(12-20-2018 11:29 PM)esayem Wrote:  Sites are simple. Keep the New Year's Day tradition for the Elite 8 in bowl games and then play the next week's Final 4 at neutral site pro stadiums.

Like a lot of simple answers, that answer is simple by ignoring the complications ... in this case, how far that drives the CFP into the NFL playoffs, cannibalizing viewership.

(12-20-2018 06:29 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  If we are going to be realistic, an 8 team playoff should just be the top 8 teams regardless of conference, as the whole point of an auto bid is to put someone in whether they deserve it or not.

It would be a lot easier to arrange that if there was a way to get unanimous agreement on how to decide what the best eight teams are. Part of the point of an autobid is to get in whether deserved or not, the rest of it is to guarantee not being left out because of being left out of the top eight unfairly.

I reckon 5 A5 champions + 1 [Go5 champion / Independent] + 2 at-large is going to pick the top four reliably on a variety of different ways of viewing which the top four are. I think any team that wins that playoff is a deserving National Champion.

Unlike the BCS in one or two years, I don't think the current system has yet left one of the top two out, but I think it has a bigger risk of doing so.

(12-20-2018 08:53 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  In a 5-1-2 playoff there should be no special rules for independents. Make Notre Dame earn the at-large. No leapfrogging a higher ranked team on the grounds that they're Notre Dame.

I tend to agree, but I don't think "should" and "will" are likely to line up on this point.