For the life of me I can't imagine why you'd want to expand the field to 8 teams in a 4-2-1 playoff system, which would allow for the full paricipation of all the conferences and all the teams with a decent shot at a championship to get a shot, and would entail a cumbersome and grueling one more week of football when you can have the current 4-team, 2-1, format determined by 13 committee members holed up in a 5-star resort sucking down cocktails. Although the 4 additional football games and TV rights might cover the cost of the commitee getting room upgrades and comped mini-bar privledges.