We Need an 8-Team Playoff to Avoid Arbitrary Comparisons Across Power Conference Champs

The Selection Committee released its first College Football Playoff rankings this week. Though a pointless promotional exercise, these rankings aggravate many. The polling is arbitrary. The justifications are capricious week to week. This week: a team must be “complete,” whatever the heck that means.

For fans in the fray, this is abysmal. It ruins something that should be fun. If you root for Michigan State, TCU, or Baylor, you are not excited about the prospect of an undefeated season, the chance to win your conference, and your program’s near unprecedented success. You are angry because the national media and some elderly white guys in an ivory tower don’t respect your team’s achievements this year.

And, yes, you’re wondering why a crew of college football establishment icons, at least subconsciously, is giving Alabama, Ohio State, and Notre Dame the benefits of similar doubts.

Playoff discussion, while great for the media, subsumes competition on the field. It offers no correct answer. There will never be enough data. Like the BCS, the rare year where there are four clear teams is the only year the committee will work without issue. Discussion is diminishing the sport’s regionalism and the value of only winning the conference.

Blowing up the postseason to salvage regionalism isn’t practical or desirable. The playoff creates wonderful theatre. But, some of its drawbacks could be alleviated by moving to eight teams.

There’s no good way to pick four of the five power conference champions? Under an eight-team playoff, the committee doesn’t need to do so. They all get a shot. No good way to compare the accomplishments of an 11-1 Notre Dame or an undefeated Memphis? They can meet fixed thresholds for an at-large bid.

If Memphis slips in at No. 8 and upsets No. 1 on the road, they belonged. If they get blown out, No. 1 got a just reward for finishing No. 1.

Every Power 5 champion getting in refocuses attention where it belongs in November: on the field, in conference play. Teams and fans are worried about the opponents to come, not how it will play on the campaign trail.

The Big 12 has a four-team round robin this month to win the conference title. Fans of Oklahoma, Baylor, TCU, and Oklahoma State should be feverish about how insane and incredible that’s going to be, not whether winning it will garner enough respect nationally for it to matter.

Two years in, the playoff is showing it is an improvement. It also is showing room for improvement.