quote:
Those Alabama and Clemson teams would have CLOWNED anyone else in a 12 team playoff. The 12 team playoff will be fun for those random mid-seed matchups it creates in the 1st round, but in the end there are only ever 2-3 teams a year that can actually win the title.

It's just adding extra steps to arrive at the same conclusion.

Yes and no.

The biggest impacts I see are:

1. You have to be a conference champion to get a first round bye. This would mean UGA would have had to play an extra game than Bama last year, and bama would have to play one more than UGA in 2017. That can have a big impact on injury situations by the time these teams meet up in the playoff that might make results different.

2. Teams that are extremely talented but have stumbles during the season are still in play. UGA in 2012 for example wasn't in the top 4 after the SECCG loss to Bama, but would have been in the top 12 and may have been the only team capable of beating Bama that year. Bama this year could have been dangerous. A couple of those OSU teams that had early mistakes but gained steam during the season could have caused problems.

3. Injuries in general. These will be 3-4 games of playoffs. A key performer goes down due to an extra game... that could seriously impact some teams. Particularly some of those teams that really were/are QB dominated. Bama this year (their backup after Young looked shaky). Those clemson teams with Watson and Lawrence. While injuries are a constant... with more games you'll have more injuries.