Easy. Southern Florida ends up in the National Championship game against Ohio State and gets totally clobbered in a completely one-sided, laughable game.
I don't think so. I think the most likely case will be one like Auburn's case where they go unbeaten in a tough conference, and don't get a shot at the title.
What makes you think that a team who can beat WVU and Auburn would be stomped by Ohio St. (or any other team)?
The bowl games are the problem. They don't want to be marginalized by a playoff system. Equally, the schools that don't make the playoff will feel that their bowl games are less significant.
South Florida would certainly be a step up in competition for Ohio State by comparison to anything they have in the Big Ten. I'd go as far as to say that the Big East is a better league this year than the Big Ten.
What the teams and bowls don't grasp is that we already have a playoff - it's just a 2 team, 1 game playoff. Expanding that, at least to 4 teams, seems like a no-brainer. New Year's Day could see the 4 teams playing in a great double-header (using two existing bowls), and the winners play about a week later (at another existing bowl). All of the other bowl games are not really affected in any great way that I can figure out. Only two teams would play an extra game than they otherwise would have played.
If Notre Dame were to go undefeated but not play in the national championship game, there would be a playoff the very next year. Excluding that unlikely scenario, don't get your hopes up.
Indeed. There are rarely more than four teams still in contenetion for the National Championship by December. A four-team, two-game playoff could be an ideal solution.
