The College Football Playoff Needs To Change

Photo courtesy of Marvin Gentry from USA Today Sports

Typically when people complain about the college football playoff, they explain their frustrations and then explain their solution.

I’m going to do it backwards.

Here is my idea for an 8 team playoff system.

The five power five conference winners get an automatic bid (this is still counting the Big 12 as a power five conference after Texas and Oklahoma leave, which is……questionable), the highest ranked G5 school gets an automatic bid, and two at large teams join in.

The committee stays, but their only roles are to pick the two at large schools and then rank the 8 teams however they see fit.

So, for this first weeks rankings, the playoff would be

• 1. Georgia vs 8. Wake Forest

• 2. Alabama vs 7. Oklahoma

• 3. Michigan State vs 6. Cincinnati

• 4. Oregon vs 5. Ohio State

So what does this system give us?

Well, first things first, it gives us fun match ups.

Would Georgia and Alabama destroy Wake Forest and Oklahoma? Yeah, probably.

But a rematch of Oregon and Ohio State would be super fun, as would a Michigan State vs Cincinnati game.

Sports are games. They’re meant to be fun. An 8 team playoff gives us the opportunity for more fun match ups.

But more importantly, it prevents the committee from treating college football fans like toddlers who can’t see what they’re doing.

Allow me to explain with three examples.

Example A

I love Mississippi State.

What the hell are they doing ranked 17th?

State lost to Memphis, who is unranked, and LSU at home.

A 5-3 team should never be ranked 17th, unless their three losses are to the top 3 teams in the country.

And just as a side note, the logic for why they are there is ridiculous.

“Mississippi State needed to be ranked higher than Kentucky because they beat them.”

Ok. Mississippi State also beat Texas A&M, a team with the same record as Kentucky, and are three spots behind them.

So why are they ranked so high?

Because Alabama beat up on both Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Ranking those two schools 16th and 17th means that they will be mid ranked teams by seasons end, which automatically gives Alabama a quality win in the committee’s eyes.

Example B

Wisconsin, another 5-3 team with an offense that is borderline unwatchable, is 21st.

Minnesota, who lost at home to a 2-7 Bowling Green team, is ranked 20th.

Both of those schools, both over ranked by the committee, are both in the Big 10 west and both are contenders for playing in the Big 10 championship game.

Where they will then likely be slaughtered by Michigan State, Ohio State or Michigan depending on which team wins the East.

This gives the Big 10 champion, if they have one loss, another quality win in the committee’s eyes.

Example C

I mentioned how Mississippi State and Wisconsin are both 5-3 and are both ranked.

You know who isn’t ranked?

7-1 SMU. Or 7-1 Houston.

Both of them are ranked in the AP poll, the poll determined by college football writers whose literal job is to watch college football.

Those people think those teams are worth being ranked.

The CFP selection committee doesn’t seem to think they are.

Strange.

So what do these examples all lead to?

Allow me to demonstrate what a committee member might be saying when selection Sunday comes around.

“Well, I know Alabama has two losses, but one of them was to highly ranked Texas A&M and the other loss was to the #1 team in Georgia.

Plus, they absolutely dominated Ole Miss/Mississippi State, and that school is ranked fairly high.

And as for one loss Michigan State/Ohio State/Michigan, they have another ranked win over Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa in the Big 10 title game, so that’s another quality win.

And comparing those two schools to undefeated Cincinnati, I know they beat Notre Dame on the road but we all know conference play is the most important and nobody else in their conference is ranked, so we had to pass them by.”

By the way, these complaints don’t even account for how ridiculous it is that 8-0 UTSA isn’t ranked at all, and how if you replaced Wake Forest with Clemson and kept the same schedule and results, Clemson would easily be number 2 but Wake is number 9, which doesn’t do anything towards Cincy’s chances, but is still just flat out wrong.

I think we all knew the CFP committee would find a way to screw over Cincinnati.

I guess I just didn’t think it would be so obvious.

Maybe it was the writing’s on the wall that Cincy was truly one of the top teams this year, or Michigan State and Wake Forest, two schools that don’t typically bring in high ratings, were undefeated and could do damage to the playoff getting their daily dose of Bama.

People said a playoff would ruin the regular season and give spots to teams who don’t deserve it.

Now it’s clear that college football needs to expand the playoff, and give spots to teams who truly do.

Because the committee doesn’t give a damn if you deserve it or not. They care about which teams will put money into ESPN’s pockets.