Commentary: College football finally has a real playoff. Now let’s make it better.

As a pacifier during a volatile time, the maiden 12-team College Football Playoff served the batty sport well enough. The selection committee did a decent job working within a tournament structure that tries, at the same time, to be inclusive and bow to the new megaconference caste system.

It’s a wonky mission, for sure. But now there’s a true playoff with (limited) accessibility for all, which is an upgrade over the elitist four-team invitational that mostly reinforced our laziest assumptions. It took just 10 years and the utter chaos of conference realignment for all parties to try harder.

Logic – or even what’s best for college football – hasn’t been the priority because there is often a crisis to manage. Navigating the selfish and greedy waters takes precedent. At present, this postseason model placates some of the desire to destruct every sacred fiber of the sport. For that, we should be relieved. However, it merely buys a little time to create something truly representative of how the game has changed.

This 12-team field is solid and balanced, reflecting both the national parity of the season and the might of the reconstructed Big Ten and SEC. Those conferences dominate the bracket, combining for seven bids. The other two Power Four conferences, the ACC and Big 12, combined for three. The final spots went to independent superpower Notre Dame and Mountain West champion Boise State, whose only loss was a well-played 37-34 game at unbeaten No. 1 Oregon.

It’s not worth wasting much time debating the teams chosen. The most passionate argument came down to whether SMU deserved an at-large bid over three-loss Alabama, which lost to two 6-6 teams that finished in the bottom five of the SEC, including a 24-3 no-show at Oklahoma two weeks ago. The Crimson Tide had some of the most impressive highs this season, but it played its way onto the bubble. The discourse about the final spot underscored how flawed the second and third tiers were this season. Some of these megaconference teams want to dismiss it as parity, but there appeared to be a lot of middling teams.

A year ago, Alabama made the final four-team playoff over undefeated ACC champion Florida State, and this time, the expanded version took ACC runner-up SMU over the Crimson Tide. For Alabama, that’s how life on the edge works. It’s a 50-50 proposition.

The committee’s goal wasn’t to keep the peace, but that’s what choosing SMU did. The Mustangs weren’t punished for losing their conference championship game on a last-play 56-yard field goal. The Crimson Tide wasn’t elevated after failing to reach the SEC title game. If the latter had happened, it could’ve triggered the end of title games. Instead, the focus will return to where it should be: determining a more sophisticated way to judge teams when realignment yields an even greater strength-of-schedule imbalance.

It will be a major issue as stakeholders convene to negotiate the next iteration of this tournament. The current format – 12 teams, automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions and byes for the top four conference champs – will remain for next season. Then perhaps everyone will be honest when trying to settle on a new deal.

One remedy that shouldn’t be hard to broker: seed the field the way the NCAA basketball tournament does. Acknowledge that all conferences aren’t equal, which would mitigate the foolish scenario at the top of the bracket.

On paper, No. 1 seed Oregon has a tougher path to a semifinal than No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Penn State do – and that’s despite getting a bye. The Ducks’ quarterfinal opponent in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 will be No. 8 Ohio State or No. 9 Tennessee.

If you seeded the tournament according to how they’re ranked in the CFP top 25, the Buckeyes and Volunteers would be two spots higher. Both would be hosting home games in the first round. In a tournament with true seeding, Oregon’s quarterfinal opponent would be the winner of No. 9 Boise State at No. 8 Indiana.

This is how the field would be rearranged. The byes would go to No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State. The rest of the bracket: No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Notre Dame, No. 11 Arizona State at No. 6 Ohio State, No. 10 SMU at No. 7 Tennessee, and the aforementioned Boise State-Indiana matchup.

It wouldn’t be good for Boise State (No. 3 in the actual tournament) and Arizona State (No. 4), the last two byes in the field. But while still messy, a seeded field is a truer reflection of the world that college administrators have created. The four Big Ten and SEC teams that made their title games would sweep the byes in this revision and during most seasons. It’s unfortunate, but I’m OK with that. With the imbalance they’ve created, it should take an extraordinary effort for other teams to get those byes.

This isn’t a Power Four sport. It’s a Super Two sport. I don’t like it. I would prefer balanced conferences representing every region and a national tournament that satisfied all corners of the nation. But this is what we have, and the gap between the Big Ten and SEC and everyone else is only going to grow. A playoff model that pretends there’s more equality would only embolden the superconferences to further destroy the sport.

“Seed the field and let the byes fall where they may,” Georgia Coach Kirby Smart told ESPN after the bracket announcement. “To say that all these conferences are equal is unjust and unfair. That’s not the case at all.”

The Big Ten and the SEC won’t be satisfied until they get all 12 spots. They won’t ever deserve that. But they’ve forced a top-heavy reality, and the playoff can’t ignore that. If that’s the cost of solidifying a tournament that just invited teams from five conferences and one independent, then the choice is obvious: deal with it. And maybe the competition produces results that change perceptions.

“I think that’s something they’ll have to look at in the future,” Smart said.

“Look at” translates to “fight over” in this sport – and it’s not a fair fight. Enjoy this version of the playoff for now. Just don’t get attached to it.