Correct, two loss Alabama left out in favor of one loss TCU who lost their conference championship game, despite the fact that Alabama was one of the best four teams.
Playing in conference championship and losing better than not being good enough to play in conference championship at all, imo. You want regular season games to count, then 2 regular season losses should lose out to a team with 0 regular season losses (conference championships I consider post-season, not regular season). Yes, I understand strength of schedule arguments in that the SEC schedule more difficult, but if you want the benefits of committee looking more favorably on you for being in a tough conference, you got to take the lumps, too. 2 losses should exclude you from a four team playoff.
I completely disagree that winning the playoffs means you deserved to be there. There are frequent examples of how allowing undeserving teams in has left us with unsatisfying champions. Just last year including TCU eliminated one of the best four teams in the semifinal and so we were left with a garbage final with a team that didn't deserve to be there.
TCU beat Michigan, I'd say Michigan didn't deserve to be there. Sure, maybe with different player matchups and schemes, Michigan might have gave Georgia a better game than TCU did, but maybe not, we'll never know.
This year, if Alabama beats Michigan and Texas beats Washington so you're left with an Alabama/Texas final and Alabama wins, does that make Alabama your national champion? Why? Because beating Texas at a neutral site is somehow more impressive than beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa? No, it's because the regular season games don't matter anymore .
Alabama wins the championship game, yes, that makes them the national champions. Why play the championship game if it's already decided Texas should get it for upsetting Alabama during the regular season?
I would just rather have three months of a great regular season followed by a couple of great playoff games over three months of a meaningless regular season followed by a month of great playoff games.
So, at the start of this season, you had like maybe 10 teams that realistically* had their eyes on a chance at a national championship. Great, if you are one of those 10 teams, everybody else is just playing for a bowl game. 12 team playoffs, you're going to start the season with 30+ teams realistically* eyeing for a chance to make the 12 team playoffs.
*=I say realistically, because in theory every team dreams of it, but most realize it's not going to happen for them before they get their first L.
You can do this with any professional sport but I always use hockey because it's my favorite. I love the NHL but I'm never going to watch the regular season because anyone who's not trash is going to make the playoffs anyway . . .
Half the teams (more or less) making the playoffs kind of the standard nowadays in professional sports. Half the college teams (64 out of 119?) making a tournament won't work....it does in basketball, but that's because they can play games on back to back days if needed, or 1-2 days off in between, which as you know doesn't work for football. NHL in your example also plays 82 games, so yeah, so many games, each individual game loses it's importance, though not as much as MLB (162). NHL sit players (not activated for the game) as much as NBA does? (I don't know, don't follow hockey at all)
You are better off comparing college football to NFL, do people care about regular season NFL games?
Half the college teams are 'bowl eligible' by the end of the season (win half their games)