ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips needs readability on how two-loss Miami (Fla.) sits behind three-loss Alabama within the newest College Football Playoff rankings. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark believes his league’s champion deserves a first-round bye as a substitute of a Group 5 workforce. And whereas Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez’s league is positioned to get in, there’s concern in regards to the future with the larger leagues receiving a chosen variety of affords.
These eventualities illustrate how, whereas the Big Ten and SEC conferences place themselves as a deep-pocketed Power 2 to gobble up CFP bids, different leagues are attempting to take care of their place and keep away from being crushed. That contains Sunday’s unveiling of the expanded discipline to 12 groups and past.
“The committee’s choices needs to be primarily based on info, not notion,” Phillips mentioned in an interview with The Associated Press. “Not on the league you come from, not on the geography you’re in, however in your CV: what have you ever carried out?…Who have you ever misplaced to and who have you ever overwhelmed?
“For me, it’s important to keep true to the info. Logos, manufacturers and names have to be managed. And there needs to be no persuasion due to the previous historical past of a selected workforce or faculty.”
Conference championship video games
The Power 4 leagues play all their championship video games on Saturday. The group of 5 leagues – American Athletic, Conference-USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt – play Friday and Saturday.
The 5 highest-ranked champions earn automated bids, the highest 4 earn a first-round bye.
Eliminating these affords and the designated entry level for fourth-ranked unbiased Notre Dame (No. 4 CFP) will go away six vacancies. Yet the Big Ten had 4 groups within the high 10 and the SEC had three in Tuesday’s newest CFP rankings, with a few of these not even enjoying this week in what CFP committee chair and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel mentioned mentioned amounted to closed instances.
“For any workforce that is not enjoying proper now, we do not have an information level to re-rank these groups,” Manuel informed ESPN this week.
A CFP provide for ACC?
That’s one in every of Phillips’ a number of considerations, a 12 months after undefeated ACC champion Florida State was unnoticed of the four-team playoffs as a result of beginning quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending harm.
Eighth-ranked SMU (No. 8 CFP) remained undefeated in its first league season by reaching Saturday night time’s title recreation, however No. No. 14 Miami (No. 12 CFP) misplaced the ultimate to Syracuse to ship No. 18 Clemson (No. 17 CFP) to face the Mustangs and probably sprint its playoff possibilities.
That’s as a result of the Hurricanes (10-2) dropped six spots regardless of dropping on the street to a workforce with 9 wins and a CFP high 25 rating, and are actually behind No. 11 Alabama (No. 11 CFP).
An SMU win might solely imply an ACC bid. Or SMU might be penalized with a loss and fall utterly, a possible sufficient situation that coach Rhett Lashlee informed the ACC Network his workforce will not forfeit Saturday’s recreation to guard its CFP rating. “I feel for many of the world that is fairly clear: If you are on the sector for championship weekend, you have earned it, try to be there,” Lashlee mentioned.
Phillips believes SMU needs to be there regardless, together with Miami, if the Mustangs win.
“We did not carry out on the degree of a one-bid convention,” he mentioned.
Joel Klatt weighs in on the CFP committee’s rating: did they get it proper?
“Confusion” on the rankings of the CFP choice fee
Phillips’ considerations included Manuel citing that Miami had misplaced two of its final three, although the Hurricanes’ different loss was on the street in opposition to a Georgia Tech workforce that had simply taken Georgia to eight overtimes.
By comparability, the Crimson Tide’s final three video games have been a blowout of the league’s Mercer Subdivision schedule, failing to attain a landing to lose at Oklahoma (now 6-6) and beating rival Auburn by 5 wins.
Additionally, as Phillips famous, No. 7 Ohio State (No. 6 CFP) fell simply 4 spots after dropping at house to a Michigan workforce that completed 7-5. None of those groups are within the backside of the CFP rankings like Syracuse.
Phillips additionally criticized the truth that the week’s inactive groups had been basically locked so as reasonably than the committee restarting weekly to investigate the most recent massive image. “I’m not right here to criticize the work that is been carried out or query the integrity or something like that, that is not what I’m saying,” he mentioned. “What I’m saying is we wish some readability on our state of affairs and the way what we noticed (Tuesday) occurred. We really feel like there’s simply confusion proper now.”
CFP Conversations on Guaranteed Offers
It’s a superb 12 months for Nevarez, who entered Friday’s title recreation between No. 10 Boise State (tenth CFP) and No. 19 UNLV (twentieth CFP) together with her league poised to earn one of many projected slots to supply playoff entry to the Group of 5 Leagues.
That’s as a result of each are ranked forward of CAA finalists in Army No. 24 (twenty fourth CFP) and Tulane. And a Boise State win might earn a first-round bye because the Broncos are forward of Big 12 title gamers Twelfth-ranked Arizona State (fifteenth CFP) and No. 16 Iowa State (sixteenth).
“A recreation might have gone come what may, and it wouldn’t have been us,” Nevarez informed the AP. “And this 12 months it is us, and we’re actually enthusiastic about it. … Next 12 months it might be another person. But so long as all of us have the chance to play it, it is an thrilling factor that it is made it this far this 12 months.
“We had been fortunate to be on the best facet of it. It does not occur yearly. But that is the large factor: the joy and the chance.”
Alabama and Texas in Joel Klatt’s ultimate CFP bracket
Yet there have been conversations about securing particular bid counts for Power 4 leagues because the playoffs evolve. Nevarez is just not on board.
“Anything can occur: upheavals, good years, unhealthy years,” he mentioned. “It’s as much as every workforce to have a look at what they’ll face in convention play, have a look at the workforce they’ve and plan the nonconference accordingly. Build the resume for choice after which carry it out on the sector.
“Arbitrarily producing something past that, to me, appears very fallacious.”
Associated Press reporting.
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