There is one big reason this matter will not yet be decided, .... realignment at the P5 level is not finished. When it is finished, we will have a new playoff system to fit what we are, and not one hoping to guess where we will be.

Nothing is going to change the financial disparity. Some key schools may yet leave old surroundings in order to better their financial standing and to enhance their brand associations.

Why design a playoff for a P5 and G5 when we could be easily looking at a P2 or P3 and a G2 or G3. And in both circumstances, there are great reasons to consolidate, among which are the elimination of duplicated conference overhead and the division of surviving overhead with more schools which lessens everyone's burden, the added leverage and inventory when negotiating rights packages, the culling of a few conference members who are merely leaching from others and who invest little in facilities and competitiveness, and the regionalizing of play within divisions. Ease of schedulin would be another.

With more, and larger, regional divisions within conferences creating a playoff format to fit 2 or 3 conferences in each tier would be a natural and simple solution to the playoff system.

Again, form follows function.