NOW OR NEVER
With so much uncertainty this season, NCAA has to expand playoff field
COLLEGE football has a perfect opportunity in front of itself. It has a chance to be more inclusive, to give expanding the playoff a shot. It can use the wackiness of the year — leagues starting at different times, COVID-19 creating chaos, star players opting out — to give a larger playoff a shot.
It can be a trial run, like baseball is doing with its 16-team playoff. Take eight teams — five power conference winners, one group of five program and two wild cards chosen by the committee. There is no down side.
As it stands, it will be incredibly difficult to choose the four teams. There aren’t any noteworthy non-conference games. Some teams will play 11 games, others eight, some seven — and that’s without further postponements, which seems unlikely. More than ever, it will come down to the eye test. Selection will be based on opinion. This year, of all years, winning your conference has to matter, since teams from the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 will only be playing teams from their respective leagues.
You can see the debates already. Team A has one loss, but it played 11 games. Team B is undefeated in only eight contests. Team C comes from the best conference, but has two losses. It’s going to be so hard to pick the four best teams this year, when you consider the factors involved.
“There’s gonna be more subjectivity than they’ve ever had before but that’s why we’ve got a committee,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said Thursday.
“Subjectivity” shouldn’t have a major role in deciding a national champion, especially not this year. Expanding the playoff to eight teams makes so much sense, eliminating human error and controversy, limiting the need for teams to run up the score. Before you say it’s too late in the process, just remember how fast college football has adapted on the fly. You have schedules being changed on a weekly basis. Leagues canceling and restarting seasons. There are no minimum restrictions on teams being bowl eligible this year.
It can be done. An extra weekend of games at home sites can be created. The powers that be just don’t want to do it.
I’ve asked College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock about the potential of expansion for just this year, and he said it hasn’t been discussed. Scott said there was “no serious momentum or discussion.” That’s a shame.
College football is missing out on a great opportunity. It has been dealt a tough hand, no doubt. This season is unlike any other. Which is reason enough to give a bigger playoff a look — even for just this one year.
Now we’re back!
This felt like the first real Saturday of the college football season despite the absence of the Big Ten and Pac-12 — and what a Saturday it was. You had new Mississippi State coach Mike Leach and his “air raid” system introducing itself to the SEC with an upset at sixth-ranked LSU, which became the first defending national champion to lose its opener since 1998. You had No. 3 Oklahoma blowing a 21-point lead to Kansas State — the same Kansas State that lost to Arkansas State and was without eight contributors due to the virus. You had No. 8 Texas needing a dramatic rally from 15 points down in the final 3:13 against Texas Tech to avoid all of Austin going into catatonic shock. Eight top-25 teams won by two scores or less and five lost.
It’s good to have college football back, even in its strange, truncated state.
Big 12 disappointment
It’s not too early to sound the alarm for the Big 12. Saturday could end up being a costly day for the Power Five conference’s hope of a spot in the playoff. Oklahoma, the league’s premier team, blew the big lead to shorthanded Kansas State. Texas needed that big rally against Texas Tech. No. 15 Oklahoma State, while 2-0, has yet to impress. And this year, without statement non-conference opportunities, the league will need someone to make weekly statements to the committee. That team is usually Oklahoma. But now the Sooners have a major hole in their résumé.