Playoff committee rankings

Fox News Quoted American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco as follows:
“To be honest, Paul, after I watched the show last night I didn’t know where to begin,” he said. "Which adjectives apply? I never thought I’d say it, but if this continues, I’d say let’s bring back the BCS and the computers. It would be a fairer system than I’m seeing now. This is the seventh year, and it does appear that the deck is stacked against us and the G4.

“The committee is honestly undermining its credibility with the rankings. It defies logic, common sense and fairness. I’m not the only one. I think there’s universal criticism … It’s clearly become a [Power Five] invitational. That term has been used. Certain teams, because of their name, branding, pedigree or whatever, are given the playoff privilege, it seems to me.”

His beef is that Cincinnati is now ranked too low to make the CFP, which is what I believe would have happened to BYU had they won out. Does anyone believe that a G5 or Independent undefeated team can get a fair shake from the committee as it stands? Thoughts?

Most of us have pointed out that the BSC was started because of BYU’s championship. There is still a lot of football to be played and a Florida or Northwestern could upset a playoff contender. The golden rule applies to everything in life. Those with the gold, make the rules.

I am not one who believes the BCS had anything to do with BYU’s national championship which occurred 14 years before the BCS was implemented. If that were the case BYU would have had to show it was not a one off and won it again or came close a few more times over the 14 year span. The BCS was implemented to get college football lots more money. That is the whole reason they came up with it. It had the extra benefit of consolidating power by funneling the big boys into higher payouts. The BYU championship didn’t cost any university any money. All the bowls still existed. The BCS was a pure money play … not anything to do with BYU’s season 14 years prior. If it was, the BCS would have started in 1985 - 1986 timeframe.

The only way to make to make the system fair would be a 16 team playoff to include all conference champions and a few other ranked at large teams that were not conference champions to fill out the field. When you include the conferences you have 10 spots filled. If one of the independents is ranked in the top 16 they get a bid so that would mean 10-11 automatic spots filled with 5-6 at large births coming from at large teams with highest ranking that were not conference champions or a qualifying independent. You could sill keep some of the bowl games. Going to a bowl game would be roughly equivalent to an NIT bid in basketball. The NCAA would sponsor it and get rid of the BCS which is run by power 5 conferences. The 16 teams would be seeded just like they are in basketball. There could still be playoff rankings just like there are today and those rankings would determine who outside the conference champions get playoff bids and the 16 teams would be seeded based on their playoff ranking. The P5 powers would still have an advantage but theoretically everybody has a shot. This would undoubtedly exclude some teams ranked higher than some of the G5 conference champions but tough bananas!!!

It would probably mean that schedules would have to be reduced to a maximum of 11 regular season games. Teams could schedule 4 games in Sept & Oct, & 3 in November. The season would end on the 3rd Saturday in November. The playoffs would begin the 1st Saturday in December with games the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Saturdays in December and the national championship game could be held the first Monday in January. This would allow competing teams two weeks to get healthy after the last regular season game and more than a week for the finalists to get healthy and prepare.

Where do final exams fit in this schedule? Probably doesn’t matter. The school can make arrangements with the players to take them sometime before the start of the next semester. This gives an advantage to the SEC because their players probably don’t take the exams anyway!

It would be difficult to leave BYU out of the playoff if they were to go undefeated with their schedule in 2021 or 2022

Quickly delete your comment about BYU making the CFP if they go undefeated next year or 2022 before JCoug sees them. He will come after you!

LOL!!! I see no reason not to implement a Sweet 16 playoff after 11 games. Those players want to go to the NFL where they play 4 preseason and 16 regular season games. Let’s do it!!!

Sorry THawk, it was directly created because of BYU.
1984 BYU Football Forced Changes In College Football System - KSL Sports

I am not buying what Mitch is selling. He is a BYU homer. The big boys wanted more money in a bowl and wouldn’t play BYU for less money. The catch was that OU and UW had played a number of common opponents to BYU and BYU handled them better. In fact Grant Taft told ESPN that BYU was a much better team than OU. He and his Baylor bears played both. The BCS and the championship series both started way after BYU’s win. The article is also misleading in that it was way more than BYU who threatened legal action. Relatively poor sourced article by a BYU podcast guy isn’t even close to evidence that BYU was the reason for the BCS. The money was the reason. Not BYU. Even when offered the chance to play BYU teams wouldn’t because of the low payout.

I’ve said it before and will say it again: the CFP LITERALLY EXISTS to protect the TV Bowl money for the P5 conferences. End of story. They are not going to sit there and say, “Hey, let’s give the American Conference $10m” when they can literally to their own athletic departments (since it’s divided amongst conference teams). Could an outsider ever make the final four? Well, ZERO percent chance with one undefeated season (see UCF a few years ago, Cincy this season). Maybe if an outsider were to go undefeated, pound somebody good in a bowl, then go undefeated again the next year. Sure it’s possible, but the odds of that are tiny tiny tiny, and even then the CFP would VERY LIKELY leave that team out for a 1 loss P5 team anyway. So I’d say possible but more like a 1 in a million chance.

Just follow the money. That’s usually the truth.

You mean like UCF did? That is exactly what they did and it didn’t change anything. It is funny reading the posts in this thread. I believe there are a lot of intelligent, well informed guys who post here. The funny part of it is that for whatever reason, some of them get an idea in their head and they stick with it whether they observe something that might change that idea or opinion. I have described the exact scenarios that you speak of, that fish speaks of, that thawk speaks of, that aro speaks of, that grasshopper speaks of, that SR Burton speaks of… I have taken ALL of the information and opinions that you have all provided and have summarized them into one compelling opinion… that of my own.

Just so everyone knows, I am someone who listens to and respects what others have to say. I believe EVERYONE has a valid opinion that should be heard and thought about. I wouldn’t be grasshoppers friend is that weren’t the case. EVERYONE knows where I stand on this issue. As far as BYU being the reason the CFP came about, yes and no. Yes the 84 championship was ONE of the reasons but there were others as well. MONEY was the biggest reason and isn’t that always the case? The love of money is the root of all evil. I have been naming my fantasy sports teams with various names for “money” for many years now… Filthy Lucre, Sweet Moolah, Spondooliocos (my father in laws term), Root of All Evil are the most popular fantasy team names I have used. I have won a few titles with those as well. I made it all the way to #3 in a game that consisted of at least 25,000 players many many years ago when fantasy sports was just beginning and it was one of the first on-line fantasy football games out there. I danced with the pro’s and players who spent lots of time researching and planning… while I did not. But I digress…

BYU will not be invited to the CFP until they have joined a P5 conference and finish a season undefeated or with one loss, two losses in a scenario where those losses were to other big time P5 teams. That is the only way it will ever happen. This is based on research and YEARS of observation and understanding. Anyone can argue this fact till they are blue in the face or goggles or whatever but it is the truth and it will not change anytime soon, if ever. Sorry if that hurts or if someone doesn’t want to believe or accept it.

I agree it’s based on your observations but what research? The other thing that could happen as Aro mentioned that we go to a larger sweet 16 playoff system. There would be lots of money involved like with Basketball. Some of the bowls can be part of it.

The idea that a G5 can’t make the CFP with just 1 undefeated season is probably right. 2 undefeated seasons is a maybe. Depends on how many loses the top P5 programs have.

As I have repeatedly said over the years, if BYU plays 4-6 P5 teams who are decent to good, and BYU is undefeated then they will have the attention of the voters and AP. BYU’s Indy schedule on a normal year is pretty decent. That is why I say that if BYU goes undefeated they are in a much better spot than any G5 team to get a CFP invite. If Covid is over enough to allow a full schedule to be played and BYU does go undefeated then I think they are into the CFP.

I can agree with this. I believe that it is a possibility, though a very long shot one. Now, if that were to happen (a very BIG if) I still think there are so many hurdles to overcome after that point that it is difficult to envision a scenario where it could actually happen. These are probably the odds…

Yeah, you’re right.