Walt, I really like your idea for the College Football Playoffs so I did my own for the past three seasons and I had some pretty interesting games in it. Mine is very similar to yours. I have the 11 conference winners in and 5 wildcards but I select the wildcards differently than you and I seed the teams differently than you. I put the 11 conference winners in and the top 5 non-conference winners in the AP poll before the bowl games. Then I seed the teams based on their ranking in the AP poll prior to the bowl games. When there were multiple teams that weren't ranked in the AP poll, I seeded them based on Win/Loss record. Heres my NCAA playoffs.....
2003
First Round
1. USC 52, 8. North Texas 3 5. Florida State 34, 4. Kansas State 27 6. Miami, Ohio 49, 3. Texas 20 2. Michigan 25, 7. Boise State 3
LSU's defense was really powerful that year. I think that they would have held USC to score in the mid-20s and I think their offense would have scored enough points to win. Plus, I would give the advantage to Nick Saban over Pete Carroll in the coaching matchup.
You're definitely right about the coaching matchup. Pete Carroll proved he is nothing more than a product of the system against Texas. He made a lot of blunders that made me say, "Oh yeah! This is the guy who did a horrible job with the Patriots."
Totally agree. When he refused to have instant replay at the USC-Notre Dame game last year I was thinking "How Stupid! Now what could be the greatest game of the year could be decided by a terrible call that they can't replay!". I didn't realize how meaningful those words would be. Reggie Bush pushed Leinart into the endzone, that would be a penalty and a 10 second run-off. Notre Dame wins.