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WMU Deserves Playoff! Not Cotton Bowl!

Nice points.

I disagree though... not in a 2-bowl "Play Off" like there is now. In an 8-team Playoff, which is about the minimal amount you can have for a Real playoff, I would agree there.

The concept of "don't leave an undefeated team behind No Matter What" has a flaw to it. They'd make a schedule like Marshall did a couple years back with 3 MAC East teams + a D1AA team as their OOC schedule. Marshall still lost a game, which goes to show how Difficult it is to be Undefeated, even with an easy schedule... because not Every team in an easy schedule is going to be easy. However, with an easy schedule, it is easier to get 0L as it is someone with a challenging G5 schedule to get 1L. The rankings handle this. Especially disliking the G5 in general.

IMO, I would like to see an undefeated team get an auto-bid to an 8-team playoff... with a stipulation to avoid what Marshall did a couple years back: How you set up your schedule. It has to show intent of not trying to make it easy. Some rules can be in place about said team's previous record upon scheduling them. Looking at ours, how does it fare? :

1. Northwestern: 10-3 - Expected to be around 8W [got off to a wrong start; QB didn't improve as expected early on]
2. Illinois: 5-7 - Expected to be around 6W with a senior QB [late coaching change + injuries made them take a step back]
3. GA-Southern: 9-3 + 9-4 in '14+'15. Top-line Sun Belt Team. Expected to be at least 8W. [New Coach + injuries made them falter during season]
4. Northern Illinois: 11-3 + 8-6 in '14+'15. Expected to be around 8W. [Injuries + Carey HC has made them not up to par; one of the most dangerous 5-7 teams this year, for what it's worth]
5. Toledo: 9-4 + 10-2 in '14+'15. Top-line MAC team. Expected to be 9W this season, and they're on par for that.
6. CMU: 7-6 last two years. Great QB to challenge any teams + good D. Expected to be around 8W this year, and despite beating OK-State, injuries & such made them fall to 6-6.

With that said, EMU turned out to be better than expected, but that's about the only one in the opposite direction. Toledo is Toledo, and that's all good.

I would say WMU this year would pass said test for an 8-team Playoff Entry. Marshall from a couple years back, IMO, would fail. My requirements would be for an undefeated team to get in:

- 2 P5s (where one would have to be over .500 combined the previous two years) [We PASS]
- Only 1 D1AA (technically you could have Two replacing the following G5, but they'd have to be ranked high; nobody would do it anyway) [PASS]
- 1 Expected Top-Conf-Competitor G5 [PASS]

In a nutshell -- if there's guidelines to prevent you from purposely making an easy schedule -- yeah, I believe when there's an 8-team playoff 5 years from now or so, an Undfeated team should get an auto-bid if it fits the criteria of Intent.