SEC President's to possibly push for a playoff (football).

It could be a flexible 2-8 team playoff like the one I've proposed. Since 1995 there hasn't been less than 4 teams, but there hasn't been more than 6, and all contentious teams were invited. I use ratings and it works out fine without letting too many teams in.

 

agreed. But I find the argument over who should be the 4th team, 6th team, or 8th team to be a lot less infuriating than just #1 and #2... The same reason I don't understand the uproar caused by schools left out of the NCAA B-Ball tourney. Seriously, if you weren't good enough to make the field of 65, there's a 99% chance you're not going to win the thing and you'll never convince me that out of those 65 teams, the best team is not in there. I think 6 or 8 teams in football would be appropriate. You would have fans whining about being the team left out but at least you're very likely to have the best team in there somewhere, which is the point really, at least in my mind.

 

I do see your point, except I don't like the basketball comparison because of how many teams we're talking about. But to show you what I mean in football, last year, there were 6 teams with one or fewer losses. 2 of those teams would be left out of the playoffs, even though they may be just as deserving as 2 others. If you go uup to 8 teams, then you have LSU, USC, Auburn, Notre Lame, Oklahoma, etc. Who gets left out and why. LSU was playing as well as anyone else in the country at the end of last year, and could have won it even if they went in as an 8 seed. So where do you draw the line. Some years it may work out perfectly where 4 teams separate themselves and you end up with a nice round number. But some years, you may have 2 unbeatens and 3 1 loss team (like last year). How many teams to you accept in that year?