NYT predicts 4 team playoff in 2014 for College Football, consisting of conference

[Hokie CPA]

You would have the #1, #3, #4, and #6 rated BCS teams in a playoff since those 4 won their conference championship games.

Actually, you would have #1, #3, #5 and #10. Oregon won the Pac12, not Stanford, and TCU won the Mountain West rather than Boise State. And I don't have a problem with that at all. There are going to be 124 Division I-A teams next season. You have have to weed out 120 teams to get down to a 4 team playoff. If you make the conference championship the first elimination you get rid of 109 teams right off the top. After championship weekend there will be 11 conference champs plus 4 independents. Take the top 4 of those and seed them and let them play. Alabama would be out because they did not win the SEC. They didn't even win their division. And I don't have a problem with that at all. You would have had LSU play Wisconsin and Oklahoma State play Oregon in the semi-finals. That would have been a great playoff! Additionally, Notre Dame or BYU, for example, would have had to have been in the top 10 to steal Wisconsin's spot. I wouldn't have had a problem with that either.

I think I could also agree with an 8 team playoff or even an 11 or 12 team playoff as long as there are no conference runners-up and the 12th spot would be reserved for the highest ranked independent. The problem with the 12 team scenario is the very real possibility that all four independents suck out loud and don't deserve to be in the playoff. The conference championships have to be the first elimination though in a playoff scenario because of the sheer volume of teams in I-A.