College Football Playoff 2014: Bill Hancock addresses strength of scheduling
By Jack Crosby
This year will mark the unprecedented debut of the College Football Playoff. Finally, four of the best teams in college football will square off for the right to be called national champions, leaving the detractors of the BCS format that was formerly in place quite happy.
However, although the four teams will be selected by a committee, strength of a team’s schedule still matters just as much as it had when the computers were in charge, and may even now become more of a pivotal factor in determining who gets the right to play for the ultimate college football prize.
Tuesday afternoon, executive director Bill Hancock spoke a bit about the subject of SOS, as well as the recent controversy as to whether or not teams should play eight or nine conference games and cut out the cupcakes. Hancock mentioned that while the number of conference games shouldn’t play too much of a factor in the selection process, how tough that schedule is still is one of the main concerns.
Bill Hancock said 8 or 9 game league schedule not a big deal for @CFBPlayoff committee, but strength of schedule is
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) April 29, 2014
Hancock on @CFBPlayoff committee: "What matters is everybody’s schedule as a whole. All 12 or 13 games. It’s all about those 12 games”
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) April 29, 2014
This talk today comes right on the heels of the top conference in college football, the SEC, recently announcing that they will be staying with an eight-game schedule going forward into the future as opposed to jumping to nine.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see how the strength of schedule factors in now that the human eye is involved rather than computers.