The SEC and Big 12 are in favor of college football’s playoff allowing entry to the top four teams in the country, regardless of whether those teams have won their conferences or not. The other major conferences, plus the Big East, want league champs only. The SEC’s saying it “won’t compromise” on the matter, with Mike Slive listing his backup plan as “1-2-3-4.”
College Football Playoffs: Big Ten Favors Selection Committee, Opens Compromise Door
But could there be space for compromise if the system uses a selection committee instead of a computer rankings system? The Big Ten now officially wants to go the committee route:
The league wants the committee to enter its deliberations with some instructions, much like a jury has during a trial. The Big Ten wants the committee to value league championships, head-to-head results and strength of schedule, much like the NCAA men’s basketball tournament selection committee does. The committee wouldn’t write off non-champions or non-division winners, but those shortcomings would impact a team’s résumé or potential tiebreakers between two teams.
As far as I know, only the Big East has come out in favor of sticking with rankings instead of a committee. As far as the Big 12 and SEC go, Texas’ DeLoss Dodds favors a committee, which goes a long way to determining how half of that bloc will argue.
Either we end up with a “three-and-one” plan, as SI.com’s Stewart Mandel advocates, or we get a committee that’s specifically told it should admit deserving non-champs, but favor champs. Right?
(Or Bo Pelini can huff and puff until the whole thing crumbles.)
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