JR likes 18 because it allows a wild card team to come from one of three divisions so that you have three division winners and then a strong wildcard team that make up your four teams for a conference tournament.

It really is just a matter of opinion. Both routes are viable but for college I really like the idea of having to win your division to get into that tournament and not simply being the best second place team in a division. The corresponding response would be "what if the second best team in a division is better than one or more of the other division winners?". My response to that would be "So what?".

It isn't all just about potential. It is about what you do with that potential and if one team's route is more difficult than another team's...once again, so what? Life isn't fair, these college students might as well learn that now. I don't see why we need to protect any particular programs over others. That is all that the wild card system would be doing. It would mitigate any balancing affect that would come about by having only division winners make it.

18 is nice but have to agree with Bit, 16 or 20 works better. That is just my opinion of course and we have zero actual evidence to support either position. The NFL works just fine with Wild Cards. I want to see some of the methodology of the NFL introduced into College Football but not All of it.