I haven't really weighed in on the current debate and seemingly eventuality of the proposed College Football Playoff system being discussed.
With all due respect to my fellow Duke Football fans, the players and the coaches the fact is that while the Blue Devils are getting better they aren't in a position to have to actually worry about any such playoff system.
At this point Duke Football is more concerned with finishing .500 or better with a chance of playing in a bowl. As funny as it seems a playoff system wouldn't kill the bowl system all together but any bowl the Blue Devils would play in would be a long way away from a four team playoff.
On the surface though any playoff system seems like a better alternative than the BCS Bowl system that is currently in place.
But when you get down to it, four teams would still lend itself to continuing the trend of overlooking the outsider, namely the teams who are on the outside looking in at the big conferences.
At this point the PAC-12, SEC, Big Ten and the ACC or Big 12 are likely to get a team in apiece in the four team playoff. And depending on how the conference realignment continues to work itself out the ACC could end up on the outside looking in like the Big East.
Boise State moved to the Big East to get closer to having the opportunity to play for the national title, figuring a stronger, more respected conference would help. But what a sacrifice they are making to play all of their conference road games across the continent.
And if matters aren't already worse the Big East is dissolving before our very eyes and that move in a short amount of time could become mute. Boise will still be on the outside looking in.
If things hold as they are the ACC and Big 12 will be jockeying for position to get their champion into the four team playoff, but if Florida State, who is according to some university sources ends up moving to the Big 12, then the ACC as a whole will likely be on the outside looking in.
So even some of the conferences who were originally guaranteed a shot at the BCS Championship at the beginning of each season are no longer going to be guaranteed a thing at this point.
Overall, I believe a playoff is long overdue at determining a true champion for the sport. Every other major Division I sport decides its champion with a playoff and that seems to work out pretty well, but when it comes to football the traditions wrapped around the bowls have strong roots.
The money involved is immense and the players (those involved with the universities and bowl not the actual student-athletes) are not going to want to see it go away completely.
But the SEC appears for now to be in the driver seat and which ever system comes out on top, that is one conference that is pretty much guaranteed a spot in a four team playoff every year.
As for the ACC if Florida State leaves it will be a constant struggle. Virginia Tech will be left as the only team that is currently in contention for a title shot unless Miami can resurrect itself into the power it was in the 1980s and 1990s.
Duke will be a complete non factor in this system but would certainly benefit from not having to play Florida State regularly. But still for the sake of the ACC as a viable football conference, the Seminoles need to stay.
If they don't this playoff system will be a disaster for conferences like the ACC and Big East and the teams in it all become outsiders. And if a team wants a shot at a national title in football it will only force more teams to jump ship to a super conference essentially killing any conference who isn't strong enough to survive.
So while a playoff certainly is preferable in many ways to the BCS system currently in place, it is a mixed bag depending on what conference you play in and well, the ACC isn't one of the stronger conferences in football and will be less so if Florida State bolts.
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