12-Team Playoff will Add New Dimension, Venue Selection: Just a Minute

Deciding between playing on a more favorable surface might come at the cost of keeping fans happy with new format.

The 12-team College Football Playoff will soon be a reality and with it will be a new dynamic that few people have talked about, venue selection. 

The format will be as follows: 

• The six highest-ranked conference champions, as determined by the CFP committee, will receive automatic bids.
• The next six highest-ranked teams will get at-large spots.
• The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive byes into the quarterfinals.
• First-round games will be played at the home stadium of the team with the better seed, while quarterfinals and semifinals games will be played in a rotation of the six bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach)

The first-round games will all end by Dec. 21. For the quarterfinals, the teams will decided where they play based on seeding. 

Specifically, the New Year's Day six will rotate the quarterfinals and semifinal games on an annual basis. The guess here is that the emphasis will be on geography. 

So when the time comes, the top team remaining will choose where it wants to play, then the next team, and so on until the fourth team gets whatever's last. The same thing will happen with the semifinals, with the top team picking the location it prefers. 

Four of those sites play on artificial turf. Two have grass fields. 

It should lead to some interesting internal discussions when weighing all the factors, including what will keep fans happy.

How many can afford to potentially visit two bowl sites and a neutral site that could be anywhere to see a championship run? 

We'll use this year's rankings heading in to the conference championships to demonstrate, and for the sake of argument, we're going to separate the two western sites, Rose and Fiesta, along with the Cotton and Sugar bowls since they're the closest in terms of distance.

Alabama is the sixth seed and for simplification purposes all the top-seeded teams win. The quarterfinals would be Georgia vs. Clemson, Michigan vs. Tennessee, TCU vs. Alabama, and Ohio State vs. USC.

The quarterfinal sites are the Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and Peach bowls. 

Georgia would probably want to play in its back yard, but it's a short trip for Clemson as well. Would it be tempting to chose Miami over Atlanta? The guess here the Peach Bowl.

Next up, Michigan. None of the remaining locations are close (which may turn out to be a significant disadvantage for the Big Ten), and one would think the Wolverines would want to try and slow the Volunteers down. So grass it is and the Orange Bowl. 

TCU could go Sugar or Fiesta, but since Alabama is the opponent it'll make Crimson Tide fans travel out to Arizona. 

That would leave USC vs. Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, probably the best location for fans, and maybe the worst for players. 

In this scenario, the Rose and Cotton bowls would be the semifinal sites. If Georgia gets the pick, would you want to stay in SEC territory or go for the safer surface. 

If I'm a coach, and I'm given the choice, my team's playing on grass regardless of the distance. A lot of other factors will be coming into play, though. 

See Also:

A 12-Team Playoff Comes With One Big Concern For Nick Saban: All Things CW

Breaking: College Football Playoff to Expand to 12 Teams Beginning in 2024

Don't Expect the Same Alabama Team When it Next Plays: All Things CW

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