I have written about this a lot through the years, and I still hate it. When you do not take a conference champion you Wisconsin is a good example this season. They were ranked ahead of Penn State, they played in the conference championship and lost. Now Penn State who did not even win their division goes to the Rose Bowl in all likely hood. PSU is 10-2 and Wisconsin is 10-3 because of a loss against OSU in the Championship. Had Wisconsin won they would be in the Rose Bowl, the Big 10 may not have had a playoff team and PSU would fall. But this is not all, as shown in the past there is nothing stopping them in a Wisconsin wins last night scenario from putting Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and Ohio State in the Playoff.
Does any of this make sense ? Hell no it does not. You reward and have in the past teams that did not even play in the conf. title game, whether it be with a better bowl game or a playoff. The whole system devalues the regular season.

Another interesting example it took Alabama 8 weeks, of being in the Top couple in the land and they had played one ranked team at that point and that team was 24, then they lose to LSU, but yet there was still legit chance at a playoff had they beat Auburn. The system kisses the ass of blueblood schools, and penalizes the little guy. I watched in with TCU the first year of the playoff. They were in, they won by something like 40 points, and then the next week they were ranked 6th and sent to a Peach Bowl, which is a crap game, that was simply elevated to make it look so much better than it was.

The reality is this if you do not win your conference you should not get in. Yes a Power 5 conference champion will be left out. But in your current system you reward teams that do not even play in the conf. championship. You have screamed to teams you did not have a conf. championship so we did not let you in ( Baylor, TCU 2014) then you turn around and let the Ohio State’s and Alabama’s in for not playing in one. You have a boardroom of guys making side deals and their only interest is making their team or conf. look as good as possible. It is all an eye test and a under the table side deal, you vote for me and I will vote for you. So to the college football playoff I say once again screw you.