fact that it could have been so much better and so much more fun, had the debate surrounded a 12-team version that would have started with a round of games on campuses in just a few weeks.

"It’s been a long couple of days," Selection Committee chairman and N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan said, visibly and verbally accentuating that sentiment. "It’s somewhat of a unique year in the last year of the four as we go through this."

Whether you agree with Corrigan on the uniqueness of the situation, it's hard not to look at things without feeling bad for Florida State, an undefeated conference champion whose only sin was to lose a quarterback to injury at precisely the wrong time.

Next season, with the 12-team playoff, this wouldn't have been an issue. The committee may have been criticized for decisions on seeding, but not for rank injustice.

Look at what we could have had:

FIRST ROUND

No. 12 Liberty at No. 5 Florida State

No. 9 Missouri at No. 8 Oregon

No. 11 Ole Miss at No. 6 Georgia

No. 10 Penn State at No. 7 Ohio State

QUARTERFINALS

Liberty-Florida State winner at No. 4 Alabama

Missouri-Oregon winner at No. 1 Michigan

Ole Miss-Georgia winner at No. 3 Texas

Penn State-Ohio State winner at No. 2 Washington

If the chalk held, we would have had the same semifinals we have now — Alabama vs. Michigan, Texas vs. Washington — yet with some enticing matchups leading up to them. On top of that? No deserving teams would be left out of the mix.

"It’s unfathomable that Florida State, an undefeated Power 5 conference champion, was left out of the College Football Playoff," said ACC commissioner Jim Phillips in a statement. "Their exclusion calls into question the selection process and whether the committee’s own guidelines were followed, including the significant importance of being an undefeated Power 5 conference champion. My heart breaks for the talented FSU student-athletes and coaches and their passionate and loyal fans. Florida State deserved better. College football deserved better."

College football did indeed deserve better. It deserved a 12-team playoff this season.

It deserved to see Doak Campbell rocking, 79,000 strong chanting in unison as the Seminoles welcomed in Liberty for a matchup of unbeatens in the first round.

It deserved to have Washington resting up for a round while dreaming of going to the far more geographically appropriate Rose Bowl — as opposed to the Sugar Bowl — for a quarterfinal, harkening back to New Year's Day of 1992, when Don James capped off a national title run on Montlake. A future Big Ten opponent — Penn State or Ohio State — would appropriately be on the other end. (And can you imagine what the Horseshoe would have felt like come high noon on a cloudy mid-December day as Penn State shows up again hoping to finally spring the long-sought upset?)

Breaking down Michigan vs. Alabama, Washington vs. Texas

It deserved the excitement that would come from Ole Miss going between the Hedges for a rematch with a Georgia side furious at the way things transpired down the road in Atlanta, costing them a rather elusive SEC title.

For that matter, what do you think Puddles the Duck would have in store for a Playoff opener at Autzen as Oregon hosted Missouri out of the SEC?

The mind wonders … before that creeping sense of anger arrives that we’ve been denied it all.

Perhaps even the 12-teamer, much as we would have feasted on it this month and next, is even setting the bar too low. The FCS ranks, after all, have a 24-team tournament that takes place with a modicum of the tumult and angst that its FBS younger brother is bound to inspire. There may be smaller programs involved in the path toward hoisting up the NCAA title but at least they settle things on the field.

The New Year’s Six bowls and the Playoff itself should still be great fun. There are some compelling matchups and endless storylines to explore in the weeks leading up to kickoff.

But one glance at that slate of games and the teams involved only highlight how unbelievable it would be if those dozen programs were instead squaring off together to chase the national title.

This season certainly was worthy and deserving of such a setup. The way it should have been would have been the truly fitting and fun way to kick off a new era in college football.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.