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This also feels confusing with that large bids.

if you qualify play-in, do you not qualify for the at-large spots? And if you qualify for both, doesn’t that mean the higher seed isn’t playing for a spot?

In the situation I specified above, you'd wind up with the at-large spot(s) being competed for by the 4th or 5th teams of the B1G and SEC who just lost vs the 6th teams from those conferences.
Not great options to choose from, basically.

That's not the idea I was talking about.

With the proposed 4 automatic bids for the B1G, the top 3 are just in.  They chill on CCG weekend.  Same for the top 3 in the SEC.
Only the 4th and 5th teams would play in the "call it something else" CCG to play their way into the playoff as the 4th team from the B1G (or SEC).

I read that to be a tournament-like thing of:

• 1 vs 2, CCG (probably for a bye)
• 3 vs 6 for an auto-bid
• 4 vs 5 for an auto-bid

Then, to answer @bayareabadger 's question, at-large is for teams that do NOT get an auto-bid so the 3/6 and 4/5 winners get auto-bids while the losers would still be eligible for an at-large.  

Yeah. It’s basically like the choice is fourth place who lost vs 6th vs field. Which maybe helps the field and the SEC is back throwing public fit.

One thing I do snarkily wonder is when the SEC will stop caring about standings. Every year, I learn that I need to pay much less attention to a team’s raw record. And with divisions, there was some flow and structure to schedules, even if they weren’t totally fair at points. But if it’s all just one big table of standings, and the schedules can be uneven, which I’m told is a terrible problem for selection, why am I letting such a thing affect the selection of the SEC title game?

I have been banging the drum that uneven schedules are a problem for quite a while.  

Back when the B1G had 14 teams in two divisions the schedules couldn't be all-that uneven.  Six of your games were against the other teams IN your division and that was uniform for the whole division.  Only the other three varied.  In theory you could have one team from the B1G-W (say Wisconsin) play the best three teams from the B1G-E while another team from the B1G-W (say Minnesota) played the worst three teams from the B1G-E.  In that case it was possible that Wisconsin could beat Minnesota, go 6-0 in the division, and still miss the B1GCG to a Minnesota team that went 4-2 in the division with a loss to Wisconsin.  

The thing is that back then it was a theoretical possibility but not very realistic.  Now, with 18 teams and no divisions, schedule strength can be wildly different.  For 2024:
In the B1G:
 @Mdot21 LOVES to point out that Ohio State was the "fourth place team" in the league but if you want to know why, look at schedules.  Ohio State had a MUCH tougher schedule than any of the teams that finished ahead of them.  Here are the records against the top-4:

• 1-0 Oregon:  A home win by 1 point.  
• 2-1 Ohio State:  Split road games with a 1 point loss and a win, won a home game
• 1-2 Michigan:  beat tOSU on the road, lost to IU and Ore. 
• 0-season every other B1G team including 8-1 IU (lost at tOSU) and 8-1 PSU (lost at home to tOSU)

Similarly, in the SEC you had a situation where Mizzou had a better conference record than Florida but that was a product of Mizzou missing and UF playing almost all the best teams.  Florida was clearly a better team but finished with a worse record because of schedule.  

In the current 18-team B1G with nine league games you are only playing half of the teams in the league so obviously the SoS can and does vary wildly.  

I'm coming to the realization that the powers that be have zero interest in a straight-up, clean bracket.  They want byes and play-in games and whatever else to extend the overall event in order to be relevant for longer and make more money.


This whole thing is officially NOT about finding the best team as champion.  We're so far from that, it's stupid.

Eh, it's about money and nothing else.

All the hand-wringing over the SEC 8-game conference schedule...
Just make it a rule.
Duh.

FFS

Whining when someone doesn't do more when they have no motive to do more is stupid.