The College Football Playoff Is An Exercise In Absurdity

The CFB Playoff Committee will meet tonight and rank the teams again based on … something. I’m not totally sure what yet. Oklahoma State will be No. 11 or No. 13 or whatever, and none of it will matter because we know that even if Oklahoma State wins out against TCU and OU and wins the Big 12 title, it will not get in the College Football Playoff.

We know this because we know, deep down, that pretty much no matter what happens, that pesky Central Michigan game (not loss, but game) will be a death blow to Oklahoma State. And we know that the perception of the Big 12 is not a good one and nobody did anything to help that in the non-conference portion of the season.

The recent investigation into whether the Central Michigan game will negatively affect Oklahoma State come postseason time reminded me of just how insane the College Football Playoff selection process actually is.

When you are measuring inequitable things (i.e. different number of games in different schedules against different teams — or simply: different resumes), the only reasonable outcome is complete absurdity (which, if we’re being honest, is also the most fun, captivating outcome).

On the CFB Playoff site, this is the intended goal of the committee — this is literally its mission statement.

The committee’s task will be to select the best teams, rank the teams for inclusion in the playoff and selected other bowl games and then assign the teams to sites.

The four best teams. OK, great. I made the argument on Tuesday that Oklahoma State should be penalized roughly the same whether it won or lost the Central Michigan game. Win by three in a fourth-quarter comeback over a mid-major or lose on a Hail Mary with no time on the clock. It’s all the same at that point based on the committee’s definition of a playoff team.

One play doesn’t (or shouldn’t) change how good your team is in the eyes of the committee. The same argument could be made against Oklahoma State based on the Texas Tech and Kansas State games. One play either way, the committee would say, and OSU would be 6-4. Is that a good team?

But wins and losses, you say. Yeah, I say that too. But the committee apparently doesn’t care about wins and losses. We have already seen that this year in the rankings. Penn State lost by 40 to Michigan and at Pittsburgh. They’re ranked No. 10.

Here’s the thing, I don’t even blame the committee. They aren’t necessarily supposed to care about wins and losses according to their own mission statement. They’re only supposed to care about the best teams. Which is kind of nuts when you think about it. And we let them get away with this when the committee was formed!

Let’s go deeper into the playbook on their website.

The criteria to be provided to the selection committee must be aligned with the ideals of the commissioners, Presidents, athletic directors and coaches to honor regular season success while at the same time providing enough flexibility and discretion to select a non-champion or independent under circumstances where that particular non-champion or independent is unequivocally one of the four best teams in the country.

And who is deciding which non-champions are unequivocally the best teams in the country? The committee of course. This is why Ohio State will definitely get in even if it doesn’t win its own division in the Big 10. And based on the committee’s definition, Ohio State should get in.

Side note: This doesn’t affect us in basketball because there are multiple avenues to get into the NCAA Tournament (and the entire tournament is bigger and more inclusive).

But this is where it gets batty for me. It’s not even about winning and losing, really. It’s the same argument I’ve made for why it’s ludicrous that North Texas and Alabama play in the same league (D1 college football). No matter what North Texas does throughout a season, it cannot win a national championship. It can’t happen. That was true with the BCS and it’s true now.

Name me another competitive sports league where it’s possible to win all your games and not win the championship of that league? You can’t!

“They’re supposed to be deciding on who they think the best teams are, is what they’re supposebly (sic) deciding on,” said Mike Gundy on Monday. “That’s what they say, right? I mean, I never watch the show. I’d rather watch SpongeBob than watch and listen to [Kirby Hocutt’s] comments to be real honest with you. But, we’ve got to take care of tomorrow’s practice then move forward from there.”

Gundy is right about this but I don’t think it’s taking him where he wants it to. Playing Central Michigan to within one play either way is not the sign of one of the four best teams. Even if you beat Baylor, it doesn’t matter. The Big 12’s reputation is too poor and there are too many other “best” teams. Think about it — is a 11-1 Oklahoma State getting in the CFB Playoff over a 11-1 Ohio State that housed OU? Hell no.

But this is the dumb part to me — why have these supposebly equitable conferences (Power 5) if winning your conference doesn’t actually get you anywhere?

The CFB Playoff should be decided by the teams that win each conference (although as a blogger, I would like to oppose this sentiment because this make for great discussion).

If you want a selection committee to pick wild cards to pair with those conference winners and make it eight teams, then I’m fine with that. But if a team doesn’t make the playoff, you should be able to point to something and say, “if you would have done this, you definitely would have gotten in.”

There would be no excuses.