The College Football Playoff will look extremely similar in 2015 as it did in its debut season of 2014. Despite reviewing the system that was put into place to replace the BCS system during a meeting in Indianapolis this week and evaluate potential changes to the format, the College Football Playoff committee has decided to enter year two without making any major adjustments to the system and the way it is presented.
“It was a very successful first year,” selection committee chairman and Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long said in an ESPN report. “We want to build upon that success.”
This means the College Football Playoff selection committee will continue to release a weekly ranking in the second half of the year, giving fans a chance to see how teams are faring against each other in the eyes of the selection committee based on results to date. This is one part fo the system that received the most criticism in 2014, and it should be expected to once again be the biggest problem with the presentation of the CFB Playoff in 2015.
The premise of the weekly rankings is simple; to provide an overview of the current thought process of the selection committee as far as the top teams in college football are concerned. The problem is it creates debates where none are needed, because nothing is ultimately decided in the third week of October, when there are so many games left to play. Some people take it more seriously than others, so how much stock you put in a late October ranking is up to you. Just ask Ohio State how much those rankings really matter. Or Baylor and TCU.
At this point we can only guess this also means the weekly ranking show will continue as well. Considering how much ESPN has invested in the playoff, the assumption a half-hour show on Tuesday night will continue should be a safe one. At times this was adding more confusion to the whole process as it seemed the explained logic of the committee could change from one week to the next, but c’est la vie. With one year under the belts of the committee, perhaps there will be more consistency in ranking methods and logic used in 2015.
Oh, and forget about the idea of expanding the playoff. The company line involving playoff expansion has not been edited. For the duration of the current College Football Playoff contract, the expectation is the field will remain set at four teams. Time will tell if that holds true.
If there was one thing you could change about the College Football Playoff in 2015, or perhaps in 2016, and expansion was off the table, what would you change? Maybe someone from the selection committee will read your answer and take that to the next meeting. You just never know.