You of all people should understand that if that extra game is at home against JMU it isn't a problem, it is a scrimmage.
I also understand that it's a simple math problem. Even if you have a 90% chance of beating the 12 seed and a 70% chance of beating the "worse" 4 seed, you're down to a 63% chance of winning both.
Because if you don't include them, then you have a bifurcated system where the G5 have no legitimate opportunity to EVER play for the national championship.
So you have to either find a way to at least give them a long shot opportunity, or you have to split the big boy conferences off officially and not keep this system where we pretend they're all in the same group. What you shouldn't do is lie and say they're all have the same opportunity when you have a structural impediment to half of the teams ever having any opportunity at all.
We've had a bifurcated system since 1985.
Giving them a longshot opportunity is the same as pretending they're all in the same group. The big, fat lie has not changed, even with inclusion.
Give me Liberty's path to the NC from last year. 13-0. Top G5 champ. 12 seed.
They played 8th-ranked Oregon and had a 10% chance of winning, based on the spread. I don't care that they were utterly destroyed, that's not important right now.
They had a 10% chance of winning. Let's say they win. They're very likely to play 2 teams better than Oregon after that, if they win.
Lets be SUPER conservative and give them a 7% chance of beating an Alabama team and a 5% chance at beating someone like Michigan.
Congratulations, G5 programs! Welcome to the party. You are IN the dance!
Your NC chances are......0.035%! Get after it, guys!!!! Way better than no chance if you were left out!
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It's a sick joke. It's honestly insulting. It's like allowing an insistent toddler into a hurdles race. It's mean. It's allowing them in just to say you allowed them in. There is no universe in which a G5 team wins the NC now, which is the same as with the 4-team playoff. The outcome is no different, and so the big, fat lie may persist.