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Still feels like FSU should have been included in the 4-team CFP despite their awful showing in the Orange Bowl.  They deserved their shot more than Bama or Georgia did,  even thoug both Bama and Georgia were (most likely) better teams. But Bama and Georgia were probably better than Washington too.  Point is Mich, Wash, FSU were all undefeated conference champions of P5 conferences.  That should be enough to get in unless there are 5 undefeated P5 champions.  Georgia lost to Bama and Bama lost to Texas.  So Texas gets the nodd over the 1-loss teams from the SEC.

Of course what I am really arguing is that the expansion of the CFP to at least 6 teams is justified.  Whether it needs to go to 12 teams is debatable,  but that is a way to get a G5 team.  Otherwise I would have stopped at 8 teams.

4 was too many

just gotta decide if you want the 4 best teams (Bama & Georgia)
or the 4 most deserving teams (Warshington & FSU)

instead we got one of each

Should have had this out a week ago, but been a little busy.

There is really no rush especially postseason.  Anyway, thanks for doing this, I've always found it interesting.  That said, I don't know that we'll have much reason to care about these lists starting next season since being undefeated or having only one loss will be much less meaningful when there are 12 rather than four (2014-2023) or two (1998-2013) spots in the playoff.  

8 was always fine. 3 rounds, nobody gets a bye, plenty of slots for inclusion. What was 5+1+2 would have become 4+1+3 with the implosion of the Pac-12, so the SEC can get their three teams in and two from the B1G. And the tallest midget gets their sacrificial lamb slot. Everyone's happy.

I'd have made it the "five highest ranked League Champions" plus three at-large and stipulated that the first round is hosted by the four highest ranked League Champions to make winning your league important.  Looking at this year with that structure:

• 13-0 Michigan, B1G Champion
• 13-0 Washington, P12 Champion
• 12-1 Texas, B12 Champion
• 12-1 Alabama, SEC Champion
• 13-0 Florida State, ACC Champion
• 12-1 Georgia, at-large
• 11-1 Ohio State, at-large
• 13-0 Liberty, CUSA Champion

First round match-ups:

• Liberty at Michigan, winner plays FSU/Bama
• Florida State at Alabama, winner plays Lib/M
• Ohio State at Washington, winner plays UGA/Tx
• Georgia at Texas, winner plays tOSU/UW

• Winning your league matters.  Georgia and Ohio State have to travel to Austin and Seattle because they didn't.  M, UW, TX, and Bama get to host a CFP game because they did.  
• Being top-4 matters.  FSU travels because they aren't.  
• G5 (or whatever) gets a sacrificial lamb into the mix.  Ok Liberty, you think your 13-0 = a P5, lets see it.  Go win in Ann Arbor then take out Bama/FSU, then show us what you've got tOSU/UW/UGA/TX.  
• Individual games still have a high degree of importance because one loss can deprive you of hosting (see UGA/tOSU) and two losses knocks you out (Oregon, Mizzou, Penn State, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma are ALL on the outside looking in with two losses).  

With the 12 team model four of the five 2-loss teams are in along with ALL 1-loss teams and undefeateds.  

For the entire time I've been interested in CFB losses have been near-fatal to an NC drive.  EVERY game has mattered EVERY year because a single loss to a mediocre MSU (1998) or Purdue (2018) could keep your team out of the NC picture.  Starting this year, as an Ohio State fan, I'm fairly confident that my team has not one but two mulligans.  It is a completely different view of the sport.  All those talks every year that we've had about "Trap Games" are now more-or-less irrelevant.  

Look at Michigan this year.  They very nearly lost a trap game at Maryland.  It was sandwiched between visiting Penn State and hosting Ohio State so you can understand if maybe the Terps didn't have the full attention of the Wolverines but if Michigan had lost that game I don't think they'd have made the CFP.  The Committee could have blamed it on Michigan's woefully weak SoS and taken undefeated Champions FSU and Washington along with 1-loss Champions Bama and Texas and left Michigan out.  

If you think through the implications of the previous paragraph, what it means is that the NC was effectively on the line in EVERY one of Michgan's 15 games because a loss in any of the first 13 would have kept them out of the CFP and obviously a loss in either of the last two would have knocked them out of the CFP.  It goes beyond that though because nobody actually KNEW that Michigan was going to end up on top so the same stakes potentially applied to EVERY single game played by EVERY single NC Contender.  They applied to EVERY Ohio State game.  They applied to EVERY Texas game.  They applied to EVERY Washington game.  They applied to EVERY Alabama game.  They applied to EVERY Georgia game.  

Next year, for the first time in CFB History, that goes away.  If a relative gets married on a CFB Saturday and I have to miss the Ohio State game, no big deal because it isn't like the whole season is on the line, it is only one game.  So long as the Buckeyes don't lose three they'll have a chance at the end of the year.  

They applied to EVERY Alabama game?
They applied to EVERY Texas game?

Potentially yes because you didn't KNOW at the time that there wouldn't be 4 P5 undefeated teams.

potentially yes, but not in reality

But what matters as a fan, at the time, is the potential. 

In the four team era Ohio State finished a number of seasons with one loss. Sometimes it kept them out of the playoffs, sometimes it didn't. 

As a fan experiencing those losses I didn't know whether they WOULD keep tOSU out or not but I KNEW that the could:

• 2014 VaTech loss didn't. 
• 2015 MSU loss did
• 2016 PSU loss didn't 
• 2018 PU loss did
• 2022 M loss didn't 
• 2023 M loss did

So it was 50/50. Ohio State finished six of the 10 seasons of the 4-team CFP era with one loss. They made the CFP three of those (2014, 2016, 2022) and missed the other three (2015, 2018, 2023). 

The potential is what keeps it interesting to me.  The committee could well have decided Florida State over Alabama (other years, different committees would have).  Texas meanwhile wasn't safe till Alabama won the SEC.  They jumped a ton because their win over SEC champ Alabama.  They would have been highly unlikely to jump Florida State without Alabama winning the SEC and two weeks out I figured Oregon would beat them if it came down to only the two of them.

Those losses by Texas and Alabama were given mulligans, but they weren't something they knew they could afford until the final rankings came out.

That is what I will miss next year.  I love watching top games throughout the year knowing if the favorite losses, it might be all it takes to lose out on a championship.  I think my focus next year will be much more Big Ten focused as the national race is going to feel less meaningful.

All that said, I do agree Florida State should have been in over Alabama this year.