Emmert’s apparent reasoning: That would guarantee a bid for all five power conference champions while allowing room to include three at-large teams (not to mention Notre Dame and high-achieving Group of 5 conference teams).
Before you get too excited, though, realize Emmert and the NCAA actually have pretty much nothing to do with the playoff as it is.
Like the BCS before it, the CFP is run by a board of managers that consists of university presidents and chancellors from all 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame.
They have contracted with the bowls to hold the playoff in a way that preserves the bowl system, and there is no reason to think that will change in the near future.
That is why the semifinals are held at existing bowls and the championship game continues to follow them rather than the more sensible practice of holding semifinals on campus sites in December with a championship game on Jan. 1.
Emmert’s idea is not novel.
An eight-team playoff has been talked about since pretty much the instant plans for a four-team tournament were announced, although administrators have insisted from the beginning no changes would be made in the first 12 years of the system, which began in 2014.
So far the Big 12 has been left out of two of the first three playoff fields while the Pac-12 did not have a team in the field last year.
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