re: Is the playoff going to hurt the SEC?

I still think that there needs to be 6 playoff teams with the top 2 seeds getting a bye.

This would make the championship games defacto play- in games, and the two remaining spots "wild cards." Make seeds 3-6 play the weekend before Christmas, and next games as planned on NYD, with the championship the week after.

Use the 6 big bowls and bid on the championship site.

This would fix it.

Oh, and the SEC needs to go to 9 conference games and ban games against FCS teams! :)