(01-17-2018 02:34 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote: Someone try to rationalize the fairness of ND having the same amount of votes (1) as the entire 14 member SEC (1), so in essence, ND has 14 times the voting power as Alabama. Also, ND is already a member of the ACC, and they already have a vote, so they now have 2 votes with ND.
First, if the CFP were a general athletic body, you'd have a point about ND and the ACC. But, ND is not a *football* member of the ACC, and this is a football-only body, so no, the ACC does not have two votes. Proof of this is that no other Power conference would tolerate the ACC having two votes.
Second, ND has the same number of votes because Notre Dame is the only blue-blood independent. Are they really 14x more important than Alabama? No, but if they didn't have a separate vote, they would have zero influence on the CFP, which would give them infinitely less influence than Alabama.
So if the choice is between ND having 14x more influence or infinitely less influence, then 14x more is closer to the ideal (same influence), especially since from Alabama or Texas point of view, there's no harm done in ND having a vote.
Basically, no college playoff system can be credible if Notre Dame isn't part of it. That's not true of BYU, Army, the AAC, the Sun Belt, etc.