When I first saw that a 12-team playoff was the leader in the clubhouse, my initial reaction was, "WTF?!"

Thinking about it further, though, maybe the powers that be have been paradoxically convinced that a 12-team playoff is actually less of a shock to the status quo than an 8-team playoff. I don't know if I personally believe that to be the case, but I can see the following rationale:

(1) We have concentrated on changes to the 4-team playoff itself (myself included), but the powers that be are probably looking at the CFP system as all NY6 bowls put together. How many teams are in the NY6? 12 teams with 5 P5 contract bids, 1 G5 spot and 6 at-larges*. Essentially, the new system would take that exact same field but just put them into a 12-team playoff.

(2) Similarly, a 12-team playoff presumably would give the top 4 teams a bye for the first round. This preserves the top 4 horse race that exists in the current CFP system while expanding enough to allow for auto-bids for all of the P5 and the top G5 champ. (Personally, part of my support for an 8-team playoff with P5 auto-bids was to remove a lot of the power from CFP selection committee, but the powers that be apparently like it and a 12-team playoff would preserve it.) Essentially, the CFP committee power and the top 4 rankings show every week will still be very important in a 12-team system in a way that might not have been the case in an 8-team playoff.

Now, I think a 12-team playoff potentially blows up (or at a minimum completely reshuffles) the bowl system in a way that an 8-team playoff could have avoided. When it comes to the actual *participants* in a 12-team playoff, though, I think they're basically just saying take the current NY6 field and turn it into a playoff. "Easy peasy."

EDIT: * - I understand that the current "at-larges" in the NY6 aren't necessarily always true at-larges with how the contract bowls work. The point, though, is that they current "top tier" consists of 12 teams and a 12-team playoff essentially just rolls that forward.