Notre Dame, you can come in off the ledge now. You too, Army and BYU. The big bad College Football Playoff committee isn’t going to force you to join a conference, after all.
At least that’s what CFP executive director Bill Hancock told ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich on Thursday. Hancock confirmed to Dinich that there have been no internal discussions about forcing any of the three independent schools to join a league in order to be eligible for a spot in the postseason playoff.
Hancock said, “The three independents are perfectly happy being independent. They have the ability to craft their schedules to fit their needs. If their need and goal is to be in the playoff, then they’re in the same boat as everybody else. You better play a good schedule if you want to be in the playoff.”
While Notre Dame’s schedule for 2015 and 2016 stacks up pretty well against any of last year’s playoff teams – nine games against Power 5 conference teams and three games against Group of 5 conference squads – the same thing that cost TCU and Baylor a spot in last year’s postseason tourney may still come back to bite the Irish: no conference championship game.
Hancock, however, said that the presence or lack of a conference championship game “wasn’t a factor” in how the four teams were selected for last year’s playoff.
No word on whether he said that with a straight face.
“Frankly, in the committee room, it wasn’t a factor,” Hancock said. “The committee has the luxury of looking at the full body of work from an entire season – 12 or 13 games – for each team, irrespective of what conference they’re in. Having been in the committee room, I can tell you, it’s just not a factor.”
(Those sounds you hear coming from Waco and Fort Worth are their B.S. detectors going WILD).
Hancock either wasn’t asked or didn’t answer the question that has plagued TCU and Baylor fans for months, however: How did Ohio State leapfrog them in the final rankings to get into the playoff if their annihilation of Wisconsin in the B1G title game “wasn’t a factor?”
I’d love to hear the answer to that one myself.
No one, least of all me, is saying that the Buckeyes didn’t earn their spot in the playoff and their eventual title. But to try to tell us that their conference championship game performance had nothing to do with them jumping over the Bears and the Horned Frogs, who didn’t have the benefit of that extra game, is just insulting. I was born in the evening, Mr. Hancock, but it wasn’t yesterday evening.
So, while the committee may say otherwise, the story remains the same for the Big 12 and the three independents: If you want to be sure you have an equal chance at a place at the playoff table, you’d better find your way into a thirteenth game somehow, or get used to that view from outside.
But not outside on the ledge. That’s not what I meant, guys. Guys? GET BACK IN HERE!!!
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
