I'm starting to lean toward bringing back the BCS. Ohio State has no business being in the playoff. I hope Clemson curb stomps them.
The 4-team playoff was a bad idea from the start. Either you have a playoff or you don't. A 4-team playoff is simply a 2-round BCS where people, instead of a computer, pick the 4 "BCS" teams. With 5 "power" conferences, at least one conference champion is guaranteed to get left out of your "playoff" every year. Where's the "playoff" in that? We don't have a playoff at the FBS level. We have a 13 week beauty contest for the four teams that will play in the BCS "playoff". As for the Group of 5 teams, the current BCS playoff is a dream they will never, ever achieve. Fact.
For those who advocate staying with 4, or a 4+2 format, stop it. You don't want a playoff, you want to preserve the status quo. Anything less than 8 teams is a joke, and even 8 is eliminating the one-loss team that got hot late in the season. But 8 is likely the best we can ever hope for at the FBS level.
And for those who give us all the "why it won't work" arguments, well...what about FCS, Division II, Division III, and NAIA? How is it that they can pull off tournaments with as many as 28 teams? Oh, they have a shorter regular season? Well hello Pete, who'da thought of that?
Two words for you, chuckles: bowl money. Make that four words: Bowl and TV money.
That is why we will never, ever see an FBS playoff with 16 teams, and it'll be a miracle if we get to 8. It ain't about final exams or anything to do with the health and well-being of our "student-athletes". Nosirree. What it is, good citizen, is all about the Benjamins, and the NCAA FBS gold mine is the networks, ESPN, and thirty-something bowl games. Game, Set, Match.
11 game regular season, plus championship week, then an 8-team BCS Playoff. Single-elimination. Five P5 conference champs, and then the next 3 highest-ranked teams, regardless of conference affiliation. But take the human element out of it (again), and use the old BCS formula. That's probably about the best we can hope for.
Ohio State has absolutely no business being in the playoff what with having played only 6 games. TXAM got robbed. Tougher SOS; played twice as many games. Playoff committee simply didn't want Bama - TXAM II. Simple as that. So now we'll get to see Bama curb stomp them instead. Whee.....
FBS playoff sucks. NCAA sucks. As much as I dread the thought of the federal government getting involved in this whole "fair compensation" mess involving college athletics (most notably college football), in the end the NCAA and college athletic administrators will have no one to blame but themselves. They've screwed it up to the point where now we need some real experts to step in and finish mucking it all up permanently.
I'll tell you this much: we won't recognize college football when the government is done with it. Better start buying up those old VHS tapes of your favorite team on eBay. That's your best chance to watch the college football you know and love going down the road.
Rant over. Well, this one.