.
With so much interest in the proposed expansion of the CFP from 4 to 8 teams, the redoubtable "Frank the Tank" has made a proposal that some AAC fans may find interesting:
"In terms of providing some more access..., I’d personally allow the 2 best G5 champs play each other on Championship Weekend and the winner gets a playoff spot. Note that this would require the G5 leagues to determine their champs by Thanksgiving weekend (and possibly give up their own conference championship games). The G5 can split all of the TV and ticket revenue from that “G5 Championship” game.
While this doesn’t provide total access to each G5 champ, it at least opens up more chances for each G5 league and keeps more teams in the playoff hunt for longer into the season. (I’m a very big believer that the playoff *race* is actually much more important to keeping the maximum number of fans engaged compared to who actually ends up making the playoff.)"
https://csnbbs.com/thread-921015.html
.
Let's start out with the positives of his proposal:
*The AAC champion would have a better chance than they would have if the CFP were to be expanded with no auto-bids.
*It's encouraging that someone with Frank's stature thinks that a proposal to expand the CFP to 8 teams and grant guaranteed access by the top G5 team might actually fly.
.
The main negative, from the standpoint of AAC FB fans might be that the AAC mightn't be quite as likely to grab the auto-bid if the AAC team would have to win an extra game to get an auto-bid.
However, it's possible that the NCAA/CFP committee would see Frank's suggestion as being more likely to satisfy 4 of the 5 G5 conferences.
.
The main things that he hasn't specified yet, but could be decided with minimal effort, are:
1) What would be the procedures used to identify the "two best G5 champs" ?
2) Would the top FBS independent be treated as a "conference champion?"
.
It will be interesting to find out how many readers find Frank's suggestion to be encouraging in any way, and whether they see it as a proposal that might be more likely to pass than a straightforward 5-1-2 formula with 6 auto-bids for the top 6 conference champions that most AAC fans seem to favor.
.