The College Football Playoff rankings are designed to protect corporate entertainment Power Five money kept within the circle and the sanctity of bowl partnerships. That’s why BYU will not be ranked in the top four, short of a zombie apocalypse. Ever.
So, if you are looking for an undefeated BYU team — regardless of schedule — to be invited to the four-team circle at the end of any season, you are a fool.
Now, crashing the top 10 of the CFP rankings, that is another matter. It remains a protective money grab by the system to shower P5 programs with coin while tossing a bone to the highest ranked Group of Five team from the hinterlands.
We just spent seven days of the CFP committee getting roasted by national punditry for leaving the Cougars out of the first top-10 rankings released last Tuesday. The committee had BYU No. 14.
The criticism came from everywhere. It was scorched earth directed toward the committee. ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit said “BYU got hosed,” and sidekick Desmond Howard called BYU’s No. 14 ranking “asinine.” Former Heisman winner and TV analyst Matt Leinart doubted the committee even watched BYU games. Ditto for Tim Brando, calling the ranking “nonsensical.”
John Feinstein, an expert on the ACC, called the ranking “ridiculous.”
In other words, most of the nation’s professionals, who type on a keyboard or talk into a microphone for a living, called out the CFP committee. The criticism ranged from stupidity to negligence.
Now the kicker comes Tuesday night: How will the CFP committee respond? Does it get defensive and dig in? Do the guys in the room take a second look and make an adjustment now that their intelligence has been brought into question?
What adjustment?
Well, a starting point would be The Associated Press rankings. Back in the day, the AP and Coaches polls were the sole matrix used to determine a national champion. You were either consensus or not, and people could argue all they wanted, but that was it.
Just two of the 64 AP voters Sunday ranked BYU out of their top-10 rankings. Of those 64, there were 35 who voted BYU No. 8, where the composited poll had the Cougars after weekend competition in which the Cougars had the week off. Six voters had BYU at No. 7 and one had BYU at No. 5, just outside the sacred top four.
What does it mean?
Apparently there was a national backlash at the CFP committee. When a team doesn’t play, it usually becomes vulnerable to dropping in the rankings. BYU held its No. 8 spot, and perhaps got a little stronger.
Since the days of the BCS back in 1998 to today’s CFP rankings, only 12 teams have been put in position and won the national championship. They include Ohio State, Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Tennessee, Florida State, Oklahoma, Miami, Southern Cal, Texas, Florida and Auburn.
That is the club.
If you learn one thing about the CFP, is it is absolutely nothing like the NCAA tournament, neither by selection, operation, supervision or execution. It is a club where the primary job is to act as treasurer for the elite.
It doesn’t have to be fair, or scientific. It doesn’t have to make sense in the regular sporting and competitive realm. Just ask past Boise State, Hawaii or Central Florida teams, or even Cincinnati this season. Being really, really good, even undefeated doesn’t matter. Relationship DNA does.
One of the highest factors considered by the committee is strength of schedule, and that is by design. It eliminates outsiders. The above teams will always come up short alongside an SEC, Big 12, Big Ten or ACC schedule.
That is our system, even in COVID-19 2020, the craziest football season on record where a team like BYU, who has had COVID-19 roster casualties of its own, even a game canceled, still managed to post nine wins.
So, Tuesday, we’ll find out how the CFP committee “handles” its initial controversial rankings.
A No. 14 ranking = dig in, in your face.
A No. 13 ranking = we blink.
A No. 12 ranking = we made a tweak.
A No. 11 ranking = we didn’t look good, but schedule is bad.
A No. 10 ranking = forgive us, sorry.
A No. 9 ranking = let’s do some justice.
A No. 8 ranking = rectification.
