quote:
My thought (for what it's worth) is to just go straight to a 8 team playoff (maybe less). Take the Champs of 6 AQ conferences plus two "wild Cards"

I personally would vote for taking away the Big East's AQ status. Idk who I'd give it to though.

What do you guys think? (of the idea over all, and who you think should get the Big East's AQ status if you would take it away)

I use to be totally against an 8 team playoff but have now come full circle on the idea. I agree that it's probably the only way to come up with a good compromise between the conference champion only crowd vs the simply take the top teams regardless of conference crowd.

I like your idea except that I wouldn't give the Big East's bid to another conference. I'd give bids to the 5 highest rated conference champions and then 3 at large bids to the highest rated teams that didn't win their conference. Those teams would have been Alabama, Stanford, and Boise State this past season so that argues against deserving non-AQ conference teams being left out in such a format. I would further stipulate that these conference winners have to at least be ranked in the Top 12 to qualify. That would have eliminated Clemson and West Virginia which weren't even ranked in the Top 18 in the final poll and quite frankly didn't deserve a bid over Alabama, Stanford, and Boise State.

I think a 5 highest rated conference champions/3 at large bids with a Top 12 requirement for conference champions. I'd even throw in a Top 8 requirement for highest ranked teams that didn't win their conference to qualify for the at large bids. The top 8 requirement would have eliminated Virginia Tech after its very ugly loss to Clemson in the title game. I know that would have meant an ACC team wasn't in the playoff but that would actually be a good thing from the standpoint that such a playoff wasn't just a good ole boy agreement among the SEC, B1G, Big 12, Pac 12, and ACC to always gaurantee a team from each conference in the playoff. This would further appease the small non-AQ conferences to agree to this.

This post was edited on 5/17/12 at 8:52 am