It's done as a business! They rake in the $ for their conference this way. They still have guarenteed bowl tie ins for each conference, so conferences are already guarenteed that money. Each of the 4 playoff teams earns 6 million for their conference, the winner/loser of those two games and the Championship game gets NO additional money. Money for conferences come from bowl tie-ins. Last year it broke down like this:We might be the best win for the entire B10 conference. They play nobody, use their fluff wins to get over ranked, and get exposed in bowl games. I am very happy that they are left out of the playoff, they should have been left out last year.