David Shaw: 8-Team Playoff Would be Phenomenal, "Only Thing That Makes Sense"

Stanford captured the Pac-12 Championship with an easy victory over USC, but the 11-2 Cardinal still missed the playoff. The consolation isn’t bad – the Rose Bowl – but in an era when every bowl game is an exhibition, Stanford would obviously much rather be in a playoff. And it would be … if there was an 8-team playoff.

David Shaw, Stanford coach, your thoughts on an 8-team playoff?

"“I do believe at some point it’s going to be an eight-team playoff,” Shaw said Sunday in a teleconference involving the two coaches. “I think it’s going to be unavoidable. I’m not upset by any stretch of the imagination. “I just know this year is a part of the process where you have these teams in Stanford and Iowa and Ohio State that you could make a case could be in a playoff, and it would be a phenomenal playoff. So I have no problems with where we are now. I just do believe eventually, it will become an eight-team playoff because it’s the only thing that makes sense."

He’s not wrong. I’ve made my arguments about why an 8-team playoff helps the regular season (you can listen to them here at the 100-minute mark), and what it would do the postseason. Don’t believe Mike Francesa; it is definitely do-able. Here’s what an 8-team playoff would look like this year, with the home teams hosting 1st round games:

1 Clemson
8 Notre Dame

4 Oklahoma
5 Stanford

3 Michigan State
6 Ohio State

2 Alabama
7 Iowa

I went with Ohio State over Iowa (narrowly) because it has the better win, and they both have the same loss. It’s entirely subjective, obviously.