Scoggins: 12-team playoff is a gigantic leap forward … but not without flaws

College football got knocked off its axis this season, and no better example of the transformation exists than what happened when a group of individuals went into a room and picked the 12-team playoff field.

They selected SMU over Alabama.

The not-so-crazy part about slamming the door on Alabama’s storied brand and SEC’s limitless power? It was the correct decision.

Year One of the expanded playoff created more drama and debate tentacles than anyone could have imagined. The final bracket offered some hits and other things that need to be re-evaluated. The current model is a gigantic leap forward … but not without flaws.

First, the good.

A 12-team field works. More access to the playoff created more excitement in more college football markets. The drama stretched coast to coast, which hit the intended mark of producing more representation in the playoff.

Clarity didn’t come until the final day. Clemson’s win in the ACC championship on a 56-yard field goal at the buzzer secured that league’s automatic bid, thus setting up a wild scenario in which the committee had two choices for the final at-large spot: two-loss SMU or three-loss Bama.

Both teams had valid arguments. The committee ultimately got it right by picking SMU because even though Alabama played a tougher schedule, bad losses cannot be ignored and the Tide’s résumé includes two losses to teams that finished with a .500 record, including a 21-point loss to Oklahoma.

SMU was more deserving, and the selection committee would have lost credibility since it had SMU ranked ahead of Alabama the week prior. Penalizing a team that loses in the conference championship game while another team sits at home idle sends the wrong message.

The mechanism for seeding the bracket is more problematic. Playoff rules dictate that the four highest-ranked conference champions receive the top four seeds and a bye.

Thus, Boise State received the No. 3 seed despite being No. 9 in the final rankings. Arizona State is No. 12 in the rankings but the No. 4 seed.

This lacks common sense. The four best teams should get the top four seeds.

The odd seeding system created a situation in which Oregon, the clear No. 1 and only undefeated team, was given what looks like the hardest draw of any of the top four seeds.

That makes no sense either.

The Ducks play the winner of Ohio State and Tennessee in the Rose Bowl in the quarterfinals. Oregon defeated Ohio State by one point in the regular season, and nobody should be shocked if the Buckeyes get hot and make a run since their kryptonite — Michigan — is not on the field.

A conceivable scenario would require Oregon to defeat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, then Texas in the Cotton Bowl, to reach the championship game.

That’s not exactly a reward for earning the No. 1 seed.

Conversely, Penn State plays SMU at home in the first round and, with a win, would face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

That Penn State’s path looks more favorable than Oregon’s exposes flaws in the formula that demand change.

Keep guaranteed berths for the five conference championships but do away with automatic byes for conference winners. That ensures that winning a conference maintains its importance but avoids seeding teams higher than they deserve. Let the committee determine the top four seeds.

Subjectivity will always be part of that process because there is an imbalance in competition from conference to conference, and not all schedules within individual conferences are mirror images, either. Indiana had a softer Big Ten schedule than Ohio State. That’s out of their control, of course, but it highlights the variance of factors in determining rankings and seeds.

Different ideas are being offered in the wake of the bracket release. There already are calls for more expansion to 16 teams. That seems conceivable in the future, which would eliminate byes and go directly to 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14 and so forth.

Another suggestion is to reseed teams after the first round, which has merit because that could avoid rematches of regular-season games.

One of college football’s biggest hurdles has been its lack of parity at the top. The same three or four teams ruled the sport, making it easy to predict the national champion on September 1 every season with a high degree of certainty.

Despite its flaws, the 12-team playoff looks wide open. That stands as progress.