The (College Football Playoff) Election is Rigged!

In 2009, the Boise State Broncos defeated TCU in the Fiesta Bowl to end their year. This win solidified a 14-0 season to cap off an impressive 4-year run of 52-3. Over that span, they also had another undefeated season in 2006 that ended in an upset win against Oklahoma. However, they never had a chance to compete for a national title. This drew outrage around the country as people demanded a change to to the BCS system to something that would give more teams a chance.

That change came in 2013-2014 season when the College Football Playoff was introduced. Unless you’re a toddler reading this blog right now, you should remember. Now, four teams had a chance, and a committee of humans would determine the top-four teams instead of a computer, because we all know humans are much more fair than robots! No longer would dominant teams be denied the chance to play for a championship just because they came out of a small conference!! Justice was finally served! There was just one tiny problem… It was all a lie.

Since the change to the playoff, there have been 6 undefeated small conference champions entering Selection Sunday (not including this year), all 5 have been shut out. This year, #8 Cincinnati and #12 Costal Carolina (Go Chants!) both went undefeated and were denied a chance to compete. The CFP even had the nerve to rank multiple 2 loss teams in front of Cincinnati even though the Bearcats had three (3!) ranked wins (one more than #3 Ohio St). Also, to avoid any further controversy, they didn’t even match up Cincinnati with a team ranked ahead of them, and instead matched them up with Georgia in the Peach Bowl. Not only were they unjustly snubbed, they were given essentially a road game as their Bowl to really stack the deck against them.

An even greater crime was committed against the Costal Carolina Chanticleers (again, Go Chants!), who went 11-0 with 2 ranked wins. They finished the season ranked 12th and get the honor of playing in the (goes through list of obscure bowl games) the Cure Auto Insurance Bowl?! Sweet. What makes this ranking even more disturbing is that Iowa St. is ranked 2 spots ahead of them with 3 losses…

A closer look reveals that one of Iowa State’s losses was to Louisiana-Lafayette in Week 1 where they lost 31-13 at home. Funny enough, Costal Carolina beat Louisiana-Lafayette a few weeks later… Even with this common opponent, the CFP committee still felt as though Iowa State was a better team. To that decision, I call absolute shenanigans.

When deciding on their rankings with close teams, the CFP committee states they follow this criteria to make a determination;

When circumstances at the margins indicate that teams are comparable, then the following criteria must be considered:

Championships won

Strength of schedule

Head‐to‐head competition (if it occurred)

Comparative outcomes of common opponents (without incenting margin of victory)

Selection Committee Protocols

After yesterday’s rankings, it’s quite clear that the CFP committee has gone rogue, and has decided to ignore their protocols and just give big name schools better rankings regardless of their resume. It’s really a shame that 12 old men in a hotel ballroom are denying the country a chance to see the best teams compete for a national title. Of course at the end of the day it comes down to money, but if we truly ever want to see a legitmate college football playoff system, it’s obvious that we need more change.