Let the Big Ten into the College Football Playoff
Big Ten football plans to arrive fashionably late to the 2020 season. Oct. 24. That's the startup date for the Big Ten, which typically is when Indiana, Purdue and Maryland mentally are making the transition to basketball season.
In this pandemic season, the Big Ten thought it was a leader but instead became a follower.
So the Big Ten will return, with great pomp but with hat in hand, pleading for the College Football Playoff to show some grace.
The Big Ten plans to play an eight-game schedule, with a conference championship game on Dec. 19. That's two games less than the Big 12 and SEC plans, three less than the ACC, and four less than the likes of Houston, which won't run the table but what if it does?
So what is the playoff committee to do? The 2014 decision-makers thought 12-1 Ohio State, 11-1 Baylor and 11-1 TCU was a tough call. Same with 11-1 Alabama and 11-2 Ohio State in 2017?
Wait until it's an 8-0 Ohio State and an 11-1 Clemson, or an 8-1 Penn State and a 10-2 Georgia.
Much of college football scheduling comparisons is a mess, but at least the teams play roughly the same number of games. Not in 2020.
Some of this discussion could be moot. There's scant guarantee the eventual Big Ten champ will get in all eight games. The Big 12 was scheduled for 10 games last weekend; seven were played.
And while the Big 12, ACC
and SEC have scheduled off days throughout the season, as possible makeup dates, the Big Ten has no such insurance policy. Eight weeks, eight games per team.
There is a limit on how accommodating the committee can be. If Ohio State plays six regular-season games, the committee would be hard-pressed to justify Buckeye inclusion.
But eight? I have no problem with eight. If the Big Ten champ can get in all eight games, that's not much difference than the Big 12's nine-game conference schedule. The Big 12 gets no extra credit for its non-conference scheduling model — lose to a Sun Belt team or play a lower-division pushover.
In some ways, the Big Ten's return could take pressure off the committee. This can't be a stated policy, but if the season can be completed largely without hitches, the best fairest result would be the four conference champions comprising the four-team field. The SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten champs staging the tournament. Dec. 19 title games could be virtual national quarterfinals.
Admittedly, that's a self-serving theory coming from the Southwest. The Big 12 losses to Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and Coastal Carolina don't exactly paint our conference as a powerhouse, so OU, Texas or OSU will have to overcome the much-deserved fallout from such a debacle.
But in a year when there literally are no crossover games matching Power 5 Conference teams, what better way to sort out the chaos than just vote in the conference champs? Let the results decide. That's the way it works rather well in the pros.
You can't say that publicly, of course. The mid-majors would howl and rightfully so. They've been told they at least have a narrow path to the playoff, and everyone from U.S. senators to the ghost of Lavell Edwards would scream foul if that door was closed.
But that door is closed every year, not by decree but by reality, and this season is no different.
The Big Ten's late entry is in some ways humorous. The Big Ten on Aug. 11 called off its season, believing all others would follow. Only the Pac-12 did.
From Nebraska coach Scott Frost to Donald Trump to Ohio State parent Randy Wade, the protests mounted against the Big Ten, and when games were staged last Saturday in Norman and South Bend and Austin and Clemson and Chapel Hill, the pressure only increased.
So the Big Ten found some flimsy testing excuses to rationalize its return. The Big Ten knows the truth. Football in January, football in October, football on August 29, when the Sooners wanted to host Missouri State, it's all the same. Not going to be any safer one time or another, until a vaccine is widely distributed.
Yes, the Big Ten is run by a bunch of snobs. That doesn't mean its football teams should be penalized.
If the Big Ten gets in its eight-game schedule, let its champion into the playoff.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-7608080 or at btramel@ oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at oklahoman. com/berrytramel.