I can't speak for others, but I can give you my opinion on the matter. If we go to eight teams, yes, I believe we should have the five major conference winners get automatic bids. Why? They won their conferences on the field. People didn't just look at how many great athletes they had on their team and proclaim them to be great like so many tried to do with UGA this season. Winning a conference championship on the field still means something to a lot of folks, including me. So, where you wonder why people think conference champions should be included, I wonder why people like to proclaim how good a team is on paper based on the eye test or number of athletes. It is simply a difference in opinion, but I will always take on field results over eye tests or number of four and five star athletes or who Vegas thinks might win.
If we used this year's final playoff rankings as an example, we could have
1. Bama v. 8. Washington; 2. Clemson v. 7. Central Florida; 3. Notre Dame v. 6. Ohio St.; 4. Oklahoma v. 5. Georgia. The only team that would be ticked is the playoff number 7 Michigan who would say that they are just as good as two loss UGA. As others have said, though, there will always be someone who is left out who complains whether you have 2, 4, 8, or 16 teams.
I will watch whether they return to a straight poll champion, BCS style 1-2 matchup, the current playoff, or the expanded playoff. I do, however, think they should have conference champions if they expand to eight teams.
As I said, I can't speak for others, but I hope this explains my point. Have a great sunny Sunday. Well, it is sunny here in North Alabama anyway.