OPINION: Every conference champion should receive an auto-bid to the College Football Playoff
We're at a crossroads in the world of College Football, and the expanded College Football Playoff--a tool crafted with the intent of promoting inclusion and crowning the true champion of the sport--has already become a beacon for bias, exclusion, and brand supremacy.
All this before its first edition has even run its course.
To meet this issue before it becomes acceptable for the committee to pick and choose the teams they like, absent of checks and balances, we can follow the NFL's example and remove subjectivity from the equation altogether.
Every Conference Champion receives an auto-bid.
Did you hear me? Instead of letting the committee choose which champions are deserving and which are not, EVERY FBS conference champion should receive a CFP auto-bid.
Now, every team has something to play for, and human bias is taken out of the equation. This solution prevents the chance that leagues like the Big 12 get left out entirely because they're deemed "unworthy" by the powers that be. The Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Mountain West, and even MAC get a shot at football's crown.
If the purpose of the expanded playoff format is to allow every team in the country a fair shot at a playoff berth, every conference champion deserves a chance to compete, from Oregon to Kennesaw State.
The rules are simple: win your league, play for a chance at the title. 10 auto-bids, 2 wild card teams.
This takes power out of the committee's hands and gives it to the contenders. Would Ohio State destroy whatever Sun Belt team they match up with in the first round? Probably, but we also thought Alabama would "probably" beat Vandy and OK. Oops.
The selection committee has made it perfectly clear that they prioritize names over games when determining their rankings. How else would a 3-loss Alabama sit at 13 while no Big 12 school breaks the top 12, even though their league has also proven deep and talented?
Army has lost one game this year. One. To a top-10 Notre Dame. They'll likely be ranked 24-25, if at all in this upcoming week of rankings. Notre Dame lost to a bottom-dwelling MAC team, but their brand makes them a playoff lock.
Conference champions shouldn't have to worry about the will of a room full of old men. This way, the resumes matter, the result on the field matters, and we eliminate the toxic hypothetical rhetoric surrounding CFB. Win and you're in. Period.
The CFP should be a chance for champions to make their name. If you lose your conference, by definition you couldn't possibly be the undisputed best team in football. This format is fair, equitable, and above all, fun for every fanbase in college football.
Will the SEC and Big 10 cry that they don't get four participants each? Sure. But they didn't win their conference championship, so their argument for being the best team in the country has no legs to stand on. When we value conference championships primarily, resumes matter, the result on the field matter, and we can do away with hypothetical "Ole Miss would be undefeated in the Big 12" alternate universe banners.
The sport thrives when results on the field are favored over imaginary "what-if" matchups. That's what makes college basketball so fun, and when every team has a fighter's chance at a championship, SEC and Big 10 bias that plagues every ranking will be irrelevant.
If you care about the future of this sport, the precedent this first bracket will set could influence the future of college football forever. With every passing year, we feel closer to the SEC and Big 10 breaking off to crown their own champions.
The life of this game is at stake. Don't let the likes of Warde Manuel determine the haves and have-nots.