The playoff system is flawed. It does not definitively find the be best team in the nation as proposed and continues the controversy.

If you want to find the one true best team in the nation

1. Get rid of conference refs and make a national officiating group with FBS and FCS divisions with a random rotation of assignments for each division, and strict oversight from an outside group complete with financial penalties for poor officiating.

2. Mandate that eligibility for playoffs requires that a team play an exact number of games unless altered for unforeseen cancelation (weather). The number of games should be on the low end not the high end as you are adding more games at the end of the season. I would suggest 10 or 11 but that could be decided later. Allow conferences to decide how to achieve that exact number which must include conference championship games. Small conferences would play all teams in conference like the big 12 and add a CCG. Large conferences like SEC would divide, play teams in their division and the CCG but need to add OOC opponents to meet the #.

3. Mandate a minimum # of schools per conference, thus excluding independents, and include all FBS conferences in the play off process. The bowl eligible conference champion from each conference automatically goes to playoff with one wildcard play off position available. The wildcard team could be an independent or a team from any other conference. This would be 11 teams. In the event that no team in a given conference is bowl eligible, that conference forfeits its automatic playoff position and a second wildcard position is available. Wildcard teams are to be decided by committee.

Those teams are then ranked by season record, SOS, and margin of victory giving a 1 rank advancement to any team having beaten a current playoff team during the regular season.

Then play a 4 week play off with single elimination.

Week one teams 1-5 get a rest and teams 6 through 11 play each other with highest rank vs lowest rank.

Week 2 the week 1 winners play top 3 teams and #4 plays #5

Week 3 the week 2 winners play each other

Week 4 final playoff game of week 3 winners

Week 1
game 1 11 vs 6
game 2 10 vs 7
game 3 9 vs 8

Week 2
game 4 Wgm1 vs 1
game 5 Wgm2 vs 2
game 6 Wgm3 vs 3
game 7 4 vs 5

Week 3
game 8 Wgm5 vs Wgm7
game 9 Wgm4 vs Wgm6

Week 4
National championship game Wgm8 vs Wgm9

All games should be played at neutral sites, Week 1 and 2 games played at pre season assigned neutral sites but team selection is based on geographically proximity to the highest ranked opponent.

Ex. Week 1 Games to be played at A, B, & C stadiums based on proximity and availability.

Game 1 #6 vs #11
plays at whichever stadium (A,B, or C)is closest to # 6 B
Game 2 #7 vs #10
plays at whichever stadium (A or C)is closest to #7 A
Game 3 #8vs #9
plays at whichever stadium is left C

Week 3 and 4 games the location is decided pre season as is the specific playoff game. The opponents are decided by matriculation.

Week 3 Stadium A game 8, Stadium B game 9

Week 4 Stadium C Game 10

Although it is possible teams ranked in the bottom half would make it past week 2, it is improbable.

Thus the majority of the time this would change the playoff process from 2 games to 3 games for the national champion team.

This makes for an increased # of high profile televised games, and basically silences the complaint that any given team was left out of the discussion.