Quote:One thing that has struck me as funny about those who want auto-bids for the P5 conference champs and an auto-bid for the top G5 team is that while they rail and rail about how important it is that playoff spots are determined "on the field" and not by a subjective "beauty contest in a smoke filled room", they are for some reason perfectly comfortable with the idea that one of those auto-spots, the G5 spot

I agree that an Unconditional G5 auto-bid shouldn't be there for an 8-team playoff, like it is now for a 12-team setup. The Top G5 can sometimes be as low as in the 20s rank. I would say NO Unconditional G5 OR P5 auto-bid for an 8-team playoff -- but instead, as vandiver pointed out -- a limit on ranking to get in to Get that Conf auto-bid.

Quote:If that's the case, then they shouldn't have any fundamental problem with my "straight 8" proposal, filling the 8 spots strictly based on a committee ranking with no auto-bids for anyone

Well, as one who respects nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia/tradition -- I'm surprised you'd be going that route, actually. For Top 4, I agree -- because you have fewer teams than even power conferences. One of the MAIN reasons why there's a call for an 8-team playoff that will surely come in the not too distant-distant future.

But going by pure rank and only rank -- it's in the same realm as the argument that the Top 2 Ranked teams in a Conference should play for the Conf Championship, not the divisional winners. The Conference Champ Game is not destined to be for the Top 2 *ranked* teams specifically.

Right now for the "BCS" bowls, we don't go by pure rank. Even if the G5 wasn't there.

You want conference tie-ins to earn your way in, much the same as getting a Rose Bowl spot and the like. You let a 1L team of B12 in, but not a 1L team of the B1G in, this year? You eliminate this.

And, like in the NY5 BCS, with 10-teams, they'd allow an auto-bid for the Top G4 team if they were ranked #16 or higher -- and at least as good as a P6 Conf Winner. So if you're ranked Just over 50% more slots down from the # of teams in it, you could get in if someone below that did too.

Instead for an 8-team playoff, I say, go by #13 (or #12) or better if you win your conference -- G5 or P5. Rankings fill in the rest. You basically give an auto-bid to high-ranked Conf Winners, with the otherwise highest-ranked filling in the gaps, and let the playoffs figure the rest out.