12 and 14 team fbs dance mighty boosh. 16 or bust
ND does not deserve it's own deal in any fbs setup as per the leading 14 team proposal.
Take it to 16 with 1-16 playing it out on homefields per a composite of 3 or so major ranking systems; 1 plays 16 and so on.
the "straight up, fair deal" plan. unfortunately this does not punish ND for not being in a conference but it seems fairest and most exciting plan. A 3rd place game would be worth it and would spice up championship week.
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."
- Dan Quayle
Why a 14 team playoff and not 16 teams? So the B1G and SEC champs are the only two byes.
(spacecowboy wakes up this morning to the smell of skunkweed with a massive hangover and says to himself) "What happened yesterday? Did I say that thing out loud or was it only in my head?"
I think it is really cool that we won the National Championship. Now that it isn't sour grapes I can say that I think the current setup and expanded setup for playoffs is antithetical to what has made college football special.
Number of Games
The NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and NCAA Basketball all have playoffs and a ton of regular season games. They also have one thing in common in that I rarely watch their regular season games. There are so many games that none of them actually matter. I just wait for my team to make the playoffs, or advance a round or two in the playoffs and then I watch them. I want the Lions and Bills to win, but if I miss them playing the Packers/Patrriots, I can watch the rematch later that year.
CFB used to have 10 games and a bowl game. ~1/5th of the year you had a college football game to watch. If Michigan was good you wanted it to last forever. If Michigan was bad it was over soon enough. Less is more. Each of those games mattered and they left you wanting more. We played 15 games this year and the National Champion next year will play 16-17 games. That's 1/3rd of the year. That's too much.
OOC games
My first in-person Michigan game as #1 ND vs.#2 Michigan. I'd never experienced anything like that in my life. The crowd was crazy. Marshmallows were flying everywhere and Michigan outplayed ND despite Raghib Ismail running back to kicks deflating the crowd. To see a game like that was life changing. In all my years at Michigan we played quality OOC opponents: ND, UCLA, Maryland, FSU, OKst, Houston, Washington State, Colorado, and BC. The schools weren't always ranked, but they were quality. Now we play ECU, UNLV, Bowling Green, Hawaii, Connecticut, Colorado State, Middle Tennessee, etc. People say students aren't going to games because TV is better and kids have the attention spans of gnats, but it is because the prime games where you make students into life long fans are garbage soup can games. No one is going to be a convert after watching Michigan mail one in against Middle Tennessee in a snooze-fest. We only have so many good weather games to convert new students. The non-athletic brainy girl from NJ who [writes emo poetry about white privilege] has a narrow window in which to become a mega-fan.
Nebraska, and Alabama many years were the prime examples of playing soup cans so that they'd be undefeated and potentially ranked #1 to play in the championship game. Guys like David Brandon also realized that they could get another home game if they only played directional schools in the OOC.
It has been suggested that we only play soup cans to increase our chances of making the playoffs. I think this is the dumbest thing in the world. The University of Michigan is special for many reasons, but a big one is that 17-19 year old kids get their minds blown watching great football games in their first few weeks of school. They are part of something much bigger than themselves.
(A SOS component to making the playoffs would help alleviate this.)
A Bar in Chicago
College football has traditionally been regional. You go to a bar in Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville and you'll be able to talk smack to a graduate of almost any B1G school. Though maybe not Maryland, or Rutgers, or PSU. ....Or UCLA, USC, OR, or WA.
While it is important to play strong OOC opponents, football is about rivalries. Being able to place a bet with someone you know. I love talking smack to my MSU, ND and OSU friends. I do not know anyone who attended OR or WA, or Alabama for that matter. Championships are awesome, but rivalries and individual games are what is exciting about football. It is the journey, not the destination. NC bragging rights are great (every 26 years), but local regional bragging rights are more important. My dad is tougher than your dad. My team beat your team.
It is a bucket list item to see a B1G game in every stadium. I was almost done a few years ago. Michigan, MSU, NW, WI, PSU, OSU, Purdue, but we keep adding schools. (I saw us play @ UCLA and WA so I coincidentally lucked out on a couple.) Most of my trips were after my student days, but no one is making a weekend road trip to OR, WA, UCLA, USC, Rutgers or Maryland. With conference expansion I'm glad we got some of the better schools, but I really don't care about those schools.
TMI--I don't wear red (OSU) or green(MSU) underwear during football season. There are only so many rivalries I can care about or I'm going to be going commando.
All or Nothing
Our country worships billionaires. We're a winner take all type of place. Emphasizing playoffs in far away NFL domes over home games against historical regional rivals or even quality OOC opponents is inline with that. It is plastic and inauthentic, but what can we do? We're force fed crap because it makes money.
