With one year of the new expanded college football playoff in the books, we have reached the stage where conversation has moved on to how to change the field next, with “5+11” in discussions. The only sure thing about any potential expansion is that it will immediately be met with new calls to fix whatever problems everyone has with the new one. So, what is a 5+11 Playoff, what does it mean for college football, and what does EA need to do to adjust to the reality of college football’s ever-changing landscape in College Football 26?
How Do The College Football Playoffs Work?
Last season marked the debut of a new format that expanded from a four-team field to twelve, with the power five conference champions guaranteed berths and seven at-large bids. An opening round sees teams 5 through 12 face off, while the top four power conference champions receive the top four seeds and corresponding byes. The bracket uses a straight-seeding approach, meaning there’s no reorganization after the initial bracket is set, even if that means, for example, the 1-seed’s first game is against the 8-seed, while the 2-seed gets to take on an 11-seed that upset their higher-ranked opponent in the opening round.
What Is 5+11?
As the name implies, the 5+11 method is an expansion from the current 5+7 approach. The rules have already changed this year to not guarantee all four byes go to conference champions, and an expansion would see the byes disappear altogether in exchange for four more teams making the cut to round out the opening round to a full 16 teams. Such an expansion would likely come with a removal of protections to power five champions beyond a guaranteed place in the field.
How Have Video Games Implemented Rules Committees Before?
The most notable example to turn to is the NBA 2K series, which has a rules committee implemented in career mode. With this in play at the end of each season, you get the opportunity to cast your team’s vote on a series of potential rule changes. While some of these can be small, as the Secret Base series above shows, drastic alterations to both overall league structure and in-game rules are possible. 2K puts everything from abolishing the salary cap to making goaltending entirely legal on the table, showing that developers can take some pretty big swings if they want to with a rules committee.
Why College Football 26 Needs A Rules Committee
While annual sports series are often criticized for a lack of progress from year to year, adding a rules committee is a no-brainer feature to put in future games. Doing so comes with a variety of benefits to players:
- Dynamic Career Modes: Implementing a rules committee allows your career modes to feel different from run to run. Whether comparing multiple plays on your own or with the experience of a friend, customizing rules from year to year through votes or a committee ensures that the demands when building a winning program change, too, helping to keep each new season and career fresh. With repetitiveness often the biggest criticism of sports gaming, this can be a game-changer.
- Experience Customization: Voting on changing rules not only makes each play a little different, it can also help you shape your playing experience to your own preferences and desires. By casting your vote, or forcing a verdict if you prefer a more strong-handed approach, you can determine what seems most fun to play and guide your career mode in that direction, whether that means playing to your strengths or trying to up your challenge. Video games are meant to be enjoyed, and customization can help raise enjoyment for players in a way that hard-coded changes simply can’t.
- Room For Exploration: While the changing playoff rules are the most obvious implementation in College Football due to constant debates every year, it’s far from the only interesting way to explore new challenges with a rules committee. The 2K games allow for serious changes like shot clock alteration and implementing the wonderful Elam Ending, so what could they do with football? Keeping it more grounded, changes to NIL or recruiting regulations could significantly change your challenge from season to season and accurately reflect the volatile changes the sport has seen in its move closer toward athlete pay equity.
A rules committee would bring a fun dynamic to the next edition’s career mode. What changes do you think should be on the table for the committee to propose to make the game more realistic, challenging, and fun?
