Gophers make cut in ESPN's hypothetical 68-team college football tournament

The excitement of March Madness often reignites the debate of what a 68-team college football playoff would look like.

Washington State coach Mike Leach has long argued for this postseason format. His solution is to cut the regular season to 10 games and then start a six-week tournament process.

The College Football Playoff was a step in the right direction, but what would it look like if the playoffs were expanded to include 68 teams and not just four? ESPN.com took the liberty of predicting what a 68-team college football tournament field would look like in 2016.

The Gophers made the cut as a No. 15 seed.

I'm guessing it is a typo, but the Gophers are later listed as No. 14 seed in the South Region. Both predictions have the Gophers losing in the first round to Notre Dame.

Here are the rest of the seeds and how the field was set:

1-seeds: Alabama, Florida State, Michigan, Baylor

3-seeds: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Houston, Tennessee

4-seeds: Ole Miss, Michigan State, TCU, USC

5-seeds: Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Oregon

6-seeds: UCLA, Oklahoma State, Washington, Florida

7-seeds: Boise State, Utah, Louisville, Washington State

9-seeds: Auburn, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas

10-seeds: Mississippi State, West Virginia, Arizona, Penn State

11-seeds: BYU, Virginia Tech, South Florida, Texas Tech

12-seeds: Arizona State, NC State, Northwestern, Duke

13-seeds: Kansas State, Georgia Tech, Cal, Western Kentucky

15-seeds: Minnesota, Appalachian State, Air Force, South Carolina

16-seeds: Navy, Georgia Southern, Cincinnati, Marshall

Last four in: Northern Illinois, Utah State, Bowling Green, Southern Miss

Breaking down the field

The top four seeds are defending national champion Alabama, Baylor, Florida State and Michigan. The No. 2 seeds are Clemson, LSU, Oklahoma and Stanford.

The other 57 teams received at-large bids as determined by a one-man selection committee based on projections for the upcoming season. Southern Miss, Bowling Green, Utah State and Northern Illinois were the last four teams in. The first four out were Missouri, Kentucky, Toledo and Connecticut.

The brackets are based on the 2016 Way-Too-Early Top 25 and the initial Football Power Index ratings. Then we used a crystal ball and Sharon Katz's FPI-based projections to play it out. This week, we took a look at the bracket and the first two rounds. Check back next week for imaginary Sweet 16 and Elite 8 projections.