FL loses to LSU and stays above Cincinnati in the CFP rankings. The CFP is trash and either needs expanded or reconsider the "Power Five" as a new division of competition and build a playoff system for the non-power five division. Every year out of 130 Div-1 teams, realistically only a handful of teams within the power five have any chance at a National Title. Non-power 5 have a literal 0% chance.
I mean, even if the committee did put a non-Power 5 team in the CFP, what do you think the chances are that they would win a game? On the one hand: Yeah, it would've been a good look for the committee to put Cincy in this year, as they were undefeated. On the other hand: The chance that they would beat Alabama would be less than 1%, and the scenarios where they win would require Bama to have a COVID outbreak that required 4th stringers to be playing, and even then it would be an uphill battle for Cincy.
Meh, they would have about the same chance as ND. Why not put them in? This year would have been the perfect time to do it. Of course this is all about money. I bet that even in an 8 team playoff Cincy would be left out.
I get it that the "non-power 5" have little chance to beat the power houses that are Bama and OSU and Clemson, but that's not really the point. OSU shouldn't be there. They shouldn't have been able to play the Big 10 championship game but the rules by the Big 10 were specifically changed for them to play the championship game with full intentions that they were the only shot at the CFP from Big 10. As of now, outside the power 5 (and ND) they have a 0% chance of ever winning a NC. If it could go negative %, they'd have that. I'd rather them actually just say that the CFP is strictly for the Power 5 (and ND), let them have that and give a playoff system to the other 80 teams that are also Div 1. By not even giving them a shot, recruiting also gets out of whack and it's why bama, osu, Clemson, and a handful of other teams are always on top, no one bothers to play for the MAC, AAC, Conf USA, MWC, Sunbelt, etc. No chance at a NC. Or, they could expand the playoffs to 8 teams and make some spots. Personally I'm for 16 with all conference champs getting an auto bid but I understand that's way too much to ask currently. NCAAM found a way to do it and they have 300+ teams.
Yeah, I can agree with most of this, especially with point about OSU only playing 6 games (so they're considerably more healthy than everybody else). Like I said above, if any year was the year to let a non-Power 5 team in, this was it. Disagree with the 16 team playoff and the comparison to basketball though. Football is a much more physically demanding (and dangerous) sport than basketball, and I think limiting the number of games played is a good thing.
Agree football is way more demanding but a couple points to that. Every college player is striving to reach the NFL where they will play 16 games, currently, even counting the playoffs, teams are around 13-14. IF a 16 game playoff was to be considered (8 has to happen first), I would expect the practice games against Lower Louisiana School of Engineers to be eliminated.
In my scenario, lower LA School of Engineers is not a DIV-1 school. Alabama starts every year with that game. NCAA makes more money off eliminating that game and adding an important playoff game. Yes, the Lower LA school of Eng would lose big money. Power 5 would still play games against non-power 5 during the regular season.