If the College Football Playoff included eight teams, instead of four, maybe TCU wins the national championship in 2014 instead of being left out and settling for a dominant Peach Bowl victory.
Maybe TCU's Josh Doctson, not Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott, is leaving as the star of the championship game at AT&T Stadium. Maybe TCU gets back in the playoff mix in 2015 when it overcame a 31-point deficit to defeat Oregon and finish as the No. 7-ranked team.
Those are questions TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati asks himself. And those are just a couple reasons he's a full proponent of expanding the CFP format to an eight-team field.
"It'd be huge for our conference and our university if we knew the winner of our conference had a guaranteed spot in the playoffs," Donati said. "Even a close second place might get in. Just think back in 2014 with us and Baylor. If we expand to eight, we're both competing. No one would argue that we were two of the best football programs in the country that season and could have easily played for the national championship.
"Having an automatic qualifier would be huge. One, for the long term viability of the conference and, two, in short term for our next big television deal. I'm absolutely 100 percent in favor."
Expanding the CFP remains a talking point throughout the college football world. Donati said it is among the three-most discussed issues facing the college sports world, along with student-athletes profiting off their name, image and likeness, and the next TV contract.
It's surely going to be a hotly-debated subject this off-season with the 2019 campaign officially in the books. This year produced little controversy with LSU demonstrating it to be the top team in the country behind Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow.
Most, though, seem to be in favor of CFP expansion. Or at least recognize it's just a matter of time.
The questions on the issue of expansion have more to do with how such a system would actually work. College football is proud of its long tradition of offering a slate of meaningful bowl games. The obstacle is to ensure that those contests remain as relevant as possible.
That might mean having the New Year's Six bowls, for instance, hosting the quarterfinals and semifinals, rather than playing on-campus quarterfinal games.
Cotton Bowl president and CEO Rick Baker played it down the middle when it came to his thoughts. North Texas' premier bowl game would like to serve as a host for playoff games, but that might come at the expense of producing the traditional bowl week experience for schools as has been the practice for decades.
The fear is that quarterfinal games likely would be treated as business trips for most teams _ they fly in a day or two before the game, play and then head out immediately afterward to get ready for the next opponent.
"The Cotton Bowl collectively is really down the middle on expansion," Baker said. "We're proud to be a part of the College Football Playoff. We were on the outside looking in during the BCS years, so having an opportunity to be in the highest level of the postseason is important to us.
"We've heard the talk about the possibility of the playoffs expanding and, quite frankly, the devil will be in the details in how it might and how much it does impact us," Baker continued. "We like the setup now because everyone gets the bowl experience.
"But there's been a lot of changes in college football over the years and everybody has adjusted. We want to be at the very top of the postseason and we want to have a game of relevance. We're very interested bystanders in what the commissioners and leaders do moving forward."
As of now, playoff expansion has been more of a talking point than anything of substance. The current CFP model has been in place since 2014 and is halfway through its 12-year deal with ESPN.
The current format has been widely viewed as a success. There is inherent drama every year with the Power Five conferences chasing four playoff spots. But that's not a plus in a year when your conference is left out.
Last month, there was a chance that a one-loss Big 12 champion would be left out of the playoff mix. If Utah had won the Pac-12, it likely would have received a bid over eventual Big 12 champion Oklahoma.
"There's some good theater in having five A5s chasing four spots," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said at the conference championship game.
"There's a lot that's right about the four team playoff. I think one of the things we've found is that's it's harder to be on the outside looking in when it was just two teams. We're halfway through it and it's a good time to take a look at it.
"I wouldn't jump to any conclusions on it. I think we'll take a look at what's right about it and take a look at ways it might be improved."
For most, improvement would center on expansion.
TCU coach Gary Patterson is a fan of the idea, especially after seeing his team get passed over in 2014. This is a guy who believes every team deserves an opportunity.
The 2010 TCU team that went 13-0 and won the Rose Bowl should have been given a chance even though it wasn't in a Power Five conference at the time.
"Everybody deserves an opportunity," said Patterson, who became president of the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) on Monday.
"It allows for every Power Five champion to be in, and then you have two more and a Cinderella. That's what people like," he said. "This world is about opportunity."
As far as on-campus games or bowl games as host sites, Patterson is a believer in bowl games. He doesn't want the bowl system to become further diluted than it already has.
"We've made bowls not be very important. That's not the way it should be," Patterson said. "It's a great life experience for kids. You always want a destination."
At the end of the day, it remains to be seen what college football's decision makers will do. There's no perfect answer.
Six teams? Eight teams? Heck, some would argue that four was the perfect number this season. Whatever you expand to _ whether it's the fifth-best team in today's model or potentially No. 7 or No. 9 in future models _ someone is going to feel left out.
But there seems to be enough chatter about expansion that it almost feels like a question of when, not if. Maybe it doesn't happen until the current TV deal expires, or maybe it happens sooner.
As Baker, the Cotton Bowl CEO, said, "We've got six years left on this contract. No one has indicated to us that the system was going to change during that time. I don't feel any momentum. I haven't felt any momentum to change things quickly. All the contracts are in place and everyone seems to be genuinely pleased with the transition from the BCS to the College Football Playoff.
"But, like I said, we're very interested bystanders. It's a wait-and-see."
