College Football Playoff byes aren’t the problem: Quarterfinal results prove flawed system as primary issue

The byes are bad! The byes are bad!

Do yourself a favor. If you hear somebody talking about a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff being a disadvantage because all four teams with a bye lost in the format’s inaugural season, smack them upside the head. Or, if you’re a pacifist, politely correct them.

The byes aren’t bad. You should want the bye. Ignore the results of a format that’s certainly flawed with the way it awards the byes, but the byes themselves are fine.

While the Rest vs. Rust debate is an unending thought exercise that will never truly be settled, and there could be some merit to the idea of a team being rusty, using the College Football Playoff quarterfinals as evidence is flawed in itself because there are plenty of other justifiable reasons for why the four teams with byes all lost.

Let’s go over them, shall we?

1. The system is flawed

I’ve written about it already, and I’m far from the first person to say it, but by reserving byes for conference champions, you aren’t necessarily rewarding the four best teams. While we can — and do — argue about who the best teams are and how to determine them, it’s fair to say most would agree that Boise State and Arizona State weren’t actually two of the four best teams in the country this season. 

That brings us to the next explanation …

2. Two teams with byes were double-digit underdogs

Boise State was an 11.5-point underdog against Penn State. Arizona State was a 13.5-point underdog to Texas. Neither of their losses should’ve come as a surprise because both were heavy underdogs with the cards stacked against them.

The biggest surprise of their two games was that Arizona State came back in the second half and forced the game to double overtime before ultimately falling….

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-byes-arent-the-problem-quarterfinal-results-prove-flawed-system-as-primary-issue/

Author : Tom Fornelli

Publish date : 2025-01-03 02:36:00

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