Each week when the college football playoff committee released their rankings, it seemed we got more confused than the week before. The criteria for ranking teams seemingly changed with each new announcement. In the end though the committee made it crystal clear what they want in the future when Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State were selected as the 4 teams in this year’s playoffs.
1) Get yourself a conference championship game Big 12
There is no question that Ohio State benefited from routing Wisconsin in the Big 10 title game and TCU, Baylor, and the Big 12 were penalized for not having one. TCU and Baylor won on Saturday. Baylor beat a top 10 team, and still Ohio State was the selection even with a loss to Virginia Tech. Expect within 6 months the Big 12 to announce a conference championship game either by expanding or getting approval from the NCAA to have a conference championship game with fewer than 12 teams. The Big 12 may just expand, and not worry about the NCAA. It’s clear the Big 12 is at a disadvantage without one.
2) Head to Head does matter
With Baylor finishing ahead TCU, the committee tells us when all other things are equal head to head will in most cases win out.
3) Schedule up in the Out of Conference
Baylor was penalized for scheduling SMU, Northwestern State, and Buffalo. TCU was only slightly better with SMU, Minnesota, and Samford. Ohio State had Navy, Virginia Tech, Kent State and Cincinnati. Look at the schedule, the Buckeyes looked tougher prior to the season, and it was tougher even when the season was over. I think the committee was more forgiving of Ohio State’s loss to Virginia Tech because of that.
4) Win and your in
If Baylor or TCU are undefeated they are in. If Ohio State is undefeated they are in without hesitation. FSU was undefeated and despite dropping to fourth at one point, were going to be in if they were undefeated. At the end of the day, when you lose you put things in the hands of committee. If you are really mad that you didn’t get in, maybe you shouldn’t have lost a game.
5) Conference Championships matter
There were 4 clear cut conference champions. Those were the 4 teams in the playoffs. One sort of co-champion in the Big 12, but they were ranked 5 and 6. No non-conference champion was ranked higher than 7th. You better have some kind of impressive resume if you want to make the playoffs without winning your conference.
6) Take note Notre Dame
While not directly addressing Notre Dame, I’m going back to point number one here. If you aren’t playing in a conference championship you are at a disadvantage. If you aren’t a conference champion you are at a disadvantage. Some Notre Dame fans already realize this.
So with this whole Big XII thing I now no longer care about independence and want ND to just join the ACC.
— NDEddieMac (@NDEddieMac) December 7, 2014
