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Def not a top 4 seed.

2 things:
a - who was afraid of teams running up the score?  As if these longtime successful HCs were suddenly going to change their ways to appeal to a computer they didn't understand, lol.  It was stupid to worry about that.
b - if voters are too lazy to understand a blowout turned into a closer game with late, meaningless scores, then they shouldn't be a voter.  Like half of the coaches had someone else do it, right?  if the voter can't be bothered to even watch a highlight show, find someone else who will.

i guess we could go through and say 'this year it's 5, this year it's 2, this year it's 9' etc. but that won't ever happen and would be a logistics nightmare.

I think it was @ELA who first said years ago that the ideal would be a flexible playoff where we include the number of teams needed.  Looking at past years:
2022:  Georgia and Michigan were undefeated league champions.  No need to include Ohio State (lost to M) nor TCU (didn't win their league) so just have UGA and M play in a NCG.  

2021:  Bama and Michigan were 1-loss league champions.  No need to include UGA (lost to Bama in SECCG) nor Cincy (laughable SoS) so just have Bama and M play in a NCG.  

2019 (skipped 2020 due to pandemic altered season):  LSU, tOSU, and Clemson were undefeated league champs but you need a fourth to balance the schedule so do what we did with LSU v OU, tOSU v Clemson.  

2018:  Bama and Clemson were undefeated league champs so they are obviously in.  Notre Dame was 12-0 so you pretty much have to give them a shot.  Oklahoma and Ohio State were both 1-loss league champions so one (or both) of them would be next.  The sixth and seventh strongest arguments belonged to UGA (lost SECCG to Bama) and UCF (12-0 but laughable SoS).  The eighth would be either 10-2 Michigan or 10-3 P12 Champ Washington depending on how heavily you weight league titles.  If it were up to me I'd do a six-team field with ND/UCF and OU/tOSU playing for spots against Bama and Clemson.  That excludes UGA and Michigan but they both had two losses and didn't win their respective leagues and it forces undefeated ND to play in the first round but tough luck, you didn't win a league title game like Bama and Clemson did.  

2017:  Clemson, Oklahoma, and Georgia were all 12-1 league champions so they are obviously in.  After that it gets tricky.  The other two league champs were 11-2 tOSU (lost to OU and Iowa) and 11-2 USC (lost to WSU and ND).  Also in consideration would be a 12-1 Wisconsin team whose only loss was in the B1GCG and an 11-1 Bama team.  Auburn was a really odd duck that year.  They had wins over both Bama and Georgia and both were big wins (12 and 13 points) but they also had three losses to Clemson, LSU, and UGA.  I'd go with an eight-team field of:

• 12-1 Clemson, ACC Champion
• 12-1 Oklahoma, B12 Champion
• 12-1 Georgia, SEC Champion
• 11-2 Ohio State, B1G Champion
• 11-2 USC, P12 Champion
• 11-1 Bama
• 12-1 Wisconsin
• 10-3 Auburn

Fun match-ups:

• Clemson vs Auburn is a rematch of an early season game that Clemson won 14-6.  
• Oklahoma vs Wisconsin is great to see Oklahoma playing a playoff game not against an SEC team.  
• Georgia vs Bama is actually NOT a rematch because Bama missed the SECCG due to their loss to Auburn.  
• Ohio State vs USC is a traditional Rose Bowl matchup.  

Then in the next round:

• Clemson/Auburn vs tOSU/USC
• Oklahoma/Wisconsin vs UGA/Bama

2016:  Bama was an undefeated league champion so you could just give them the title and call it a day.  If we have to have at least one postseason game then I'd take a three-team field of Bama (bye), Clemson, and Washington as those two were the only two 12-1 league champions.  

2015:  Clemson was an undefeated league champion so you could just give them the title and call it a day.  If we have to have at least one postseason game then I'd take a three-team field of Clemson (bye), Bama, and MSU but that excludes 11-1 Oklahoma.  

2014:  Florida State was an undefeated league champion so you could just give them the title and call it a day.  The problem is that FSU looked shaky all year even in a pretty weak ACC.  Bama, Oregon, and Ohio State were all 12-1 league champions while Baylor and TCU were 11-1 co-champions of the B12.  I'd go with a six team field giving byes to FSU (undefeated) and Bama (highest ranked of the 1-loss teams).  Thus, Oregon/TCU and Baylor/tOSU would play for spots against FSU and Bama.  

This is a fun thought experiment and it is theoretically ideal but you are right, the logistics would be a nightmare and it would never actually be adopted.  

i guess 'those that be' have decided that the risk of having an "unworthy" playoff participant is more desirable than the risk of having a "worthy" participant not able to participate.

there's not a 'clean' answer that removes unworthy while assuring all worthy are included. i don't have an issue either way, tbh. i guess i fall under inclusion more than exclusion. what i don't like, i guess, is even among the 'unworthy', there are levels. and i don't want one of the inclusion automatics to be something that allows a borderline bowl team into the playoffs over someone that was a borderline bcs team (but otherwise clear high-bowl team). neither might be 'worthy' of the cfp, but one is wholly unworthy while the other is at least questionable.

My concern isn't so much the idea of an "unworthy" champion for several reasons:

• In a 12-team playoff the champion will have won three or four games against high-end opposition.  Prior to a few years ago doing that in an entire season was somewhat rare.  The winner will be "worthy" once they've completed that gauntlet.  
• I don't think it is going to happen anyway.  Expanding the playoff to two and then four has already REDUCED the chances of a weakling like BYU winning the NC and expanding it to 12 will just further reduce those chances.  
• I'm not sure how much I care anyway.  

My issue is that it degrades the importance of regular season games and I think that ultimately might end up killing the golden goose.  With no playoff, a two-team playoff, or a 4-team playoff there are 1-loss teams that miss the NC.  As an Ohio State fan I know this well because it happened to my team in 2015 (MSU) and 2018 (Purdue).  A second loss has ended the NC hope of EVERY team that has ever had a second loss except LSU in 2007.  


I care a LOT about my teams' games, even the random mid-season games because I've seen losses in random mid-season games derail potential NC teams.  I also care about YOUR teams' random mid-season games because they matter to my team in terms of spots available.  Ie, if Bama beats either Tennessee (lost by 3) or LSU (lost by 1) last year, my team misses the playoff.  Thus, it gives us a motivation to watch each others' teams' games.  

Once we expand to 12 and give guaranteed berths to the league champions, I don't think that fans like you and I will be counting spots anymore because there are too many moving parts and too many games that are effectively a wash.  Ie, Ohio State/Michigan is a wash if they are both in regardless or if they have the same record.  Same for Bama/Auburn so you no longer have a reason to care about THE GAME and I no longer have a reason to care about the Iron Bowl.  

I think that once the 12-team playoff is force, I'll care less about non-tOSU games and just figure that if Ohio State is at least decent (9-3), they'll probably get in.  I'll also care less about individual tOSU games because if they lose a random mid-season game to Purdue or MSU there will no longer be any chance of that individual loss knocking them out.  

Logistics would be easy with a "+1 as needed" method.  
Play your bowls and if 2 undefeateds are left standing (a la 2004), you have the +1 game.  You schedule it as if it's needed and if not, a venue stands empty for a day.  No big deal.

I will be somewhat "amused"? if Ohio State has to go to UGA some year in the first round and the weather is awful.  The Peach Bowl was famous for horrid weather back in the day.  UGA seriously might opt for the dome ... (???????) ...

We could go back in time and see who might have made the 12, but 11-2 would do it for a P5, and 10-3 would at times.


December 7, 2008 AP Football Poll

That copy/paste was a nightmare so here it is simplified:

• 12-1 Florida, SEC Champ
• 12-1 Oklahoma, B12 Champ
• 11-1 Texas
• 12-1 Bama
• 11-1 USC P12 Champ
• 11-1 Penn State, Big11Ten Champ (this was pre-B1GCG.  PSU beat #10 tOSU but lost to Iowa)
• 12-0 Utah, MWC Champ
• 11-1 TxTech
• 12-0 Boise St, WAC Champ
• 10-2 Ohio State
• 10-2 TCU
• 11-2 Cincy

So, as I understand it, the match-ups would be:
First Round:

• #12 Cincy at #5 USC
• #11 TCU at #6 Penn State
• #10 Ohio State at #7 Utah
• #9 Boise at #8 TxTech

Then, assuming no reseeding, the second round (neutral site) games would be:

• #1 Florida vs Boise/TxTech
• #2 Oklahoma vs Utah/tOSU
• #3 Texas vs PSU/TCU
• #4 Bama vs USC/Cincy

Then the Semi-Finals would be:

• UF/Boise/TxTech vs Bama/USC/Cincy
• OU/Utah/tOSU vs Tx/PSU/TCU

Logistics would be easy with a "+1 as needed" method. 
Play your bowls and if 2 undefeateds are left standing (a la 2004), you have the +1 game.  You schedule it as if it's needed and if not, a venue stands empty for a day.  No big deal.

It's the uncertainty that's the problem.  Playing, or not playing, a game, with only a few weeks' notice, doesn't give the various venues, hotels, and other needed support infrastructure, enough time to prepare and respond.  Especially considering that some or all of these games will be played around the holidays. 

An 80,000-100,000 seat venue can't just line up all of the necessary employee resources for an event, from parking to concessions to security to administrative staff, and then a week before, say "sorry just kidding, go home, no pay."

That's actually a particularly asinine idea.