And everyone rejoiced.
It’s not often that the College Football Playoff makes a decision that is celebrated by the masses, but this one has to be up there. OK, we at Buckeyes Wire were also big fans of the expanded playoff, but you get the idea.
As with any new model, you have to be able to reflect and be willing to make changes that make sense, and the seeding process that seemed like a good idea at the time simply didn’t work. As a refresher, the first year of the new 12-team College Football Playoff (that Ohio State will own for eternity by the way), rewarded conference champions. The Cliff Notes version is that the top four conference champions received a bye, and then the seeding would go from there based on the CFP rankings.
Last year, what that left us with is an Arizona State team that won the Big Twelve despite being ranked No. 12. It also meant that Boise State was awarded a No. 3 seed as the Mountain West champion despite clocking in at No. 9 in the last CFP rankings. That cascaded everything down. That meant No. 1 Oregon had to face a fantastic Ohio State team at No. 6 in its first-round matchup, while Penn State got a pretty easy path to the semifinals by tussling with SMU and then Boise State. Notre Dame wasn’t even eligible to be a top-four seed and receive a bye because it couldn’t be a conference champion. Turns out it is nearly impossible to be a conference champion without being in … wait for it … a conference.
Seeing and listening to what occurred last season, the CFP Committee announced a change to the seeding process that’s less complex and simple. From now on, the seeding will just be what the teams are ranked in the CFP final rankings.
So, that means, last year, Ohio State would have been a No. 6 seed instead of a No. 8 and matched up in Columbus against Arizona State. If it won (and reminder, it would have), the Buckeyes would then have faced No. 3 seed (instead of No. 5) Texas in the quarterfinal. Who knows if Jack Sawyer would have written his name in Buckeye lore, but still …
Here’s what the seeds would have been under the new model if in place last season. The Power Four conferences and top top-ranked non-Power Four still get an automatic qualification.
- Oregon
- Georgia
- Texas
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- Boise State
- SMU
- Arizona State
- Clemson
It’s hard to come up with a downside to this change, and we’re here to give credit to the CFP Committee for making this change so quickly. No matter how you slice it, there will still be some outstanding matchups going forward with this model.
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