An 8 team playoff would have been perfect. Conference champions from the power 4 conferences and 4 at large bids. Seed based on rankings regardless of if they are champions or not.
You would be dangerously close to keeping Ohio st out this year if you did that. And really they are still going to take the highest group of 5 which would have left Ohio ST out of the playoffs having been bumped by conf winners Arizona St, Clemson and Boise. the system is fine. Just base the bracket seeding on rankings and make sure the same conf champions make it in.
I didn't say power 5, I said power 4. SEC, big 10, acc, and big 12. So Indiana and Tennessee would have been out.
I got that but they aren’t going to drop the highest out of the other conferences. That’s just not happening. It shouldn’t either. The small conferences should get one spot for the highest ranked team to compensate with all the inherent bias toward the power 4.
I think the playoff worked fine. They definitely need to not give automatic byes to conference champions - just seed them 1 through 12.
This article describes the transition of college football programs into NFL-style operations. It's a very good read IMO. Very short version: Colleges are hiring GMs to structuralize and oversee departments including high school scouting/recruiting, transfer portal and NIL that mimic NFL teams and they are poaching NFL personnel to do so. https://www.si.com/nfl/college-football-programs-looking-like-nfl-teams
