There will be MORE pressure for a playoff with a conference champion in Pac10 and Big10. Look at the titles of the SEC and ACC as examples. Conference champion pretty much puts you in the playoffs whereas the world of excellence has been steadily bypassing those conferences without a championship. There is danger that in the near future, with the success in both conferences outshining the successes in the Big and Pac10, that all they will have is the Rose Bowl. And the college football world has gotten fed up with the noncompetitive aspect of that alignment and will be placing pressure to open up all the bowls. Sure, there will always be pressure to put the strongest nearby team in a bowl for financial purposes, but this favors SEC, Pac10 and ACC teams over Big10. Competition from the Mountain West will still affect and diminish the Big10 and build pressure for a playoff. Take a look at who ESPN deserted in order to get the most competitive conference and more advertisers. Most of the ESPN pundits are from the Big10 and that favoritism slant has just slud. The NCAA head who just died was and has represented Big10 interests and almost singlehanded kept them from considering a national playoff (which is preferred by 80% of college football fans in replies to polls). The next NCAA head will take a different path under pressure from college fans and Mo Money.

Following the more fair-minded playoffs in DivII, the SEC and ACC have demonstrated that conference championships lead directly to playoffs if you want to remain competitive with all 119 members of DivI.

Brain teaser for the day:
If the Big 10 expands to 12 teams, what will they call themselves?

Whats up with all that, taking teams out of the big east, but WVU is not envited to the ball. WVU is never asked to go out of the BIG EAST. How come?