College Football Playoff Rankings Face Committee Chaos

Segment Spotlight: Quick Hits From Outspoken With Dan Sileo

College Football Committee’s Inconsistent Rankings Raise Questions

It is difficult to determine which metrics the college football committee values. Strength of schedule and conference affiliation may factor into its decisions, but the rankings lack consistency. Teams such as Indiana and Ohio State remain in play, while Alabama and Georgia continue to receive considerable support.

UCLA illustrates the confusion. Its résumé includes a win over a decent Oregon team, but Oregon has wobbled this year. Utah, meanwhile, has two top-15 wins against No. 14 Houston and No. 10 BYU and avoided the kind of bad loss Georgia suffered against Auburn. UCLA has only one ranked win.

Georgia may be better than Utah based on power ratings, but the committee appears to change what it values from week to week. That inconsistency may stem from trying to evaluate teams in real time. Although people say the weekly rankings do not count, the committee regularly relies on them.

The first set of rankings also appeared to send a message that the 2014 playoff is good. If the committee cannot be trusted to select a 12-team playoff correctly, expanding to 24 teams would ensure that every team people believe belongs in the field gets included.

The larger question is why college football needs a committee at all. The NFL, NBA and baseball do not use committees to determine their playoff fields.

Kevin shared that while watching the rankings with his wife, she was surprised to learn that people in a room make the decisions. Although she is not deeply familiar with college football, she immediately suggested using an algorithm instead. Without knowing what the BCS is, she was effectively calling for its return.