Mount union is competing for a title in the system they are in. Were they in fbs then i would expect them to have the opportunity.
We are making this more complicated than we need to. It is simple and the best part is that the simple way is fair.
As to the Ohio example, of course Ohio would deserve the playoff spot. We see this all the time in college baskets.
And i have to laugh at the Ohio example. Western Michigan goes from having 0 chance to a chance to win their conference and go to the playoffs and you are concerned that wmich losing the title game and not going is unfair? Sorry. You know your footy better than me by a long ways right now, but that doesn't pass the laugh test.
I've been saying that some of the 128 teams shouldn't be competing in the system they currently are. Reduce the number of teams at IA / FBS. So then if Western Michigan were reclassified as FCS / IAA then it is a non-issue because they'd be in a different system, which I think is where they belong.
It is easy for these kinds of things to get lost or confused because so many different things are being discussed at the same time, if this, or if that...but if we were talking about a playoff model using conference champions within the current 128 group of teams then Western Michigan would have 100% chance and go to the playoff - not 0%.
The issue that alot of people are going to have is if 8-4, would-be then 9-4 Ohio were to win that game, they would also have 100% chance at the playoff. Just like people here have expressed frustration/anger/disappointment that Wisconsin could earn that same right. Or Virginia Tech for that matter should they beat Clemson. Trust me, more people would be laughing at Ohio in an 8 team playoff.
When we say "let's only take the conference champions and play them off for a national title", in the current system in how we crown conference champions it could lead to lots of undeserving teams. What is undeserving? Undeserving is a team that has not looked the part of a national champion type team weeks 1-13. I may still be a bit too old school, but it wasn't that long ago that we just awarded the championship to a team that looked the best and in fact decades upon decades we did it that way. So, I still look at teams in that way...as in, had this team looked the part, have they done enough, is their resume what you would want in a national title caliber team. Have they beat quality teams, are their losses to quality teams? Have they dominated? The University of Ohio does not fit that part, not only that they have not looked the part of an elite MAC team ever this season either. Western Michigan has. If we could strip down the conferences and abandon conference title games then I think many people would be ok with an undefeated WMich team getting a playoff ticket in this 8 team playoff of league champs only, because weeks 1-13 they earned it, they did what it took to get there and a seat at the table would be reserved for them. What I do not think is right and I think more people would object to is that if Ohio didn't play like the best MAC team weeks 1-13, but if on week 14...essentially in a one game season, they somehow upset the team that did look that part all season...that is a fluke. Perhaps it is luck, good for them, bad for WM. Very similar to how Buffalo beat 12-0 Ball St perhaps several years back. That is where we are going to run into problems with this conference champion only playoff model, if we get teams like Ohio....or Florida beats Alabama and Bama stays home and Florida goes...VT over Clemson, etc. If we have potential for these type of things it is going to kill the idea before it gets off the ground.
Now you bring up college basketball, I don't think we need to use other sports to justify how we think things should be done in this sport. Why can't we just look at the landscape of major college football for what it is independent of basketball or baseball or whatever, have the teams decide what happens on the field over the course of the regular season, stop boiling conference championships down to a single winner-take-all game and then go from there with a new post season model.
We differ on some things. I strongly object to how we are deciding conference champions and what teams should be considered national title worthy. You object in restricting access to teams that otherwise have done all they can to compete for the highest prize yet are denied access. At any rate, we have one thing in common, neither of us will get what we want.
