I disagree. Division I college football was not only the only sport that did not have a playoff, it was the only division of college football that did not have a playoff. That was an utter travesty. The media often got to pick who would be crowned national champs and they picked several teams that most fans thought were unworthy.
Also, worthy contenders would not be matched against each other - sometimes one or both would deliberately duck one another - depriving fans of great matchups that absolutely should have happened. We not only should have had a playoff, we should have had one much sooner. And 4 teams is not enough. We need to expand the playoff to 8. Bear in mind that the other divisions of college football have 16 team playoffs. 8 is hardly too much considering there are about 130 Division I teams....so its not like teams that barely have a winning record are going to be able to sneak in.
As for the conferences, we will see. The PAC could have positioned itself very nicely had they done what I was telling everybody they needed to do over a decade ago which was invite Texas and Oklahoma and allow them to bring Oklahoma State and Texas Tech along as travel partners. The PAC would have had several name brand programs, as well as the two anchors of the Texas and California markets for viewers and recruits. They could have then stood up to the Big 10 and SEC and been quite competitive. Instead they sat on their hands and did nothing. Now look at them. Its their own fault.
The SEC and Big 10 are a lot richer and stronger than anybody else. The ACC could still be viable if they could secure Notre Dame but the PAC and Big 12 are no longer major conferences. Even combined they would not be a major conference.
The problem they run into is the so-called student athlete who gets a full “scholarship” to be an athlete in residence and not truly a student.
“And 4 teams is not enough. We need to expand the playoff to 8. Bear in mind that the other divisions of college football have 16 team playoffs. 8 is hardly too much considering there are about 130 Division I teams...”.
__________
On a surface level this seems perfectly logical and appropriate.
But FBS college football teams (previously known as Division I teams) exist and train to punish and wear/grind down the bodies, physicality, and athleticism of the players on the rosters of their fellow league teams. Do you not agree that the bug name teams that play 13, sometimes 14 games in the fall, have crossed a threshold, beyond which they are basically spending the very bodies of their own student-athletes?
I have a proposal that would basically take all 130 Division 1 teams and arrange them across divisions.
11 Divisions, each of which consist of two tiers, the first tier is the “power” tier, mostly consisting of the teams from the Power Conferences, and the “lower” tier of the teams currently in the non-power conferences, however, every year, one team from the lower-tier can move up to the power-tier, and be eligible for the playoffs.
With 11 Divisions, two teams from each Division qualify for the playoffs. The 11 Division winners get a First Round bye, the 11 second-place teams play in the first round, with the 2 lowest seeds playing in a “Play In” game. Then the 5 first round winners join the 11 Division winners in the Round of 16.