The College Football Playoff system needs a few tweaks, and figuring how to make it accessible for “Group of Five” teams is an important one.
For everything that’s been said and written about the new College Football Playoff system, on the whole things weren’t terrible. The committee was open and transparent about their rankings (whether you agreed with them or not is another issue), the New Year’s Six bowl games saw some record attendance and ratings numbers, and nobody openly pined for the return of the BCS.
Rubbing the Rock
But there is still work to be done on making this system better, and one of the priorities that the committee needs to put on their list is figuring out how to better include teams from the “Group of Five” – which is to say, the five conferences not included in the Power-5.
Right now, the only guarantee that GOF teams have is a spot in one of the New Year’s Six bowls for the highest ranked team in their group. While that gives some solace, it doesn’t address the fact that some of these teams deserve a clear path to playoff consideration.
It’s going to take a change of mindset on the part of the committee, and perhaps some change in scheduling habits for any GOF teams who wish to be taken seriously.
This past season, Marshall and East Carolina were two teams who probably deserved more consideration, but neither of them were anywhere near a ranking that could have vaulted them into a playoff spot. Even if Marshall — who didn’t lose until next to last week of the regular season — had gone undefeated they still probably wouldn’t have even cracked the Top 10, less yet the Top 4.
East Carolina (who admittedly faltered later in the season) was sitting at 6-1 when the first CFB Playoff Rankings were released, having beaten Virginia Tech, North Carolina and having nearly pulled off an upset against South Carolina.
The Pirates never saw their ranking rise above No. 23 by the committee, and No. 18 in the AP poll.
Even Boise State, who seemingly was the only non-Power-5 team ever taken seriously for a while, never even had a shot this season, as the 12-2 Broncos never saw themselves rise above No. 20 in the playoff rankings.
The perception is that these teams don’t play a difficult enough schedule to be given a place at the table with the big boys. But as the old saying goes, “you can only play the teams you are scheduled to play”.
So what can the committee do? Perhaps its time to start giving a little leeway on this whole “strength of schedule” argument. While nobody will likely argue that playing a Conference-USA or AAC schedule is as difficult as playing a schedule in the Pac-12 or SEC, teams like Marshall should be given more credit for winning their games, particularly in the dominating fashion with which they were doing it (hey, it was an argument that seemed valid for FSU).
The committee needs to start thinking in terms of FBS, rather than in terms of individual conferences. If you are an FBS team, playing an FBS schedule, then you should have equal footing with any other team when it comes to climbing your way into the playoff rankings.
Let the Associated Press and USA Today polls reflect the feeling of little brother towards these conferences, as they’ve historically done anyway.
If a team from a GOF conference makes their way into the playoffs, it only makes the playoffs that much more interesting. Upsets are fun. Underdogs are the American way.
Nobody gave Boise State much of a shot the first time they played in a Fiesta Bowl, then part of the BCS equation. As it stands now, the little blue engine from Boise is 3-0 in Fiesta Bowl appearances – beating Oklahoma, TCU and Arizona in those three games.
When little UCF was taking on Baylor in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl, many laughed it off, but the Knights rose to the occasion and came out of it with a 52-42 win.
The Northern Illinois Huskies were supposed to be absolutely crushed by mighty Florida State in the 2013 Orange bowl, but NIU hung with the Seminoles for the better part of the game, and didn’t see FSU pull away until the 4th quarter in the 31-10 loss.
The point is that regardless of what conference teams come from, they tend to raise their level of play when the spotlight is on, and will match up with any Power-5 team thrown their way.
You can argue until the cows come home that these teams don’t belong in big games with the Power-5, but then again, those objections probably would come from the same people who said that Missouri and Texas A&M would never stand a chance playing in the SEC.
How has that worked out, anyway?
But for a change in perception and in thought process to occur, there has to be something behind it. And as unfair as it may sound, scheduling is going to have to become a part of fixing this problem.
Boise State began to be taken seriously on a yearly basis when they added (and defeated) more Power-5 teams on their regular season schedule, and the same is going to have to hold true for teams currently in the GOF.
Marshall did not play any Power-5 teams in the regular season, and that as much as anything else was what held them back in the eyes of the selection committee. Despite going undefeated until Nov. 28, the Thundering Herd never rose above a No. 24 ranking by the committee, and had four different 4-loss teams ranked above them when they disappeared from the rankings after their only loss of the season.
The fact is that despite an overtime loss to Western Kentucky, the Herd was playing better football on the whole than USC, LSU, Utah and Auburn – the four teams who had four losses to that point.
The inevitable expansion of the playoffs will either help or exasperate this situation. If there isn’t a change in thought process by the committee and some scheduling tweaks by GOF teams, then all an expanded playoff field will do will give more Power-5 teams a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card for entrance into the playoffs.
But if the NCAA and the Playoff Selection Committee want this system to work, and to remain in place as a permanent solution to choosing college football’s national champion, then both organizations must start thinking on a national level, and become tuned in to the pleas of teams not normally associated with being national powers.
Would Marshall have beaten any of the teams in the playoff this year? It sure would have been fun to find out, wouldn’t it?
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