College Football Playoff: Top-6 Conference Championship Format Benefits Pac-12, SEC, Big 12

A college football playoff proposal seems to be taking shape, and it does appear to be Because Jim Delany usually gets what he wants, here's the current proposal on the table that involves the top six. Brett McMurphy files his latest report.

Delany, who met with CBSSports.com and other reporters on Wednesday in Chicago, said one proposal being considered is the conference champion only model, but that the conference champion would have to be ranked among the top six teams in the country to qualify.

If a conference champion was among the top six in the rankings, it would automatically qualify for the four-team playoff. The top four ranked conference champions among the top six would qualify and if less than four conference champions were among the top six teams then the remaining spots would be filled by the highest ranked non-conference champions or an independent (Notre Dame, BYU, Army or Navy).

Yet despite this push by Delany, based on previous results, it wouldn't really benefit the Big Ten too much. Outside of Ohio State, they have trouble ranking ahead of the other big conferences and tend to fall behind the pack. In fact, it's the Pac-12 that ends up in the best shape on this deal, as they end up right behind.

Land Grant Holy Land breaks down the numbers on who would make the mythical Football Final Four, and here's the overall conference representation.

Big 12 - 12
SEC -12
Pac-12 - 11
Big East - 6
Big Ten - 6
MWC - 4
ACC - 4
Notre Dame - 1

For those who believe the Trojans do provide an extra layer of protection for the conference, they do have some disproportionate representation. USC is heavily involved for the Pac-12: Five of the eleven bids come from the Men of Troy. However, there are similar representation issues for the other conferences, with Oklahoma taking five of the 12 Big 12 bids, Ohio State half of the six Big Ten bids, Miami (FL) taking half the Big East bids, Florida State three out of the four ACC bids, and LSU and Alabama taking half of the 12 SEC bids. So this sort of favoritism exists everywhere in college football with all the major powers.

In fact, the Pac-10 would have half their schools achieve at least one playoff bid during this period, or at least 50% of schools making their mark. That 50% rate is equal to the Big 12 (six out of 12 schools), SEC (six out of 12 schools), Big East (four out of nine schools), and better than the Big Ten (four schools) or ACC (two schools). That puts them nearly at the same level as the two traditional powers, giving them around a 70 to 80% chance of having a team in the playoff every year.

So we can project that a Pac-12 team will be in a playoff approximately three of every four seasons. Compare this to the old BCS title system where USC and Oregon are involved in three title games, and it's clear this arrangement works far better in giving the conference a chance to boast the best team out there.

After the jump, you can take a look at the data by team and conference.

Big 12
Oklahoma - 5
Texas - 2
Nebraska - 2
Texas A&M - 1
Oklahoma State - 1
Colorado - 1

SEC
Alabama - 3
LSU - 3
Florida - 2
Auburn - 2
Tennessee - 1
Georgia - 1

Pac-12
USC - 5
Oregon - 3
UCLA - 1
Washington - 1
Washington State - 1

Big Ten
Ohio State - 3
Penn State - 1
Michigan - 1
Wisconsin - 1

Big East
Miami (FL) - 3
Virginia Tech - 1
Louisville - 1
Cincinnati - 1

MWC
Utah - 2
TCU - 2

ACC
Florida State - 3
Virginia Tech - 1

Independent
Notre Dame - 1