Just saw this and I never thought that I could ever *disagree* more with Dennis Dodd. The only legit argument is about health concerns, except that the powers that be are hypocritical on that point. Every single other argument is a complete artificial straw-man. I'm sick of the whining about a hypothetical "4-loss conference champion making the playoff". IMHO, as long as it was earned 100% completely on-the-field, then that's ALWAYS more equitable than a bunch of old guys sitting in a conference room in Dallas choosing teams based on the eye test. It's not even that a 4-loss P5 champion is even that likely (which isn't in this day and age) - it's that it shouldn't even matter because if you win your conference, that is the ONLY thing that a school (outside of independents) can do that is 100% within its control and ought to be elevated accordingly. Everything else, such as strength of schedule, non-conference games and eye ball test issues are not within anyone's true control. I also don't know where Dodd gets this wacky notion that (a) there somehow can't be P5 champ auto-bids but (b) there MUST a reserved spot for the G5. Absolutely none of that argument made sense whatsoever. I'm sure the G5 fans on this board would like that one... but once again, that makes no sense.

Also, where on Earth do we get the notion that conference championship games would need to be eliminated to have a larger playoff? Are we once again believing the money-grubbing college administrators that they will supposedly refuse to have 2 more teams play one extra week in January for hundreds of millions of more dollars? Really?

ESPN might not *want* to spend more money, but that doesn't mean that it won't spend money to get the highest-rated product available... and I think an 8-team playoff would raise ratings from the regular season through the postseason across the board.

I could go on and on about these issues, but pretty much every argument against an expanded playoff outside of health concerns for the players is an artificial barrier made up in the minds of the powers that be... and such barriers can be removed easily when the price is right. They did it before with the current 4-team playoff system, where the most powerful people in the sport were stating that there would NEVER be an expansion of the BCS just a few months before they suddenly all changed their tunes. When the price is right, all of these immovable barriers suddenly don't look immovable anymore.