is not allowed a first-round bye (at least that's how I had understood it). Conference Titles mean something in this format and that makes the whole regular season meaningful. It also helps eliminate the stupid "eye test" crap around the rankings. Rank us 9th, that's fine. As long as we keep winning, we get the first-round bye and control our own destiny. If we end-up with only one loss, and that is a close loss in the conference championship game and we don't get an at-large bid, then that is proof the system is still rigged, and the very small circle of power brokers will never allow for a meaningful championship format in college football.