A 12-Team Playoff wouldn't solve this, either
An undefeated team would be left out of the 2024 Playoff regime, too......
Florida State got screwed.
Never before had an undefeated Power 5 conference champion been left out of the 4-team college football Playoff.
Until today.
Instead, Florida State has to settle for playing two-time defending champ Georgia in the Orange Bowl.
Maybe Florida State gets blown out, being on their third-string quarterback. Maybe Florida State would have been this year’s TCU if they had made the playoff.
Next year, we’d know the answer to that instead of playing Georgia in the Orange Bowl they would have been the #3 seed and received a bye as a conference champion. Because the bids next year will be as such:
Guaranteed bids for the top five conference champions in the CFP rankings; no conference will have an automatic bid, a conference must have a minimum of 8 members to be eligible for an Automatic bid.
At-large bids for the seven highest-ranked remaining teams, which could include additional conference champions.
The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive first-round byes.
But if you think this solves the bigger problem, think again. Because even in the 12-team playoff, 13-0 Liberty would get left in the cold.
What would still solve all of this would be the 16-team playoff that I have proposed for years that would guarantee that each conference champion receives a bye. Which would look like this:
# 1 Michigan (B1G) vs # 16 UNLV (MWC)
# 2 Washington (Pac 12) vs #15 Miami (MAC)
# 3 Texas (Big 12) vs # 14 Troy (Sun Belt)
# 4 Alabama (SEC) vs # 13 SMU (American)
# 5 Florida State (ACC) vs # 12 Liberty (CUSA)
# 6 Georgia (At-Large) vs # 11 Ole Miss (At-Large)
# 7 Ohio State (At-Large) vs # 10 Penn State (At-Large)
# 8 Oregon (At-Large) vs # 9 Missouri (At-Large)
Under the current scenario, Oklahoma would still get in over Liberty since Liberty was ranked only 23rd in the College Football Playoff Rankings. In my proposal, Liberty would replace Oklahoma as the 12 seed and still be joined by four other conference champions who would almost certainly not get a sniff in the playoffs next year.
The Power 4 Conferences either need to break off and do their own thing or let everybody have a bite of the apple. Because this expanded playoff is not going to be the answer either…