Tennessee is locked into the first 12-team College Football Playoffs after completing the regular season with a 10-2 (6-2 SEC) record. It marked Tennessee’s second 10-win regular season in three years but doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough to host a playoff game this season.
On SportsTalk with John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara earlier this week, Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White discussed a change that he would like made to the College Football Playoff process.
“I would like to see us a little more objective,” White said. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with the ranking system of the old BCS. … I will criticize the fact, though, that we don’t have a more objective, computer-based rankings system that just makes it very clear. Everyone understands what the parameters are and it is what it is. I think it would leave a lot less consternation on the back end that we’re seeing all across the country right now.”
Under the current system, a committee chooses the teams for the playoffs and ranks the nation’s 25 best teams from the start of November on. White hits the nail on the head. The committee frequently moves the goalpost as far as what criteria matters most to them.
Sometimes it is head-to-head results, sometimes it is best wins, sometimes it’s quality of losses and sometimes it is strength of schedule. Michigan Director of Athletics Warde Manuel is the chairman of the committee this year but the inconsistency has been constant throughout the now 11 College Football Playoffs.
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White advocates for a computer based system where the rankings criteria are clear and consistent. This was how rankings were previously decided under the old BCS system which was much maligned when the two teams atop the rankings following conference championship week played for the National Championship.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with the ranking system of the old BCS,” White said. “The problem with the old BCS was it was only two teams. So we got the number of teams right with 12. I would love to see it go all the way to 16. But we’ve introduced this really subjective rankings process that I think is unnecessary.”
The College Football Playoff format will likely change again in after next season when the current contract runs out. Like White mentioned, expansion to 16 teams is in play as is changes to the automatic bid and byes system. Eliminating the committee and going back to compute based rankings is a less likely change.
But before those changes, Tennessee is looking to make a run in this year’s College Football Playoffs. The Vols are almost certainly locked into the No. 9 seed where they’ll go on the road to likely face Ohio State in their opening game.
However, White is holding out hope that Tennessee will get some help and move up a spot in the seeding to play at home in the first round of the playoffs.
“And looks like, according to the committee, maybe we need a little help to host,” White said. “I know one thing, hosting a game at Neyland Stadium would be a pretty amazing environment.”
