College football got it wrong. Again.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone, because in truth, major college football has rarely gotten it right.
This year, even if you don’t think that the lone undefeated team in the country, Cincinnati, should be ranked No. 1 — based on strength of schedule — and even if you don’t think Alabama and Georgia should have to play their rematch in the first round of the College Football Playoff — it’s still objectively true that Michigan has a superior resume to the Crimson Tide.
Michigan’s most impressive win — a 42-27 thumping of its rival, Ohio State, which was ranked No. 2 at the time – stands up nicely against Alabama’s most impressive win, Saturday’s 41-24 victory against previously top-ranked Georgia.
Michigan’s second-best win came Saturday, a 42-3 drubbing of 13th-ranked Iowa. Alabama’s second-best win was strong, a 21-point win against Ole Miss, but the advantage there is clearly to the Wolverines.
The Crimson Tide beat average SEC teams by 2, 6, 7 and 2 points, while Michigan had similarly close wins against the middle of the Big 10 pack.
So, compare each team’s lone loss. Alabama lost by 3 at Texas A&M, an unranked team. Michigan lost by 4 on the road against instate rival Michigan State, which was undefeated at the time and ranked eighth in the nation. And Michigan led that game by 16 in the second half. Michigan’s lone loss is more impressive than Alabama’s.
Michigan should be ranked first, Alabama second.
Even if the committee deciding these rankings made that correct determination, though, it would probably have just ranked Cincinnati third and Georgia fourth, so the first round of the playoff would feature the same matchups.
So let’s turn our attention to the reason major college football has never gotten it right.
While the championship at every other level of football — and baseball, and basketball, and hockey, and tennis, and wrestling, and volleyball, etc. — is decided on the field, with the results of actual games determining who plays for the title, major college football has always been more of a pageant.
Major college football’s championships have always been decided to some degree or another on how certain people judge teams to be ranked. The teams that are perceived to be the best get to play in the championship game. Granted, they are perceived to be the best based on a number of perfectly reasonable criteria, but when it comes to sports, nothing should trump the scoreboard.
With that in mind, there’s simply only one way to crown a true major college football champion: A 16-team playoff that includes every conference champion and six wild card berths.
For the cost of two extra weeks of play, the NCAA could inject real integrity into its pageantry and crown a true champion.
Just look at Cincinnati this year. For a team that isn’t in one of the favored five “power” conferences, it took a minor miracle to be included in the playoff at all – and even then, just the lowest seed.
If the Bearcats hadn’t happened to beat the one other team that was in contention for that fourth seed — if any power-5 team other than Notre Dame had just one loss — then an undefeated team would be stripped, again, of the chance to play for a title. It would have done everything it possibly could, but never get the chance to prove itself on the field in the postseason. And so we must ask: Why are the so-called Group of Five teams even in the same division, even eligible for the same championship trophy, if the odds are this stacked against them?
The only fix, the only way to tell every player at the beginning of every season that if they do their job and take care of their business that they will have a shot at a national championship, is to guarantee each conference one spot in a playoff — just like college basketball does.
Sure, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion will have very little chance to win even one game, let alone six in the tournament. But when that team is eliminated, it will know it lost out on the court, not in a poll.
And frankly, a 16-team playoff wouldn’t look so uncompetitive in football as the 16-vs.-1 games do in the basketball tournament.
Consider what this year’s playoff might look like:
— No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 16 Northern Illinois
— No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 15 Utah State
— No. 3 Cincinnati vs. No. 14 UTSA
— No. 4 Georgia vs. No. 13 BYU
— No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Louisiana
— No. 6 Baylor vs. No. 11 Pitt
— No. 7 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Utah
— No. 8 Ole Miss vs. No. 9 Oklahoma State
Maybe those Group of Five teams would lose big, though 14 teams in this theoretical playoff are ranked in the top 25, so that’s no guarantee. But even if they did all lose big, the exposure would be invaluable. Over time, as their coaches can persuade recruits that they actually could play on the biggest stage in the country, maybe some of the 4- and 5-star players might start considering the Sun Belt Conference or the Mountain West Conference.
So when the confetti has fallen and it’s time for the interview portion of the college football pageant, if Miss Alabama or Miss Georgia or Miss Ohio State are ever asked, “What would you do to make college football better?,” don’t expect them to answer honestly by saying, “I’d create a real playoff that includes every conference champion.”