College Football Playoff releases updated schedule

In response to scheduling change across the Power-5 conferences, the College Football Playoff will do the same to theirs.

College Football is doing all it can to see a season through in 2020, with plans to culminate as always with the College Football Playoff. As conferences across the country alter their schedules in hopes of playing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Playoff committee has decided to push back theirs as well to include the conference championship games in their final rankings.

Originally, the Playoff Committee planned a Dec. 6 release of its rankings, which would not have made much sense with the SEC Championship Game moved to Dec. 19, as just one example. Instead, the Committee will now meet on the Dec. 20, with the semifinals set for Jan. 1 and the National Championship for Jan. 11.

https://twitter.com/CFBPlayoff/status/1291104750755184641

This should not come as much of a surprise, but it reinforces the NCAA’s commitment to executing a season as normally as possible, with a Playoff at the end of it. How the Committee chooses to weigh its contending teams this season will be more interesting than ever, with scheduling options largely out the window as conference-only schedules have become the norm across the nation.

Many of the large, impactful non-conference matchups are no more. While a team like Ohio State or Oregon could have made an early statement in their Week 2 showdown, that will no longer be the case. Instead, teams in tougher conferences such as the SEC will be punished, while those like Clemson or Notre Dame may have an easier path to the Playoff.

Will you look at this season’s National Champion differently than any other?

Regardless, winning college football games, whether against a struggling conference opponent or in a marquee matchup, is difficult. Even with all the changing circumstances in 2020, that reigns true, meaning that this year’s Playoff and eventual champion shall be regarded like all others.

That is, of course, only if the NCAA is able to pull off a season, which, despite all plans saying otherwise, looks increasingly unlikely among the players.