AAC head recognizes UCF’s role in shaping playoffs
AAC commissioner says Knights’ 2017-18 seasons sparked push
Commissioner says school’s 25-game win streak during 2017-18 seasons contributed to calls for postseason expansion.
American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco contends that UCF’s historic run through the 2017-18 seasons that included a school-record 25-game winning streak contributed to the current push for expanding the College Football Playoff.
“You can’t overstate the importance of it,” Aresco said.
UCF went undefeated in 2017, capturing the conference championship with a win over No. 20 Memphis only to finish No. 12 in the final Playoff rankings behind five two-loss teams and a three-loss Auburn team. A year later, UCF went undefeated again only to finish No. 8 in the rankings behind two-loss Georgia and two-loss Michigan.
Last season, Cincinnati finished the season undefeated with a conference championship, but the Bearcats found themselves ranked No. 8 in the final Playoff rankings behind a two-loss Oklahoma team and a three-loss Florida team.
“Until 2017 when that undefeated UCF team beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl and didn’t get into the top 10 of the CFP, that I think is when attention became greater toward the CFP and the rankings,” added Aresco. “I don’t think there’s any question that season
“We spent eight years really building up credibility, building up our conference, building up who we thought we were, and we feel we’ve arrived and this, I think, validates what we’ve done and gives us positioning now. Our coaches can go out and say, ‘Look, we’ve got real access to the playoff.’ ”
— American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco
galvanized attention.”
Aresco has been one of the staunchest critics of the current four-team model, constantly campaigning for better access for his conference pretty much since the playoff ’s inception in 2014. The AAC has been the best non-autonomous conference during that stretch, claiming the Group of Five’s bid in the New Year’s Six Access bowl five of those seven seasons.
But Aresco’s frustration also has stemmed from the lack of respect among those on the playoff selection committee who have ranked some of the league’s best teams below two- or three-loss Power Five teams in the rankings, denying them a legitimate shot at a semifinal spot.
However, the latest proposal being considered by the Playoff group would expand the field to 12 teams composed of the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams determined by the 13-member selection committee.
“We think it’s a good plan,” Aresco said. “It’s good for us and it’s good for college football.”
“I was happy and excited that this was a plan that I thought we could embrace and our conference has embraced it. It’s got all the right principles. It’s a meritocracy now.”
Perhaps the biggest selling point for the AAC and Aresco is the lack of automatic qualifiers for playoff spots — something that would have been a point of contention.
“We have a good chance to escape the G5 branding now,” Aresco added. “It’s all FBS and there are either elite FBS conferences or there are not. You’re going to have to go out there and earn it.
“The idea of six without the so-called G5 or A5 divide is a really important starting point.”
The four highest-ranked conference champions would be seeded one through four and would get a bye while the eight other teams would be seeded 5 through 12 and would play firstround games on campus sites. That opens the door to the possibility of an AAC team hosting a first-round matchup.
“We spent eight years really building up credibility, building up our conference, building up who we thought we were, and we feel we’ve arrived and this, I think, validates what we’ve done and gives us positioning now. Our coaches can go out and say, ‘Look, we’ve got real access to the playoff.’ ”
But while the proposal seems to deal with the issue of access, critics worry that the selection committee would still devalue teams from non-autonomous conferences, ranking them among the bottom of the 12 spots. It’s been a concern for the AAC in the Playoff ’s current model.
“What we have to do is clearly convince the committee we’re good enough so when we have a one-loss, two-loss or even a three-loss team, that it actually is more deserving than maybe a conference that isn’t as good as ours that has an undefeated team or a one-loss or two-loss team,” said Aresco. “Because they have done that with the P5, they’ve ranked three- or four-loss teams ahead of some of our one-loss teams and they’ve ranked two- or three-loss teams ahead of our undefeated teams.
“We need to be given the same scrutiny. If we’re not good enough, fine, there is nothing to complain about but Houston in 2015, UCF in 2017-18 and Cincinnati in 2020 all had a legitimate resume. We still have to perform. Nothing is being handed to us.”
Aresco and the rest of the conference commissioners will meet on June 17-18 in Chicago to review the expansion proposal before presenting their recommendations to the Playoff board of managers, which is composed of 11 school presidents and chancellors, on June 22 in a meeting in Dallas.
The board has the final say on changes to the postseason format.
A decision, however, won’t come until at least September at the earliest, according to Playoff executive director Bill Hancock. Even then, any changes won’t go into effect until 2023 at the earliest.