They’re meeting this week to figure out the structure and composition of the playoff selection committee. The good news is that it sounds like they’re giving the cold shoulder to the coaches.
Current coaches have lost their voice in football’s postseason. The American Football Coaches Association, whose poll comprises one-third of the BCS formula, says it has had no communication with conference commissioners about the playoff selection process.
“When they were trying to get what turned out to be the BCS 15 years ago, the commissioners were begging us to allow our poll to be part of the process,” said Grant Teaff, executive director of the AFCA. “If they need us this time, they’ll probably let us know.”
Yeah, well, don’t sit by that phone too long, Grant.
The bad news is that the overall process may be as subjective in its own way as ever. Maybe more. Let our old friend Bill Hancock spin it for you.
Hancock said he believes the commissioners would give the committee “a jury charge” but ultimately it’s up to each member to determine what factors to consider, such as with the NCAA basketball committee.
“I’d be very surprised if we have an RPI or any other kind of universal metric,” Hancock said. “I think instead there will be several different sets of data that the members can look at. What kind of data? We don’t know. Obviously their decision will be made based on common sense: Who did you play? How did you play them? How did you do? Who was injured when you played? How was the weather? Just common-sense things that any sports fan would use.”
Here’s an example of common sense, from last season’s (hypothetical) playoff pool.
A team that doesn’t play in the SECCG gets in the semis ahead of a team it lost to in the regular season. Makes you wonder what Mike Slive’s “jury instruction” to the committee would have been, doesn’t it?
All I see here is a road map on how to get to an eight-team playoff sooner. Lather, rinse, repeat – at least as long as TV will pay for the shampoo.
Get The Picture 
Under the model you showed above Senator the Gators might very well have been the MNCs last season.
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Not if they didn’t play any better than they did in the Sugar Bowl.
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🙂
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I don’t see any scenario in which Florida’s “offense” would’ve gained more than 10 yards total against Bama.
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A&M beat Bama. Florida beat A&M. Does that mean Florida would always beat Bama? No. Does that mean Florida COULD beat Bama? Absolutely.
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We made the playoffs last year, we lost, I can deal with it.
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“What kind of data? We don’t know” but hope the analysis leads to something along the lines of, “Didn’t you used to be the SEC?”
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The conference championship game may well already be on the endangered species list–and if it isn’t now, it surely will be in the near future.
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It’s just idiotic. Oregon would have had no business being there either. They did not win their division and lost to Stanford head to head. The Cardinal were in the same boat as us, except they lost 2. One was the the 12-0 #1 team.
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Why play a conference title game under the new format? It could be counter-productive. Why risk a loss if you’re a top-four team — and why would a conference commissioner let a team risk a loss if it already is in the top four?
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An 8-team playoff can’t get here soon enough. That is the only scenario that will treat the SEC correctly/fairly at this point in NCAA history and that constitutes a playoff.
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