East Carolina athletic director Jon Gilbert predicted Monday that there would be changes forthcoming in the College Football Playoff system.

The system as it exists followed its guidelines and put No. 20 Tulane and No. 24 James Madison in the playoff ahead of No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 12 Brigham Young.

The applicable criteria regarded berths to the five highest-ranked conference champions. Those berths went to Indiana (Big Ten), Georgia (Southeastern), Texas Tech (Big 12), the Green Wave (American) and the Dukes (Sun Belt).

The Atlantic Coast Conference is rated fourth among Power Four conferences by Sports Illustrated — behind the top-rated Southeastern, the Big Ten and Big 12.

The American is rated fifth, followed by the Mountain West and Sun Belt.

Duke, the ACC champion, was not ranked high enough to merit inclusion in the CFP. Miami was an at-large selection and that was controversial as the Hurricanes were ranked behind the Fighting Irish the week before the conference championship games. Neither played but Miami moved ahead of Notre Dame for the last at-large seeding based on a 27-24 season-opening head-to-head win in Miami on Aug. 31.

Notre Dame’s question was how did its position with regard to Miami change when neither played last weekend. Head-to-head is the best factor and the CFP committee should have applied it earlier.

The ACC said Wednesday it will review its tiebreaking procedure that put Duke in as the second seed behind Virginia in the league championship game.

The tiebreakers are needed in today’s super-sizes conferences which have done away with division play.

The Blue Devils, Southern Methodist, Miami, Pitt and Georgia Tech all had two league losses in the ACC. The Mustangs missed a chance to care of business when they lost their last game of the regular season at California, 38-35, on Nov. 29.

Head-to-head and common opponent tiebreakers didn’t resolve the 5-team deadlock. It came down to the tiebreaking criteria of the combined winning percentage of a team’s conference opponents. Duke was the only 6-2 team that had played Virginia (7-1).

In a sense the scenario penalized the ACC for getting too big to effectively manage the placement of teams in its conference championship game. Credit to the Blue Devils for taking advantage of the opportunity.

Expand field

One of the changes that seems to have a lot of support is to expand the playoff field from 12 to 16 teams. That would eliminate the bye for the top four seeds.

That wouldn’t eliminate controversy, but it would shift the discussion from the Nos. 10-12 seeds to Nos. 14-16.

Opt outs

In the scramble Sunday afternoon to fill bowl slots, Kansas State and Iowa State declined to participate in the postseason.

Both programs are in the midst of coaching transitions and were experiencing uncertainty about player availability.

Both were fined $500,000 by the Big 12.

“The reality is when you look at the schools that are opting out, they’re actually probably saving money at the end of the day because they’re going to fly to their bowl destination and they’re going to spend a lot more than $500,000 at the bowl game,” Gilbert said. “So I think the fine is more optics than it is some sort of financial penalty.”

Calendar change proposed

The ECU athletic director favors a calendar adjustment that would create less uncertainty at bowl time in terms of personnel.

“I’d love for the transfer portal to be in the month of March where we are not talking about opt-outs, transfer portal or coaching changes before arguably the most important time in our season,” Gilbert said. “Bowls are meaningful for a lot of teams. I’ve been a part of teams where you get 6-6 and you get eligible and you go win the game. The fan base is excited and it transcends you into the next football season.

“I’ve also been a part of teams where 6-6 isn’t acceptable and it’s not a good feeling, but I think in general the bowls are a really good thing for college football.”

Player acquisition, end spring ball

Gilbert would like to end roster jockeying during the postseason.

“The way that we are handling, I’m going to call it player acquisition, is not good for our game,” he said. “And that player acquisition starts sometime before the end of your regular season where teams start calling other teams and saying, ‘Hey, come get in the portal and we’ll pay you more money.’

“If we set the portal in the month of March, did away with spring football, all of our football student athletes are here the entire summer.

“We could set up an OTA (Organized Team Activities) model in the summer very much like the NFL and we could really solidify what postseason means.

“What we’re doing now is unlike anything in any sport before the bowl season. We’re pretty much gutting each other on coaching staffs and players. … Until we settle the player acquisition piece, we’re going to continue to see the chaos that we saw (Sunday).”

Change coming

Gilbert says change is imminent.

“Opt-outs created a lot of dynamics where 5-7 teams were now becoming bowl eligible,” Gilbert said. “It really exposed the flaws in the system. Between this time and next year you’re going to see some transition, both in the CFP and the bowl lineup to try to get this straightened out.

“It just goes to the global issues that we have in college athletics that need to be rectified.”

Military had second pick

Gilbert said he had done his homework, talking to various bowls, but the Military Bowl locked up the Pirates after the Liberty Bowl selected Navy.

“We talked to a lot of people, but ultimately the Military had the second pick in our league,” Gilbert said. “We’re excited to be able to play Pitt (Saturday, Dec. 27, 11 a.m., ESPN).”

Pitt and fan demand

Gilbert said last year’s 26-20 Military Bowl win over N.C. State was a good scenario for ECU fan support.

“Pitt’s a very good football team, one game or a tiebreaker and they’re playing in the ACC championship,” Gilbert said. “So we are playing a darn good football team. We’re going to need to bring everything that we can bring to be successful.

“I’m hoping our fans will travel, but I also know they’re probably not looking at it quite like they did with N.C. State, but I’m anticipating a good showing by our fan base.”

Bowl adjustments

Gilbert believes the playoffs will continue to include Group of Five teams.

“The G5 will always have representation in the playoffs,” he said. “I think they’re going to change it where they’re going to create an expanded playoff and give more access to teams.

“I could see the overall bowl lineup shrinking. I feel really bad for the people of Birmingham, Alabama and the Birmingham Bowl. I think last year Georgia Tech and Vandy played in it.

“It’s one of the top sports cities in the country and Sunday night they’re scrambling to find a team to match up with Georgia Southern. So I do think in the future you’re going to see maybe a shrunken bowl lineup. I expect an expanded playoff.

“I think the G5 will still have an access point to that, but I don’t see many times in the future where two G5 schools are going to get in again. It will be very difficult.”

Pirates excited

ECU coach Blake Harrell scoffed at the thought that the Pirates would ever opt out of a bowl game.

“Fired up for the opportunity to go play a bowl game and fired up for the opportunity to go get win No. 9,” Harrell said. “These guys have earned this. Our football team has earned this. Pirate Nation has earned this — the right to play in a bowl game.

“What a remarkable season. We had our little senior celebration (Sunday). Eight wins, first time since 2014. Six wins — most in the American conference, most in the conference play since 2013.

“An opportunity to go win back-to-back bowl games in back-to-back years for the first time since the 1960s. So a lot of things we got to accomplish here and I think Marlon Gunn (Jr.) said it best. ‘It doesn’t matter where, it doesn’t matter when, put the ball down, let’s go. We’ll play somebody in the parking lot.’

“Just the opportunity to play is pretty special. We have 30 seniors who will play their last collegiate football game that are excited about the opportunity.”

“We have probably over 30 freshmen on our football team that’s never played in a bowl game. So for all those guys, they’re super excited as well as our football team.”