Quote:The 8 teams come from 3 categories:
-5 conference champions
-2 At-Large
-1 G5 champion
Conference champions are seeded 1-5 based on the Out of Conference record vs FBS teams of the entire conference. For example, if the SEC had the most Out of Conference wins vs FBS teams, their champion would be the number 1 seed and so on.
The flaw in that is -- what if the 5th best happened to be a G5 one odd year? After all, if it NEVER would be -- then you wouldn't have to rank the "5 best conferences", right? Thus, you're giving the G5 an actual *advantage* over the P5 technically, by ALWAYS saying a G5 gets in
on top of the 5 best.
Instead -- you'd just say the Top 6 Conference Champions based on Conference degree of difficulty.
OK, with that issue "solved", it's still flawed in another way. Ranking Conferences by all their teams has a flaw in it. You don't play everyone in your conference. There will be some teams you'll play in Other Conferences that you're involved with more than some teams IN your own conference. That's one of the other reasons why we have RANKINGS. :)
Because what if NW or Pitt at 8-5 with some Bad OOC losses + a weak conference schedule wins their conference, and they "shoot up" to #16 after their Conf Champ Upset -- while the AAC and/or MW Conf Champ is ranked higher? It's YOUR SoS. Strength or weakness of the teams you face in your conference (and OOC) will reflect that in your ranking. Just go by said team's ranking.
But going Top 6 Conf Champs based on Their ranking STILL has a couple problems:
(1) What if you have the 6th team REALLY LOW? Like, Not even remotely close to #8 who gets booted? They still go to a Small PLAYOFF (not just a big stage bowl that are for show)?
(2) What if this nixes a P5 Conference out of it? And going further, what if 2 G5s are ranked in the Top 8 like in 2009 (and that's not even counting Cinci who was in a P-Conf that year)?
For the 1st one -- realize that these are PLAYOFFS, *not* Bowls. It's going to be less "giving" to low ranked teams than a mere big BOWL situation put on for show. That's why the 4-team playoff isn't 3-best P5 Champs + 1 at-large. Notariety means squat. So with 8 slots -- when has it been closest to just 8 in BCS/NY Bowls, which again, is more lenient than playoffs? When it was 10 slots, ALL P6 Champs got in, and a G5 Champ had to be Better than a P6 Champ + ranked 16 or better. Reduce those slots to 8 for a PLAYOFF? NO WAY are they giving a G5 a slot *unconditionally*. Not even for mere big-show Bowls, let alone a for a less forgiving National Championship Playoff with a small pool of teams. NO. WAY. Nor should they.
The 2nd one -- they're not going to let a P5 Conference out of it if they're at least relatively close to #8, where a #7 or #8 is 2nd/3rd place in another conference. The whole point of them even talking about it despite the current long-term contract setup -- is to basically have something where all the P5 Champs are a shoe-in virtually every year (not just "often").
MY SCHEME FOR AN 8-TEAM NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF TO BEST AVOID BAD SITUATIONS:
(1) Top 4 Get Unconditional Auto-Bids
(2) Anyone who is a Conf Champ or Undefeated Independent *AND* Is In The Top 8, gets an Unconditional Auto-Bid
Okay, freeze-frame. Is ANYONE against this, so far, at this point? Would you Ever want to nix a team ranked in the Top 8 who's a Conf Champ or Undefeated, for an 8-team Playoff? I'm assuming No. OK. Obviously this is RARELY RARELY RARELY RARELY ever going to fill all 8 spots. So it has to continue, of course, for all that is Conditional, when all 8 spots are Not unconditionally filled...
Conf-Champ At-Large Advantage:
(3) Up to 2 Conference Champs are granted an Auto-Bid if outside the Top 8 but within the Top 13* --
only if the # of Conference Champs has Not Yet Reached
6.
(4) Conference Diversity, For the Sake of the Conference Championship Races Playing a Part of the Playoff System
(4a) No more than 2 teams from the same conference unless 3rd one is Ranked in Top 6 *or* the team ranked directly below them is from their own conference.
(4b) No more than 3 teams from the same conference unless 4th one is Ranked in Top 4 (see #1)
*
Arguably could be different, like 12 (50% more than # of playoff slots). I put 13 because it's based on the 16 BCS number that was just over 50% greater than the # of teams (10). You don't want this too low, because that would potentially nix a P5 Champ and/or undefeated G5 Champ. You don't want this TOO big because you do need to be somewhat close to #8 and not want to nix someone who is in the Top 8 ranking because of it.
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How would you structure an 8 team playoff?
