Dear CFP Selection Committee: Conference title games have never been more interesting, so don’t diminish them

When the 12-team College Football Playoff was announced, it came with a couple of key goals. Among them was to reframe the focus on conference championships and truly reward teams that reach the pinnacle. Five conference champions are guaranteed spots in the field, after all. 

In the first year of the system, conference championship games have delivered in a big way. Friday’s Mountain West Championship Game will kick off the best weekend of conference championship games in history. The Mountain West and Big 12 are playing win-and-in games. In the ACC, Clemson (Clemson!) must upset SMU to make the field. Even for the SEC and Big Ten, the winner will earn a pivotal bye, while the loser will have to play 17 games just to win a national championship. 

For the first time since 2006, there are no conference championship games with a betting spread of a touchdown or more. That year, there were five title games. This year, there are nine. The widest lines come in the AAC and Sun Belt, where Tulane and Louisiana are 5.5-point favorites against Army and Marshall, respectively. Every power-conference title game sits at 3.5 points per closer. 

It should be a celebration of the new system, but thanks to some poorly timed comments from CFP chair Warde Manuel, the weekend is instead at risk of being a mockery. 

Heading into Sunday’s final CFP Rankings, No. 8 SMU sits firmly in the field, projected as the ACC champion and seemingly safe even with a loss. But make no mistake about the historical significance here: the Mustangs hope to win their first major conference title (in their first year as ACC members, no less) since before the Death Penalty of the 1980s. 

But on Tuesday, Manuel was asked on a media call whether the Mustangs were at risk of…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/dear-cfp-selection-committee-conference-title-games-have-never-been-more-interesting-so-dont-diminish-them/

Author : Shehan Jeyarajah

Publish date : 2024-12-06 19:08:00

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