What My Criteria For The Playoffs Would Be and The SEC Would Hate It

I have been a bit of a critic of this new 4 team playoff for college football. The main reason is because it is left up to a selection committee whom have not really had a criteria for how they will select teams. Or at least they have not been transparent about it.

Another fear I have is the idea of human bias. I have a funny feeling that the SEC will get preferential treatment. They currently are considered the toughest conference. I have been a critic though because they really don't schedule tough non-conference games. For example, look at the two Mississippi schools who are the supposed darlings of college football right now. There is no doubt that they have taken care of business in conference, but their non-conference schedules are jokes. The Bulldogs have on their schedule Southern Mississippi, UAB, South Alabama, and Tennessee-Martin. The Rebels have Bosie State, Louisiana-Lafeyette, Memphis, and Presbyterian.

The SEC is known for this and their justification is that they play tough conference games. Nobody is denying that but if they truly are the best conference, they should have no problem with teams from the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, or PAC 12.

But looking at the current situation, only those two schools and Florida State remain unbeaten. The two Mississippi schools will play each other, so at least one of them will lose. That means that there will be some one loss teams to choose from.  Besides Notre Dame, there are currently 15 teams with just one loss. The SEC has Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn. The ACC has Duke. The Big 12 has Kansas State, Baylor, and TCU. The Big Ten has Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Finally, the PAC 12 has Oregon, Arizona State, Arizona, and Utah. Many will play each other and knock each other out, but still it could be a sticky situation.

Earlier I was listening to ESPN radio talking about what will be the criteria for what teams they choose. They just said pick the 4 best teams. But the problem is that that is subjective. So in order to pick that out you need a process of elimination and that is where the criteria would really help.

I would have two simple criteria that would eliminate a lot. One would be that you have to be a Conference Champ. How can you be the best team in the country if you can't even win your conference. Now the obvious question is what about Notre Dame. For Notre Dame, make it simple. Go 12-0 and your in. Go 11-1 and your eligible to be selected. Seems simple to me.

But that begs the question is that there are 5 conferences and only 4 spots and if Notre Dame is in, it will be only 3. That brings be to the second criteria. That would be scheduling other power conferences. What I mean is that in order to make the playoff, you would have to have at least one win over a team from another power conference. If that criteria were in place, both Mississippi schools would be out for not playing a worthy schedule. Only TCU from the Big 12 would be alive. Only Nebraska from the Big Ten would be alive. Arizona from the PAC 12 would also be out.

On that scheduling note, it should also be a rule that to make the playoff, you are only allowed one FCS team. For Notre Dame not being in conference, I won't make it easy. 10 out of 12 games need to be against power 5 competition.

Prior to this, we had 3 unbeatens and 16 one loss teams. That is trying to pick 4 from 19. With this criteria of elimination, we got it down to 11 teams to choose from. Given that many will play each other, the odds are you may only have 6 teams to choose from in the playoff. That would almost take the subjectivity out of it. This seems like a fair way to do it. I am curious to see what the actual criteria is.