CFB Reddit put out a prelim 12 team playoff. Not solid until final rankings come out but seems like how it would end up:
Cool, we could beat Penn St. anyway, SC a 3rd time, and we could handle KSU for the natty (or revenge match Ohio St.) 
. I think we would match up well with TCU (our D could hold off comeback), UM would be a fun old-school grind it out running game, but UGA is a step ahead of the rest when they are on.
Not gonna lie. I think semi would be Bama v Utah. Not confident we would beat y’all. Our WR is light this season.
Can’t wait for this to be a reality. While I get that for now it is just the way it is, to not play for your conference championship and end up in the playoff for the national championship because of a team losing in a conference championship game is unfair. You shouldn’t be rewarded for not playing for your conference championship. Some of the best playoff stories in collegiate and professional sports are the team that barely makes the playoffs, gets hot and wins it all. That should happen in NCAA football. It is an embarrassment that it has taken this long. Thankfully the change is coming, in a few years.
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There will always be complaints. In basketball, team #69 is always upset. But 12 is a hell of a lot better than 4. 16 would be even better. It’s already set up for that, schedule wise, with a 12 team scenario. There wouldn’t be any added weeks of play.
The big difference this year you aren’t leaving out Alabama, Tennessee, Utah, Penn State etc. If 12 team was here now the left out team is Washington, Oregon State and Florida State. I can live with 12 down (G5 champ probably not top 12).
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If the 2024 playoff were this year it would be this:
12 Tulane At 5 TCU
11 Penn St at 6 Ohio St
10 USC at 7 Alabama
9 K State at 8 Tennessee
winner of 8v9 Plays Georgia and Georgia would probably select the Peach Bowl
Winner of 7v10 Would Play Michigan and Michigan would probably select Rose (either Rose, Sugar or Fiesta)
Winner of 6 v 11 Would Play Clemson and they would probably select Sugar or Fiesta
Winner of 5 v 12 would play Utah in the Fiesta
Peach Bowl winner would play Fiesta Bowl Winner in Orange Bowl
Rose Bowl Winner would play sugar bowl winner in Cotton Bowl
Winners of Orange and Cotton play in Atlanta for National Championship
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I think I’d like our chances vs either TCU or Tulane. Running into Georgia might suck, but vs K-State or Tennessee I think we’d be favored. If I followed the path correctly.
I hate G5 teams being in. UW or Oregon would whip Tulane and get left out because Tulane played an easy schedule. And their record isn’t better than UW’s.
In no world does Tulane “deserve” a spot. They played one P5 team. One.
I’ve said it a million times, but you should play at least 3 P5 to qualify for the playoffs.
Rutgers, Northwestern’s, and Colorad9’s phones would be ringing off the hook
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Hello, Alabama fans talking about Utes in 2008.
Swanton obviously doesn’t watch football because Tulane sure handled the #9 Kansas State team on the road.
Also, Tulane has a literal strength of schedule better than UW:
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Most of us remember our WAC and MWC days. Our 2004 and 2008 seasons were magical at the time. Being on the outside looking in, kicking the door down, so to speak.
I still remember listening to a sports station the summer of 2012 and some ACC fan was bitching that “Utah” didn’t deserve anything, especially not an invite to the PAC. Doubt that caller would even recall the statement, but I do. The perception of being “lesser” than still bothers me. @Swanton should remember those days too and not crap on the G5 teams. It wasn’t long ago that we were in their shoes.
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Week in, week out.
I said those same arguments pre 2010. We, as Utah fans, should know better.
You, as an Alabama fan, should know better. It’s why Saban always makes his schedule as weak as possible, like doing everything he can to have a bye or FCS before LSU and Auburn.
We were in those shoes. And it was fun. AND, I do believe, we played more than one P5 every year.
But to say we could have finished undefeated in a P5 conference with those teams, when we are much deeper now and haven’t…
I’m just being honest.
It’s not fair that a 2 loss UW, who played 9 P5 games, gets left out for a 2 loss G5 who played one P5 team.
Edit: I am coming off angry. Little stressed with the terror threats on my kids school this week has me a little off.
Again, you are wrong as CNS has advocated dropping the FCS game and adding another conference game and typically has a bye after Tennessee. The SEC makes the conference schedule. Every team the past 4 years in November had a bye before playing Alabama.
I appreciate your concern about week in and week out but the fact remains UW had a weaker schedule than Tulane according to those who track SOS. So nothing you said was accurate. You were being a P5 elitist.
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If the playoff is to determine a champion and not stroke egos…then shouldn’t the most deserving teams, teams who have played the toughest schedules and won, be in?
If we aren’t stroking egos, then why do we let an undeserving team in, just cause?
And the whole “Utah fans should root for G5’s” is weak. We were never let in. We never backed our way in, like Boise St did. Boise went undefeated a couple times before 2004 and never sniffed the BCS. Hell, I think they were undefeated in 2004.
Utah busted in because we played 3 P5 and won (and BYU and TCU, who were P5 level at the time). All I’m asking is other G5’s do the same.
Like you said, if they are good, they will win. If not, a more deserving team, such as Washington with 9 P5 games, will be in.
Simple. Prove you belong by playing as close to a P5 schedule as you can.
But the whole Boise St/BYU play nobody then pound your chest…we never did it. Why should they?
Still doubling down and ignoring that the SOS FAVORS Tulane.
You do realize many people find the American conference on Par with the ACC, Big XII and Pac 12, right?
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MWC was in that boat about the time Utah and TCU left. Definitely better than the Big East, and at least as good as the ACC at the same time.
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Yup. There always seems to be a G5 that is better than a P5. ACC is definitely the worst P5 right now.
Hopefully, we will never again have an undefeated team left out of the playoff. An undefeated team is as deserving as possible of being in the playoff.