I love college football. To see that, all you have to do is look at the sheer amount of material I churn out about college football every year. In fact, I’m writing about college football in May. That should tell you something.
But the purpose of this post is not to heap even more praise on the game I love. No, this is a post of disappointment. College football is finally moving away from the evil behemoth that was the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS (although a fair number of fans and reporters all agreed that removing the “C” would’ve been just as apropos to what the system truly was). College football fans have learned to live with, and in some cases even love, Top 25 polls. We have the Associated Press poll. We have the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll. There’s the Harris poll, the Sagarin poll, and many others. The bulk of these polls was mashed through a computer formula to generate the BCS rankings. Once the computers took over, it was a miracle we didn’t have some nefarious nerds hack in and ensure that the national championship game was MIT vs. CalPoly. (And yes, I know I qualify as a nerd/geek/whatever. You get the point I’m making.)
Now, we’re going to get another poll. It just wouldn’t be college football if we didn’t. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee (CFBSC) has announced that, starting on October 28, they would release their own compiled Top 25 poll. This is the committee that is charged with selecting the four most worthy teams to play for the National Championship.
But, honestly, is another Top 25 poll really what we need? Selection Committee chairman, and Arkansas Athletic Director, Jeff Long has stated that fans expect a poll in college football. Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you have to do one.
The committee officially unveiled the guidelines and procedures the CFPSC will follow. The protocol includes each committee member creating a list of the 25 best teams in the country, in no particular order, with any team being listed by more than three members remaining under consideration. Each member then narrows that list to the best six teams, again in no particular order. The six teams that garner the most selections will make up the first seeding ballot pool.
In the pool for that first seeding ballot, each member then ranks those six teams in a very particular order, one through six. The three teams gaining the highest ranking (meaning the lowest aggregate point total) will become the top three seeds. The other three teams will be held over to the next ballot.
The members will then list the six best remaining teams, in no particular order. The three teams receiving the most votes will be added to the three teams removed from the original ballot. The six teams (three new, three old) will be ranked one to six, with the highest ranking (meaning the lowest aggregate point total) becoming the next three teams in the top 25 poll. This process is repeated until a completed CFPSC Top 25 Poll is filled out.
Confused yet? No? Just wait.
A member of the CFPSC can be recused from voting on a certain team under the following circumstances:
The official College Football Playoff Selection Committee Recusal Policy:
· If a committee member or an immediate family member, e.g., spouse, sibling or child, (a) is compensated by a school, (b) provides professional services for a school, or (c) is on the coaching staff or administrative staff at a school or is a football student-athlete at a school, that member will be recused. Such compensation shall include not only direct employment, but also current paid consulting arrangements, deferred compensation (e.g., contract payments continuing after employment has ended) or other benefits.
· The committee will have the option to add other recusals if special circumstances arise.
· A recused member shall not participate in any votes involving the team from which the individual is recused.
· A recused member is permitted to answer only factual questions about the institution from which the member is recused, but shall not be present during any deliberations regarding that team's selection or seeding.
The finer points on a CFPSC member dealing with recusal are just as mind-numbingly legalized.
But back to the topic at hand…that might be the most confusing and needlessly complicated thing I’ve ever seen for creating a consensus Top 25 poll. Sometimes, when I’m sitting in my easy chair at home and I’m relaxed and at peace, I wonder what it is about human beings that make us feel like we need to complicate things that do not require complication.
The CFPSC is going to give us a Top 25 poll. We cannot escape this. But we can recognize a great truth about it, and the truth behind this poll is simple. It’s all about the televisions, baby.
Every Tuesday night, beginning October 28, ESPN will host a probably 1-2 hour show detailing the CFPSC’s Top 25 poll. The network will then launch into endless speculation about what teams got what votes and why, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
The sad thing is, I’ll probably watch it. Lord knows I already watch just about everything else having to do with college football. This will just get added to the list.
Random Points on College Football
1. The CFPSC will end up selecting the four most worthy teams to compete in the playoff to determine the national champion. I can’t see this system remaining at just four teams for very long. I think, eventually, this becomes an eight-team tournament. I don’t think it will go to 16 teams, but eight feels like a better number.
2. I hate preseason polls with a passion. No team should be ranked before you’ve even seen them play. You don’t know what a team is bringing to the table until at least six or eight weeks have gone by. Preseason polls create unrealistic expectations and also make it harder for unranked but more deserving teams to rise up the polls.
3. The SEC will go to a nine game conference schedule within the next ten years.
4. Conference realignment is not over yet. The Big XII will expand to draw in at least two more teams. With the advent of the College Football Playoff, the conference will realize that a conference championship game is basically a necessity, especially when they are the only “power” conference (ACC, Big Ten, PAC-12, SEC) that does not play a conference championship. Logical additions include BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, Boise State, Nevada, or Fresno State. Granted, adding Fresno State would spread them over the entire nation; it would plant the conference firmly in PAC-12 recruiting territory, which could be seen as a worthwhile move. Cincinnati would be seen as a bridge to West Virginia and a positive step into the recruiting hotbed of Ohio.
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