Quote Originally Posted by Hokie CPA View Post
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.
I forgot that Oregon won the Pac 12, but in the 8 team playoff bracket, #5 Stanford would've played at #4 Oregon. As for TCU, they were lower rated in the final BCS poll and Boise State would've received an at-large BCS bid since the MWC isn't a BCS conference and it doesn't matter if TCU won it or not according to the present BCS format. Personally, I'd like a 16 team playoff format with the 8 conference champions (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, CUSA, MWC, Pac 12, and SEC) and the 8 top rated BCS teams. The MAC, WAC, and Sun Belt aren't good enough for an automatic bid. I wouldn't give any independents any special treatment. They have to be one of the remaining top 8 teams in the Final BCS poll who failed to win their conference. That would finally force Notre Dame to join a conference. I doubt that there will ever be a 16 team playoff or even an 8 team playoff because of all the bowl games. Four team playoff (Plus 1) is probably the closest we will get to a FBS playoff.