CHICAGO — Sometimes it’s good to talk to people who are connected.

I’m humble enough to admit that there are many people in this business who know more than I do. It never hurts to try and learn something from them.

That was the mindset I had in talking to Fox Sports/The Athletic college football insider Bruce Feldman. I caught up with Feldman while we were in Chicago for Big Ten Media Days last week.

Don’t worry, SEC fans. It wasn’t all Big Ten talk. I promise I picked Feldman’s brain about plenty of things that you’ll find relevant.

One recurring topic was the effectiveness of the Playoff system. Not surprisingly, Feldman had a different response than what Playoff executive director Bill Hancock had to say about the expansion subject at SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

“I think we’re staying in (the 4-team Playoff) for a little longer,” Feldman said. “I would be fine with eight. I don’t want it to get too much bigger than that because I don’t want it to devalue the regular season even more than it already would. But the element that I think I’d like a little bit would just be to add a little more of a different flavor with some other teams coming in so it wouldn’t just become, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have two teams from the SEC this year.’

“I think some of that would probably be healthy for college football.”

Whether you support expansion or not, the flavor of the teams in the Playoff does feel a bit stale. The numbers support that. In 4 years of the 4-team Playoff, look at the breakdown of appearances by school:

  • Alabama, 4
  • Clemson, 3
  • Ohio State, 2
  • Oklahoma, 2
  • Florida State, 1
  • Georgia, 1
  • Michigan State, 1
  • Oregon, 1
  • Washington, 1

Perhaps even more telling is the fact that in the 4 years of the Playoff, just 5 different teams played for a national title. And obviously with Alabama-Clemson going back and forth, only 3 programs in the past 3 years made it to the title game.

So if Feldman doesn’t think the system is changing anytime soon, does he think it’s fair? Not entirely. Getting 4 nonconference games to “fatten up,” as Feldman said, is definitely significant.

“I think that’s an advantage that the SEC has,” he said.

But while Feldman admits that the Playoff path for the SEC might be a bit more favorable, it’s not like the conference hurt itself with its performance once it got there. If there’s a reason for the SEC having an “automatic bid,” Feldman believes that’s it.

“The biggest threat to that ending is if they underperform, which they didn’t. Alabama did their part and I thought that mattered. That buys you benefit of the doubt,” Feldman said. “They’ve performed in the Playoff. As long as that happens, I think that they’re in a good place. And as much as people don’t like it, the SEC has done their part.

“For all the other stuff that gets on peoples’ radar, huge eyeballs show up and huge attendance shows up for these programs and the commitment to it at the highest level, that stuff helps feed into it. I think that’s all big positives for them.”

I could just picture SEC commissioner Greg Sankey seeing a quote like that and quote-tweeting it with an “It Just Means More.”

Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, that argument held up last year when Alabama barely made the field and then proceeded to win it all as a No. 4 seed. Should the selection committee have put them there in the first place?

“I get why you could find fault in Alabama, but I’m not sure there was anyone who had a rock-solid argument,” Feldman said. “That’s the part that I think is a little bit thin for it. It’s, ‘How’s this gonna work out? We’re just gonna figure it out as we go along.’”

Feldman isn’t big on the idea that we get caught up in the week-to-week Playoff rankings and listening to what Jeff Long and Kirby Hocutt have to say. There’s probably something to be said for that. It’s become somewhat easy to poke holes in public interviews regarding the criteria for why Team X is ranked ahead of Team Y.

There’s an interesting discussion to be had about how preseason expectations and midseason rankings can cloud our judgment as it relates to evaluating a team’s entire body of work. Speaking of that, I asked Feldman about if he thought there were any teams that we, in the media, were sleeping on heading into 2018.

One team he gave me was Wisconsin, which returns its entire offensive line and a Heisman Trophy candidate tailback from a 13-win team. He said he thinks the Badgers can not only get to the Playoff, but do some damage once they get there (that would certainly be a change of pace for the Big Ten, which was shut out in its past two Playoff appearances).

The other sleeper team Feldman gave me is one that SEC fans have some interest in — West Virginia. The Mountaineers are, of course, led by former Florida quarterback Will Grier. They’ll also kick off the season against Tennessee in Charlotte.

“I was really surprised that West Virginia was not the pick to win the Big 12,” Feldman said. “I know that Lincoln Riley is a really good coach, but there’s no Baker (Mayfield) there this year. To me, I thought West Virginia should’ve been the pick to come out of the Big 12. I don’t know if they’re a Playoff team, I don’t know if they’re good enough on defense, but that was one I’d keep an eye on.”

Florida fans were probably frustrated enough watching Georgia reach the title game last year. Watching Grier lead West Virginia to a Big 12 Championship wouldn’t sit well, either.

Feldman’s preseason predictions and Playoff assessments are always interesting considering how much intel he has across the country. Will they prove to be true?

Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.