By Henry Hansen
With the rapid approach of the College Football Playoffs, schools from across the country prepare to fight for the right to be the champion. With the new format in its second year, teams competing in smaller conferences now have a shot at the title. However, there is controversy over which teams were selected over others. The College Football Playoffs have selection rules that state that the champions of the 5 highest-ranked leagues shall make the playoff. This year, Georgia, Indiana, Texas Tech, Tulane, and JMU were the 5 teams granted this automatic bid. This has sparked controversy because higher-ranked teams in better leagues often miss the playoffs.
Tulane is the 20th-ranked team in College Football, and JMU is the 24th-ranked team. These teams made the playoffs, which in turn kept Notre Dame and BYU out of the playoffs, despite being in the top 12 ranked teams. This has sparked outrage across the College Football community. Tulane lost to an unranked UTSA team by 22 points, and JMU lost to an unranked Louisville team by 14. Meanwhile, Notre Dame only lost to the 10th-ranked Miami by three and the 4th-ranked Texas Tech by one. BYU also had a much stronger resume; they only lost to 4th 4th-ranked Texas Tech twice. The games were not very competitive, but their only losses were to a 4th-ranked opponent.
Tulane and JMU are heavy underdogs in their games. Oregon is a 21-point favorite over JMU, and Ole Miss is a 16-point favorite over Tulane. This has given both Oregon and Ole Miss an unfair advantage because they can rest their starters. At the same time, teams like Texas A&M, Miami, Oklahoma, and Alabama have to play competitive games, which will cause them to play their starters the whole game. The games that Oregon and Ole Miss will play aren’t going to be the best product that College Football was capable of putting out. If Oregon were playing BYU, and Ole Miss was playing Notre Dame, then the scales would be balanced. However, due to the automatic bids, Oregon and Ole Miss will both play opponents outside the top 15. The issue of selection is one of the biggest controversies in College Football today.