Piecing together the 12-team playoff

How will the field shake out given the rules governing who's eligible for participation? Let's game out what we know and what we think we know.

In my head, I can already imagine how the 12-team playoff field is going to work out because of all the rules governing who are automatic qualifiers. I’ve make jokes and references all along about how Liberty is nearly assured the #12 seed while the Big 12 Champion is likely to face the winner of the Liberty vs #5 seed opponent as the #4 seed.

I’ve also been critical of ESPN’s FPI rankings for how they don’t seem to be weighing those rules in their projections of who will and who won’t make the playoffs.

How much of the field can we game out though? The answer might be quite a bit more than you’d think…

Photo by Matt Benson on Unsplash