Each year, teams left out of the top four of the College Football Playoff argue why they should have been put in against the likes Alabama or Clemson. With the fourth iteration of Alabama Football and the Clemson Tigers upcoming, the call to expand the playoff should die with it.
The charge of the College Football Playoff committee seems simple. Pick the four best teams in the FBS to compete in a playoff to determine the National Championship. The CFP was heralded as a win for the entire college football community, especially those that were outside the SEC footprint. Alabama football has been the only team to qualify all five seasons. Considering national Alabama fatigue, the Tide getting in every year does not sit well with other schools.
The SEC saw domination in the BCS, winning nine BCS championships total. The four-team format gave two other teams a chance to win the championship, should the committee fail to correctly choose the first two teams in its rankings.
Now in their fifth year, it seems the semifinal is nothing but a scrimmage match for the real two teams to make it into the Championship Game. That means the playoff is working exactly as it was intended. An expansion to six or even eight teams would hijack that purpose.
The Case For Contentment
You aren’t going to get an argument from me that the BCS was a great system. It was not.
Having a computer use statistics and numbers to determine the best two teams in America made for plenty of unnecessary controversies. After the BCS put two teams from the SEC in the Championship in 2011, fans around the nation outside of Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa cried for a playoff.
And so, the Playoff was created. Five years later, we see teams like UCF, Ohio State and the like demanding a chance. When does it end? I’ll tell you this – It’s already ended and there isn’t anything that can be done.
The semifinals of the past five years tell one side of the story. With the exception of the first year, every semifinal round has had at least one game with the losing team scoring less than seven points. In every year, the winning team has scored at least 24. It’s a blowout almost every time. The only really close game with any appeal was the Rose Bowl last year with Georgia and Oklahoma.
You look at the championships and there is a significant difference. It is the scoring differential. In the 2015-2017 Championship games, the championship games were decided by five, four and three-point differentials respectively. In none of those games can it be definitively said the teams that played in that game were not the best in the country. No, UCF, not even your claimed championship changes that fact.
Now, Alabama and Clemson won their semis well this year. I think if Alabama football or Clemson were to play, say UCF, Georgia, Michigan or Ohio State, they win those games. Most pundits would likely agree. So, why do these teams want an expanded playoff? A chance to catch these teams on their back foot to scoot into the championship underhandedly?
Determining the Champion
America loves the underdog, sure. But let’s pretend that an eight-team playoff was to occur and 8-seed UCF won the championship. UCF had a lot of problems this year, including some close calls this year. Not to mention their strength of schedule was absolute trash. Is that how we want to crown a champion? I don’t think so. Crowning a champion based on ‘right place, right time’ conditions doesn’t spell “champions” to me.
If UCF were to dominate every opponent each week and get some huge out-of-conference wins, they would then be in the 4-team playoff. If they were to win, we could then be assured they won the championship fair and square. That’s the definition of an underdog with some bite.
Another Playoff expansion argument is “Alabama and Clemson shouldn’t be playing every year, it gets boring.” I disagree. These two teams are in their prime. They are the best two teams in the country and they have been for quite some time. These two accelerated once the playoff began, leading some to think the system is broken. It’s coincidental these two teams have peaked right as the playoff began. It’s not the system’s fault.
If Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State or UCF were to win the championship this year, that’s not crowning a champion. Alabama football and Clemson playing again simply solidifies the argument the top two teams in America are being crowned appropriately. An expansion would damage the integrity of college football.
Does Georgia have a legitimate complaint about missing the Playoff because of Notre Dame? Probably so, but it is significant the argument is over a No. 4 or No. 3 seed and not the two top seeds.