My awesome playoff which will never happen

[Vowelguy]

I've long been opposed to a playoff, but have finally come around sorta. Part of the reason for being anti-playoff is the belief that they're going to royally screw it up and we'll end up with something that guts the regular season.

Hence my proposal:

• 12 teams
• The 4 highest ranked conference champions (or indy) get a 1st round bye and host 2nd round game (#1 ND, #2 Ala, #5 KSt, #6 Stan)
• The next 4 conference champs host 1st round games
• The top 4 non-conference champs also are invited

#8 LSU at #12 Florida St​

#7 Georgia at #15 No Illinois​

#4 Oregon at #19 Boise St​

#3 Florida at #21 Louisville​

• Highest ranked winner from 1st round is at #6 Stanford in week 2. Lowest rated is at #1 ND
• Semifinals at neutral sites

This places a huge premium on winning your conference title, thus ensuring that the regular season is very important.

 

[UConnDan97]

I still don't see any reason why they shouldn't do a 16 team playoff like 1-AA and everyone else does. You can keep the games at the home of the higher seeded teams, and it would look like:

1) ND vs. 16) Wisconsin (instead of Nebraska)
8) LSU vs. 9) TAMU
4) Oregon vs. 13) Oregon State
5) Kansas State vs. 12) Florida State

2) Alabama vs. 15) Louisville (instead of Northern Ill.)
7) Georgia vs. 10) South Carolina
3) Florida vs. 14) Northern Ill. (instead of Clemson)
6) Stanford vs. 11) Oklahoma

You'll notice that I kept the "Conference Champion" in the mix (Ville, Wisc.), along with the highest rated non-AQ since they are in the top 16. Play the final game at a neutral site if you want, or even the final four as you suggested. Done. Exciting. Fair. Let the best team win...

 

[Vowelguy]

You've gutted the regular season.

Florida doesnt even make the SEC title game and it gets the 3rd best spot.
Stanford wins the PAC and gets a worse draw than Oregon.

This is exactly what I fear about playoffs.

 

[UConnDan97]

You've gutted the regular season.

Florida doesnt even make the SEC title game and it gets the 3rd best spot.
Stanford wins the PAC and gets a worse draw than Oregon.

This is exactly what I fear about playoffs.

I haven't gutted the regular season at all. Florida has one less loss, and Stanford lost to an unranked Washington team. You cannot give preference to conference champions AND complain about not rewarding the regular season at the same time, right? All AQ conference champions are represented, and everyone has a BCS rank which values their regular season accordingly (SOS, AP, Coaches, etc.).

If you want to seed them based on slightly different criteria than the BCS standings, then so be it. But then you'll have to explain to me why you gave a bye-week to four of the six AQ conference champions and not to the other two. If you tell me "It's because they are the 4 best conferences", then I'll say "prove it." That's why the computers and the BCS rankings exist in the first place; to mathematically try to tease out the best teams (albeit to find only the top two, but the math is the same)...

EDIT: you only gave a bye to three of the six AQ conference champions because ND is independent, so you have even more explaining to do in terms of your selection...