A lot of the points you make actually make your standpoint that much worse. In straight 8, there is literally no incentive to play in a CCG, and I wouldn’t be surprised if teams tried to petition to withdraw from playing in them in order not to lose rank. At least in a 5-3 (I am NOT an advocate of 5-1-2, or 6-2) the CCG guarantees a bid. This also allows a team that took care of biz within the conference a chance at the playoffs, in turn selling more tix to the CCG and tuning in more viewers. Oh, conferences would love that BTW.

So a 5-3 increases the importance of P5 conference games, which is great for P5 conferences.

Straight 8 decreases the value of CCGs to the point where if an unranked team is playing their only hope is to spoil another team’s season, much less to play for than an auto-bid.

*Just to be clear, I personally prefer an NCAA sanctioned 10-2, or even 10-6, where CCG’s don’t necessarily exist (like FCS). Although I understand that ship left the dock in the 80’s, and crossed the horizon when 12 became the regular season game number. So I’m pulling for a realistic situation, which is definitely a 5-3.