Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh has a fix for College Football Playoff: 11 teams

Kirkland Crawford | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh marvels at defense after win Michigan Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh speaks to the media after the 38-7 win over Maryland on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019.

The season's first look at the College Football Playoff standings were made public Tuesday night.

People will debate which teams should be in the top four, but they'll also argue whether the four-team playoff is a fair way to determine a national champion.

And that argument won't go away anytime soon.

ESPN reporter Heather Dinich surveyed 62 of the people most directly affected by the College Football Playoff for their thoughts: Football Bowl Subdivision coaches in the Power 5 conferences.

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Of that group, 30 coaches are in favor of expanding the field. That group includes Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

Ah, but Harbaugh had plenty to add on the subject. In the past, he has said expanding the field to 16 teams "would be ideal," especially because the Big Ten champion has been left out of the CFP for the past three seasons.

Dinich shared Harbaugh's plan with the world.

"I came up with my own structure," he said this past spring. "I can take a picture of it and send it to you."

The plan: 11 teams and 10 games spanning from the first week of December to the first week of January.

The plan includes getting rid of league championship games; Power 5 conferences would determine their champions with a 12-game schedule.

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So Harbaugh says you take those five champions and six other teams, including the top non-Power 5 team (Notre Dame or Group of 5) and five at-large teams (using the old Bowl Championship Series system with computers and strength of schedule).

The bottom six teams would play on the weekend currently reserved for conference championships. The losers of these games would be thrown into the bowl pool.

On Heisman Trophy weekend, say hello to the national quarterfinals. That would still push the semifinals to near New Year's Day, with the title game a week after.

"You'd still have the same bowl structure that you have now, and teams that lost on Dec. 1, it's like they would've been in a championship game and then they play in a bowl game," Harbaugh said. "Nobody would play 16 games."

Well, not exactly. Conceivably, a team seeded 6 or higher would be playing a 16th game to win it all.

Either way, what do you think of Harbaugh's plan?

Contact Kirkland Crawford: kcrawford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @HiKirkHere.