Why hasn't there been any discussions of legal challenges to CFP yet?

$$$$$$

Maybe something will happen if the lawmakers down there make a big stink.  I don't think politicians get nervous if folks in Hawaii, Utah or Idaho are pissed.

This is why an 8 team playoff is the sweet spot.

It allows the five P5 champions in, 2 worthy at-larges, and the top G5 team in for political correctness / anti-trust reasons.

The G5 always has a guaranteed seat at the table.

 

More Money

16 team playoff no conference championship games and no divisions. No auto bids needed.

5 "power five" conference champs and 1 group of five conference champion

I'm now fully on board with an 8 team playoff (no more). Top 7 conference champions with one at large. First round is at top 4 seeds home with the at large not allowed home field since they didn't earn it by winning anything. I think UCF is as good as any of the others.

we don’t need to look for more opportunities to keep them gainfully employed

who truly has a credible claim to "we earned a chance to be Champions!" 

The "non-Power 5" teams in the NYD6 Bowls in the Playoff era ........ Boise in 2014 had 2 loses, Houston in 2015 with an absolutely horrible loss at Connecticut, and Western in 2016 just wasn't credible enough playing in the MAC and w/ a best OOC win of a 6-6 Northwestern team.

I think that's the dynamic at play here. Those Boise, TCU and Utah teams in the late 2000s - those teams had credible arguments for inclusion, more credible than anything we've seen in the 2014-2017 era (outside of 2017 UCF).  Nobody would take a lawmaker seriously if they were advocating for any of the 2014-2016 teams.

How do you reconcile any attempt to add more games to the season with concerns for player safety? These are unpaid, amateur athletes, and asking them to play more and more games for the benefit of fans but at the risk of their own health and potentially earnings prospects is unethical.

I get UCF schedule may not have been as tough as some but they are D1 team but only by name they and all MAC teams etc.. do really have a chance at playing in the playoffs how is this ok UCF beat the team that beat 2 of the 4 playoff teams this year

I would think that before there is a lawsuit you're more likely to see the P5 conferences splt from the NCAA and form their own organization.

This is why college football needs 8 teams. 5 - conference champs 2 - top non conference champs 1 - non power 5 school " champ "

I like the 8 team but would settle for six. Power 5 conference champs and the best team from the smaller schools.

The legal basis is all about government support and the requirement for equal opportunity. When the players aren't being paid and the championship has an uncertain value, it was always going to be a difficult case to make. There's a reason they never filed despite the landscape changing very little. I don't like the current system at all. With 130 schools playing vastly different schedules and with short schedules and young kids learning difficult systems and weather issues and a host of other factors... you can choose a final four, but it's only a political solution. As for what happened this year, it was a reasonable choice of four teams, but the Big Ten was penalized for its structure rather than for not having good teams. Ohio State would have made it if they hadn't played Oklahoma - and it seems ridiculous to provide disincentive for scheduling entertaining September games. FBS football is the only NCAA sport without a playoff system (this 4-team thing is not a playoff, even if they call it one). I'd like that to change. I have no interest in what they're doing now as long as Michigan isn't involved, but I would watch a 16-team tournament. Michigan obviously wouldn't have made a 16-team tournament this year, but it would feel much more relevant. So I'm in favor of either realignment/scrapping conference games/reducing conference sizes/16-team tournament or keeping the current structure and an 11-team tournament with byes to the five major conference champions.