In case you missed it, College Football will have a 12-team playoff to crown a national champion. We were told that this would end the annual controversy over who makes the playoffs. Remember? Only four schools made the playoffs up until this year.
We now have two weeks remaining in the regular season and guess what? We have controversy with the potential for even more controversy as selection day approaches.
Causes for controversy will center around the seeding of the schools. This is vital because the five highest-ranked conference champions earn a bid into the 12-team field, and the top four champions are seeded Nos. 1-4 and receive a bye into the quarterfinals. It was presumed that the champions of the four power leagues (SEC, Big 10, ACC, and Big 12) would annually get those first-round byes.
But, the CFP selection committee’s last rankings paint a different picture. In its rankings released last week, Boise State (10-1) was ahead of all Big 12 teams, paving the way for the Broncos to receive the No. 4 seed and the first-round bye in a Group of Five-over-Power Four leap.
The decision from the selection committee related to the first-round bye is not insignificant. The fourth highest-ranked conference champion, the No. 4 seed in the bracket, gets an additional week to rest. The team would play one of the winners of the No. 5-12 seed matchups in a bowl site quarterfinal matchup.
Back to the Big 12. Nine teams remain eligible for the conference championship game, with four of them in the best position. BYU (9-2), Iowa State (9-2), Arizona State (9-2) and Colorado (8-3) are tied at 6-2 in the conference atop the standings. All four are favored to win their regular season finale, a result that would put Arizona State and Iowa State in the title game.
Actually, the debate over the CFP’s final first-round bye is an extension of a long-running tussle between the power leagues and those from the lower-financed schools of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The gaps between the two continue to grow, both from decisions made by power leaders and from the courts.
The decisions have accelerated the concept of schools directly compensating athletes, a much more difficult endeavor for smaller schools. Their budgets are normally fractions of those schools in power conferences that reap more lucrative television contracts and generate more internal revenue through donations and ticket sales.
No matter what your thoughts are on who should make the playoffs, get ready for controversy. It may be a tad different, but it will be there.
