I completely agree with Purdue Grad.... how on earth does increasing the playoff teams increase drama of conference championships? The majority of games this weekend would not mean anything. SEC game? If Bama loses, it doesn't matter because they're in anyway. ACC game? Clemson loses, it doesn't matter because they're in anyway. P12 game? Stanford loses, it doesn't matter because they're in anyway. B10 game? Doesn't matter, they're both in. Absolutely no intrigue whatsoever.
I think your logic is backwards. You like having a conference champion and you like the drama of conference championship games but you're against a system that actually makes winning a conference championship mean something? You argued that, under an 8 team scenario that I proposed, it didn't matter if Clemson, Alabama, Stanford, Iowa, or MSU won this weekend because they'd all be in anyway. You do understand that there are only 2 wildcard teams in that scenario right? Literally impossible for all those teams to lose and all of them still make it in. Clemson probably has a good argument for a wildcard spot but it's no guarantee. Very much doubt that a two-loss Alabama gets in under that scenario and a three-loss Stanford certainly wouldn't. Maybe a one-loss Iowa gets in but a two-loss MSU probably doesn't.
I like having a conference championship. With the 2 divisions, how can we declare a B10 champ otherwise? Would we have been ok saying Iowa was the champ when they didn't play MSU, OSU, or Michigan?
Not sure where you ever interpreted anything about an 8 team playoff meaning we'd get rid of conference championship games. I wouldn't be ok with Iowa winning the Big Ten without beating the top team from the East.
Why do we need every P5 champion to get in the playoffs? That's the ultimate entitlement system. Instead, let the best teams in. Not too long ago, the B10 didn't have a team in the top 8. I wish that wasn't the case, but no way do I think that the champ automatically should have displaced a better team just because we're the B10.
Again, completely backwards logic. How is winning a conference to advance to the playoffs entitlement? I follow this silly notion that a championship should be earned on the field and you include all five P5 champions because schedules vary greatly and this allows every single P5 team an opportunity to play itself in. You don't rely and some random committee to discern whether a one-loss Big 12 champ Oklahoma or one-loss SEC champion Alabama is better than a two-loss Pac 12 champion Stanford. This is exactly the opposite of entitlement. Every P5 team has the opportunity to EARN their way in via their play on the field. Win your conference championship, and you get your shot.
Now, I like the excitement of basically "lose two games and you're out" method of determining who gets in the playoff. Increasing it to 8 teams, the regular season suddenly doesn't matter as much. It also encourages weak scheduling. Currently the pressure is on to stack your schedule with good teams. In an 8 team playoff, the Baylor's and UNC's would be fine playing a weak schedule and losing 1 game. That's not good for college football.
Baylor and UNC needed to win their conference title to potentially get in with 4 teams you can see by the rankings that they aren't even close to getting in with 8 either. Listen, I can do without 8 teams but I firmly believe every major conference champion should be in and I can't really think of a good scenario for a 5 team playoff. The only format that makes any sort of sense to me if you move up from 4 is 8. To fill the 8, you have to pull 3 more teams from somewhere and that's going to take some discretion but at least you're not leaving out a conference champion. It was fortunate this year that Stanford lost to Northwestern. Had they won that game and also ended the season with one loss, which conference champion do you leave out? We saw it last year when the one-loss Big 12 champ was left out in favor of a one-loss Big Ten champ. I think it ultimately turned out to be the right choice last year but it's not going to be that way every year. Allowing all the champs in ensures that a deserving team, via winning their conference, is not left out. Perhaps some years you'll end up with a conference champion that doesn't really deserve to be there but I'd rather err on allowing an undeserving team than excluding a deserving one. Will there still be gripes about who got in and who got left out? Sure. But the reality will be that every single P5 team had the opportunity to play their way in.
TC43 - In your ranking, why does a 2 loss ND get in over a 1 loss OSU? Just because OSU happens to be in a conference with other good teams?
It's not my ranking. It was the final college football playoff rankings that I was using as an example. I happen to think OSU is better than Iowa and would prefer them be included in an 8 team field. The committee ranked Iowa ahead of them though and that's life. I just don't feel that any conference should get 3 teams into the field. If you aren't determined to even be the 2nd best team in your conference after the regular season concludes then you shouldn't be playing in an 8 team national playoff.
For years, everyone had pre-determined the SEC to be the juggernaut conference and in many of those years they might have been. Then again, maybe that assumption just afforded them more opportunity? This is where you get into resumes and where you have incentive to go beat someone good out of conference. This is why I think Stanford gets shafted here because they DID go and play two very good non-conference opponent in Notre Dame and Northwestern and happened to lose one of those games. They still won their conference but now they don't get into the playoff. Please tell me how much incentive they have to continue scheduling tough non-conference games going forward. With 8 teams, a non-conference loss doesn't kill you because you can still win your conference to get in and a good non-conference win can help your resume if you're fighting for one of the wild cards. I believe it would provide incentive for top teams to schedule better compared to the current system.
