And say Missouri beats Auburn for the SEC championship. Missouri would get the 3rd spot but who would get the 4th and final playoff spot? Would Bama get it even though Auburn beat them? I think so. Just goes to show that the playoff will not end all the controversies. It should be an 8 team playoff instead of 4 teams. That way the controversies would be over the 8th and 9th best teams instead of the 4th and 5th.
I just had this exact discussion with someone yesterday. It would be a disaster this year for the exact reason you stated. The loser of the SECCG would get booted, while bama sits at home on their asses and gets escorted into the playoff (sound familiar?). There has to be some way to rectify conference championship games with the playoff system. I'm not sure what the answer is, because if you stipulate that a team must win its CCG, you could have a 3 loss team in the playoff with the current CCG cross-divisional set-up. Regardless, under no circumstances should a team be rewarded for not reaching its CCG.
Definitely SEC CG winner, Ohio State (if they won), FSU and Alabama. There isn't even a good choice outside of those 4. Oklahoma State lost to West Virginia (a bottom 50 team in the nation) by 2 scores. I think they would take Michigan State in the event they would beat Ohio State, leap frogging several teams in the rankings. Michigan State lost at Notre Dame 17-13. This would probably be the two teams being considered for the 4th spot in the tournament. Baylor's loss was too terrible and too recent, and they struggled to win last week against a mediocre TCU team.
Well in the event a conference champ has 3 losses, they wouldn't even be in the top 10 rankings most likely and therefore not considered in the top 4. The bigger issue is that everyone should be forced to have a conference championship game. Let's realign these conferences and get everybody with a minimal 12 teams (or optionally 14 or 16). That has to be rectified in the near future.
But that's why I said if you make that stipulation. If you don't, you could end up with a 1-loss team that actually lost its CCG, or one that didn't even make its CCG.
You go conference champs first and then set a bar on lowest ranking allowed. Then you allow highest rated team who's conference is not already represented, and apply the same lowest bar. Then you go highest rated remaining team regardless of all else. Good mixture of broad inclusion and exclusivity.
It just seems like some CCGs are already a de facto NCG play-in game (esp in the SEC in recent years), and it's going to be hell trying to get the two systems to align. Maybe the CCG match-ups can be tweaked? Oftentimes, the two best conference teams are in the same division.
Huh? Allow a conference who is stationed in Birmingham to choose its champion as it sees fit? Fuck that, earn it on the field or shut the fuck up and watch it from home.