Sunday was college basketball's Selection Sunday, when 68 teams were seeded in America's greatest sporting tournament.
College football's Division I tournaments are a meager four (the College Football Playoff) and 24 (the FCS playoffs), and while that's more than plenty as far as player health is concerned, it does make one wonder how a March Madness-sized tournament would look for all of DI football.
Below, our annual fun-time exercise in seeding this tournament, from Alabama as the overall No. 1 seed through the Colgate-Dayton play-in game, with bowl games and sites of conference championships as our locales. The same big rule applies: all conference champions are in, and then we figure out the rest.
Below, bold = conference champion autobid, and number in parentheses = Massey Composite ranking (for FBS) or Sagarin ranking (for FCS).
I used those rankings for seeding (which means we're pretending this actually happens in March, rather than in December), then followed the S-curve. After that, I moved stuff around to give higher seeds the best available geography, avoid giving lower seeds geographically friendlier early games, and try to avoid early rematches. Also, some FCS conferences don't accept playoff bids, so, uh, they're free to turn down this if they want, too.
| MIDWEST Indianapolis, Ind. | SOUTHWEST Dallas, Texas |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Memphis, Tenn. | New Orleans, La. | ||
| 1 | Clemson (2) | 1 | Ohio State (3) |
| 16 | Penn (145) | 16 | Alcorn State/Duquesne (171/181) |
| 8 | USC (29) | 8 | Cal (31) |
| 9 | Texas A&M (33) | 9 | North Dakota State (36) |
| Annapolis, Md. | San Antonio, Texas | ||
| 5 | North Carolina (18) | 5 | Arkansas (20) |
| 12 | Boise State (47) | 12 | Miami (46) |
| 4 | Iowa (14) | 4 | Baylor (13) |
| 13 | Georgia Southern/Illinois State (52/76) | 13 | South Florida (51) |
| Bronx, N.Y | Houston, Texas | ||
| 6 | Wisconsin (21) | 6 | Navy (22) |
| 11 | San Diego State (43) | 11 | Louisville (42) |
| 3 | Michigan (9) | 3 | LSU (10) |
| 14 | Chattanooga (96) | 14 | Richmond (102) |
| Detroit, Mich. | Fort Worth, Texas | ||
| 7 | Florida (26) | 7 | Western Kentucky (27) |
| 10 | BYU (39) | 10 | Auburn (38) |
| 2 | Michigan State (7) | 2 | Ole Miss (6) |
| 15 | Sam Houston State (105) | 15 | Charleston Southern (121) |
| WEST Pasadena, Calif. | SOUTH Atlanta, Ga. |
||
| Glendale, Ariz. | Nashville, Tenn. | ||
| 1 | Oklahoma (4) | 1 | Alabama (1) |
| 16 | North Carolina A&T (147) | 16 | Colgate/Dayton (169/207) |
| 8 | Northwestern (30) | 8 | West Virginia (32) |
| 9 | Washington State (34) | 9 | Washington (35) |
| Honolulu, Hawaii | Miami, Fla. | ||
| 5 | Utah (19) | 5 | Mississippi State (17) |
| 12 | Pitt (44) | 12 | Appalachian State (45) |
| 4 | Florida State (16) | 4 | Tennessee (15) |
| 13 | Western Michigan/Arkansas State (54/66) | 13 | Texas Tech (48) |
| San Diego, Calif. | Charlotte, N.C. | ||
| 6 | Oregon (23) | 6 | Oklahoma State (24) |
| 11 | Bowling Green (40) | 11 | Temple (41) |
| 3 | Houston (12) | 3 | Notre Dame (11) |
| 14 | Southern Utah (101) | 14 | Jacksonville State (79) |
| Santa Clara, Calif. | Orlando, Fla. | ||
| 7 | Georgia (25) | 7 | Toledo (28) |
| 10 | Memphis (37) | 10 | UCLA (36) |
| 2 | Stanford (5) | 2 | TCU (8) |
| 15 | Portland State (108) | 15 | McNeese State (112) |
| FIRST FOUR Shreveport, La. | |||
| Winner to Nashville, Tenn. | Winner to Honolulu, Hawaii | ||
| 16 | Colgate | 13 | Western Michigan |
| 16 | Dayton | 13 | Arkansas State |
| Winner to New Orleans, La. | Winner to Annapolis, Md. | ||
| 16 | Alcorn State | 13 | Georgia Southern |
| 16 | Duquesne | 13 | Illinois State |
Now who ya got?
I got Bama, I guess. And I'm sorry, Cal.