When it comes to College Football Playoff, Big 12 is being disrespected — big time

Brigham Young Cougars head coach Kalani Sitake shouts to players against the Houston Cougars in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. BYU won 30-18. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

It’s the killing of a league’s fortune.

Members of the College Football Playoff Committee couldn’t have disrespected the Big 12 more if they’d lined up all the coaches, players, athletic directors, presidents and commissioner and told them they’d wasted their time this fall.

The committee donned clown hats, got lazy.

The CFP guys put a tarp on the Big 12. They firmly pulled the rug out from under the league. They dissed Iowa State and Arizona State, and, by association, the once No. 6-ranked BYU and Colorado, one of the most popular TV franchises in the game the past two years.

But even more dangerous in this era of a 12-team playoff, the committee declared that Saturday’s conference championship game outcomes would not make a difference for the playoff field for anybody outside the currently 12-ranked field. In other words, teams are locked in and others are locked out (15th ASU, 16th Iowa State, 18th BYU).

This opens the door for top 12 CFP teams in conference title games to hold out players so they’ll be healthy for the CFP games.

Columnist Andy Staples asked No. 8 SMU coach Rhett Lashlee on his podcast if this means coaches will start doing crazy things. He answered, yes.

“If our team all got COVID and didn’t play (against Clemson this Saturday), we’re in. We are in. Right? We don’t have a data point to drop us below anybody who is behind us. If you open that door you are going to see coaches do crazy things. We aren’t going to, we’re going to go play in Charlotte. And we’re going to try and compete for the championship, that’s the right thing to do, that’s what competitors do. We value the opportunity to share…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/comes-college-football-playoff-big-040000396.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-12-06 04:00:00

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