Hypothetical 8-Team College Football Playoff Shows Why New System Is Flawed
Below, we take a look at what an 8-team playoff might look like this season if things continue the way they are going now.
To determine the field for an 8-team playoff, we projected the champions of the five major BCS conferences and then selected three at-large teams.
Here are the eight teams and how they would be seeded (record in parentheses):
Alabama and Florida State are clearly the top teams in the county. However, if a selection committee had to chose two of the next three teams, would they be able to leave an undefeated Baylor or an undefeated Ohio State out of a 4-team playoff bracket?
With the five projected champions of the big conferences all among the top five seeds, the only questions remaining are among the final three seeds. Auburn's impressive run recently moves them into the bracket and knocks Clemson out. Missouri gets the nod for the final seed based on their lone loss being in overtime to a ranked team (South Carolina).
Clemson and Texas A&M can also make strong cases for one of the final spots and an 8-team bracket wouldn't eliminate debate. But a 4-team bracket still runs the risk of screwing obviously deserving teams.
Here is what the bracket might look like...
