Meh. Georgia should have beat Alabama if they wanted to make it to my hypothetical playoffs. Conference Championships should matter. Don’t win? Go home.
This is the bigger problem with my plan. Everyone’s just flocking to the SEC.
But frankly, with my plan we get two more games- Cinci-Pitt and Utah-Baylor. And then Michigan v Cinci and Alabama v Utah (hypothetically). I’m more interested in that lineup of games than any lineup w/ Alabama v Georgia (x2).
I remember rooting for OSU over Alabama. I work in Georgia and I was having a Friday lunch with coworkers who were acting like an Alabama win was a given. I told them OSU was really talented and that Chase Young was really good. And then the game happened and Chase Young was completely invisible.
Much as I loathe OSU, I was rooting for them in that game too, for the same reasons as @Nate with Michigan: on the national landscape, gotta rep the Big 10. The more we can shove it down the throat of premier SEC teams, the better.
Yeah, but that only works if the different conferences have a relatively even playing field. I know we’re talking hypotheticals here, but this model would have negative consequences too, just in the opposite direction. You’re incentivizing teams to leave strong conferences for weak ones where they’ll have an easier path to the playoff.
I think we will ultimately get something similar to this after the conference realignment merry-go-round stops, and we end up with four super-conferences. You’ll have four conference title games that will be the de facto first round of the playoffs and determine four automatic bids, and then two or four at-large bids, with at least one reserved for non-super-conference teams.
But one spot for non-super-conference teams is as far as I’m willing to go, and even that’s a stretch. Both in the hypothetical future and the present, I’m not in favor of giving automatic bids to weak conferences. You want to get to the playoff? Join a real conference where you’ll have to play real competition.
2014 was glorious though and shut the SEC idiots up for a while.
But… That’s good, right? Wouldn’t it be better if we had 5 conferences each with 2-4 actual good teams as opposed to two conferences with all the good teams and 3 with a bunch of trash? Emphasizing the conference championships would encourage parity in conferences and avoid the stacking the SEC has seen. By keeping the automatic bids to only the power-5, you don’t have, say, Nebraska joining the Mountain West just to get to the BCS.
Good for what though? I guess it’s good for drama in the playoffs itself, and for the people selling TV rights to it. It’s not good for the conferences, and IMO, it’s not good for fans or for the game.
College football is like the only sport left where the regular season still really, really matters. Where you have storied rivalries that go back 100 years, special little trophies, jacked up fans starting tailgates at 7am, all for regular season games. I can only speak for myself, but if you’re saying I can have that or I can have parity across conferences, I’m taking Option A. I’d much rather get to watch Michigan play Ohio State, MSU and Penn State every year, versus having those teams spread out across other conferences in the interest of parity. The SEC can suck it, but I bet Bama and Georgia and LSU and Auburn fans feel the same.
I’d always cheer for the Big10 teams in the Bowl games. One exception being if Ohio State were somehow playing a major underdog from a non-SEC conference. If it were Ohio State vs the Bearcats this year…Go Bearcats!
We agree here
Agreed- but there are only 5 power conferences. Are any of the teams you mentioned going to move? I mean, maybe PSU to the ACC, but that’s it. I think the SEC would hypothetically lose Arkansas and Texas A&M back to the Big 12 but other than that? No one’s going to a non-power conference because there’s no benefit.
Well, as much as I’m disagreeing with you, I do believe (and I think was arguing earlier in this thread?) that Texas and Oklahoma were total dumbasses for joining the SEC instead of moving to the PAC 12. Which would’ve had exactly the outcome I think you’re talking about. You end up with the SEC as currently constructed, the Big Ten, and a new PAC 12 with a resurgent USC, Texas, Oklahoma, and Oregon. (Wouldn’t you want to see a Lincoln Riley Trojan team facing off against Oklahoma in the PAC 12 championship???)
I still don’t think the Big 12 should get treated on the same level as the Big Ten or SEC, definitely not after texas and OK leave, and the ACC is barely competitive at this point. We just saw what happens when Clemson has a down year. Although now that Miami is starting to care about football again, that could certainly change.
This game comes down to Michigan’s offense vs. Georgia’s defense. People complain about Cade MacNamara but compared to Stetson Bennett he is Tom Brady. Bennett has posted big numbers against weak teams while his defense dominated. If UMs oline plays like it did against OSU, I think Michigan wins.
UM could possibly be Nationals Champs this year … and somehow Sparty still owns their ass. 
MSU had a chance to be in the conversation, but they decided to lose to Purdue. Great season by them though. Still should be a good bowl game with Pitt
I’m not a huge college guy, but I found that matchup to be intriguing. Looking forward to seeing it.
If Michigan didn’t blow a 30-14 lead they’d be undefeated and a #1 seed… 
And if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle.