Oregon vs. Alabama: Who would have won?

[smokymountainrain]

Part of this is I don't think anyone wants the whole SEC in an 8-team playoff. Florida and Alabama obviously get in ahead of aTm, and Georgia and LSU were probably more deserving at the time. S. Carolina probably was less deserving than aTm, but they could have made an argument. Notre Dame, K-State, and Oregon were all clearly more deserving, and it would have been almost impossible to argue aTm ahead of Stanford.

Therefore, even if you put aTm at #3 from the SEC (which I think is not really supportable) then you would have 6 teams ahead of aTm without even getting to the B1G, ACC, and Big East (ha, couldn't resist) champs. Even if you exclude the Big East champ and make the best possible argument as to aTm's position in the SEC, they still don't crack the top 8.

I think that's a fair argument. It's also part of the reason that if there were a playoff, it would have to be 12 or 16 teams. Everybody in college football knew aTm was one of the top 5-8 teams in the country at the end of the season. But you are absolutely correct that you couldn't have an 8 team playoff with 5 of those teams from the SEC. That's a huge problem, IMO. Like the Dance, you want the best teams in the country in the playoff. You can make that work or come very close, if you invite 16 teams.