The third College Playoff will soon be upon us. We will watch as four titans will face off to decide who will reach the glory and title of being named “the best of college football”. The top four teams chosen for the playoffs are decided upon by a 12-man committee who votes each week. While I admit that the playoffs are an upgrade to the old BCS standings, it has one fatal flaw. It relies on twelve people to look at teams’ body of work and determine what four teams stand above the rest. In thought, this is a great idea, however we have seen that this has not been practiced.
In 2014, Texas Christian University, TCU, went 11-1 going on to get a share of the Big XII title. Before the final rankings came out, TCU was ranked third, but after the final week, TCU was ranked sixth. How can a team fall from third to sixth? From SB Nation, a committee member was found saying that Ohio State had a better 13th game win against a higher ranked opponent than TCU’s twelve game season. Ohio State won a position in the playoffs because TCU did not have a conference championship, and Ohio State won the Big Ten conference championship. Now flash forward to 2016, Ohio State has gone 11-1 and missed the Big Ten championship this year. Despite this, Ohio State is still ranked second in the standings and is still projected to make the playoffs. Why is this double standard allowed?
One answer is the name game. What I mean by this is that certain schools carry a reputation of being good by name. Teams like Alabama, Ohio State, and Michigan are inherently great at football. While this is true for all three teams this year, you cannot allow for such titles to be the reason you snub teams from the playoffs. If you want teams to win their conference championship to get into the playoffs, then why is Wisconsin or Penn State not being considered for the playoffs this year? Penn State beat the Buckeyes in a regular season game earlier this year. While it can be argued that Penn State has two losses and should not make the playoffs, the fact of the matter is that Penn State has a chance to win the Big Ten Championship and should be considered over Ohio State. Why? They beat Ohio State and if they win the Big Ten championship, they have a conference title.
Since the playoff committee has yet to announce their final standings, I will hold my opinion of them until then. However, this season has shown that while the committee says they look for one thing like strength of schedule or championships, they have shown that it does not matter if you are a team like Ohio State. I think that all top ten teams should be looked at by the committee and considered for the playoffs. That is my thought, but first and foremost, the committee should stick to what they considered the standards are for a playoff spot and not allow title’s to outweigh quality of teams.
*SBnation.com offered the interview stated on TCU.
