Bama was not given a chance to win their Conference and are not champions. They were given a Bama exemption. If you are not a Champion go to the bowl circuit but not the Championship of Champions.
The Mountain West has a good argument for getting in as do a couple other Conference Champions. This would take it out of the media’s hands and decide it on the grass.
There’s always going to be a “beauty pageant” aspect to it, no matter what you do. I think my proposal pretty much accomplishes everything with the fewest number of games necessary.
It makes the Conference Championship games, defacto playoff games, although a team that loses the conference championship game, could still get in at an at-large, but I would say any team that doesn’t win their conference championship has no right to complain if they are left out. And in most years, the at-large team will most likely be the loser of the conference championship game.
I would also specify that for a non Power 5 team to get in, that they have to be ranked in the Top 16, or else the best two Power 5 at-large teams would play each other to get into the tournament.
Shouldn’t the “Bama exemption” actually be the Ohio State exemption? They were the first “non-Champion” to be in the playoffs when they didn’t play in the Big 10 championship game last year.