As the late great Al Davis famously said, "Just win baby!!", and I wish college football coaches and programs in general would go back to this slogan. There are far too many conversations of how to make the road for a playoff as convenient as possible, rather than going out there lining up for 60 minutes and winning games. As the move to 16 playoff teams is inevitable after this season, the format of how these teams are decided, should be much more about what you do on the field more so than conference affiliation. This is why I greatly dislike 4-4-2-2-1-3 model which guarantees four spots for the SEC and Big 10 and two for the ACC and Big 12. Getting a guaranteed seat at the playoff table based on what conference you are part of rather than wins on the field bothers me greatly.
The other playoff format that seems to be gaining some momentum is the 5-11 format which gives all four Power Conference champs a spot and then the highest rated non-power team like we saw last year with Boise State. This format gives guarantees playoff spots to conference champions and leaves 11 at large bids. Though the SEC and Big 10 will still probably have the most at large teams most years, it doesn't guarantee a set number of spots for them. Also, there may be years when certain conferences get more spots than the proposed number in the other format. One of the hang-ups with this format is there is a push for every conference to play the same amount of conference games.
We all know the SEC currently only plays eight conference games and unless they feel it is worthwhile to add the extra game financially or it helps with getting playoff guarantees, they don't feel it necessary to move to an nine game schedule. There seems to be the fear of what an extra game does to a team if they lose that additional conference game, more so then what it does to help your resume you beat another SEC team instead of blasting an FCS caliber cupcake prior to rivalry week. With all the resources and the plethora of talent that top SEC programs get in recruiting and in the portal, why is there so much concern about possibly losing games? What happened to the winning mindset of we can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime?
We've even seen Nebraska back out of a series against Tennessee because of how a loss there would effect their playoff chances. I get it you need as many wins as possible, but instead of worrying about losing the game, why not look at what a win over the Vols does for your season. It comes down to wins and losses, but a fear of losing shouldn't take away from matchups that are good for the game, and even more so these team's strength of schedule. Even if Matt Rhule's team loses to Tennessee I'd say a quality loss here may get more love from the committee than a win over maybe a MAC team, no disrespect to that fabulous conference.
At the end of last season, we saw SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey threaten that SEC teams will start playing nobodies in the non-conference as the conference schedule is hard enough when it comes to making the playoff. Of course this came in response to t of South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Alabama being left out of last year's playoff in favor of SMU and Indiana. Of course it's his job to politic for the conference at all times, but we all know it wasn't the non-conference games which doomed all three of those teams. The schedule is the schedule, win the games in front of you and don't shy away from challenging games out of conference.