I think you could get some equity in the playoffs by having with an eight-team model: Each P5 conference champion gets an automatic bid, as does the highest-ranked G5 team. The remaining two slots are filled by at-large P5 schools. In the first round, the lowest-ranked P5 school plays the G5 representative. It's sort of like the basketball tournament play-in game. This is not perfect, but it does mean that every school in the FBS has a theoretical chance to win the national title -- just like in basketball. Seems completely fair to me, and could easily be accomplished with very little additional resources, much easier than a 16-team system. If the number of games played was a serious obstacle, the regular season could be reduced to 11 games, which was the standard not too long ago, but that might not be necessary.

See above. You think the TV networks or the P5 schools themselves have any interest in giving up games like Florida-Florida State, Florida-Miami, Texas A&M-Texas so Ball State can get beat up in a 16 team tournament? Every season there are at least a dozen super compelling non-conference games that TV networks and P5 schools would be giving up money for.

Don't remember the exact year, but Boise St knocked off Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl about a dozen years ago when both teams were top 10. I think Boise ended up unbeaten and 12-0. Not saying Boise would have went on to win another big game, but sometimes you have to give the little guy an opportunity. Without this opportunity then George Mason, Loyola-Chicago or VCU would not have been able to make it to the NCAA Final Four.

My kindergarten aged granddaughter said the same thing over Christmas dinner and was quickly corrected. Not sure where "have went" came from but it's becoming more common everyday. Thanks for always being "on duty" 24/7 OCF. :)

If we can find two examples in the last 30 years of undefeated G5 teams who deserved a chance to play for a championship (Boise State and UCF), how big is the problem we're solving for?

I'm not sure this is a winning argument. MAC football games average ~700k viewers per game on ESPN. The sum total audience for the entire season doesn't add up to the number of viewers that watched the national championship game last year (25.59 million).

The fundamental problem the MAC and similar leagues have to overcome is that nobody really cares about them, and largely, that includes their alumni. On a given fall Saturday in Athens, a higher percentage of OU students could tell you if Ohio State won than if OU won.

Saying "our fans won't pay attention to the college football playoff if we're not eligible for it" misses the fact that the main reason the MAC and similar leagues get ignored nationally is that they don't have substantial fanbase and therefore there's no financial incentive for the P5 to include them.

Look at the AAC, for instance. Schools there represent a number of large markets, including Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, Orlando, Dallas, and Philadelphia. The problem is that none of those schools are actually the most popular college team in their own media market, and in a bunch of cases, aren't even number two.

Hell, OU is the second most popular college football team in the Athens, Ohio media market. Our fanbase just doesn't bring any leverage to the table.

And on 99 out of 100 years, the Go Daaddy is about where our champion deserves to be playing.

Agree completely.

I think it's inevitable that the playoff will expand -- probably to 16 teams. But that expansion isn't going to guarantee all conference champs a spot. It will likely mean that undefeated G5 teams, provided they played a tough enough schedule, will get a spot.

Last year Miami won that MAC at 8-6.

There were 3 2 loss SEC teams, an 11-3 Pac 12 runner up, 4 Big 10 teams with 10+ wins (outside of the Big 10 Champion), a 9-4 Michigan team, an 11 win Big 12 runner up, etc.

The MAC isn't getting a guaranteed spot, as much as we want it. If we want a guaranteed playoff spot, FCS is the only path there.

Then why are we in the division we are in? That makes us one of the few teams in the country in any division that has absolutely no chance of playing for a national championship in the division that we are in.

There are 64 other teams sharing our boat. They're in division 1A largely for the TV money (the only national network carrying 1AA games on a regular basis is CBSSN, which has a deal only with the Ivy League) and the payout money from the "P" teams for playing at their place (few "P" teams play 1AA schools anymore).

By rights, 1A football should have the same percentage of teams in its playoff as Division 1 b-ball has -- about 20% (68 out of 350). That means the top 24 or 26 teams (out of 130) should get in. That probably won't happen in our lifetimes.

It’s no longer IA, it’s FCS and FBS.

I'm with you, Pataskala.

Just like it was always Riverfront Stadium, where the Reds won the 1975, 1976, and 1990 World Series even after it was changed to Cinergy Field.

Just like it's always been Gund Arena that replaced Richfield Coliseum even after it was changed to Quicken Loans and then Rocket Mortgage.

My apologies I forgot that ESPN was the authority. Silly me by going by the classifications listed on NCAA.org. My bad