As a big Gopher fan, and a big Seahawks fan, I hate to see him make his first start against Seattle. I guess I have to hope he plays really well, but the Vikings still lose.
No. It wouldn't be like the NFL where conference champions get home games or a higher seed automatically. The higher seed would always play at home in my system.
The champions get auto bids, but once the field is filled, everyone is seeded regardless of winning a conference. So off the top of...
Since my whole position is that all conference champions get auto bids, my field would be (I'm speculating the conference champions here). Because the Pac 12 only consists of two teams until the next reorg, they don't get an auto bid.
Ohio State - B1G
Georgia - SEC
Texas Tech - Big 12
Virginia...
Let's be honest, the U doesn't have the best track record in hiring coaches. I think a lot of it is the fear of "what if they hire another Tim Brewster?"
This is the answer. With completely unlimited salaries and other teams having much larger NIL pools to pay players, we are likely not to rise above mid-pack anytime soon unless boosters step up.
Should the third or fourth place team in a conference have that argument? I don't think so. Win your conference, go to the playoff. It's really quite simple.
Actually it can be taken seriously because that's how it works in every other level of football.
As I posted, D3 has 40 teams with 27 autobids. Every conference champion gets in at ever other level, with the exception of the Ivy, MEAC and SWAC at the FCS level, but those are special cases...