In response to the (really fun) post regarding possible playoff matchups, I thought I'd share with you all what I really believe to be the ideal structure of the playoff. And it all revolves around--gasp--eliminating conference playoff games.

Hear me out.

Since essentially the first season of the CFP format, fans and pundits have been clamoring for an expanded field. The number of slots (6 or 8) is, in some ways, irrelevant (I've always been partial to 6, but for the sake of argument let's go with 8) because in either scenario, you need to come up with an extra week of football-playing.

Nick Saban very vocally said he was against adding yet another week to a team's schedule, and I would agree with him. But that leaves us with the question of how to expand the playoff field without extending the schedule. And the most logical way to do that is by getting rid of conference championship games. 

There's been a really great article written on this topic that mirrors many of my own thoughts on the conf. championship games, but let me just summarize a few.

1. They really only hurt, and never help, a conference to get a team into the playoff. Assume for a minute that Clemson had, by some miracle, lost to Pitt in last year's ACC Championship game. While we all would have loved it and used it as fuel to eliminate them form playoff contention, the fact of the matter is that they went 12-0 in the regular season and, by the old "AP" rules, won the conference already.
2. Which begs the question: why do we need these games, anyway? Did Clemson really need to validate to anyone that they were the ACC champs last season? Outside of the SEC championship game, we've really only had conference championship games in place for a few years, and we never had a problem determining the winner of a conference before. But wait--what if two teams tied in conference wins? Just make them co-champs. If two teams are really that close in talent level that we need a game to decide who is better, chances are they are both hovering near the top-8 of the playoff rankings anyway at the end of the season and would both be invited into playoff contention.
3. Which leads me to two more hangups on the way this conversation has been addressed so far. One of the most shortsighted arguments is that we need a 6-or-8 team system where conference champs and the top Group of 5 champ get "automatic bids" into the playoff. I don't think I need to explain why this is a terrible idea. A 2-or-3 loss PAC-12 team that is actually the best team in that conference shouldn't really get a chance to play over multiple 1-loss SEC or B1G teams. Neither should the 5-loss Pitt team who pulled off a miracle. Flukes happen. It doesn't mean we should have to watch Pit get beaten 56-0 by Bama the next week.
4. And speaking of Bama. The biggest problem with the conference championship games is that, as Alabama has proven, you can circumvent the entire thing and make it into the playoff without participating. Look back to 2017. Bama lost its side of the conference. Georgia wins the SEC championship against Auburn. But both Georgia (who have now played 13 games) and Bama make it into the CFP. Even with a few weeks off to gameplan, every other team in the CFP was at a distinct disadvantage, having played an extra game that Bama didn't have to play. It essentially nullifies any meaning that these games were supposed to have in the first place.

Let's be honest. By the end of every team's regular season, we have a pretty good picture of who is and is not a national contender. And even in those conferences that are contentious, both "contenders" have an incredibly high probability of being ranked in the top 8 anyway (there's not a scenario I can think of where a team ranked 9th--which will likely have two losses--can catapult themselves into CFP consideration just by winning a conference championship game).

The CFP is a much easier "fix" than we'd like to admit. It just involves us being ok with eliminating our need for conference championship games, which offer literally nothing in the way of CFP selection and only a hollow accolade that comes from draining our teams of one more meaningless game's worth of energy.

8 teams. No conference championship games. Take the top 8 in CFP polls.

(Mod Edit: Moved to the College Sports Forum)