Oregon Gets Bad News Ahead of College Football Playoff, McElroy Pitches Fix

The basis of McElroy's argument is that it is possible for the highest-ranked teams that don't get byes, such as Penn State in this case, to get easier draws than those with a first-round pass -- even though the fifth and sixth seeds will ultimately have to win one more game to capture a National Title. 

Why is it that Oregon wins the Big Ten Championship Game and now awaits the winner of Tennessee-Ohio State? Meanwhile the team that they beat (Penn State) gets a home playoff game where they are a healthy favorite against an SMU team that made it in barely, and then [the Nittany Lions] get to play Boise State, where they'll have a pretty significant talent advantage.

Penn State's path is a little bit more manageable than Oregon's path, and that's not heathy when evaluating what you're supposed to gain when you win a conference championship. We need to just seed teams 1 through 12. ... [This system] doesn't make sense, and it needs to be evaluated ASAP. 

McElroy subjected that Oregon should be the top seed, followed by Georgia, Texas and Penn State -- all of which would get first-round byes. Then seeds 5 and 12 would play, 6 and 11 would square off, and so on. 

That suggestion, of course, isn't without it's own flaws. For instance, the process of seeding. 

There are already numerous complaints around the CFP Selection Committee involving accusations of SEC bias and the like. Fans would ultimately level the same accusations that bias and matchup making in service of the television spectacle -- or, in other words, the almighty dollar -- would taint the CFP seeding process under McElroy's proposal.