Jim Delany’s involvement in college football is coming to a close but the outgoing Big Ten commissioner still has a little bit more to say on the subject.
Speaking to ESPN this week, Delany noted how painful it has been for his league to be left out of the College Football Playoff and that immediate expansion to six or eight teams could be on the horizon “immediately” if two of his Power Five peers were ever left out out the postseason tournament for the national title.
“The thing that would probably trip it is if the committee left out a champion from the ACC or SEC,” Delany said. “That would be an immediate catapult forward, as it was when Auburn (in 2004) was left out.”
While the undefeated Tigers getting snubbed to play for the BCS National Championship that season in favor of USC and Oklahoma no doubt changed the thinking about a playoff for many in the South, it probably wasn’t the final push to the current setup that the 2012 BCS title game was when Alabama beat LSU in a regular season rematch. Still, his larger point about either of those two leagues getting left out prompting expansion is likely spot on (with plenty of additional support from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12).
Delany wasn’t just focused on playoff size in the interview either. He also brought up a point he has harped on for a few years now -- namely, that the Selection Committee isn’t truly following the protocols that he and his fellow commissioners established when the system was put into place several years ago.
“Somebody like an Iowa or a Kentucky or any other program that is a developmental program, taking players from three stars to compete with teams with five stars, if you used the eye test in that area, they would never be considered to be better,” Delany remarked. “We thought it would be résumé-based, ties would go to conference champions, and strength of schedule. In that area, it doesn’t reflect what I thought would occur, but it is occurring.
It’s worth noting that if anybody could really do something about the issue, Delany is one of 11 people who could move to make changes. Either he doesn’t have the votes to do so or is simply leaving that task to his successor, Kevin Warren.
Either way, Delany is not one to slip away quietly into the night before his tenure concludes with the Rose Bowl on January 1st.