When the College Football Playoff was introduced more than a decade ago, and the sport's championship evolved from two to four teams, even the system's creators couldn't answer some of the questions that arose -- or they had a heckuva time trying.
What was the value of winning a conference title when two SEC teams could be in and two Power 5 conference champions were out? When do head-to-head results matter? And at what point are they dismissed? How do you measure a team's schedule strength? And how much was a schedule's strength derived from the perceived strength of a contender's own conference?