(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.

This.  It's a money making club with a closed off system where they wont allow anyone else in.  If they allow others in with the potential to take away any of that money they dilute the pot for the others.

UCF has been trying for YEARS to get into a power 5 conference, submitting bids, kissing [BLEEP], and they literally have gotten nowhere.  Yet you have schools like Vanderbilt and Rutgers cashing in year over year.  Not being allowed into a major conference hurts everything from money, to recruiting, to scheduling, etc...and lets not forget the fact that the committee who picks the playoff has people on it with major stakes in the big conferences and even the schools they are voting for.

It's a crooked system.

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