With the regular season rapidly coming to a close, the question on every college football fan’s mind is: Which teams are going to make the College Football Playoff this year? The answer to that question is not so simple because there are still games to be played and teams can eliminate each other from contention. However, I have two factors that should come into play when deciding which teams should make the playoff if they win the rest of their games. The teams with the most difficult schedules and the teams that compete in the most powerful conferences should be in the playoff.
The final four teams that would be in the playoff according to the College Football Playoff committee if the season ended today are: No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Ohio State and No.4 Notre Dame. There are a lot of fans out there, including myself, that are wondering why No.6 Oklahoma State, No. 8 Florida or even No. 7 Oklahoma are not in the top four as of right now, and why are they behind a team like No. 5 Iowa, who has one of the weakest schedules among the teams ranked in the top ten.
The College Football Playoff committee claim they have the four best teams right now in the playoff, and I could agree with two of them (Clemson, and Alabama), but reigning National Champion and No.3 Ohio State, should not be in the top four because of their strength of schedule, which is 73 rd in the nation according to espn.com, unless they win the Big Ten conference. I know they have not lost a game yet, but that should not matter in the committee’s eyes. It should be based on teams that have to battle week in and week out. As for Notre Dame, they have a strong strength of schedule, but they do not play in a conference, which should eliminate them altogether.
Like I said earlier, the rankings should be based on the strength of schedule and the conference the team plays in because in that case, one of the teams that deserves a spot in the playoff (if the season were to end today) would be No. 6 Oklahoma State, who has yet to be defeated this season and is in a very respectable conference (Big 12) along with that, they have a tougher schedule than some of the teams in front of them in the polls. The other team that could have a case to be in the top four and has played very good football this year (besides the loss to Texas) is No.7 Oklahoma, who beat previously No.6 Baylor on the road last week which strengthened their case for No.4 even more. The game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in a couple of weeks could decide both of their fates.
The playoff committee needs to get the rankings right this year as they did last year by having all four conference champions in the playoff. If they do not, there is going to be a lot of chaos in the college football world, and teams are going to get left out just because of its name, not because they had earned it, and it should not be that way. So settle in college football fans, it should be a very interesting end to the college football season.
The new college football playoff rankings come out every Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT. on ESPN.
