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College Football Playoff set-up could keep best teams out of title contention
Lamar Jackson and Louisville Cardinals have one loss this season that could keep them away from the College Football Playoff this year. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

College Football Playoff set-up could keep best teams out of title contention

It took a long time for us to get to a playoff in college football, so when it was announced as a four-team deal all of us who longed for a playoff gladly took it. It truly was better than what we had before and we were grateful to have more than two teams have an opportunity to win a national championship.

Now we've had a taste and some would like to see a six or eight team playoff (I'd like a 12-team playoff myself). No matter how many teams you make it, there will be people who felt they were snubbed, but this current format is a system where there are legit championship-winning caliber snubs seemingly every year. I mean, what if Alabama, Michigan, Clemson, Washington and Baylor all finish undefeated? One will be left out of the playoff and it may be because of something (namely the strength of their conference) that is completely out of their control. Plus, what does it say for Boise State or Western Michigan who went undefeated and lacked an opportunity to show what they could do against a Power 5 school?

People can point to the fact that things tend to work themselves out and it won't be as controversial as all that. Someone will be upset and, like last year, there will be just a small amount of arguing about who should be included. Fair enough.

However, this is not your typical year. With the major conferences getting so big, there is a distinct possibility that these conferences may cannibalize their opportunities. Plus, we may actually not have the four best teams playing for the title because of geography more than anything. There are three schools that could have as legitimate a gripe as anyone that they should be included among the playoff teams and that they are better than teams that are undefeated, yet because of geography will be left out.

Check out Texas A&M, Louisville and (possibly) Michigan.

Texas A&M has one loss on the season and that was at Alabama, pretty much the best team in the country in everyone's eyes. While the margin wasn't close, A&M can say that their one loss was a tougher contest than anyone else's win. Louisville feels the same. Then went into Clemson and saw their back-and-forth contest essentially end on the Clemson three-yard line. And while Michigan is undefeated right now, what if they go into Columbus right after Thanksgiving and lose a close one to the Buckeyes?

Say for each of those teams, everything holds up in their conference but some upsets happen around college football. Could a one-loss Texas A&M, Louisville or Michigan make the playoff despite not winning their conference championship? Not only did they not win the conference championship but they didn't even win their division and therefore didn't even compete in their conference championship game! In the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 geography determines what division you are in. The ACC split into arbitrary divisions but still have the same issue of having two top teams nationally in the same division.

While we've seen teams who didn't win their division make the BCS championship game before, the eight teams that have made the College Football Playoff since its inception two seasons ago all were conference champions. So far, no conference has gotten more than one team in a single playoff. So could the College Football Playoff committee justify putting in a team that no only didn't win its conference championship but didn't even win its division when they've obviously put so much value on winning the league title?

For instance, should an 11-1 Louisville team that finished behind Clemson in the ACC Atlantic Division make it ahead of an 12-1 Washington team that won the Pac-12 championship?

Look at 2011 when Alabama finished 2nd behind LSU in the SEC West Division. Bama lost to LSU during the season for its lone loss, LSU played in and won the SEC Championship and the BCS paired them up for the National Championship. Alabama won 21-0 and were national champions despite not being conference nor division champs. We see that in other sports, but that's not how college football has worked most of the time.

These huge 14-team conferences have caused these unbalanced schedules that have also caused drama. This doesn't even account for Tennessee, who beat Florida but had the unfortunate luck to have to face Alabama and Texas A&M in the SEC West while Florida gets LSU and Arkansas. Tennessee has two losses so far – to Bama and A&M – while Florida's loss was to Tennessee. Florida could win the East Division and go to the SEC title game while Tennessee misses out just because of the differences in their schedules. Sure, you can argue that they need to win those games and "it is what it is" but no other SEC East division team has to play Alabama each and every season like the Vols do.

Hopefully all this may lead to expanding the playoffs to six or eight teams. Then we could invite most of the teams that really feel they are championship worthy. I mean, right now we could imagine Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, Washington, Baylor/West Virginia winner, Ohio State, Louisville and Texas A&M in an eight-team playoff. How sweet would that be?

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