A Broken Sport

The College Football Playoffs have been decided, and I truly believe there has never been a more confusing choice in teams ever. The teams decided are fairly chosen, except for one. This one team is Ohio State.

The inclusion of the Ohio State Buckeyes into the playoffs is, without a doubt, one of the most blasphemous selections that college football has ever seen so far in this playoff system. It is important to recall a quote from Urban Meyer from 2006 while at the University of Florida, making a case for why the 2006 Florida Gators should compete against Ohio State for the national championship moments after Florida won the 2006 SEC Championship: “No team should be allowed to play for a national championship without having won their conference championship." This quote is quite ironic to look at today, as Urban Meyer will be leading the Ohio State Buckeyes against the Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff in a little more than two weeks.

The Ohio State Buckeyes were not able to play in the Big 10 conference championship, as they were not even able to win their own division to compete for this conference championship. Nevertheless, the Ohio State Buckeyes were able to stay ahead of a Penn State Nittany Lions football team in the Playoff rankings, even with Penn State winning the Big 10 conference. Many people are making the case that, even with a conference championship, Penn State is not a top four team that should be able to compete for a national championship this year. Ohio State, supposedly, has a better schedule and a better resume compared to Penn State.

Ironically, college football is not this easy to decipher. Many people are able to say many things about how hypothetical matchups turn out. However, the game is played on the field. Unfortunately, many have forgotten this aspect of the game. Clearly, there is quite the presence of bias on the college football playoff committee. If a team like the Ohio State Buckeyes, a surely talented team, is able to compete for a national championship rather than a conference winning Penn State Nittany Lions team, something is not right.

I feel that the only way to overcome this problem is to make an eight-team playoff, where the conference champions of each power-five conference is automatically qualified and three other teams are then chosen by a committee like the playoff committee. This may be better for college football overall, as it may not create a large concentration of NFL-caliber talent in certain conferences. Regardless of what is done, something must be done to eliminate this great bias that is clearly evident in the college football playoff committee.