NCAA Basketball: Potential impact of collge football expanding the playoffs
What BYU could do as a current independent
The Cougars are also an independent as a football program, been one since 2011 when they decided to leave the Mountain West after years of reported tension between the sides. They’ve been solid since then, averaging around eight wins a year. But they never threatened to be part of at least a New Year’s Six Bowl until this past season, where they started off the season 9-0 and being ranked as high as No. 12.
Last year gave BYU fans optimism that their team could possibly one day be part of the college football playoffs. But which is the best pathway to do so? They don’t have the cache that Notre Dame has to have a realistic at-large case unless they go unbeaten and beat multiple top-25 teams on the schedule to get there.
However, the new point of the best G-5 conference champion getting an automatic spot could make things easier for BYU Football. The two programs that would’ve benefitted the most from this in years past (Boise State and UCF) were both defeated by the Cougars.
In order to get that G-5 spot though, BYU would have to move to a new conference and the two in play would be the AAC or coming back home to the Mountain West. The relationship between them seems to have improved since the Cougars schedule their programs multiple times each year and they’d be right up there with Boise State in terms of yearly contention.
As for the AAC, it would be a bit of a geographical stretch but the conference has been trying to be part of the “G-6” and adding a big name like BYU would help with that reputation. It would be a bit more difficult for the Cougars with UCF and Cincinnati in the mix but the winner of that league would have a great shot of getting an autobid.
If the Cougars do decide to move on, it’ll be interesting to see if it impacts the Gonzaga Bulldogs in any way. Gonzaga has been a 1 seed several times recently and has won nine of 10 against BYU. But they’ve been the toughest level of competition for the No. 1 team in the country so if they move to say, the Mountain West, could the Bulldogs follow suit to still have a tough league schedule to get ready for the NCAA Tournament?
They likely won’t move to the AAC but the Bulldogs have been linked to the Mountain West in recent years. Gonzaga was considering the Big East a decade ago after the last realignment so do not be shocked if this news somehow affects them again.