For myself and many other College Football fans, Selection Sunday is a sort of early December Christmas. Only for this Christmas, we have to wait until just after noon to unwrap the Committee's Top 4. Per the College Football Playoff Committee website, the Committee considers the following comparable items between team "by considering conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory) and other relevant factors that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance."
In the first year of this system, we saw Ohio State jump the Big Twelve co-champions because of Ohio State's convincing win in the Big Ten Championship game and because were an outright conference champ, unlike Baylor and TCU. It was the Big Ten leading the argument for the value of a conference championship on one's resume. This was out of the fear of the SEC having multiple teams in the top four. This year, the rolls flipped. Prior to Saturday, it was easy to say that the best two teams in the Big Ten, Ohio State and That Team Up North, were not playing in the Big Ten Championship game. One of the two, both in the top four, seemed to only have to win "The Game" to make it into the College Football Playoff, CFP. But, after an impressive win over Wisconsin, Penn State made their case stronger.
The Committee was then left with the issue of determining the top four with an Ohio State team that would not be a conference champion. Alabama seemed to be a lock regardless of what happened in the SEC Championship game. Going into championship week, many believed Ohio State was already a lock, but it was not a guarantee.
The Committee was confusing this year when it came to strength of non-conference schedule. Ohio State made it into the Top 4 partially with the help of their road win at Oklahoma. Washington however, had the second worst strength of schedule in th FBS.
The Committee Chair stated that the Committee the debate for the fourth spot was between Washington and Penn State. They looked at one-loss Washington and two-loss Penn State. Both conference champions. They stated that Penn State's losses consisted of a beat down by Michigan and another loss to a four-loss Pitt team. They did, however, state that if Washington had a stronger strength of schedule, the discussion would not have been as difficult. The chairman then stated that the Committee believed Washington compared better in the "eye-test" than Penn State did.
All in all, being a Buckeye and Big Ten fan, I would have loved to see two Big Ten teams in the CFP. Out of the fourth through sixth ranked teams, I personally think Michigan would fair best against Alabama. Joey Galloway mentioned that he would have been comfortable with any of the top 5 teams being in the CFP. At the end of the day, any controversies aside, the Committee gave us an incredible lineup of major bowl games.
