Last August, the College Football Playoff committee introduced a new metric for comparing and ranking teams. The name given to the new metric was 'Record Strength'. ESPN explained what the new metric was to "help the committee determine how teams performed against their schedule, rewarding those that beat high-quality opponents while minimizing the penalty of losing to one. These changes will also provide minimal reward for beating a lower-quality opponent while imposing a greater penalty for losing to one."
College football optimists praised the addition to the Selection Committee's ranking process. Not much thought was given to why the new metric might accomplish little. For one, no matter how many data points are added, the selection process is subjective. Secondly, going back to when the committee first began its work in 2014, transparency has never been prioritized.
Realistically, committee members need leeway to best perform their difficult task. ESPN gets blamed for its weekly broadcast of the rankings, which often point out the committee's inconsistencies.
In fairness to the committees, throughout the four-team format, the best teams almost always played in the National Championship Game. The one glaring exception was Georgia beating TCU 65-7 in the 2023 Game.
The selection process also eroded when 'best' teams morphed into the 'most deserving' teams. In fairness to more recent selection committee members, selecting 12 teams is harder than selecting four teams.
Adding 'Record Strength' was a good idea. Unfortunately, it did not match optimistic expectations. The metric may have been utilized only when comparing two potentially closely ranked teams.
The relevance for Alabama Football and other SEC teams
For CBS Sports, Brad Crawford recently ranked the 2026 Strength of Schedules (SOS) for the top Playoff contenders. The 12 teams ranked were either SEC or Big Ten teams. Six of the top 10 toughest schedules were SEC teams. Texas and Oklahoma were No.1 and No. 2. Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and LSU were No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7. Georgia had the No. 9 SOS, and the Alabama Crimson Tide was at No. 10.
In the two years of the 12-team format, SEC teams have gained three slots in 2025-25 and five slots last season. The Big Ten got three slots last season and four in 2024-25.
No conference can count on more than four slots. One or more three-loss SEC teams might get added consideration based on SOS or 'Record Strength'. But that might not happen because the Selection Committee is reluctant to use a metric that shows one conference plays more difficult schedules than other conferences.
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