Winners and Losers: After losses by Nos. 1 and 2, here are the 3 most likely playoff scenarios

I agree it does make it more interesting. I love that Ohio State puts 1 tough team on their schedule early in the year. But then again they need top play kent state and Arkon as well as it helps those schools with the big draw. It’s not all about pure competition...they need to help other Ohio schools by playing them as well. Plus it lets non-OSU locals to watch at their local university.

Maybe if they just award colleges big points in the system for taking a tough out of division schedule. So like OU and Ohio state get 50 points where as Alabama gets -50 for not playing any real teams outside of the SEC. If you win the out of conference game you get an extra 50 points. If you lose you only lose 25 points. This will force colleges to put real teams on their schedule.

And a conference win is only worth 25 points. So right there everyone will sign up for a tougher out of conference team to play. And if that out of conference team finishes in the top 10 you get an extra 25 points if you played them.

I completely just made this up with some extremes, but I think it gets to the heart of the problem and rewards teams for taking risks. Obviously it can be tweaked, but you get the point.

That might actually create a huge incentive for top NCAA football programs to migrate to the weakest conferences in the country just to guarantee themselves regular spots in the playoffs.

Maybe, but then when they play a real team they'd get crushed. Reality is there is no absolute best team...any weekend any team can lose. The key is not to lose in the last 2 or 3 weeks of the season. It's just too much to overcome. BTW: Big12 added a championship game so they would be invited to the big dance...and if OU loses the Big12 game...they won't be in. Alabama lost their big game this year...so they are out.

FSU, not a cupcake to open the season. LSU, MSU, and Auburn all ranked at the time.

OSU played four top 20 teams as well, but lost to one as did Alabama), AND lost to one of their "cupcakes".

I rank them even on schedule, but Alabama has the better performance because they didn't lose to a cupcake.

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