For as long as college football has existed, the opportunity to play for a championship has been an exclusive right reserved for the sport’s elite. With the shift to a 12-team playoff from the previous 4-team format, that exclusivity appears to be fading.

On the surface, it seems like an excellent opportunity for teams that may have experienced an uncharacteristic loss or two throughout the season. After all, there are usually 12 teams each year that appear capable of winning a national title.

However, there is one flaw to the 12-team playoff that lies in its automatic qualifiers. The five highest-seeded conference champions are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, despite there being only four “power” conferences. 

This means that every year one team from the Group of Five conferences automatically gets a playoff bid. The only issue is what happens when the Group of Five doesn’t have a team ranked in the top 20 of the AP poll going into conference championship weekend?

What happens is not only one, but two Group of Five teams are able to make the playoffs, leaving a red-hot Notre Dame team with two losses by a combined four points to two teams still in the playoff on the outside looking in. 

At the end of the day, the 12-team playoff was made for the best 12 teams in the country to get their own shot to win a national title- it’s not a participation trophy for a group of schools that don’t play against the same level of competition that SEC and Big Ten Conference teams face. 

In my eyes, they shouldn’t be removed entirely, but rather treated like any non-conference champion. If they’re ranked high enough, then they deserve to play, but there shouldn’t be a seat at the table unless they have someone worthy to fill it.