champions so it won't be dominated by any one conference any more than the current format. There are only six at large spots. The top four conference champs get a bye, not the top four teams. Home playoff games??? Can you imagine the intensity and pageantry? Not saying it will happen soon but Lane hosting a freaking playoff game?!?! This will happen for multiple teams a year and will electrify those fan bases. Honestly, I almost would rather Tech host a playoff game than get a first-round bye. Oh and since the top six ranked conference champions auto-qualify then each of the conference championship games are essentially playoff games for the lower ranked teams. That's even MORE meaningful games. Here is how it would look this year: Byes These are awarded to the four highest-ranked conference champions. 1. Georgia 2. Michigan 3. Clemson 4. Utah Rest of field 5. TCU 6. Ohio State 7. Alabama 8. Tennessee 9. Kansas State 10. USC 11. Penn State 12. Tulane College Football Playoff First round Game 1: (9) Kansas State at (8) Tennessee Game 2: (12) Tulane at (5) TCU Game 3: (10) USC at (7) Alabama Game 4: (11) Penn State at (6) Ohio State Quarterfinals Game 5: (1) Georgia vs. Game 1 winner Game 6: (4) Utah vs. Game 2 winner Game 7: (2) Michigan vs. Game 3 winner Game 8: (3) Clemson vs. Game 4 winner If you go back to 2015 and had a 12 team playoff the distribution of teams per conference would look like this: Big Ten: 23 SEC: 22 Big 12: 15 ACC: 13 Pac-12: 12 AAC: 6 Independent: 3* M-West: 1 MAC: 1 Sun Belt: 1 Big Ten: Ohio State (8), Penn State (4), Wisconsin (3), Michigan (3), Michigan State (3), Iowa (1), Indiana (1) SEC: Alabama (7), Georgia (5), Florida (3), LSU (2), Auburn (1), Ole Miss (2), Texas A&M (1), Mississippi State (1) ACC: Clemson (6), Florida State (3), North Carolina (1), Miami (1), Pittsburgh Notre Dame (1)* Big 12: Oklahoma (6), TCU (2), Baylor (3), Kansas State (1), Iowa State (1), Oklahoma State (1) Pac-12: Washington (3), USC (2),Utah (2), Oregon (2), Arizona (1), Stanford (1), Colorado (1), AAC: UCF (2), Cincinnati (2), Memphis (1), Houston (1) Independent: Notre Dame (3) Mountain West: Boise State (1) MAC: Western Michigan (1) Sun Belt: Coastal Carolina (1) BTW, Bowl games are only meaningless if we the fans deem them to be meaningless. I went the Gator bowl this year with my son who goes to USC. It was packed with gamecock fans and everyone was really into the game. It was FAR from meaningless to those fans. The opts outs are frustrating but I imagine there is something happening soon that will change some of that. Citing my source: ** Edited by ColumbusHokie at 1/2/2023, 2:13:32 PM

after playing a first round game (assuming they win that) and Meeshigan gets a week rest? Oh and they decide they might want to take TCU seriously (I think they vastly underestimated TCU, they were already planning their chance at the natty) after seeing their first round game tape. 12 team playoff is completely unnecessary. Take the top four ranked conference winners. Yes, occasionally an undeserved might get it if they luck out in the CCG - that's the pageantry and Cinderella story - as exciting as an on campus playoff game would be. Top teams will dominate the byes and I'd bet a lot of money no team without a bye gets to even the semis, much less the final. Yes, it could happen, like a 16 seed beating a 1 seed...... This isn't basketball where you get on a four consecutive day run in the same building - in football you get on a four quarter run and surprise a team a la VT-OSU in the shoe - then wait a week, off to another venue, against a well rested bye team, who saw what happened. Very unlikely to happen again. I always liked the idea of adding one game to the top ranked teams - after the bowls.

NASCAR peaked, over expanded and now is back to what it was before the peak. Why? Because it stopped being about racing and started being about promotion and the money became so huge that the majority of teams couldn't compete. Only the teams with big money had a real chance week in and week out. The only mystery each week was which of the 6 drivers from the 2 teams were going to win. Is the racing any good any more? I don't know. Because I lost interest and found better things to do with my weekends, which is now pretty much true of CFB for me. If I watch a game a week, it's a lot and I used to watch from noon to sleep time every Sat. Haven't watched a minute of a bowl game this year, won't be watching the playoff games, etc.

This post reminds me of the glimpse of Potterville because we did not appreciate Bedford Falls while we had it. It WAS a wonderful life…