If you're like me, you shake your head at the College Football Playoff system.
First, I believe there are too few teams involved at four. I always liked the 16-team system of West Virginia high school ball. Yes, that's a lot, but, hey, you know the best team in the classification is in there somewhere, right? You can't say that with the CFP.
I could go on and on. There are no concrete CFP measurements. The committee seems to sway back and forth like palm trees at the beach to justify their selections. Need a tougher non-conference schedule? Apparently - unless you're No. 4 Washington, which faced Rutgers, Idaho and Portland State. Need that all-important "13th data point" of a conference championship? Sure - unless you're Ohio State, which will sit out that of the Big Ten.
The CFP system simply has too many flaws. It relies on the "eye test" instead of the "earn" test. Heck, I could have told you Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson had the best collections of talent before the season.
Also, the committee unveils its own Top 25. Um ... why? Give us the top four, let chairman Kirby Hocutt stumble through explaining why No. 5 isn't in there and let it go. Perhaps give us the top-rated Group of 5 team. Releasing all the others just allows analysts to poke even more holes in the committee's rationale.
So that's my little rant. Yet I always try to be open-minded. So this week while in Morgantown, I caught up to some of WVU's players. For a few hot minutes, remember, they were in the middle of the CFP debate. So I put it to them. And I was somewhat surprised with what they had to say.
"I guess [the CFP system is] fine," said Mountaineers' receiver Daikiel Shorts. "It's new. It's a pretty sweet deal."
No rant?
"If I did it, I'd do it the same way," Shorts said. "You already have 12 or 13 games in the regular season. Then you'd have the first playoff game. Then you'd have the second playoff game. That's a lot of games for the players.
"I think they did it the right way: the top four teams go to the playoffs."
Onward I went to state native and WVU linebacker Justin Arndt. Surely he'd see it more my way.
"People talk about eight teams [in the playoff instead of four]," Arndt said. "I don't think that's realistic. I would do four, the way it is."
He paused before continuing.
"I think what they have to look at now is the eye test," Arndt. "The wins and losses ... losing should be [more of a] factor. Look at head-to-head matchups instead of just the eye test."
Thank you, Justin. Also, you participated in West Virginia's 16-team Class AAA playoff system and won a championship at Martinsburg High. No one complained. Why would they in college?
"It's different," Arndt said. "College football takes a bigger toll on you. At the end of the high school year, you're only playing 14 games if you go all the way. Teams in college now could potentially go 15. If you add another or two, that's a lot of games. It's too much."
Of course, the conversation had to be put to WVU's most established conversationalist: center Tyler Orlosky.
"Let's start off with this," he said, cracking a smile, "If I had the authority over anything, I don't know how it would go. People would really hate me then.
"In my opinion, though, I'd go back to the [Bowl Championship Series formula]. I don't like the committee. There's human error in that. If you ask me, the BCS got it right the few times I remember. Obviously, people complained about the [Jan. 9, 2012] LSU-Alabama game and having two SEC teams in the national championship. But if you look back at that year, it was probably the two best teams playing for the national championship."
Orlosky smiled.
"The BCS was good, but obviously I'm not in control. My buddy Oliver Luck and those guys [at the NCAA] make those types of decisions."
Orlosky was asked about increasing the number of CFP participants.
"I think you could go to eight and get away with it, be fine with it," he said.
The center was then asked about his home state of Ohio's playoff system, which starts in regions for 32 teams and boils down to a Final Four in each division.
"Well, I don't think [college football] should be 32 teams," he cracked. "Jesus Christ, by that time I'd want to stop playing football."
He continued.
"My body can only take so much. I'm getting old, man. Mid-life crisis."
Funny stuff. But there's also a lesson to be learned from the players.
Unless college football administrators scale back the length of the regular season or cut out league championships - which will never happen because of the finances involved - we've probably reached the limit.
Enough, they seem to be saying, is enough.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.