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If you get money AND a playoff spot (and theoretically, a percentage of the playoff money) then you have additional incentives to make a conference affiliation.

There is no reason to be in the MAC right now other than no one else will take you. But if the MAC was guaranteed a playoff spot, Purdue might take a lot longer look at them.

Problem #1 is that you only have them winning three games:

• Georgia
• Texas
• Ohio State

The 12-seed would have to win four games:

• 12 over 5 to get into the final eight
• 12 over 4 to get to the final four
• 12 over 1/8/9 to get to the CG
• 12 over 2/3/6/7/10/11 in the CG

So in addition to the three helmets you already have them taking out, they'd need a fourth big win.

Problem #2 is that the chances of pulling off four consecutive stupendous upsets are vanishingly small.

Problem #3 is that if they did all of that I just can't see anyone, not even @OrangeAfroMan or I arguing that they didn't deserve the #1 ranking.


I'm very outspoken in making the argument that upsets happen and the best team doesn't always win so in your example I'd probably still be saying that after UAB's road win at Georgia and maybe even after their upset of Texas but once they pulled off a third and then a fourth consecutive upset the numbers just don't work. It becomes more likely that we are wrong than it is that they beat those odds four consecutive times.

Problem #4 is that it would never happen. The playoff and playoff expansion makes it less likely rather than more likely for a non-helmet to win because UGA/TX/tOSU recruit at the highest level and spend the most on coaching, NIL, facilities, etc. They will suffer upsets but the more chances you give themen the more likely they (collectively) are to eventually win.

Given that for every school and every conference, football is the primary revenue driver by a huge margin and is used to support all of the other sports, then the amount of money associated with that playoff spot would have to equal or exceed the amount of money the B1G is paying to Purdue right now.  Because I highly doubt that the Purdue athletic department is running in the black.  Every dime that comes in, is spent on the annual athletic budget.

But if the above were true, then it would also mean that an Ohio State that makes the playoff, would not only be getting that huge playoff money, but they'd also still be getting their share of the B1G contract money.  So they'd be making something like double what Purdue is getting.  No school is going to make that move.

As always, the main sticking point is that we're not just talking about football teams here.  We're talking about entire athletic departments that support 10-20 other sports, none of which make enough money to prop up the rest.

One more thing, and it's one that I think fans of helmet teams fail to understand.

You've spent your entire fandom thinking about national championships. That's what you play for.

So you think about a team like Purdue and assume our goal is to make it into a playoff where we challenge for a national title.

But that's not it. Fans of non-helmet teams largely did NOT think about national championships. Honestly I rarely cared about the MNC at all. Going 8-4 or 9-3 was a successful year. Maybe having a good enough year to have a NYD bowl. Maybe beating Notre Dame (and definitely beating the Hoosiers). We had things to play for that were NOT the NC.

Or, at least we used to. Now with a 12-team playoff, the playoff is all that matters. And it only matters to about a dozen teams at the top of the sport who can recruit and have legit NC aspirations. Of which mine is not one, so the sport no longer matters to me.

Yeah but the downside of conference sharing is that teams like Ohio State share revenue with teams like Purdue. That was exactly the reason Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12, because they didn't want to share money when they could join a different conference and make up a bigger share. Leaving things the way they are actively encourages the OSU's and Alabamas to join a super conference. It's almost inevitable - we are effectively down to two super conferences by next year now. So like it or not, schools will be facing tough decisions.

I'm pretty sure they weren't 16 seeds.