Back to the Napkin

The mess that is the College Football Playoff

(Editor’s note: here is the newly released final playoff tree)

Larry Culpepper could have never imagined it would turn out this way.

Red blooded Americans rejoiced upon the announcement of the long awaited college football playoff system (Thanks Obama). The idea that the old computer system would finally be replaced with a true playoff was embraced the world over.

And it makes sense: who uses computers anymore?

Seriously, pretty much all major sports use some type of playoff/tournament at the end of the season to determine the champion. College football was the only exception. So last year, the NCAA was finally going to do something right, though it certainly was not an entirely unselfish move. Afterall, there were only, like, 39 bowl games before. In other words, only 39 opportunities for the governing body of college athletics to make even more money off the backs of its not quite exploited, but pretty much exploited, free labor pool. What’s one more?

Last year seemed like a debacle when then #3 ranked TCU was left out of the final rankings in favor of #5 Ohio State. TCU had committed the unforgivable sin of only beating Iowa State in the final week by 40 points, then refused to play in a conference championship game that their conference doesn’t even have. Two things that were pretty much guaranteed to happen when they were considered “IN” by the committee in week 15. In hindsight, it didn’t look so bad because Ohio State went on to win the National Championship. That doesn’t change the fact that, at the time, there seemed to be no clear criteria for determining the final four.

Flash forward to the present: I fear the cracks in the system may be showing through again.

Alabama has a really clever claim to a spot in the playoffs — potentially even the number 2 ranking — and it can be summed up in three letters: S-E-C. Its circular logic at its finest: The SEC is better than all other conferences, so losing to a team in the SEC is better than losing to any other team, so it doesn’t matter who you beat or who you lost to and where. Then they throw in strength of schedule and strength of record, which both overrate SEC teams, and it snowballs out of control from there. Add in some “passing the eye test” subjective garbage and it’s impossible to argue against. You take out those three letters and the argument collapses in on itself. (Bama played a FCS team in the final two weeks of the season, by the way.)

Oklahoma will be rewarded for the injustice served to TCU in 2014. They have the worst loss of any team in the top 6. The backloaded Big 12 conference schedule gave them a resume boost at just the right time.

On the flip side, Iowa and Ohio State will be left on the outside looking in. Their only missteps all season are losing to Michigan State late in the season, leaving it fresh in the minds of the committee. Iowa is being punished for playing in the conference championship game, something OU didn’t have to do. The Hawkeyes would have been better off in the Big 12 this year, something no one would have said last year.

Iowa, and to a lesser extent OSU, have an argument to be included in the playoff over Oklahoma, and to a lesser extent Alabama. But the Sooners and Crimson Tide will get in because a group of 13 people who have no standard criteria for judging these teams think they pass the clichéd eye test. When an underdog beats a heavy favorite, people are quick to say “that’s why you play the games.” These two clichés are mutually exclusive. Either you JUST look like the better team, or your record proves it.

I thought the playoff was a good idea, but, in execution, it’s actually kind of annoying. The weekly rankings being revealed are just another excuse for ESPN to not show actual live sporting events anymore. ESPN is the MTV of sports. They rank teams 1-25 even though only four make the playoff. You don’t need to tell me who is 21 spots away from playing for a National Championship. Most of those teams are mathematically eliminated once they hit two losses anyway. The reveal should take no more than five minutes.

I don’t have a solution to the problem, but there are some logical steps to be taken. Expand the playoff, balance the schedules so that there is less potential for bias and cupcake scheduling. Or, perhaps, ditch the playoff system as we know it. I don’t know, football is stupid.

Ol’ Larry has his work cut out for him.