(01-08-2018 10:58 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  Yes...you're either being stubborn or trolling. Probably just stubborn and devil's advocating.

The fact of the matter is that if the 6th place team in the SWAC wins the auto-bid, they deserve to go to the NCAA Tournament more than the 6th place team in the Big 12 that was squeezed out of an at-large, because the former won their conference.

It's not a hard concept to grasp. When you don't win your own grouping, you're at the mercy of a committee or rules laid in place. You need an at-large, which is the case in every sports league except European soccer (who at least has a double round robin format) and the NBA until recently. And when you take note that the NBA is and has for decades in reality been two giant divisions, the same logic applies, as even if a team from the other conference has a better record, it doesn't mean they should get in the playoffs over a team with a worse record from the other and same goes for seeding.

It's not a hard concept to grasp.

Thats my feeling. If you win your conference--you are in. That allows a defined path for any team at the start of any season to completely control their own playoff destiny. Barring winning your conference, your secondary path is to impress the committee. Im fine if the second chance route is more subjective--becasue at that point, every team was already given a viable route (that they themselves had complete control over) to make the playoff.

Obviously, football is too physcial and the schedule too tight to do a 16 team playoff where every conference winner gets in. But, we should strive to get as close to giving every team a route into the playoff that is entirely within thier control as possible. I think the 8-team playoff (5 P5 champs, top G5 champ, 2 wildcards) does that.