How might CFP Selection Committee judge conference title game losers? Georgia, SMU, Boise State in focus

As we approach the selection of teams for the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff field, there is no small amount of concern over the possibility of a team picking up a third loss on the season in a conference championship game and getting left our of the party as a result. Fans of No. 8 SMU, No. 10 Boise State and even No. 5 Georgia are worried about losing and missing out on history.

During one of his recent weekly press conferences, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin spoke about his thoughts on playing for a title at 10-2. Kiffin admitted he’s rather sit it out.  

“The conference championship could have a big impact both ways for people. So I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just kind of give you the feeling from some other coaches and that’s they don’t want to be in it,” Kiffin said. “The reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely, I mean, that’s a really big risk just to get a bye.”

While it turned out not to be a concern for the Rebels, that got me thinking: How much of a risk is there? 

CFP Selection Committee chairman Warde Manuel said this week that the committee views conference championship games as a “reward.” That may be true, but only to a point. My observation is that over the years, the selection committee has been pretty forgiving of teams that lose their conference championship game to a higher-ranked team. That is an important distinction because upsets turn things upside down.

In the CFP era, which began with the 2014, every conference championship game between two ranked teams in which the lower-ranked team has won resulted in the lower-ranked team jumping its opponent in the final CFP Rankings. When you have one team jumping another, they could land anywhere among the teams in and around…

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Author : Jerry Palm

Publish date : 2024-12-06 16:38:00

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