Partial qualifiers....or kinda like a "gray shirt" but not exactly.

The only way to fix the true "haves to have nots" is to expand the playoff to (8) or (16) teams. Right now, all the 5* players go to the Bama's & Clemson's of the world because they have high odds of making a (4) team playoff.

The other way is develop a HUGE walk-on program and offer "preferred walk-on status". I.e. the player pays for school to start and as soon as a ship opens, it's used on that player down the road. A great WO program allows schools to really save ships for top players while getting lesser players on the field (to develop depth). I know of one P5 school that has a WO room of about 80 players NOT on scholarship (which is 85). 165 players. That's a LOT of extra bodies and it takes a LONG time to develop AND it still doesn't make up for 5* talent.

"It's not the x's and the o's, it's the Jimmy's and Joe's"