There's more a "fairness" issue with the current 4-team system, since by its very nature it has to leave out at least one Power 5 conference champ (sometimes more) and will never let in a mid-major team. Under the proposed new system, there is a path for everyone.
Most of the time it's pretty clear that one of the top four teams would def…
There's more a "fairness" issue with the current 4-team system, since by its very nature it has to leave out at least one Power 5 conference champ (sometimes more) and will never let in a mid-major team. Under the proposed new system, there is a path for everyone.
Most of the time it's pretty clear that one of the top four teams would definitely win the championship. But still . . . we've seen years where neither of the Top 2 teams advance, or where the 4 seed wins the whole thing, so who's to say someone from 5-12 couldn't pull it off? And yes, I think a knock-on effect of this will be that recruiting wealth can be spread more broadly. The top recruits were increasingly gravitating to the select few programs that are seemingly always in the tournament (Bama, OSU, Clemson), but now more teams could legitimately claim to have a shot at the playoff and attract more recruits.
There's more a "fairness" issue with the current 4-team system, since by its very nature it has to leave out at least one Power 5 conference champ (sometimes more) and will never let in a mid-major team. Under the proposed new system, there is a path for everyone.
Most of the time it's pretty clear that one of the top four teams would definitely win the championship. But still . . . we've seen years where neither of the Top 2 teams advance, or where the 4 seed wins the whole thing, so who's to say someone from 5-12 couldn't pull it off? And yes, I think a knock-on effect of this will be that recruiting wealth can be spread more broadly. The top recruits were increasingly gravitating to the select few programs that are seemingly always in the tournament (Bama, OSU, Clemson), but now more teams could legitimately claim to have a shot at the playoff and attract more recruits.