Everyone is complaining about the playoff. Notre Dame has been left out. Alabama, Tulane and JMU are in. With the current rules, you can’t complain about Tulane and JMU being in it. Those are the rules. They will be fixed next year. But Notre Dame out and Alabama in? It’s definitely open for debate.
But what if we got rid of the nonsense of having G5 schools in this playoff and gave them one of their own? Would that make everyone happy? Here’s a make believe scenario where this happens. Using my current up to date rankings, I’ll set up a 16 team playoff for both the Power 4 schools and the G5 schools. All 1st round games are played at the home stadium of the higher seed.
Power 4 Playoff 1st Round
| Seed | Home team | vs | Seed | Visitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Indiana (13-0) | vs. | #16 | USC (9-3) |
| #2 | Ohio State (12-1) | vs. | #15 | Miami FL (10-2) |
| #3 | Texas Tech (12-1) | vs. | #14 | Vanderbilt (10-2) |
| #4 | Oregon (11-1) | vs. | #13 | Texas (9-3) |
| #5 | Georgia (12-1) | vs. | #12 | Utah (10-2) |
| #6 | Ole Miss (11-1) | vs. | #11 | Alabama (10-3) |
| #7 | Oklahoma (10-2) | vs. | #10 | Notre Dame (10-2) |
| #8 | BYU (11-2) | vs. | #9 | Texas A&M (11-1) |
If you are the #17 seed and you get left out, no one will care. You don’t have a realistic chance of winning a national championship anyway.
Under this syste, the ACC gets 1 school in the playoff, the Big 10 gets 4 schools in, the Big 12 gets 3 schools in, the SEC gets 7 schools in and Notre Dame gets in as an independent.
G5 Playoff 1st Round
| Seed | Home team | vs | Seed | Visitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | (27)Tulane (11-2) | vs. | #16 | (77)Hawaii (8-4) |
| #2 | (31)North Texas (11-2) | vs. | #15 | (76)Kennesaw State (10-3) |
| #3 | (32)USF (9-3) | vs. | #14 | (75)Army (6-5) |
| #4 | (36)JMU (11-1) | vs. | #13 | (74)UTSA (6-6) |
| #5 | (41)Navy (9-2) | vs. | #12 | (65)UNLV (10-3) |
| #6 | (54)ECU (8-4) | vs. | #11 | (64)San Diego State (10-2) |
| #7 | (59)Memphis (8-4) | vs. | #10 | (62)Old Dominion (9-3) |
| #8 | (60)Boise State (9-4) | vs. | #9 | (61)New Mexico (9-3) |
I think its definitely time to have a G5 playoff. The bowls are dying. NIL is creating larger gaps between the haves and the have nots. Conference realignment is coming in 5 years. There will probably be a need for two separate playoffs then anyway.
Under this system, the AAC gets 8 teams in the playoff, C-USA gets 1 team in, the Mountain West gets 5 teams in, and the Sun Belt gets 2 teams in. The MAC gets left out as Western Michigan is ranked #83.