A 12 team playoff net should catch any undefeated team. The 12 team playoff also exposed that rankings suck. I mean, we kind of knew already that the rankings weren't particularly reproducible, but we now have the empirical evidence that the rankings suck because judging who is the best among a mickey mouse scheduled football season isn't a rational endeavor. So the 12 team playoff ensures most teams that should make it, do, including the mid-major undefeated team. 8 teams should be able to work as well, but puts greater risk at OSU and Alabama missing the playoff... can't have that.
Which is the run up to my main problem with the 24 team set up is that it is designed to keep the OSU's and Alabama's from missing the playoff. The cartels are ensuring widespread participation for their own cartels to increase the monetary reward to themselves. It is fixing the system while not fixing the outcomes, merely making the regular season game outcomes virtually irrelevant. Sure, a bye for winning the conference would be nice, but we've already seen that byes aren't that influential.
That is college football in a nutshell. Again, college football isn't about competition, it is about revenue. The entire setup is about making money, from regular season squash games against local jobbers like the WWF days to tax exempt bowl games.
And to add to the first world woes, the college football cartels have made being a College Football fan even more expensive... so they can get paid more.
Take a look at this weeks teams and tell me how you determine the Top 10, let alone the Top 24.
Find the 2026 NCAAF rankings on ESPN, including the Coaches and AP poll for the top 25 NCAAF teams.
www.espn.com
Were going to have maybe 1 undefeated team Miami ... they played No One so far, if they get by Notre Dame they will have at least played 1 good team.
There are a bunch of ok to good teams, none that are head and shoulders above the rest, like usual, Bama, Georgia, Ohio State some years, ND some years ... none are good ...
Buckeyes would be there, but lost thier QB, they may still be good, we'll have to wait a few games and see how the Freshman Qb takes over.
UCLA is up there in the Good category this year ... whens the last time we said that.
BYU thought they were the Top team (#2) when they beat ND, but turned around and lost the next week.
People complained when they had Blow outs in the small Playoffs the last few years, what are they going to say when we have 8 or 12 Playoff games that suck ?