I love doing scenarios with 2012, because the rankings are SEC-heavy, you have ND at the top, undefeated OSU on probation, and the PAC champ ranked below a team in its division.
2012 8-team playoff (5 conf champs, 2 at-large, 1 G5)
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SEC Champ - Alabama (2)
ACC Champ - Florida St (13)
B1G Champ - Wisconsin (UR)
XII Champ - Kansas St (7)
PAC Champ - Stanford (8)
Highest G5 - Northern Illinois (16)
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So before we add in the 2 at-large teams, in our 8-team playoff, we don't yet have #1, 3, 4, 5, or 6. We have #16. We have an unranked team. Absolutely, this is a unique season, but look at it. We'd have created a system like this, with these results, ON PURPOSE.
Obviously, our first at-large is #1 Notre Dame. Cool.
Now for the other:
3 - n/a Ohio St (probation)
4 - Florida (didn't win its division)
5 - Oregon (didn't win its division)
6 - Georgia (won its division, but dropped from 3 to 6 for losing to Alabama in the SECCG)
Now, the purpose of this isn't to nitpick the 2nd at-large team, but to see where it's at among the other automatic bids.
No matter who is chosen here, they're the 3 seed.
1 seed ND (1) vs 8 seed Wis (UR)
4 seed K-State (7) vs 5 seed Stanford (8)
2 seed Alabama (2) vs 7 seed NIU (16)
3 seed Florida? (4) vs 6 seed FSU (13)
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The matchups are fine, that's not my focus. We want? a system that excludes what may be the 4th, 5th, and 6th-best teams for ones that may be the 13th, 16th, and 26th+ (the 4-5-6 if you just pretend OSU isn't there).
I'm not okay with that. Maybe if like they did with the BCS, if you had a lower-bound ranking for conference champs, I could get on board, at least for the P5 teams.
Whether it's 12th or 15th or whatever, we need a minimum ranking, don't we?
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