We are obviously not going to be able to pass judgment on this new playoff format and the selection process until we see how it plays out, but I'd like to raise a couple of potential issues. I'm clearly coming from a Tennessee and SEC perspective, but I'd like to hear some other opinions on this new format.
1. It annoys the hell out of me to hear the SEC and Big 10 linked together and described as equals. The only elite teams in the Big 10 are OSU and maybe Oregon. Penn State is good but far from elite, Indiana and Illinois are pretenders, and the rest are middling to dreck. The SEC has maybe 3-4 teams that aren't really competitive right now, and that's including underachieving Kentucky and Oklahoma teams. Hell, Vandy is a handful now.
But we're possibly going to see Big 10 teams that play 1-2 tough games winning 10-11 games and getting at large spots over 2-3 loss SEC teams that go through a week-to-week meat grinder because the leagues are seen as equals. Anyone who watches average Big 10 games and SEC games knows there is a huge difference in the level of play and the intensity of the leagues, and yet I believe we're going to see better SEC teams that played brutal schedules left out for a team like Indiana or Illinois.
2. The conferences will never get rid of the conference championship games because of revenue, but they are potentially going to cost a deserving team a playoff spot. If a 2-loss SEC team loses the title game, which is entirely possible, chances are they will be bounced from the playoff field, which would be grossly unfair for a team that finished second in the conference. It would be simple to decide the conference champ through tiebreakers if needed and avoid this, but they will never give up the payday, a potentially big problem.