(01-02-2018, 01:50 PM)mikesez Wrote:

(01-02-2018, 12:24 PM)Jaguarmeister Wrote: That doesn't help UCF this year though because Alabama would have gotten the wildcard.  It needs to be 8 teams and no more with the 5 power conference champions getting automatic bids and then have 3 wildcards.  There will always be that 9th team that gets screwed, but with 8 everyone has a path to playoff if they take care of their own business.  Right now, smaller conference teams don't have a path to the playoff as was evidenced this year with UCF.  

I'd further stipulate that an undefeated smaller conference team automatically gets one of the wildcard bids as long as they've played at least 2 power conference teams during the regular season.  UCF had two power conference teams scheduled this year but one of the games (Georgia Tech) was cancelled due to the hurricane and was never able to be rescheduled.  The system I've outlined wouldn't have protected UCF this year either, but it was extenuating circumstances that cancelled that GT game and that's not going to happen every year.  And had they known ahead of time they would need that 2nd power conference team on their schedule to qualify for an automatic bid, I'm sure they would have tried to move heaven and earth to get one scheduled on a bye week to meet the requirement.

I see it a little differently.  I think the Power Five teams see themselves as a closed club, and they only want to play non Power Five teams to get an easy win.  If a smaller team is required to get two power conference games on its schedule, suddenly the power conference teams will clam up and getting them to schedule you, if there is any chance you might be good, will become mission impossible.  The Power Five will never schedule the required games unless the fans and sports networks hold their feet to the fire and make them.
Also, I don't think undefeated-ness should be the be-all and end-all for smaller conference teams.  The 2015 Houston Cougars played two Power Five teams in the regular season, and beat both of them, but had one in-conference loss.  Yet they showed they should have been in the playoffs by demolishing FSU in the Peach Bowl that year.  So that "one loss" should have been viewed as a "quality loss" to the extent that such things even exist.
The fans need to understand that since all teams will play a majority of their games against opponents in their conference, talking about "strength of schedule" relies mostly on unprovable assumptions.  In other words, they shouldn't be sure that any one conference is better than any other conference.
Once they understand that, the fans will demand not only an 8 team playoff (at a minimum) but also a rigorous requirement for the top teams in one conference to schedule one or two games with the top teams in other conferences, based only on the previous year's result, like the NFL.

The power 5 teams absolutely see themselves as a private club and you would too if you were spending the amount of money on your football program that most of them do that smaller conference schools generally couldn't dream of doing.  However, I never said one loss would exclude a smaller conference team, they just wouldn't get the automatic bid.  They'd be evaluated against all other potential wildcard candidates.  It would obviously be harder for them to be included with one loss because they likely wouldn't be in the top 10, but if they're not a top 10 team already (I'm being generous here by not saying top 8 team) even with the one loss they don't deserve to be in the playoff.  You're never going to get the power 5 conferences to agree to sharing the prestige and money that goes along with their current status by keeping the door open for and granting equal opportunity to small conference teams.  But the system I've outlined does allow a small conference team to open the door for themselves if they take care of their business.  And the power 5 can rest assured that undefeated small conference teams don't happen all that regularly.  

Secondly, most power 5 teams already schedule 2 or 3 small conference teams per year.  You can't tell me Duke or some other power 5 school where football isn't the main focus is going to look at a potential small conference opponent and say "ah, nope... can't have you making the playoff off our backs, sorry sucka."  It isn't and wouldn't be hard for a small conference school to get two power 5 teams on their schedule.  I haven't looked at everyone's schedule, but I'd venture a guess that any respectable small conference program already does.  I mean, who are the power 5 going to schedule in place of the small conferences they have on their schedule now if they decided to blackball the smaller conferences?  More power 5 teams?  That would likely result in more losses and less likelihood of them making the playoffs as well.

At any rate, UCF deserved to play in a hypothetical expanded playoff this year.  I would have liked to see them get that GT game under their belt though. Maybe they would have been creamed by another playoff team that actually was playing for something instead of playing in a meaningless exhibition game, but they earned the right to be properly tested and the fans deserved to see it as well.

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