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Who Would get in if College Basketball used the College Football Playoff Format?

By James Fitzgerald

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College Basketball is almost perfect the way that it is. No one really has any complaints about how the NCAA College Basketball Champion is crowned in April.

Hoop fans are satisfied with March Madness and the format that it currently has, give or take a few play-in games that we could do without.

College Football is just now catching up with the rest of the world with setting up a tournament to crown a true champion on the field. To bad the College Football Playoff jumps straight to a Final Four without actually having a true tournament feel.

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Someday they will expand the field to eight teams and things will be a bit better on the gridiron.

But with the College Football Playoff set to kickoff New Year’s Eve, it kind of got the hoop junkie in me to thinking, “What if College Basketball used the College Football playoff format?”.

Which four teams would be in right now? What teams would end up being in the dreaded No.5 and No.6 in the playoff rankings? Would it even be worth basketball to regress to a format that is obviously is still flawed.

Luckily for basketball fans, there are enough one-loss teams left in college basketball to really make this an  interesting argument.

Here are the four teams and two games that would take place if basketball was silly enough to go to the College Football Playoff format.

No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners (11-0) vs No.4 Virginia Cavaliers (11-1)

The Oklahoma Sooners are the Clemson Tigers of this fantasy. Lon Kruger’s bunch is 11-0 to this point of the season and boast the best player in the nation with 6-foot-4 shooting guard Buddy Hield who is averaging 24.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. His 51.5% from the field and 52.9% from three-point range is flat out ridiculous.

(Photo: Joseph Maiorana, USA TODAY Sports)

Hield would go into this game as the “National Player of the Year” and the Virginia Cavaliers would have the honor of trying to defend Hield and the high scoring Sooners with their “Pack-Line Defense”.

There would be some great matchup’s on the floor as well. Buddy Hield vs Virginia guard Malcolm Brogdon would be worth watching for sure.

Brogdon is putting together a pretty nice season as well averaging 16.5 points on 44.9% shooting from the floor and stroking the trey at a 41.8% clip.

The interior matchup would not be that bad either between Virginia’s Anthony Gill and Oklahoma’s Ryan Spangler.

They both tend to play bigger than their 6-foot-8 frames and hit for a high percentage for their team.

Virginia is scoring the ball better this season averaging 76.0 points per game, which is not in the ballpark with the 87.1 points per contest that the Sooners will be bringing to the court, but that is where the contrast in styles would make this game interesting.

We would find out if Virginia’s team defense would be enough to take out one of the highest scoring teams in the nation and could shut down the country’s best player Buddy Hield.

You know you would watch!

No.2 Maryland Terrapins (12-1) vs No.3 Michigan State Spartans (13-1)

This would be horrible to some because this would mean that the Big Ten would have two teams in the playoff and it would not matter which one of the two won the Big Ten crown. But what is the College Football Playoff format without a little controversy.

Maryland is 12-1 with their one loss coming against a North Carolina Tar Heels team that would more than likely be on the outside looking in at 12-2.

Michigan State and their late loss in the season on the road against a strong Iowa Hawkeyes team would not hurt their chances of getting in the tournament since they held the No.1 spot in the rankings for at least 3 to 4 weeks.

1 Michigan State will reach the Final Four. Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY

The Big Ten is looking like the SEC of college basketball and would get all the bias and respect that would come with being the power conference in America.

Plus this would just be a physical encounter. Diamond Stone and Robert Carter Jr. for Maryland banging up against Michigan State’s Matt Costello.

Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine and Maryland’s Melo Trimble could use this game to show that they were completely snubbed for “Player of the Year” as they lead their teams on the big stage.

These two teams should truly hate each other by this point since this could be the third or possibly fourth meeting between the two squads.

This should be the primetime game.

Teams on the outside looking in:

(5) Xavier Musketeers 12-0 – The college football playoff format would not feel right without an undefeated 12-0 Xavier Musketeers team being disrespected and not getting into the tournament.

But you know how it goes, Xavier is coming out of what some would consider an inferior conference because this is not our father’s Big East.

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They would simply get snubbed despite having a top RPI ranking, and then try not to have a let down in there New Year’s Day mathchup against another disgruntled squad.

(6) Kansas Jayhawks 11-1 – At least Kansas can take consolation in the fact that they lost to one of the participants in the playoffs.

Kansas fans might feel that they got snubbed in this situation but losing to Michigan State and having an undefeated Oklahoma Sooners squad in their conference is going to be enough to keep them out.

It is a shame too. Wayne Selden is having a great year, but he would not get the opportunity to play for a title.

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Now you can see why the NCAA Tournament will always be better than the College Football Playoff, and the College Football Playoff obviously needs to expand their format.

Basketball is the best! But guess what, Oklahoma and Michigan State would still make the playoffs regardless of the sport. Imagine that!

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