(12-01-2017, 03:05 PM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote:

(11-30-2017, 04:55 PM)Jaguarmeister Wrote: Cleanest way to do it IMO with the current conferences is to guarantee winners of the SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and PAC 12 automatic playoff berths.  Add 3 at large berths and guarantee one of the 3 to any of the smaller conferences who produce an undefeated team.  There’s always going to be an odd man out, but this playoff format guarantees every team has a path to the championship.  Right now, UCF has beaten every team they’ve played and deserves a system that gives them an opportunity.  I think they’d probably lose against better competition, but they as a team and we as an audience deserve to see how it unfolds.

Undefeated AND have beaten at least 2 teams in the Top 25.  This will prevent UCF, USF, and Memphis from scheduling teams like FAMU & Samford as automatic out-of-conference wins.

I don’t think you need the extra qualifier.  It’s not like going undefeated in any conference is easy or that the smaller conferences are routinely pumping out undefeated teams.  If they are cream puffs what does it matter?  They’d likely draw the 1 seed in the 1st round and wouldn’t advance, but what if they did?  

Secondly, we shouldn’t be bending over backwards to excuse teams for not winning their conference.  The system I outlined has room for 3 conference runners up, but what if it were only 2 or god forbid 1 in a season that produced an undeafeated small conference team or two?  The late season rankings are still arrived at from the starting point of the pre-season rankings which are just a an average of the voters opinions.  The system I outlined has a clear path for each and every team to overcome a wrong opinion.  If you add in your qualifier, you’re effectively still penalizing a team for coming from a small conference just like the current system does. 

If you’re going to have an extra qualifier, I’d say maybe just have a requirement that at least one or two of a small conference team’s out of conference opponents needs to come from the power 5 conferences.  I wouldn’t even care if they scheduled a team like Vandy or Duke.  They have no control over what their opponents’ rankings are and shouldn’t be penalized for that if they wind up undefeated considering the rankings are opinion based.  I’m not trying to suggest that the rankings are routinely wrong, I just believe it’s important that every team knows at the beginning of the season that if they take care of their business the system can’t screw them.  And with an 8 team playoff, there’s room for an occasional undeafeated small conference team to get in the mix every once in a while.

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