I had a chance to sit down with ACC commissioner John Swofford on Saturday while watching games together in the league's game-day operations center. We spoke at length, so here are a few snippets from our conversation that did not make it into the post earlier today.

Given how Florida State is ranked No. 3 in the College Football Playoff rankings, do you think the committee is sending a message about the overall strength in the ACC?

JS: I don’t know. I don’t know if 12 people are necessarily collectively trying to send any message. They all look at the world a little differently one from the other just like the basketball committee does.

How do you feel about the way the process has gone so far?

JS: It’s really difficult to, on a weekly basis, come out and explain where you are this week. That’s not easy for anybody to do. Does it create a lot of interest and a lot of conversation about college football and who might or might not be in the playoff at the end? Yes. It definitely does that. Is that the best way? I think that comes when it’s all over and we talk through it and reflect on it. I don’t think you make that decision in the middle of the process.

If Florida State finishes unbeaten and is not seeded No. 1, will you feel the need to state your opinions more forcefully?

JS: That’s a hypothetical. We’ll see when the time comes. I have confidence in the committee. If you’re going to go the route we’ve gone, you have to have confidence in the committee. It’s a very tough job and some years it will be tougher than others. Some years, some things will be very obvious and other years they won’t be but I do think we have taken a step that is significant in having four teams have the opportunity to play for the national championship as opposed to two, and hopefully we’ve got it right in terms of how the teams are selected. As I’ve said before, I don’t think any of us expected that the controversy would go away, going from two to four, but I think it’s an improvement.

You made comments last week about an eight-team playoff being ideal. Is that going to happen any time soon?

JS: My comment about the eight teams is in an ideal perfect world football-wise, that might be the ideal number. The world is seldom perfect in any way, shape or form and we’re at four and I think we’re at four for all the right reasons and I would not anticipate that changing during the 12-year contractual period.

What about after?

JS: I don’t know; that’s a long time down the road. Obviously, if you go back to the changes along the way in postseason college football, from the coalition to the BCS and now to the College Football Playoff, I think the playoff was a step that we really needed to take. It took a while -- literally years -- to get there, and some people’s views changed significantly during that period of time. So you’ve seen an evolution of how the postseason is done in college football. What we really wanted to do with this newest iteration and the start of a playoff is do it in a way that continued the tradition of the bowls and do it in a way that didn’t damage the regular season. Those were two of the top priorities. I think it’s enhanced the regular season. College football has had the best regular season of just about any sport, professional or college because the regular season has continued to be very important and certainly still is, and I think even more so with the four-team playoff.

Wouldn’t the regular-season format have to change? Because we are talking about potentially 16 games if the playoff expands to eight teams.

JS: The welfare of the athletes is more and more in the forefront and that’s really a good thing. That would be a first and obvious concern to have about expanding it, and if you did what adjustments would need to be made. Is it one less regular-season game? Is it not having conference championship games? Those are two things that would have to be discussed right off the bat.