The College Football Playoff field was set on Sunday and the Selection Committee decided to treat America to two great matchups featuring some up-and-coming programs full of fresh faces and new storylines.
Just kidding.
Alabama or Clemson have been selected to each of the seven College Football Playoffs.
For the sixth time in seven years, Alabama or Clemson enters the playoff holding the top ranking.
This is the third time Alabama and Clemson have held the the top two spots and both schools will be favored to meet in the championship game for the fourth time.
That’s right, we’re on pace for Alabama-Clemson IV.
Selection day often centers around who was left out. The only team with a serious gripe was Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M, but some are speaking up on behalf of Cincinnati and Coastal Carolina. Sorry, San Jose State, going unbeaten with a half-season schedule only cuts it for the Buckeyes.
The College Football Playoff has been a worthy endeavor. The Clemson-Bama trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy) will be etched in the annals of college football history. Overall, the playoff has been far superior to the BCS-era where we were fully at the mercy of, at times, quirky computer rankings.
Sure, the playoff is not without its warts. The semifinals have, more often than not, been snoozers, but embracing a playoff model has been at least a sign of progress in a sport that has been traditionally slow to evolve.
There will never be a perfect system.
Expansion and the increased revenues that come along with it is inevitable. Six teams. Eight teams. 16 teams. Doesn’t matter. Continuously expanding comes with the same downside that exists with four teams. Some team will be left out. Some team won’t get a fair shake. Some conferences will claim they aren’t being treated fairly. We know this because we go through the same exercise with a 68-team basketball field every March.
Do we really want Selection Sunday for the College Football Playoff to turn into arguing about whether 8-4 Iowa’s losses to Purdue and Minnesota should be offset by their wins at Michigan and Nebraska in comparison to the resume of a 10-2 UCF team which lost to Memphis and Houston for the 16 seed?
There’s a reason why most of us don’t watch regular season college basketball.
Part of the beauty of a national title in college football as opposed to any other sport is the sheer difficulty of the accomplishment. Plenty of disappointed college basketball fanbases get to press the restart button when March Madness tips off. If you have a disappointing regular season in college football, you don’t get to sniff a title. Hell, one disappointing moment on the gridiron could cost your team a shot at title. Sh-know what I mean?
Four teams in the field isn’t the problem: the repetitive nature of the Selection Committee is beginning to weigh on the playoff.
Before critiquing the Selection Committee for choosing the a combination of Alabama (6), Clemson (6), Ohio State (4), Oklahoma (4), and Notre Dame (2) for 22 of the total of 28 awarded playoff spots since 2014, we should stop and acknowledge the impressive, and in some cases dynastic, runs pieced together by the some of the Goliaths of the sport. Oregon, Florida State, Michigan State, Washington, Georgia, LSU round out the final six of the 11 schools which have a College Football Playoff appearance to their name.
Why are the playoffs so repetitive?
It’s not the fault of the Selection Committee that Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma are enjoying great success within their respective conferences, but you also have to recognize that part of those program’s recent success has been built on making the playoffs. Granted, those four schools are all bluebloods in the sport, but if recruits didn’t care about recent history, schools like USC and Michigan would still be relevant on the national scene.
Bama made it into the field in 2017 despite losing to Auburn and finishing second in the SEC West. The committee still stuck with Bama. Ohio State made it into the field in 2014 despite a road loss to eventual Big Ten champion 11-2 Penn State. The committee still stuck with Ohio State. Both of these examples may ring hollow because in each instance, both schools won national titles. However, the only flaw I want to point out in this system is that on the few occasions in which Alabama or Ohio State have not won their respective conference titles over the last seven years, both schools have been afforded the benefit of the doubt on Selection Sunday over lower prestige programs such as Baylor, TCU, and Wisconsin
It’s easier to make repetitive appearances in the playoff when the Selection Committee gives you the benefit of the doubt.
Why didn’t we hear a single word of public questioning from the Selection Committee about the Ohio State’s shortened half-season schedule? We heard questions from the media. The Selection Committee defended it and the Buckeyes received the benefit of the doubt.
Are schools like Texas A&M, which, like Bama in 2017, finished second in the SEC West with a strong resume, afforded the same luxury?
How about Cincinnati, which fell in the rankings despite not playing due to having two games cancelled while teams with two-losses leapfrogged the Bearcats in the polls?
The FBS level of college football boasts an impressive 130 total teams across 10 conferences. Of those 130 teams, there are 65 teams which compete in the Power Five (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC). Only Power Five schools are considered by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee meaning 65 Group of Five teams are eliminated from the College Football Playoff before the opening kickoff every August.
And we wonder why the College Football Playoff field looks the same year after year? It gets easier to repeat when half of the field is eliminated from the get go. The 65 Group of Five college football schools are the only teams across sports who know they cannot compete for an overall title. Wasn’t the playoff established to challenge this notion?
“Well that’s why we need to expand the field to eight teams!” Great, so now Georgia won’t have to cry about the quality of their two annual losses and actually receive entry to the playoffs, but the Selection Committee will still rank the two-loss Bulldogs ahead of a 13-0 UCF (Boise State, BYU, etc.), sticking the Group of Five team with an unfavorable round one matchup. Is that fair?
Four teams in the field isn’t the problem: the repetitive nature of the Selection Committee is beginning to weigh on the playoff.
College football needs a Selection Committee to take bold action starting next year.
Forget the status quo. Tradition be damned. Name the four best teams regardless of past resumes.
The only echoes Notre Dame has produced in the last three decades are the lispy tones of Lou Holtz yelling over judge-robed Rece Davis’ gavel on an ESPN set.
Spice things up, Selection Committee. We know Alabama, Clemson, and Ohio State are going to be in the mix, but if any of them slip up, scratch them from the playoffs!
Put in undefeated Cincinnati in and spare us another member of today’s elite thrashing old-money Notre Dame.
Put in undefeated Coastal Carolina and tell Texas A&M and Jimbo where to shove their $75 million while the Might Mullets of Myrtle (better alliteration than Conway) take a big swing at Bama. (If the Chants stayed within four touchdowns of Saban, Jimbo wouldn’t have much to say.)
Send a message to the squirrely Big Ten, which tried its best to railroad the 2020 season, by telling 6-0 Ohio State to sit at home while the Aggies square off with Clemson in New Orleans.
When presented with the option of something old or something new…please for the love of our sanity in 2021, give us something new so we can move on from the idea that an expanded version of the playoffs is a better version of the playoffs.
I believe in you, Selection Committee! Do the right thing! Whether you do or not, I’m eagerly anticipating 2021’s Clemson-Bama V (the pentalogy).
Spike
Ratings have gone down year over year as well. Covid will certainly impact this year but I think they’d be down regardless with the same teams every year. I have only watched parts of 1 game the last 4 years (I hate Georgia so hoped to see them lose).
Lynwood
This is the best article I have read coming from Nick! Kinda like a flow of thoughts that I have been wondering on. Playoff selection is a good ole boys club no doubt.