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Greg Sankey: Politics don't belong in College Football Playoff equation

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Greg Sankey: Politics don't belong in College Football Playoff equation

The blitz of college football âmedia daysâ begins with the Big 12 on July 8-9 in Frisco, Texas, and continues with four days of SEC talk in Atlanta July 14-17 before the ACC and Big Ten coaches take the stage July 22-24 in Charlotte, N.C., and Las Vegas, respectively.

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mitch_earl

"One of the points Smart made at the SEC spring meetings was that other sports don’t seem to have the same political interference when determining champions."

Either Smart doesn't pay attention to NCAA basketball or he is pulling everyone's leg. My guess is the latter.

"Last year’s CFP committee placed a greater emphasis on the number of losses than the number of quality wins."

If you actually watched SEC football last year as opposed to judging it by the reputation that it made 2003-2022 then you would realize that nearly all the "quality wins" in the SEC were in the heads of its fans. Notre Dame 23 UGA 10 and Ohio State 42 Tennessee 17 made that clear.

Let me restate: in the last 2 years Texas is the only SEC team to win a playoff game. Alabama lost in the first round in 2023. Tennessee lost in the first round - and UGA lost their first game - in 2024. "Politics" would mean pretending that this isn't the case.

BigDawg61

You tell em Sankey. Now...that's a leader.

I agree with his position 100%. It's the logical, common sense position.…imo.

Go get em Big Red! Time is ticking down.

BigDawg61

Dude!....Basketball has 64 freakin' teams in their "main" Postseason Tournament. And, that's not including the NIT [etal]. Nobody remembers who won what, in College Basketball, 2 or 3 years ago....Because it's so watered down.

Of course...I may be a little biased. Cause, I'm from Georgia and we haven't seen a b-ball champion in my relatively long, lifetime.

I don't really follow it, unless the Dawgs or Hawks have "A Team". So....I guess you can say, I don't follow Basketball. Lmao

As far as the CFP Selection Committee goes...[imo]...I wont even attempt to defend the last two years of incompetence displayed by the results of their "politically charged" Postseason debates.

ESPN was given their marching orders....and started politicking to leave out certain teams in favor of "Diversity". Eff...THAT!

Btw....Georgia is the only team to beat Texas twice in one year. Lol

I see you are attempting to "ignore" the fact, that UGA won the SEC in '24...in their 2nd WIN vs Texas, no less. Earning a bye.

Let's also, not leave out the fact, that UGA was beat up by the grueling SEC schedule they were assigned. Their starting QB in "their 1st game".…was a backup, starting his first game. So were a varying number of offensive linemen, backs and receivers, in that game.

Injuries on both sides of the ball, made the difference, in the Dawgs '24 season. Imo...there's no excuse for leaving them out of the '23 CFP. Even Michigan Fans were saying that UGA shoulda' been there. Lol

MACDAWG

Crap! Jireh Edwards to Alabama.

GtheGreek

I'm with Sankey, no DEI teams, 1-12 based on rank, 16 teams are too many and you get into the "DEI" ranks which no one cares about or watch….with 16 teams you'll have 8 games….if the goal is to optimize tv revenue, 2-3 game per day is max, so the playoffs is stretched over several weeks….IMO, 4 weeks is max.

BigDawg61

It's no coincidence, that over the years...UGA, Bama....and, now Texas....have catastrophic injuries they have to mitigate [with rare exception].

It's because of their physical brand of football [in games & practice]. They plan for that as best they can, but lately...it's effected their Postseason health, more than in the past.

I think, that may be due to roster shortages. Teams like UGA, Bama & Texas aren't as deep as in the past (prior to '23), due to the NIL/TP.

For instance...in '20, Bama lost Waddle a projected Heisman favorite. He was replaced by the eventual Heisman winner...Devonte Smith. A guy that had been riding the bench in Ohio, the year before. Lol

Benches in the SEC used to be deeper. Now...they are spread out over 2 conferences. Physicality, may not be the answer anymore. Maybe, CFB is becoming more of a finesse game.

Will we see a change in Kirby's strategy this year??? I think so. He's a Smart guy. Lol

JayDog

Sankey is correct. The politics in playoff slotting needs to go. But the problem is bigger. The committee definitely needs to stop ranking the top 20 as if there MUST be a diversity of conferences represented. That’s about money, bias, and a lack of a consistent metric for sorting out differences in conferences. An objective eval process would better take care of money and bias issues. But how likely is it that the Big Ten, for instance, would agree with the SEC on the criteria? Big Ten is an inferior conference with a couple of good teams. Would any metric be trusted if it coldly makes them less relevant? The devil is always in the details.

UGADad20

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/796451#Comment_796451

In '23 UGA was caught up in the #'s of the last 4 team playoff. MI and WA were undefeated conf champs. TX was a 1 loss conf champ and AL was a1 loss conf champ that just beat UGA. Who should UGA have replaced? An undefeated conf champ was also left out .

For whatever reason the seeding was set up for how it played out last season. That has been corrected this season.

There will always be politics involved with conferences and unbalanced schedules. That lack of objectivity in seeding will continue. The question is who will be doing the final seeding this year. UGA had a tough schedule in '24 (atypical) but not sure the SEC is any more difficult than the BIG10 these days. Luck is involved as players get hurt. No one can predict that.

Btw DSmith never played for OSU. That was Jameson Williams.

BigDawg61

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/796473#Comment_796473

Lol…thanks for straightening that out for me. I get things a little mixed up, these days....especially, with the short term stuff. Lol.

Don't let anybody tell ya Retirement will keep you young. Lol...if it wasn't for my Grand's, Nephews and Nieces...I would probably be a vegetable by now. The kids keep you young....and, sore. Lmao

'23 is water under the bridge....but, it still needs to be fully investigated, to fix any flawed logic that may or may not have produced that particular final 4.

Imo...that's the only way to improve a process. Go back and do a complete, honest & thorough evaluation, breaking down every process, subprocess and decision. Identify areas of improvement. Implement any changes and improvements...then, reevaluate.

The new Television contract will last,, what?...6-10 yrs. Since you can't change the system, once the new contract is in place....it's wise to go over every CFPC Mtg., going back to the beginning. Make the opinion-based part of the process, "the least relevant data point". Cause opinions are like.…well, you get the gist.

And, based on some of the illogical, single dimension opinions I've seen coming out of that Committee over the years....it's time for CFB to pull their Common Sense Card and remove some of their decision making latitude.

Too much inherent bias and corruption involved with a human controlled CFP. You can't completely eliminate it...but, you can reduce the impact, with a tight, focused system.....designed to look at SOS, SOR, & other relevant metrics.

In a perfect world....the Committee members would barely know what a football is, and would rely entirely of "The Book". 'Course....even that has flaws. But, fewer mistakes. Maybe, they can get 12 volunteers from Switzerland. Lmao

Georgia67

There's only one way to rid the CFP of politics, and it will be expensive. Create a top tier league where everybody plays everybody. Install an objective set of metrics (wins, losses, points for, points against, etc.) to rank teams throughout the season. The top 4 or 6 teams make the playoffs. Simple. To find out who's the best the best have to play the best week in and week out. No excuses. Gone will be the politics of strength of schedule, quality losses, blah, blah, blah. The traditional conference power teams like Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Michigan, Penn State, etc., will make the league without question. The TCU's of the world should stay put. The Boise State's of the world will have to put up or shut up. The cost will be traditional conference play, especially the SEC, will never be the same. One could argue that traditional conference play is already gone with NIL and TP here to stay. The next logical step is a top tier league. Why not? Change my mind.

BigDawg61

https://forum.dawgnation.com/discussion/comment/796487#Comment_796487

Change your mind?...Can't do it. Lol

Makes more sense than most of the other stuff I've been hearing. I think the term "Super Conference" has been floated off and on, since 2020.

I don't know why they're fighting it. That's where we're gonna end up. No sense in makin' the baby come out sideways. Lol...the longer they drag this out...the more painful it will be. Might as well do a c-section....quick and painless [sort of, lol].