re: Is the Playoff ruining CFB or is it a symptom of a bigger problem?

It's a symptom of a bigger problem. The playoff was formed because of frustration with the BCS system and the computer formulas that generated the top 2 teams. And that system was created out of a flawed bowl system that was handcuffed because of conference tie-ins. Instead of just blowing up the whole bowl system, they created these workarounds. The reason they did that was because of how much money is involved in these bowl games, and how much influence the bowl committees have. Once the TV money entered the picture with ESPN holding rights to nearly every game, it just go worse.

Read Death To the BCS, which exposes a lot of the corruption involved both in the BCS and the bowl game system. And let's face it, the playoff is basically the BCS without the computer models and an added game. It's the BCS-Plus One many pundits proposed during the BCS era.